Chelsea Park

Yes, on holiday - but I haven’t been able to leave completely behind the administration of my Dad’s estate. Two calls early this morning - including one from the coroner’s office to confirm the coroner has decided to open a full inquest into my Dad’s death. Amazing news to which to wake…

We’re up and out in decent time, and walk over into the Murray Hill neighbourhood to have some breakfast. It sets us up for what is going to be a busy day. We take the downtown subway to the City Hall stop on the Manhattan side, and then walk over the Brooklyn Bridge. It’s majestic, and such an iconic sight. Yesterday we sailed underneath it, while today we walk over it into Brooklyn. During the walk from one side to the other, we ruminate on some of the slightly forced acronyms and nicknames used for New York neighbourhoods. Some make good sense - SoHo stands for South of Houston Street. NoMad is an area North of Madison Avenue. Then things start to get a little tenuous - Tribeca is the triangle below Canal Street, NoLIta (yes, including the capitalisation) is the area North of Little Italy. Aaaaaaand, then you have DUMBO and RAMBO - which stand for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, and Right Around the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. And this isn’t just crazy tourist talk - all around North West Brooklyn, we see signs for new DUMBO buildings. It feels a bit of a stretch, to say the least…

We didn’t spend much (any) real time in Brooklyn on our first visit together, so today is all about what this most populous borough of New York has to offer. Our first port of call is the building that was used for exterior shots in the utterly funny TV show Brooklyn 99 (are you spotting a theme here?). From there, we walk up to the famous mural of Biggie Smalls, commemorating this much loved and missed Brooklyn native. We catch a subway over to the Bushwick neighbourhood, and stop for an incredibly crucial beer.

We’re then taking part in a street art walking tour. I read about this a few months back, and thought it would be a great way to spend a couple of hours. I’m not disappointed. Some of the artwork on display is staggering. Such talent. Some is celebratory in its style, some are a form of shrine. Others are classical ‘tag’ based art, and others again are dedicated to the queer population of New York, which has had such a home in this borough. We’re blown away by some of the murals on display. I only hope my photos can do it justice. We spend a little time with Leia, who is on what appears to be some kind of foreign exchange programme from Germany, and is currently painting one of the walls in the neighbourhood. It’s 15:00 by the time we’re finished, and we’re both ravenous. The bar we stopped in at earlier apparently serves one of the best burgers in Brooklyn. We decide to test this for ourselves. It’s good, really good.

Refuelled, we meander back to Manhattan via a couple of happy hours, a drugstore, a Whole Foods market, a wine emporium. Dinner is served in our room, as we’re both knackered after another 20km walking day. Vicks claims she’s not going to sleep, she’s just resting her face. She slumbers maybe 20 seconds later. The time is 21:25. I am not far behind…Read more