Thursday 2 July

Today was a day of much walking, rain, memorials and churches.

We started the morning in the Tribeca area which is apparantly one of the most exclusive areas in which to reside. The Tribeca grill is one restaurant in the area and is owned by Robert De Nero.

As our walk took us into the Financial District we came to our first memorial for the day. This is a memorial to the African American people as an extensive burial area is now covered by the financial district. The memorial is only a few years old and was a peaceful adn reflective spot amidst a very busy area. One interesting fact was that the world map created on the floor of the memorial did not have Australia on it - so not really a 'world' map. The second memorial came later in the day and was the Vietnam memorial also in the Financial District toward South Port.

During the morning we also visited the Bodies exhibition. This is an exhibition of all real bodies and body parts where you can examine every part of the human body. It was amazing and we really enjoyed it.

It rained a lot today. New York had 10 inches of rain in June, amazing; I am sure that must be close to what we got in all of 2008 at home. Amidst the rain we still managed to see much of the Financial District, including City Hall, the court houses and the Stock Exchange. Sadly, the stock exchange is no longer open to the public, and like many areas is closely guarded by a strong contingent of security.

So churches... we saw two today, another feature from the movie National Treasure, Trinity church and also St Paul's, which is just down the road from the World Trade Centre and was a hub of support for the community following 9.11. The entire church is now a memorial to the rescue workers in particular, with photographs, displays, messages and more located throughout the interior and exterior of the building. This is also one of the oldest buildings in manhattan and has a charming cemetary attached.

Following this we ended up at the Staten Island Ferry port and so we decided to catch the ferry accross. This gave us a good view of the Statue of Liberty, despite the dreary conditions. Given the rain and the fact that it was late in the day, we didn't stay to look at any of the attractions on the island, but returned to Manhattan.

With the rain setting in we decided it was a good chance to head home to get changed and have a night out a the Comedy Strip. This was over on the East Side and was not a bad show. There were about 5 professional comedians who have had spots on various shows such as Saturday Night Live. The evening was hoted by comedian Ray Ellin. Unfortunately no one mentioned that the amateurs were about to start; however this happened at about 10:30, last call for drinks was at about 10:00 and it didn't finally finish up until after midnight. Most of the audience left by this time, but being compulisve attenders and sitting right up the front, we did not feel that we could leave.

All in all a good, but very long day and we did not get to bed until after 2am.