Central Park and Yankee Stadium - Day 14

Tuesday, June 20, 2017
New York, New York, United States
Happy Birthday to Me!
We woke to a sunny day in New York and I was a year older! Many lovely messages from friends and family at home, some of them in the middle of the night! A bottle of Chanel from my wonderful husband, a phone call with my Lovely Larissa and the day was off to a great start. We had a breakfast of coffee and pastries down in the Romeo and Juliet cafe, then got ready to start a big day.
We had booked a bike tour in Central Park and decided to walk and enjoy being on the street, as we had plenty of time to spare. New York is very walkable. It is mostly flat and the grid system makes it easy to navigate. You soon work out if you are going the wrong way, hopefully it doesn't take a whole Avenue to get to that point. The distance between the streets (heading north/south) is about 61 metres and between avenues (east/west) is about 183 metres.
We found our bike tour, Unlimited Biking, and went inside, where we were badgered and lectured on the need to add insurance to our order. We declined and the other guy started on at us. We found the staff working at the store to be officious and not at all friendly. When we joined the rest of our group and found our guide. We were relieved to find he was entertaining, happy and affable. 4 people didn't turn,up so we were down to 11 on the tour, which was more than enough.
We walked our bikes 3 blocks (short ones) to Central Park and began our tour. Dan showed us the sights of this beautiful space, full of lots of other people enjoying a lovely day. The Mall, the Pond, Bethesda Terrace with the Angel Fountain, the beautiful Boat House and boat lake and of course, Strawberry Fields, right near where John Lennon lived and was shot. The Park is lined by prime real estate and Dan pointed out all the celebrities' houses and told us how much the most expensive apartments were selling for. A new block is being built and the penthouse has pre-sold for $250 MILLION! There are many places within the park that have been featured in films, as Dan pointed out along the way.
The tour was interesting. The park is huge and we touched a small part of it. After dropping back our bikes with the grumpy tour company, we walked back towards the Park. We stopped at a  little sandwich shop and bought our lunch to picnic in the park. We found a patch of grass under a tree and ate our New York fare - pastrami and fresh mozzarella for me and spicy turkey for Ken, washed down with iced tea. They were good! We strolled through the park, getting a little lost along the winding paths. On the Mall there was a group of entertainers, "it's ok, we're black, but we won't hurt you". They were funny and well rehearsed and managed to con quite a bit out money of the crowd as they showed off their acrobatic skills. We continued on to the boat house and climbed up to Belvedere Castle and saw beautiful views.
Finally, we made our way back onto the street and left the green space to join the rush of the city. We jumped onto the Subway and were soon back home to rest for a short while with a cold beer before freshening up and heading out again.
We had tickets to see the Yankees play at Yankee Stadium. It was a 2 train-trip away. The subway was packed in the peak hour rush. We couldn't fit on the first, but squeezed into the second and were soon rushing along on an express. We got off at 125th to change lines. Many Yankees fans seemed to stay on, but a few of us tourists following our google map directions hopefully waited for the connection. It soon arrived and we were squashed in once again for a shorter trip right to the stadium. It is big and getting in was efficient, a quick bag check and metal scanner on the way through.
The stadium is fantastic, easy to get around, plenty of food and drink stalls, lots of loos and the seats had great views, even though we were a long way up. (Bring on our new Stadium). The game was good, but the Yankees weren't doing so well. We saw a couple of great home runs. We had dinner there, baseball food. Hot dogs and beer. Certainly not a great meal. The size of the average meal there was enormous, enough to feed an entire family. We shared a meal deal, 2 hot dogs and chips, meant for one.
We left at the top of the 7th innings to avoid getting crushed at the end of the game in the scramble for trains seats. We got back to Manhatten at about 10 and wandered past Gotham West Market to pop into Ample Ice creamery for a final treat of the day. Not a great day of nutrition! Home to chat to my mum and pack, we are off to Boston tomorrow.
Steps 23,478
Kms walked 19.1
Kms cycled 5.9
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