You can do this on your own – no question – but we booked a tour which marshalled us around a bit and helped with some context as well as efficiently getting around. Ben, our guide, is an actor (he’d even been in things we’d heard of) and brought some of that skill to the tour.

Ellis Island has a personal connection: my great grandparents on my mother’s side, and all of my grandmother’s siblings emigrated to the US around the time of WWI and all of them bar one (who entered the US via Quebec and crossing the Great Lakes to Chicago) passed through the Ellis Island migrant processing centre before settling in Boston. I can’t even begin to imagine what that migrant processing experience was like.

It was a fine day when we started out but really cold, so while the views were great, it wasn’t necessarily a day for hanging around – as you can see from our elegant attire!