Back home

We arrived home yesterday rather tired after our delayed flight but happy nevertheless. We all had a tremendous time on the trip and the boys were fantastic - they sang brilliantly and the teachers lost count at the number of times members of the public commented on their good behaviour. They were a credit to their parents and to their school.


Many thanks to all who made the tour possible, especially Mrs Ward and Mr Dean for all their tireless help but most of all to the boys for making it so special.


Mr Stein

Toys and more

We packed our bags up and all the bags were put into the biggest room. We sang Happy Birthday to Daniel. We took a stroll though Central Park to the Guggenheim but before we went in we had some Doughnuts for Daniel’s birthday. We went into the art gallery and we saw amazing paintings. It had some Vincent van Gogh. It resembled a snail or a spiral.

After that we went shopping at FAO Schwartz, a massive toy shop on Fifth Avenue. It is famous for its unusually large stuffed animals. We went to eat at an Italian café but they didn’t understand us very well!

We then strolled to the cable car station and took the ride to Roosevelt Island. We played and Ethan made grenades out of sticks. Findlay started off the tree-climbing.

We went back by cable car and we went back to the hostel. We got all our luggage from the room and got on the wrong bus by accident because ours was late. We got on the right bus and drove to the airport. We discovered that our flight was delayed by four hours and everyone sighed. They gave us a food token worth $15 and we spent it very stupidly (Findlay) / wisely (Max). We came up to Gate B30 and started writing the blog.


Max, James, Jayden, Steven, Gabriel, Oliver, Alex, James, Ethan, Oliver, Max, Findlay, Jay, Ayo, Benedict and Coleman

Lower Manhattan

In the morning we got up and got ready and then we set off by subway to Battery Park. We had a great view the Statue of Liberty and we took photos. There was man dressed at the statue but he was holding the torch in the wrong hand! Then we went to Trinity Church and it was pouring down with rain so we had a look around and took some more photos. Then we had a walk down Wall Street and saw the British Gardens where they carved the names of all the counties on the pavement and Benedict found Kent. Then we went into a Korean food shop and bought some drinks to keep out of the rain.


After that we walked to St Paul's Chapel where we had our 30-minute concert. It was the nearest church to the Twin Towers before they collapsed and now it is used as a memorial to all the people who died on that terrible day.


Later on we walked past Ground Zero and then we went into the 9/11 Memorial Museum and bought a few things and we bought our lunch in a deli - it was very nice food - most of us had cheeseburgers! After that we went to Pier 17 and we bought a few things in the shops. Daniel didn't buy anything because he wanted to save his money for today. Most of the Year 5s and 6s bought practical jokes.

Then we got the subway back to the YMCA, changed, had an early dinner at 63bites café and then we walked down to Times Square to see The Addams Family at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. It was really funny and lasted two hours 45 minutes. We left the theatre at 9.45 and walked back in the biting cold. Then we got changed and went to bed.


Ayo, Benedict, Jay and Daniel (Yr 5)

Sightseeing

Today we went to the Empire State Building for some sightseeing on the 86^th floor. We went out on the balcony and if you looked closely enough you could see Central Park and other famous landmarks such as Manhattan Bridge and Times Square. The lift went about three times as fast as a normal lift while having information about the Empire State Building playing in the background.

We went to the Whole Foods Market where you can choose various foods of your choice for lunch.

After that we went to the USS Intrepid, one of the only surviving aircraft carriers that fought in World War II. It was also involved in the Cold War. Because of the USS Intrepid there wasn’t a World War III. Whilst on the USS Intrepid we saw the very famous Lockheed “Blackbird”. We also went onto the bridge.

We then went into the USS Growler, a submarine which was used to threaten the Soviet Union in the Cold War. It was very small and compact and it was hard to imagine living like that for three months. It took the best part of 15 minutes to walk along the submarine.

We took the bus back to the subway station and some people got left on when the doors closed. It was OK though as the bus stopped and let the others off a couple of seconds later. We went to a different part of Central Park and played there.

We then came back to our hostel and got changed and ready for dinner at Ellen’s Stardust Diner. We walked to the diner and when we got there it was like a Broadway show. Everyone was singing and dancing around including some of the Mums and Dads. People like James and Gabriel were singing along as well and on one song one of the waitresses came up to Ollie and gave him a wink… James thought that one of the waitresses fancied him. After a salad and various main courses and an ice cream dessert we made our way back to the hostel.

All of us think it was a fantabulous day (although some of us think James is weird making up words like “fantabulous”). Today has been the best day so far and we hope tomorrow is the same.

Ollie, Alex, James, Ethan and Gabriel (Yr 6)

Bronxville

We had an early start – 6am. We then walked to the subway and took it to Grand Central. We got a train to Bronxville. When we arrived we headed straight to the church and met their choir – we were all very excited to meet them. We rehearsed for half an hour and finally we did the service. We had to make a cross and get blessed.

After the service we went for an entertaining game of bowling which Ollie won and Findlay, Max and Coleman lost. We went to the fast food place – they said we had to wait for six minutes and it took half an hour!

Then we went back to the church and looked at the organ and its pipes. Coleman played Gavotte on it and Ollie J, Ayo, Gabriel and Jay played it as well.

After that we went back on the train and we got the wrong subway so we had to go back on the right one. Then when we got back to the hostel we changed into our comfortable clothes and then strolled to Times Square. It was amazing – there must have been over a million people there! We went to Toys R Us and there was an ET on the massive wheel. Findlay and Ollie M were late coming back from the lower floor (they were walking around in circles) and then they ran up the escalator the wrong way…

We went to Central Park and Benedict tried to catch Ollie but couldn’t. Coleman tried to fly.

Then we went back and had dinner and wrote this piece. The dinner was nice. We had a smashing day.

Ollie, Findlay, Max and Coleman (Yr 5)

A big queue and a big cathedral

We all arrived at Bickley and had a nice coach trip to Heathrow. We found our way to check-in and had an hour to shop and bought a lot of things like sandwiches and chocolate. We got on the flight and there was a big selection of games and movies – the flight went quickly because of the good films we watched.

We got off the plane at 8pm New York time and had to join a two-hour long queue for the immigration (there were police officers carrying guns). We collected our luggage and departed from the airport on our coach. The coach journey was 30 minutes long to our hostel where they provided sandwiches – we arrived at about 11.30pm feeling tired and jetlagged.

The next day we woke up at 6am to get ready for breakfast but before that we went on a walk to Central Park. After breakfast we went to the subway to go to St John the Divine Cathedral. We thought it was very large – it is the biggest cathedral in the world. We found out some interesting facts like it is not yet finished. They had our school’s name on an advert for our concert. We sang about five pieces and it went really well and we attracted a big crowd.

We went back to the hostel to get changed and then to lunch at the Whole Food Market. Then we went on another walk in Central Park before going on the subway and then a long walk to the boat cruise with a cafeteria on board. We went close up to the Statue of Liberty although it was quite cold.

When we came back we went on the bus and back on the subway. We made our way back to the hostel where we had nice burgers and chips and cookies.

Max, James, Jayden and Steven (Yr 7)

Welcome to our blog

The purpose of this blog is to keep everyone up to date with our tour to New York, 1-7 April 2011.

This photo was taken in June 2010 at Bickley Park.

We will be adding photos and maybe video from our tour, so keep checking! You can also follow us on Twitter on @bpny2011.

You can also read about our trip to New York in December 2007.