Day 5 – High Line Park, West Village, & Statue of Liberty


Sunday seemed like a perfect day to explore High Line Park, and get a glimpse of Lady Liberty herself. Staten Island Ferry, here we come!

Our Sunday morning started with a nice home-cooked breakfast, and then we took the subway down to Chelsea. Our first stop was the Chelsea Market, a mecca of food, gifts & beautiful things. The tourist quotient was fairly low, so that was great. Some photos below.


Then, just beside the market was the southern edge of NYC's gem, High Line Park. This green space is an abandoned elevated railway overpass, running over 2km from about 14th Street to 30th Street. It was a super interesting blend of urban and pastoral, old and new. Totally going back next time. A couple photos below.

It was pretty hot this day, so we did not walk the full length of the High Line. We instead got back on the subway, got off at Christopher Street (!) and explore New York's historic West Village.

First item of business: ice cream at Big Gay Ice Cream Shop. YUM!

Then, across the street was the Stonewall Inn, the birthplace of the LGBT rights movement. It was the site of the 1969 Stonewall riots, which are widely considered to be "the single most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for gay and lesbian rights in the United States." (Wikipedia) I'm glad we got a chance to see it.

We grabbed a coffee, nearly bumped into Zachary Quinto (!), and then headed back up to the apartment.

After a nap and a nice dinner, we jumped on the subway and zipped all the way down to South Ferry station where we caught the Staten Island Ferry just before sunset. This was recommended as the best FREE way to see the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline. The ferry departs every 30 minutes, and the journey to Staten Island is about 25 minutes. This was probably one of my favourite parts of the entire trip. Photos below.






We arrived at Staten Island just as the sun disappeared below the horizon. We debarked and grabbed the next ferry back to Manhattan (not before grabbing another ice cream). The air was cool, the sky was beautiful. A perfect way to end our fifth day.