Central Park & the Upper Westside

We headed uptown Friday morning on Subway 1, alighting at Columbus Circle. It was the first of the uptown stations we found today being spruced up and looking cared for.

We emerged to a picture perfect New York day - the opposite of yesterday. Columbus Circle is on the SW corner of Central Park where Broadway, 8th Avenue and W59th Street intersect. It is the point from which all official distances from NYC are measured. It looks very glossy today with the Time Warner building and Trump Tower and Hotel as the backdrop.

We made our way through the South West entrance to Central Park, walking along West Drive through the canopy of Spring budding trees.

This well dressed couple, he in top hat and tails and she in pearls and hat, reminded us that many New Yorkers had attended celebratory breakfasts this morning for the wedding of Kate and Will.

Eventually we got level with where 72nd Street intersects with Central Park West. The gathering of people and cameras indicated we wer

e at the Dakota Apartment building. The entrance to this beautiful 130 year old building is large enough to fit a horse and carriage...it was also the scene of the terrible murder of John Lennon by Mark Chapman in December 1980.

Yoko Ono still owns 5 apartments in this building. Each year on the anniversary of John's death a single candle is lit in the window of one of her apartments.

But the constant sightseers must be a distinct disadvantage to living here now.

The Strawberry Fields memorial (funded by Yoko Ono) garden is laid out in memory of John Lennon in Central Park just across from the Dakota Apartments. The Imagine focus of the memorial is a magnet for pretty girls and ageing grandmas and grandpas with creaky knees (not us) on this sunny Spring day in New York.

After paying our respects to John Lennon we made our way to the Angel Fountain and Bethesda Terrace, one of the most recognizable sites in Central Park.

Hundreds of movies have used Central Park locations. Rob immediately recognized this terrace and its fountain being a feature in memorable scenes from Ransom (Mel Gibson and Rene Russo) but I've seen it used in many other movies as well.

The terrace looked gorgeous today, with lots of music and performances happening. Even the saxophonist performing the very cheesy Girl from Ipanema sounded just right in this setting.

We walked around the edge of the lake, once again reminding us of other movie settings, to The Loeb Boathouse Restaurant for lunch.

The perfect spot for lunch in Central park, unless you have your own rug and hamper.

The only sign of filming in the park today was this small scale fashion shoot.

Although we'd only explored a small section of Central Park today we decided then we'd make our way over to the Upper Westside. We walked West along 72nd Street towards Amsterdam Avenue (10th Avenue).

We came across this amazing little Israeli eatery Soomsoom that reminded us so much of Sabbaba in Bondi along 72nd Street. That's the only problem with New York. You make a decision about where to eat and ten minutes later you come across something better! Rob was the hero on this occasion and managed to squeeze in a Burekasabich (a pastry filled with egg and eggplant & hommus etc with pickle chasers)!

We caught the subway from 72nd Street to 110th Street and made our way up to 112th Street at the intersection with Broadway. Tom's Restaurant, in the background of the picture below, is well known to us from our years being addicted to Seinfeld. The people in the foreground looked pretty typical of those living in this area - solidly Jewish, and comfortable off! (By the way Barak Obama used to eat at Tom's Restaurant in the days when he attended Columbia University.) It's not flash; it looks like a greasy spoon type place; we'd never eat there!

We made our way down 112th Street to Riverside Drive and enjoyed our walk through the parkland all the way to 95th Street, catching glimpses of children playing in the playgrounds under the supervision (or not) of their Nannies, dog walkers out with their groups of designer dogs.........

and views of the beautiful Art Deco, Gothic revival apartment buildings lining prosperous Riverside Drive.

We came to the very grand NY Firemen's Memorial in the Park. Almost 100 years old, it provided a focus for vigils and memorials around the time of 9/11, even though it is a long way up from the WTC site.

We walked East along 95th Street until we came to Broadway again. We wanted to see how far we could walk along this iconic avenue, starting at this point on the Upper West side and seeing where it would take us. There were the famous NY shops: Harry's Shoes on W83rd, a reviving cup of tea at t

he AMAZING Barnes and Noble Booksellers 0n W82nd Street and what really grabbed our attention, Zabar's, a NY institution on W80th Street.

Zabar's has been on this site for nearly a century It started as a small family run deli and now fills almost an entire block. It is a foodie heaven for the traditional European Jewish families that live all around here. There is nothing modern or minimalistic about it but the quality of the food looks to be intensely good. What every high quality European kosher cook would need, including top quality European brand cookware too. We were entranced!

The coffee section was just amazing and the cheese section was the largest I have seen anywhere.

But then another block and we come across the amazing Citerella's. Those are very aged racks of beef in the window - a la Neil Perry.

.....Past more beautiful old opulent apartment blocks and the glossy modern Lincoln Center until we get back to where we started at Columbus Circle.

By now the Central Park tourist vehicles are packing up and the poor horses have to contend with the pigeons for their supper.

We make our way to 7th Avenue and start walking South past Carnegie Hall. The shots below are for Josh who may remember this view of the Park Central Hotel on 55th and 7th Avenue (from 1994)......

.....and this view of the nearby 55st DELI where we'd pick up some of our meals to go. Rob reminded me of the black ice we had to negotiate making the crossing during that freezing cold January.

We're approaching Times Square and things get more glitzy and the crowds are much bigger.

We even get ourselves up on one of the billboards on Times Square. You might be able to just make us out on the left edge of the straight stroke of the number two (almost half way up).

By now we've walked about 50 or so blocks and we are so close to home now we keep going, past Macy's on 34th Street (Herald Square) and Madison Square Gardens between 33rd and 31st Street.

It's been a brilliant New York day. We've absorbed so many different impressions and ideas, people and places. Our feet are feeling the distance so it's good to get back to 208 W23rd Street around 7.00pm.