We arrive at Newark at 6am and take a cab to our east side airbandb in midtown. Luckily the apartment is ready so we can move in and rest a bit while we wait for our friends Henry and Heidi. The view is amazing.

Our first activities is a guided tour of Greenwich with a focus on Italian food and history. As soon as the Tamos arrive, we are off on an Uber to the meeting point, hoping for lots of good food. We meet in a church, where our guide Mike explains the interwoven history of religion for new immigrants arriving to New York. We then begin our walk though the neighbour hood. Mike brings us to businesses owned by the same families for multiple generations and who have survived the pandemic. A fantastic coffee roasting place with an amazing selection of coffee as well as tea and spices! All served in bulk! Love it.

We also get amazing food freshly made for us as well as a short talk from the daughter who is taking over this 3rd generation pasta place. They are thriving and now have a manufacture outside of the island that makes fresh pasta supplying many restaurants and grocery. A success story!

Next we come to a plaza where we wait for Mike to get a typical New York style « pie » / pizza for the group. It is amazing! Simple tomato sauce and the most gooey mozzarella. To die for!

We visit many landmarks and try more food while Mike recount anecdotes and history. This tour was well worth it!

We decide to walk from Greenwich to Central Park and walk this beautiful park in the middle of the city. How smart to keep this piece of land intact for everyone’s enjoyment!

Back to our building, we go up to the 26th floor to Ophelia bar to enjoy Manhattan and an amazing view! The tables and chairs are right at the balustrade and it is almost scary to look down!

Next day is Ellis island and Statue of Liberty. The museum at Ellis island is incredible well done. We feel the excitement and fear of the new immigrants as they are screened and walk through the same rooms they would have walked reading and hearing about their experience. Here I took a photo of the display of some of the currency that were exchanged upon arrival. The logistic of this was incredible, from feeding them, clothing them, exchanging their money and when needed caring for them in the large hospital. Amazing! We run out of time to read about their impact on the history and politics of the city. We will have to come back.

A Statue representing the very first immigrant that arrived at Ellis island.

Next we go to the Statue of Liberty. The pedestal is the highest we can climb and it is an incredible view. The museum explaining the journey to build it is also very interesting. A great outing for sure!

On our guide Mike’s recommendation, we walk to a Spanish restaurant El Nacionale ( a very long walk) for sangria and tapas. Excellent!

That evening we decide to stay in and enjoy the balcony (Heidi is studying the life of the people in the building next door) and play some Euchre!

Next day, we go back downtown to visit the 9/11 memorial.

I love the two waterfall built with the exact footprint of the two towers that were destroyed. The memorial is extremely well made – taking visitors through the timeline if that day,

Innumerable mementos on displays and a sobering memorial to all the victims.

I really appreciate that they took the effort of explaining the immense contribution of the search and rescue dogs, displaying photos of their work and of them in retirement. I love it! What beautiful animals.

We end the night at our Billy Joel concert and he doesn’t disappoint! We can’t believe it is sold out and many in the crowd are young ones who can sing all the words! He is funny, relatable and in top shape. His voice is great and his band incredible! We love if they insert snippets of other songs seamlessly within a few songs and appreciate his two band members who do a solo. He comes back for 5 encore with big hits and tells us he is now exhausted and has to go 🤣. So worth it!