Saturday in the (Central) Park

In Connecticut this week it’s hotter than July, the weekend is always right around the corner and there’s no sign of rain so What to do, What to do, What to do.   New York City seemed like a good option and it is quite literally a Metro North train ride away.  So me and my partner in crime hopped on the New Haven train on that Saturday with the idea of exploring Central Park – a park that I personally had not been back to visit in over 25 years (gasp!) and literally gave no thought about.  It was his idea, I was thinking South Street Seaport so it took him a minute to convince me to change my mind (smile).

 

 

Here are some fun facts I discovered about Central Park during my quick online research while on the Metro North train ride:

1)  Central Park is bigger than some countries.  There are 843 acres in the plot starting on the Upper West Side of NYC, measuring 2.5 miles long and 0.5 miles broad.

2)  Central Park is the oldest public park in the United States – the plans for the park were approved in the year 1853.

3)  Central Park is one of the most popular filming locations in the world – some of these films include Home Alone 2, Enchanted, Elf, The Avengers, Stuart Little and John Wick 2.

4) There are 58 miles of pedestrian routes in Central Park.  Because it is so large, my recommendation would be to focus on the famous sights such as Strawberry Fields, Cherry Hill and Bethesda Fountain.

5)  Central Park has only one single straight line – this park was purposely designed to have a natural flow of nature in it so the only straight line in the park can be found at The Mall.

6)  It is the United States most visited park with 42 million visitors annually and only 14 % of those are first time visitors – the rest are mostly local New Yorkers or visitors coming back!

7)  And last but not least,  you will be shocked to learn that Central Park is entirely artificial – looks can be deceiving but all of the parks natural features are man made.  All of the lakes, forested areas and hills in the park were all artificially created.

We caught the NYC Subway from Grand Central Station to Central Park – it is not so easy to navigate the Subway – nothing is as clear as it could be including the simple purchase of a MetroCard from the vending machine.  The vending machine never once mentions the price of it,  just that you can buy one card to use on an unlimited basis or a single card to be used once.  At any rate we finally figured it out – it costs $9.00 for the unlimited MetroCard and $1.00 for the processing fee.  We shared the MetroCard which did not last us too long because a single Subway ride is $2.90 (smile).

 

 

We both wanted to make the most of our day trip to NYC (time wise) so we had already decided on renting Electric bikes – all the rage now as everybody and their grandmother seemed to have the same idea on that Saturday (smile).

We ordered the 2 E bikes online while on the 1 hour and 45 minute train ride from a store called Bike Rental Central Park which appealed to us as it was located just across the street from the W57th entrance to Central Park.  The 2 E bikes cost us $180 and included a helmet (which we both refused – too hot!) and a map of Central Park.  Locks were not included because as one of the store associates told us, these E bikes are expensive and they would rather us not let them leave our sight then park them and leave them locked up somewhere where they would become easy prey…

 

 

The hardest part of the day was deciding which way to go.  There were pedestrians everywhere, pedicabs with couples inside, horse and buggies with families, bikers, walkers, strollers, rollerbladers, scooters and again, E Bikers.  We did follow the map they supplied because as with the E bikes you are limited to riding on the streets, you must stay off the sidewalks and pathways and you always, always give pedestrians the right of way.  Not everyone was following the rules…

 

 

As I mentioned before, Central Park is huuuuge so in our 4-hour E bike rental time, we wound up seeing the following, in no particular order:

Conservatory Garden  – the only formal garden in Central Park  – it is 6 acres long and divided into 3 separate parks.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir – this reservoir holds a billion gallons of water and is one of the park’s most scenic landscapes.

Wollman Rink – we lucked out on this place out because 300 tons of sand were dropped onto this rink for the first professional beach volleyball APV event ever held inside this park!  We could barely see from our picnic table as the crowd was massive but  nevertheless enjoyed our soul food lunch courtesy of Melba’s😋

 

 

 

 

 

Conservatory Water – Popular with families with children because of the famous climbing sculptures and the sight in the children’s classic and movie: Stuart Little.

 

 

Bethesda Fountain & Terrace – Bethesda Terrace is considered the “heart of Central Park” and rising from the terrace is Bethesda Fountain with the famous Angel of the Waters statue stop.

 

 

That was basically it.  We plan on heading back on another Saturday this Summer to catch the other Central Park sights because again time and the unexpected precipitation (forgot to mention it started to rain lightly in the late afternoon from all of the humidity) worked against us.  Plus we were looking to drop off our E bikes so we could head to Times Square for some nighttime activity but all in all it was a good day and definitely worth the trip.

 

Sincerely,

 

TVFL