Day 3

Mission 'Luggage strap' gave us a taste for Mission 'Shampoo'. Apparantly this shampoo is rather special: nobody knew where to get it, except a receptionist at the hotel who was a little too friendly for my taste. Maybe the shampoo got to him. Anyway, we got a description where it might be found: at Ricky's. While my friend went hunting for the elusive shampoo, I stayed outside and took some pictures of the surroundings until he emerged victoriously. I did ask him what was so special about it, and he did tell me, but I'm sorry to say I forgot.

Next stop was the World Trade Center by way of the underground. I must admit I've seen better looking subways.

The weather was crap again, but seeing that we had tickets to the observation deck anyway, and no time to try again on a different day, we decided to go up anyway. There was no queue to speak of, so we wouldn't loose much time anyway. In hindsight, after September 11 2001, I'm very glad I've been up there, even though I didn't see much more than clouds and the other Tower.

Once outside, the scenery was impressive. The pointy grey stack of bricks is the Woolworth building, once the tallest building in the world according to my guide book.

Around the corner we ran into a traffic police officer who started to give us a thorough explanation of the buildings surrounding us, specifically the one where Abraham Lincoln took the oath as president of the United States. I kept my Lonely Planet out of sight and took a covert photograph of him.

Heading for the Brooklyn Bridge we say more impressive buildings, offset by some less impressive shops.

Next stop was Abercrombie and Fitch. Finding it wasn't all that easy, causing us to be sidetracked into an office building where a rather curious security officer first tried to determine if we were trying the most clumsy heist in history, or were really looking for Abercrombie and Fitch. He settled for Abercrombie and Fitch, and we parted on the friendliest of terms. Which isn't all that normal in the Big Apple :(

Shopping for clothes is not my thing, so I stayed outside and looked around while my friend added some clothes to go with the shampoo. After that it was time for lunch, with break dancing for dessert.

There's a good view of Brooklyn Bridge from the edge of the river. Still no luck with the weather, though.

You can't go far in New York without running into one of Mr. Trump's buildings. Here's another one. It even has a pretty decent car parked out front.

Staying with the money, we went to the New York Stock Exchange (on Broad Street ;-)), stopping by the statue of someone famous along the way (I forget who. Sorry. And my Lonely Planet is at the cleaners.)

The next symbol to look at was the Statue of Liberty. On the way over we encountered more contrasts. I still doubt the guy had batteries in that walkman.

Instead of taking the crowded ferry to the Statue itself, we took went out and back on the (free) ferry to Staten Island.

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