Wow - today was a day of walking, check out today’s total below.
We wanted to explore our Harlem ‘hood so we set off by walking though the district towards Central Park. Once in the park we wandered southwards and I was really surprised at how deserted and green some areas are, especially in the north of the park as I found here on the pond just south of the interpretation centre and skating rink.
We walked out of the park midway to try and find a place for coffee. I cannot believe that in such a popular big park there do not appear to be any let alone decent coffee stops. We ended up in yet another Starbucks which have actually been quite good here in the US but I had been hoping for some small independent coffee bars.
We continued south through Columbus Circle into what we found out was Hell’s Kitchen. I was a bit miffed as we had eaten a not very exciting sandwich in the shopping mall at the Circle but this weekend is actually the Hell’s Kitchen Food Festival with lots of amazing stalls and barbeques with what looked and smelled really good. We managed to locate ‘K Rico’s’, what is meant to be a very good steak restaurant. I had promised us both a ‘blow out’ meal and we managed to book a table for 7.30pm tomorrow. From Hell’s Kitchen it was a subway ride to see the Flat Iron building which was so narrow and amazingly we couldn’t find it despite it being immediately above us and the police officer I asked also did not know where it was!
Finally we headed to the Empire State Building which we have seen on many occasions from the tops of other buildings but this time we made it into the 1930’s Art Deco styled foyer. As we have already been up to the top of the World Trade Centre and the Rockefeller we did not want to go up the building but it was fascinating to see the interior. Somehow we made it back, yet again via Times Square.
