New York City By Foot

I very nearly stayed off the trains today. it wasn’t so much a desire to stay away from them as no desire to go too terribly far. Plus, I rather like the idea of walking and seeing what there is to see above ground more so than under.

It was another of those late start days. That was pretty much a given seeing a movie late and walking back after. In fact, just all that walking period yesterday. But when I finally got moving, I had lunch/breakfast and really didn’t stop moving for quite some time. I don’t have a ton of photos to show for it, but I enjoyed the walk up until a point. I definitely have gotten a clearer idea of my way around this part of the city.

I walked down to the Flatiron Building. I wanted to take some long exposure photos around dusk. I had this silly idea that there would either be lights on inside the building or it would somehow be illuminated. If that’s the case, it certainly wasn’t this evening. I got some great light trails from the cars zipping by, but I’m not sure about the rest of the details – I won’t be until I get home with a better monitor to check through the shots.  I literally walked the 20+ blocks there and most of the way back.

The last stop for the afternoon/evening walk was Grand Central Station. I was never overly happy with my photos from there last time so I decided to see if I could rectify that. And I have to say score one for my home-made bean bag. I was able to prop up my camera  without a tripod and get what I hope were some nice angles on the grand old building.

I’m really not that far away from Grand Central, but my feet were screaming at me when I got done there. I decided even it was one Subway stop (about 9 blocks, give or take), I just had to ride the train back. This particular go was dead simple, though, no scary iPhone app required to navigate. Just standing on the platform for 5 minutes thinking to myself that I could be halfway back here. Then again, maybe I might be sitting out there somewhere now sobbing at a new row of blisters.

That’s the New York City I forgot from last time I was here. It came back to me slowly that my last trip here included more than a handful of blisters, as have many of my trips. I detect a pattern, how about you?

I don’t really have any big plans before I leave. I sort of want to go take another crack at the Flatiron during daylight. There’s something about that building that fascinates me. And I might go see the ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center (although after seeing skating on natural ice in Canada, I fell underwhelmed at the idea). I do suspect I’ll make at least one trek over the Brooklyn Bridge. I have it in mind I’d like to see the sunrise on Manhattan if I can make it. I was going to try for tomorrow but looked at the weather and it looked unlikely in the morning (cloudy). If the forecast is to be believed, Tuesday is good. So we’ll aim for that, eh?

I don’t know if any galleries or museums are on tap this trip. I’ve looked at the list several times over and nothing is screaming “see me, see me” – that seems to be my condition, no dig against New York. Readers may recall the same attitude in Quebec where I saw exactly one art museum. I’m so close to MOMA that I’d go there if I hadn’t last trip… Wonder from where this museum malaise comes?