A Walking Tour of New York City

My husband and I recently took a trip to New York City.  We found out that the best way to get around and really experience the city is to walk.  It sounds like a daunting task, since all the streets and avenues are all numbered; you KNOW exactly how far you have walked!  One afternoon we walked from 77th street to 42nd!  However, we realized that it is the best way to get the flavor of the city and the different neighborhoods.  If you only stay around Times Square, you might think that the only people in New York are tourists, but if you take the time to venture into the neighborhoods you will truly see all New York has to offer.  The subways are cleaner and safer than you might think, and are a great way to get around, but I suggest taking the subway somewhere and then walking back to where you started to fully experience the city.

One of the first things we did in New York was to go downtown.  We actually started in Brooklyn, by taking the subway to Brooklyn and walked along the river in Brooklyn Heights.  The views of Manhattan are spectacular from across the river; you get a view of the entire downtown skyline.  I hadn’t been to New York since before 9/11, so seeing the skyline without the Towers was a moving experience.  Along the East River is a paved walkway with plenty of benches to sit and rest your tired feet and take in the view.  The pathway actually leads to the Brooklyn Bridge which you can walk across.  Quite a few people walk the bridge, and again, the views are great.

As you get to the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge, you can see the midtown buildings like the Empire State and the Chrysler buildings.  Once you are off the bridge, you are only a few blocks from the financial district and Wall Street.  I recommend going to Wall Street on the weekend because then you don’t have to fight stockbrokers AND tourists for a picture of the NY Stock Exchange,  just tourists!  The week we were in New York, the market crashed.  Apparently, they forgot to call me to see if I was planning to support the New York City economy; if they had, the market wouldn’t have crashed!  I did my best to help out!
If you are interested in the historical buildings of old New York, they are in the surrounding area of Wall Street.  The pew where George Washington sat in St. Paul’s chapel has been preserved; this is also the chapel that was not damaged when the Towers fell on 9/11 so many of the rescue workers rested and prayed there.  There are still memorials to the fallen heroes inside the chapel.  In addition, Trinity Church is at the end of Wall Street.  Alexander Hamilton is buried there and regular services are still held daily.

As you start to walk uptown from the Wall Street area, you will walk through SoHo and Greenwich Village.  When you walk, you can see the transition from Wall Street suits to Soho tie-dye.  It happens somewhat subtly as the neighborhoods blend.  However, if you got on the subway at Wall Street and off in the middle of Soho, you might think you were in a completely different city. The streets in Soho are cobblestone and the boutiques are small and sell interesting and funky clothes and art you would be hard pressed to find anywhere else.  People-watching in Soho is a different experience al-together!  Grab a cup of coffee in a small local coffee shop (i.e. not Starbucks), sit and rest those feet (you will need to after walking from Wall Street) and watch the people go by!
After leaving Soho, you will get to Greenwich Village.  I expected the Village to be full of fabulous drag queens, but not one to be found anywhere!   Instead of drag queens, there were plenty of students and professors from nearby NYU, giving the neighborhood a faintly academic and a lot less eclectic feel than I had expected.  Heading uptown from Greenwich Village you will get closer to midtown and the tourists.  The flagship Macy’s is on 34th street and can be seen from the top of the Empire State Building.  It is an experience in itself and even if you don’t plan to buy anything you must go in, as the store takes up a few city blocks!  At this point you will start running into other tourists again and they will continue to be everywhere until you are further uptown from Times Square.

If you go west from Times Square on 42nd street, you will come to the dock for the Circle Line.  If you need a few hours break off your feet but still seeing the best of New York, I highly recommend the Circle Line boat tour.  The Circle Line leaves from the Hudson River between 42nd and 43rd streets.  They offer two cruises; a 3-hour cruise that completely circles the island of Manhattan and a 2-hour cruise that does a semi-circle around the southern half of the island.  We took the 2-hour tour, which we felt showed us the most important landmarks twice!  The boat comes quite close to the Statue of Liberty and the view is breath-taking.  Our guide had some great pieces of trivia: for example, the statue is wearing sandals because in ancient Rome, only citizens could wear sandals and only citizens could vote (i.e. men).  The Statue of Liberty was designed around the time of the women’s suffrage movement in the US, and putting her in sandals was the artist’s way of supporting the movement.  Our guide was able to point out where in the skyline the World Trade Center would have been.  He also mentioned that the media and tourists are the only ones that call the area “Ground Zero”; New Yorkers still call it the World Trade Center.  The boat then takes you up the East River under the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge.  It turns around just before the Queensboro Bridge, so if you missed the Manhattan skyline on the way up the river, you can catch it again on the way down.

Times Square is everything I expected it to be: bright, loud, and PACKED with people!  You must experience it at night, when the lights are all on; it is fantastic and you will know without a doubt that you are in New York City!  You can buy your “I heart NY” t-shirts at any number of souvenir shops lining Times Square.  Continuing uptown from Times Square, the crowds thin a little.  You must stop at Rockefeller Center.  The skating rink opens in mid-October and is smaller than you may have thought just from seeing on TV.  In my opinion, the best views in the city are from the Top of the Rock.  The tickets are about the same price as the Empire State building, but the views and atmosphere are much better.  The most important thing that they do at the Top of the Rock is let only a few people up at a time.  You may think that this means your wait to go up is longer, but they have 3 short videos talking about NBC, Rockefeller Center and the Radio City Rockettes to keep you entertained while you are waiting.  Then, once at the top the views are unobstructed by other people and bars!  The first level has thick plexi-glass preventing your untimely death should you try to look closer at the Radio City Music Hall.  However, the second level is smaller than the first and thus the drop is only one floor, so there are no bars or plexi-glass obstructing that perfect shot.  At the Empire State Building, the ring of people trying to look out at the view was about 3 people deep and most the time spent at the top was elbowing people out of the way to get a better look.

Since I spent most of my time in New York supporting the economy, it is only fitting that my favorite part of New York was the Upper East Side.  This high-end shopping district starts at Sak’s Fifth Avenue (the shoe department on the 8th floor is a must see) and heads uptown for about 20 blocks; a long way to walk carting shopping bags full of shoes, just ask my husband!  If you have a favorite designer, it is likely that his or her flagship store is on 5th or Madison Avenue.  From the east side, I recommend walking through Central Park for a break from people and shopping.  In Central Park, it is hard to imagine that you are in one of the biggest cities in the world.  The many acres of trees muffle the sounds of the cars and taxis.  In the park you will find things that you wouldn’t expect in New York City, like squirrels and ducks (pigeons of course are everywhere).  The many paths through the park are lined with park benches, so there is always somewhere to sit and watch people and dogs go by.

As you are walking through the city, be on the lookout for great restaurants.  The best ones are small and out of the way in the different neighborhoods but are worth exploring to find them. We found a great Cuban restaurant in midtown and a fantastic Italian place in –wait for it—Little Italy!  Pizza places for a HUGE slice of thin crust pizza are everywhere; the pizza is hot and fresh and relatively inexpensive for New York.  Hotdog carts are a dime a dozen but are part of the New York experience.  In addition, there were almost as many street vendors selling Halal food. Try to avoid the chain restaurants like the Olive Garden right in the middle of Times Square!  In order to complete the New York eating experience, you must go to a deli.  There are many, of which the Carnegie Deli is the most famous.  Pickles and cole slaw come out as soon as you sit down like chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant.   My husband and I went to Junior’s, just west of Times Square.  They are famous for cheesecake, and rightfully so; it was fantastic!  They will also ship it to your house anywhere in the US! You must also try a Black and White cookie, available in any local bakery and famous in New York.

I hope you enjoy your walking tour of New York City! Pack a comfortable pair of sneakers and PLENTY of Band-aids for blisters! Don’t forget to take the subway when your feet have given out and stop to rest in the many parks or coffee shops to truly get the feel of the city.