The Kings’ Messenger

Shortly afterwards, we were at the top, and yes - it was it a long way down. Wewere at the top of a 1250-foot building, we knew, but it still surprised us to seejust how high up in the world we were. Later on, we took a cruise aroundEllis Island, famous for holding theImmigrationMuseum, as well asLiberty Island, siteof the iconicStatue of Liberty;seeing it up closewas staggering.The original planwas to go ontoEllis Island, butthe aftermath ofHurricane Sandy ruled this out.Instead, we went on a pleasant cruise and afterwards, wehad lunch in Battery Park, before moving on to what wasprobably the most sombre part of the trip: the site of theTwin Towers and the World Trade Centre. The location ofthe original towers was now marked by two large, squareholes, with water pouring out of the walls. Around the edgeof these holes, two squareplatforms bore the names of all those who died in the 911 attacks. It made for depressing reading.The following day, after breakfast, we set off for the Museum of Natural History. This really was awesome. The sheernumber of things that were held there was amazing: dinosaurs, gems and minerals, mammals and outer spaceexhibits. The only downfall was the lack of an Ancient Egyptian hall, (as seen in Night at the Museum, filmed here),but everything else was just great. We then walked through Central Park to the Guggenheim Art Museum; with all thesnow around, the park looked very pretty. Guggenheim, however, proved to be the most disappointing part of the trip.For one thing, a member of staff was really rude and spoke out of order to one of the teachers, and for another thing, alot of the museum was closed for reconstruction.The evening cheered us all up, however. We all headed to Times Square, where we went to the cinema. We had achoice of three films - Lincoln, Life of Pi, and Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters - and we had to decide who wouldsee what film. Once in our groups, we went to find dinner. My group went for the easy option (McDonalds), wanderedaround some shops for a bit and then we headed back to the cinema to watch Hansel and Gretel. We were allin agreement that it was a really, really awful film, but we enjoyed it a lot; it was a perfect example of dumb fun.The next day we went to the Yankee Stadium, home of the New York Yankees baseball team. Even though baseballisn’t a big sport in the UK, the tour of the stadium and museum was really interesting.Later, we split up into groups and hadthree hours to explore the streets ofNew York, to shop and see thesights. After we made our way toEllen’s Stardust Diner. It was a perfectlynormal diner except for onething: the waiters and waitresseswalked around the diner singing tothe customers. It was probably thebest part of the trip; it was so muchfun. The food was very nice, but thesinging was superb, and everyonehad a really great time, we laughed,we applauded and we all had a ball.The final day, after our last breakfastin New York, we made our way tothe Museum of Modern Art. Probablythe best part was seeing two of themost famous paintings in the world:The Scream by Edvard Munch andThe Starry Night by Vincent VanGogh (an artist and painting featuredin an episode of Doctor Who, soobviously important!). Almost everyonewith an interest in art knew about these paintings, and seeing them up close was really amazing. Then, we made ourway back to the hotel to pick up our luggage, before heading to JFK Airport. A technical hitch delayed us from gettingon the plane, but after that it was all plane sailing (hah, see what I did there?). So, that was my trip to New York.Easily the best trip I’ve been on and probably my favourite holiday yet. I highly recommend it. Report by Greg Tyrrell