Central Park

Been there, done that, too bloody tired to buy the t-shirt.

We walked the whole way round the park today, and it is HUGE!

We took the subway up to 83rd St and started up by the big reservoir that basically cuts the park in two, and has a 1.5 mile running track round it. After we nearly got run over by several crazy running people we set off up the east side of the park.

It is so easy to get disorientated in there that we thought we were going north and then realized we were actually going west, once we were half way across!
There wasn’t a great deal in that middle bit though, apart from lots of people playing softball/baseball. So we headed back over to the east.

At 104th St we came to the Conservatory Garden which is really beautiful, looked a lot like an English Heritage/National Trust garden to me. They even had fox gloves which I haven’t seen in ages, it was lovely.

Slightly further north is Harlem Meer, where you can actually fish but you have to put back anything you catch. We stopped at a little food stand and got cream cheese bagels for lunch, delicious if not very nutritious.

Just up from there we hit the very north east corner of the park, which is pretty much where Harlem starts so looks rather different from the big apartment buildings we had previously passed.

We walked across the top and up a little hill to a fort called the Blockhouse, and then went down through the North Woods to Great Hill.
Of all the many things I expected to see when I got to the top of Great Hill, a group of Mexicans in traditional Mayan dress was not one of them. But there they were, with headdresses and colourful costumes, standing round an old guy who seemed to be smoking.
It was just like a dance/demonstration I saw when I was in Mexico City, but in central park. And then on the way down the hill we saw a raccoon, sticking his paw into a baguette to pull out the nice soft bread, and leaving his crusts! Its the first raccoon I've ever seen, and also it turns out they are nocturnal so he really shouldnt have been up.
Pictures of everything are up on Flickr because I don’t know how to put them here.

We headed back down to the west side of the runners' reservoir via North Meadow.
The northern half of the park is much wilder and less busy than the south, really pretty and peaceful. If you wanted to spend the day relaxing and reading then it would be worth the longer walk to get up there.

Immediately south of the reservoir is the Great Lawn where people seem to congregate if they want to play ball games and its very crowded. But its worth going that way because about level with 79th St right in the middle of the park is Belvedere Castle which is this weird little castle that looks like its straight out of a fairy tale, and is in fact the park’s weather station.

There is another wild and windy bit of the park which is supposed to allow nature to take its course, which we passed through on the way to the Boat House, where we had planned to have lunch but by now it was about 5pm so we settled for a pint and chips. And then some icecream!
And finally, we headed back home.

An excellent day out, but definitely a full day if you want to do the whole park. If you dont have much time I would recommend hiring bikes or taking one of the carriage trips, horse or bike, to see as much as possible.