barely fatal

Breakfast: Blueberry Pancakes
Weather: Warm, then a few drops, later hot
Tag line: “At least I got some color, even when it’s Red”

We had no plans for our last day, except that I wanted to see Bloomingdale’s, so that was the first destination after breakfast. We agreed to split up and if we didn’t meet by accident, we would pick our own targets. I wanted to wander around the city alone for a few hours. I soon found out that Bloomingdale’s wasn’t a place for me – much too fancy for my taste – so I decided to go for another walk in the park and check out uptown.

Central Park really is a lot longer than it is wide. I walked all the way up to 102nd Street, past the Zoo, the Met and the Guggenheim and enjoyed the sun like many of the locals on that Saturday. I entered the park through the Conservatory Garden and walked on the bank of Harlem Meer. I saw the Pool/Rink, climbed up a few hills, had a look at the tiny waterfall at Glenspan Arch and left the park at 110th Street West.

I headed further north until I reached the Peace Fountain and the Cathedral of St John the Divine, which looked nice on the outside but was undergoing reconstruction work on the inside. I walked past Tom’s Restaurant; I think I should see Seinfeld more often – I gotta ask Anne, she surely has all the episodes. After passing by Columbia University and the Riverside Church I arrived at Grant’s Tomb, where I rested for a while. Nice tomb, General Grant Sir, very impressive.

I walked back through the Riverside Park. It was very busy, you can find many playgrounds for children, basketball courts and soccer and baseball fields. The Hudson promenade was also very nice to walk on, if you ignored the permanent noise from the cars on the speedway.

It was a long walk back. I entered Central Park again near the Natural History Museum and found the John Lennon Memorial in Strawberry Fields which I had missed on Tuesday. The meadows and playgrounds were packed with people now, there were bands playing in the park and the sun was shining just beautifully (my sunburn has turned into a light brownish tone by now, unusual for a ‘computer’s guy’).

Later when I met my dad at the hotel I learned that he didn’t have such a great day, he had problems with the subway and ended up in Harlem somehow. We compensated for that by having a great meal: We found a restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen which served excellent food at even more excellent prices. We decided to go back there for breakfast. The rest of the night we wandered around, but since it was a weekend, the inner city started to fill up with tourists. We made plans on how to get to the airport the next day while still trying to enjoy the last day as good as possible. Knowing what kind of stress we would have to face soon, that wasn’t an easy thing to do.