New York #3: Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge and Ice Skating

Welcome to my third and final instalment of my New York photo diary series *cries*. I could just sit and share photos of the city forever but I've narrowed it down to my favourite shots and in this post I've condensed two days worth of activities. Catch up on my first New York post and second New York post first and enjoy the photos! 

So on the Sunday morning, we headed down to Battery Park to get the ferry over to the famous Statue of Liberty. I was so excited for this as I've seen photos from the view of the Statue and I couldn't wait to see it with my own eyes and trust me, the skyline does not disappoint.

The view of the skyline was absolutely breathtaking and that day resulted in some of my absolute favourite photos that I've ever taken, including the one of the skyline and the Statue of Liberty together. Luckily, it was a bit warmer on this day so we could stay on Liberty Island admiring the view for as long as we wanted which made for a wonderful morning. We had bought Crown tickets a couple of months in advance so got to climb the Statue herself and see the view from inside the Crown. I'll be honest, the view from the platform was better than inside the Crown and you have climb an absolutely horrid spiral staircase to get to the top but it was such a good experience to actually be inside the world famous Statue of Liberty. I'm still not over it now.

After we'd had enough of the Statue and grabbed some lunch, we headed back over to the City and had a bit of a wander around while we waited for our next experience. We walked into the financial district and down Wall Street before walking over to the Brooklyn Bridge, another incredibly famous part of New York. Again, it was something that did not disappoint. The bridge is absolutely huge and it took us a good twenty minutes to actually walk across it! We walked into Brooklyn and down into the park just underneath the bridge, where we got some spectacular views of the city and the Bridge together. Honestly, the city is something you could never tire of seeing so the more ways we saw it the better!

The bridge was also full of street artists, something which I love when travelling. I always buy street art so couldn't resist buying a beautiful sketch of the skyline from a guy drawing them at the side of the bridge. These artists are often so talented and don't get a lot of recognition so I love showing them a bit of support and buying their beautiful pieces of unique art.

We'd booked tickets for the 9/11 Memorial Tour late in the afternoon so we walked back over the bridge and into the city again for our time slot. I'm sure everyone knows what happened during 9/11 and needless to say visiting Ground Zero is such a harrowing experience. There are two beautiful fountains erected where the tragedy happened in memory of the 3000 victims who lost their lives in 2001 and the museum is full of tributes to them, along with expeditions dedicated to telling the story of what happened and how many brave emergency servicemen and women risked and gave their lives to help others. I had a lump in my throat walking all the way round and didn't take many photos at all as the emotion that you feel whilst there cannot be shown through a camera lens.

After the museum we were absolutely exhausted so we went back to the hotel for an early night, ready for another action packed day the following morning. On Monday morning, we wandered through the city back to Central Park where we went ice skating! I love ice skating as it's such a fun and wintery thing to do and I go every place I possibly can. The rink was busy with a really great atmosphere and only cost around $10 each, plus skate rental so it was so worth it. 

Again, this day wasn't really that cold so we skated for quite a while before heading off to do a bit of shopping, something which I of course had been looking forward to for months. We stopped off at the Sprinkles Cupcakes ATM for a quick fuel stop before heading down to the mother of all American shops for us Brits - Sephora. I spent way more than I originally planned but I have no regrets whatsoever. Kat Von D liquid lipsticks are now mine and I couldn't be happier!

Well that's all I've got for you about New York! I hope you've enjoyed reading about what we got up to and seeing my photography! I really love my photos and I'm so proud of some of the shots I've taken during my trip so I really hope you liked them too. 

Have you ever been to NYC?

Amy x