Day 11 – Central Park

The lungs of New York, Central Park at 843 acres, splits the East and the West of New York through a good part of the uptown.

Starting with a coffee and a congratulatory sign from the local coffee house. (Not personally directed at me I assure you) I hit the park.

Here on the west side near to my hotel you can find Strawberry Fields, which is a monument to John Lennon, shot dead, before his time, at the entrance to his apartment building overlooking Central Park at this spot.

The memorial is a circle in the park with imagine in the centre.

It snowed last night and everything is coated in a fresh white blanket and it’s is quite chilly out and about. One thing I like is that when they salt the pavements they don’t use that horrible brown grit that looks so awful as slush. Here it is white and quite often there are other colours of salt thrown in, like green, blue, pink and purple. It is a lot prettier. Talking about the cold, even though the lakes aren’t frozen at the moment, there are ice ladders dotted all around the lakes in the event the worst happens.

There are so many wonderful things to see in Central Park, monuments and statues aplenty, that you can easily spend most of a day here.

There is a mini castle at one point with lovely views over the park and lake and then there are Shakespeare’s gardens which are liberally dotted with statues from his plays, like Romeo and Juliet and the Tempest to name but two. There are quotations from his plays tucked into little corners and hedges. A lovely  statue of Hans Christian Andersen sitting on a bench with the ugly duckling from the story looking up at him. Then there are the Alice’s in wonderland bronzes as well.

The trees of course have all shed their leaves and so the park looks bare, but I am assured, that in the summer it is a hidden oasis. Where the bustle of the city is muted by the abundant foliage and only the tops of the towering Manhattan skyline are visible as you meander along its many pathways.

I exited the park on the east side, my first time on this side except from when I’m downtown. The properties are the most expensive in Manhattan, just around 5th avenue, I looked in an estate agents window! The  designer shops and boutiques go on and on. I popped into Bloomingdales and then headed for the cable car that takes you over to Roosevelt  Island, I didn’t walk around the island,   I just went for the trip and the views.

The cable car goes up really high, so I tried not to look down too much!

Dinner was local again in a cosy Turkish restaurant. Yet again the food was excellent. Nothing wrong with chlorine washed chicken as far as I can see.

I don’t know what the fuss is, good old protectionism I suspect.

New York has been amazing, full of surprises and vibrancy. Great food, bars and lovely people.

Aldous Huxley once said that

‘To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries’

Never more has this been true than with our many preconceptions about the US. In my, admittedly so far, fairly limited experience, the people are warm and friendly and they are  hopeful. They are strivers, who work hard. The food is very cosmopolitan, just like London, and in my opinion, so far, it has all been of excellent quality. The sheer choice is a foodie delight. The bars are full of interesting craft ales, the architecture and scope is beautiful. The thought processes that have gone into the way things are done is a breath of fresh air in many ways. I have no doubt some of this is is due to the benefit of it being a much younger country, but there does seem to be an element of common sense and joy that lis currently lacking in the old world.

I have stayed an extra day in New York, because I was having such a lovely time, but the road is calling to me and tomorrow I am Philadelphia bound.