Our first two days in the Big Apple were big. First we were off to walk across Brooklyn Bridge. It is a bit over a mile long and we took the Tube into Brooklyn and then found our way back across. The first half of the walk was quite pleasant, not many people around. Able to take some good photos off the Bridge overlooking the NY financial district and further uptown to the Empire State Building. As you can see the walkway is only about 4 meters or so wide, with wooden slats to walk on and small gaps to see the water below. Homealone was not overly keen on looking down!

Then just as we passed half way a mass of people came the other way on a fundraising walk for Kidney research. At the half way point they turned around and went back, melding in with the line still coming. What a mess and to make matters worse the local constabulary parked one of their funny little bridge vans in one of the ‘lanes’ further compounding the ‘people jam’. Eventually we got back through it all and rounded off the day by looking at some of the notable buildings in the Seaport area.

Monday saw us take off a bit late for Central Park. The weather had stabilised overnight and it was a bright sunny day. First port of call was the Cathedral of St John Divine up town via the Tube at 110th Street . It is the world’s largest cathedral and was commenced in 1892 and building works are still going on, as well as the ongoing maintenance these sort of buildings need. Very impressive construction surrounded by some great gardens. At about 12.30 we  set off for Central Park  and the walk back down to Mid Town. We got as far as 72 nd Street. Not bad, took us the best part of 4 hours as we wended our way from side to side through the Park.

The Fall colours here are still really good and the grass is so very green. The whole Park is well maintained and there is hardly a leaf out-of-place.

We were pretty worn out by the time we got to 72 nd Street and had only had a small hot dog to eat. The Tube was tempting and after doing  38 blocks (full length is 50 blocks) we boarded and headed for the lodgings and dinner at the Irish Pub around the corner.