America pics - part 1

When I was away at an IT conference earlier in the year I won a travel voucher for a trip to New York City. I added some $$ of my own allowing me to make a 2 week whirlwind tour of NYC, Washington DC and Oregon (of course).

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here's hoping!

First, pics of New York City...

The way most people get around in New York City is via the subway. It's incredibly loud when there is a train coming and it's quite easy to get disoriented regarding which way is north or south (geographically challenged travelers take note!)

You are expected to know that "uptown" is north and "downtown" is south.

Two small town girls loose in the Big Smoke!

In case you wondered why you can't catch a cab, it's because they're all at the stop light. :)

Also, NYC operates a "medallion" system where only 13,000 cabs are licensed to pick up passengers who hail them (wave their arm) from the street. The rest of the taxis are called "black cabs", and can be hired by telephone. And of course there is a new iPhone app (usable only in major cities on the east coast) where you summon a cab based on your GPS location.

New York City is a very old place in U.S. terms (first settled by Europeans in the early 1600's). Many of the side streets in the older parts of town are cobblestone.

Visiting the Statue of Liberty is something I've always wanted to do. It sits on a lump of rock called Liberty Island. Nearby is Ellis Island where many of the early immigrants to America were processed.

Incidentally, processing is a strange word to use in talking about humans...makes them sound like some kind of cheese product.

If you look carefully on the tablet that Lady Liberty is holding in her left hand you can see that it reads July 4 1776 in Roman numerals.