Sunday dawned as a gorgeous autumn day. The sun was shining, a warm breeze blew so delicately and wispy clouds floated majestically above us as we planned to head uptown for a day in Washington Heights. 

Before we got going, I went for a walk and when I left the hotel and had my customary chat with one of the doorman, Caeser this morning, we talked about the five fire engines right out the front of our buildings.

There were firemen, hoses, lights and trucks everywhere, our street was closed off as well. We stood and watched the commotion from the hotel steps as the crowd grew. I decided to head off. What was the worse that could happen?  

I wandered don 44th, past the barriers and onto 6th, then up to 45th. As I walked down 45th, I was stopped by a large man in sun glasses, two feet in front of me an elegant lady in a long with overcoat was ushered into a car, s stretch limo. I tried to keep walking and the large man said hang on, so I waited as the lady was in the car and drove off. Was it Julia Roberts, Kate Blanchett, Madonna, someone from the Trump clan, Adele…..who knows. 

I continued my walk, down to 7th and through Times Square. The usual sights and sounds were out, but the area was relatively quiet, it was Sunday morning after all. As I made it back up 44th it seemed that the excitement had dissipated. When I saw Caeser he told me that the hotel opposite ours had a gas leak. It happens quite regularly apparently so no one was too bothered. 

I returned to our room and Mardi was ready to go. We were headed way uptown today. 

We caught the train from 42nd street up to 168th street, with a change at 96th street. We arrived, got our bearings and made our way to the park. On our way Mardi told me about the 98 step stairway we needed to traverse before getting to the high bridge. 

We found the pathway to the high bridge quite easily and navigated the steps easily, it was downstairs at this end. 

We walked across the majestic old bridge, which only reopened to the public earlier this year. Historically the bridge was a viaduct carrying water into Manhattan and the large tower was a water tower. Since renovating the holding area for water has been converted into a public swimming pool and the bridge converted to a walking path. We walked across and back, about 2kms in total, not a tough walk, although 98 steps awaited us to get back to street level. 

We arrived at the steps and gazed upwards, prepared ourselves for the climb and watched a fitness freak go up and back a couple of times. We embarked on the journey and maybe all of the NYC walking had prepared us but we made it to the top quite easily. 

We then looked for somewhere for a bite to eat. Mardi searched using her phone and we found a nice little place a few blocks away. En route we did pass the M and M Bar and Grill, but gave that a miss despite its name. 

We ordered our food and sat down to eat in a little park. Nothing fancy, I had a burrito and Mardi a burger. We sat for a while before heading back to the subway for the trek home. We had 126 blocks to cover. 

We decided on pizza for dinner a little later that night and instead of battling the mad Sunday night crowd we organised delivery for a little later. We took it easy and enjoyed pizza in. 

The weather forecast for Monday was perfect and we had an early start, another visit to the eye doctor tomorrow.

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