Travels in a Tin Can

on the river the temperature plummeted further. Luckily the boat had a large
cabin from which we could admire the views whilst retaining the feeling in our
fingers and toes. Not that Emma and I took advantage of the cabin. We were
there for an open-air cruise, and a little thing like frostbite was not going to
stop us from enjoying the full experience. Besides, being outside gave us the
pick of the seats...in fact as we were almost the only people outside we had
about a hundred seats each. Our only companion in this frigid environment
was a young German girl with whom we quickly struck up conversation –
mainly so we could huddle together for warmth. Actually the cruise, the sites
and the narration, was so interesting that we hardly noticed the cold...once
our bodies went numb.
As we docked the narrator made a moving speech of gratitude to all of
us for coming to America and New York and helping to revive the tourism
industry. He told us that the day before September 11th hotel occupancy was
about 96% but that it fell to 9% the next day and was only now getting back to
about 70% more than two years later.
We had already planned to seek out the World Trade Centre site and
our visit to Ground Zero was made more poignant by this initial exposure to
the impact of the tragic event. Even though we had seen the gap left in the
skyline when we were flying over the city, we were not fully prepared for the
size of the destruction zone. You can view Ground Zero via a huge chain link
fence that runs around the entire 16-acre site. These fences carry a repeating
series of brief information panels that list those who lost their lives and tell the
story of this part of New York. When we visited, on a weekday in late
November, there was a constant crowd of people along the length of the