No sleep in Saturday continues as our apartment gets a visit from housekeeping, so we get up early and plan a day of walking.
Starting at the ever picturesque Madison Square Park near 23rd and the gorgeous Flatiron building we make our way down 5th Avenue to 8th Street and the Washington Square arch at the park by the same name.
Along the way we explore the buildings, architecture and pavement graffiti.
We when arrive at the arch, we listen to the buskers. One with a grand piano the other a full jazz band. The effort these people must go to to get their instruments to these locations. We wander the park and watch the dogs in the fenced off fog park area before heading of to the next park.
We stop for lunch at the Half Pint, a bar with sports on tv and all day breakfast. We have a quick brunch and listen to the sports fans cheer their team before heading back to and along 8th Street through the East village. 8th Street turns into St Marks Place. Some of you may be aware of the King Missile song, check it out here: https://youtu.be/byDiILrNbM4
St Marks is where he finds his detachable penis, s parody song about mobile phones.
We continue into alphabet city. The street names turn into letters and not numbers. Between Avenue A and Avenue B you find Tompkins Square Park. We sit and watch the squirrels run and play in the late afternoon sunshine.
While there I listen to a song by Mumford and Sons: Tompkins Square Park. See the video and read about the lyrics here.
http://cliffordstumme.com/2015/05/04/what-does-tompkins-square-park-by-mumford-sons-mean/
It’s a sad song that laments a relationship.
No applicable at all to us as we sit together watching the squirrels run and play. But sort of cool sitting somewhere with not only relevance to a recent song but also home to so much varying history, from rioting, homelessness to the more recent gentrification.
As the cold starts to wash over us we head up to 14th Street and across to Union Square Park. We stop for the markets, but quickly decided another day would be best. We are st the height of the busiest holiday weekend in NYC and it seems everyone is on 14th street. We make an exit and pop into a couple of drops before heading home.
We arrive back at Times Square on a packed subway train and emerge to another wave of people. Visiting Americans are making the most of their time in NYC and Times Square is another favourite. We pop into Starbucks for a hot chocolate, although popping in means a 20 minute wait. With our hot chocolates in hand we eventually make it to the relative peace and quiet of 44th street.
After an hour or so at home we felt like dinner so ventured to 8th avenue to Shake Shack. The crowds hadn’t abated and we battled our way the one and a half block journey to the shack. The line is always out the door, yes the burgers are that good. Tonight though not only was it out the door it was halfway down the next building. We queued in the cold and emerged with our burgers about 30 minutes later. The return journey was as arduous as the first and we finally reached the sanctity of our apartments. Yes NYC is busy but that’s part of the vibe we love. Getting a burger any time, ice cream delivered to your door at 11pm on a Sunday night, mass transport to anywhere anytime. It’s so different to home and we love every minute.
