If there is one piece of advice I can give you, it’s this… pack a good pair of trainers/walking shoes, it will make a world of difference!
Our first full day in New York included a 20 mile trek, this wasn’t our initial intention, we were very bleary eyed and slightly aching from our previous 26 hour travelling stint, but if you thought we were going to waste a moment in this place, ya thought wrong!
Starting out at our hotel on West 54th Street, we walked all the way down 5th Avenue, with a little “rest” break at Bryant Park, I think this is my 2nd favourite Park, it’s small but it’s bustling with life and people, surrounded by huge buildings on every side and this little patch of greenery, right in the middle, where people go eat their lunch or grab a drink. Right next to the park is the New York Public Library which I managed to walk past without recognizing it as it was so out of context! Although we do go back later in the trip!
We get back onto 5th Avenue and start walking down to the see the Flatiron Building then kept going straight on down to Washington Square Park, a quick stop off to see the Comedy Cellar on MacDougall Street and then navigated our way on to Avenue of the Americas, left on to Canal Street and this is where we got our first view of the Freedom Tower. We walked down to Bowery and onto Pier 15 on FDR Drive which is a great place to stop and take in the views of Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Bridge, the tall ships in the harbour and then the towering buildings of the Financial District.
Now heading to Wall Street, we had a little rest stop at Starbucks and took in the sights of this particularly “corporate” area. The mixture of all the “working” people in their smart suits grabbing a quick coffee or a bite to eat on one of the many street stalls and the tourists in their shorts and t-shirts waving around their cameras trying to capture every moment is quite surreal. Wall Street itself and the Stock Exchange was not what I expected, you see it in films and on the news but somehow it just didn’t look how I imagined it would. The street is so much narrower and the Stock Exchange almost hidden away, and I had in my head that a street so famous would be enormous. It’s still great, it’s like reading a book and the movie coming out and you going “hang on a minute, Morgan Freeman is not Alex Cross!” that kind of thing! You still love it of course. Strange how our minds work sometimes.
After our pit stop we got our second wind, we did toy with the idea of jumping on a subway back up to our hotel, but the caffeine hit us and we were ready for round 2! Straight back up Avenue of the Americas, take a right West 4th Street back through Washington Square Park, onto 5th Avenue onto Broadway at the Flatiron Building and as we wandered up Broadway we came to Greeley Square Food Market which was RAMMED! The place reminded me of being on Princes Street at the height of the Edinburgh Festival, it’s fabulous. Unfortunately we already had lunch plans, we were seeking out the Green Radish Food truck on 38th and Broadway. We’d heard good things about it and by this time I was ravenous. Martin had read the week before that Ricky Gervais had been to the Green Radish and had posted good things about it, so we thought that was a good endorsement!
We found the Green Radish and ordered the Classic Baked Black Bean Burger with melted onions, avocado puree and chipotle mayo (can you tell it’s nearly lunchtime while I’m typing this up, belly is rumbling now!) the lovely guy even threw in a “Donart” of the Day which I thought was incredibly kind. We took our bag of goodies and went back to Bryant Park which was 2 minutes away, found a couple of seats and devoured our lunch, whilst doing a little people watching of course!
We got back onto the Avenue of the Americas and just headed straight on up back to our hotel for a little afternoon siesta before heading back out to look for Dana Barrett’s Apartment block from Ghostbusters 1. I’m a huge fan of the films and I was so excited to see this iconic location. There I am bumbling up Central Park West singing the Ghostbusters theme tune… I’m more than certain that locals MUST be used to that! It was incredible to see and everytime I watch Ghostbusters from now on, I can now say, “I’ve been there!”. We popped over the street and into Central Park, and strolled around. We ventured across Sheep Meadow over to Bethesda Fountain (beautiful by the way), we saw the Naumburg Bandshell, walked all the way around the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, came back past the Belvedere Castle and back out to Columbus Circle to get some supplies for dinner from Whole Foods.
And as you can imagine, we were knackered after that day out, it was a complete sensory overload, an amazing day. We ended the day with a big plate of fajitas, watching the sun set and then dozed off watching Tremors 2 on the TV.
** These posts are more like a diary for me to remember all the things we did whilst we were away. I also hope that it can be useful for people who are perhaps on a tight time schedule see the things they want to see and cram as much as they can into their break in New York. The food we mention is all vegan/plant based so if you are looking for places to grab a bite to eat and don’t want to spend a lot of money then that’s usually the kind of place we gravitate towards!
