We start the day at Herald Square. Mardi wants to check out some cosmetics at Macy’s before we go for a tour in Central Park this afternoon. We catch the subway downtown and have a look around before heading back up to Central Park.
We’ve bought tickets through Sunset Tours for a Hollywood style tour. The idea behind the tour is to show us where films where set in Central Park and also give us a behind the scenes look at filming in Central Park.
For a list of films, visit: https://www.centralparksunsettours.com/central-park-guide/films-shot-in-central-park/
We start the tour at the turtle pond, just inside the 59th Street entrance and work our way through the park. Our guide shares stories of films from The Smurfs, Home Alone, Wall Street, Serendipity, An Affair to Remember and a host of others. She also shares stories of how filming is done, with production companies making a donation to the Conservancy based on the films overall budget.
It’s an interesting three hours. After the tour we do a bit of walking ourselves. It’s a nice day and we have plenty of time! We are on holiday.
It is that afternoon that I take the most spectacular photo I have ever taken. I didn’t know it at the time. We wander along a pathway after Bethesda fountain, we turned left today instead of right, which we have done in the past to go past the Boathouse and up to Still Hunt. But today we go left to the boats and to see Bow Bridge.
We get to a vantage point to see Bow Bridge and Mardi sits down while I take some photos. I’m just snapping way happily with my new Canon. I can’t see very much but I fiddle with the settings to see what would happen and take a series of shots. The water has a slight ripple in it and the bridge is almost devoid of people. Later that night when I’m looking at the photos this magnificent shot is on my Camera. The rich autumnal colours blaze red on the left and in the centre of the shot. They are perfectly reflected in the water below the bridge. The reflection of the bridge forms a perfect oval. There is one figure and she looks alone, surrounded in drama by the richness of the colours that envelope her. She has a red jacket on that matches the drama. Two other figures take photos back at me. It is one of my favourites shots.
We leave the park and head home. We decide to head out for dinner and a visit to the top of the Empire State Building. We enjoy dinner at the Brooklyn Diner, Times Square on 43rd St before we make our way to the top of the Empire State Building.
We spend quite a bit of time taking in the sights from way up here. The city casts a lighting display as traffic twinkles below us and the buildings around us glow as workers work into the night. It’s quite cool, but we don’t mind, we stand and watch and listen for a while before heading home.
