NYC, Day Three

Gramercy Park 

I was on my own again on Thursday, so after a bagel and tea for breakfast (at Ess-a-Bagel on Third Ave.), I started walking down Second Avenue towards one of the prettiest streets in Manhattan,  E. 19th,  which leads right into Gramercy Park. If I lived in Manhattan, this is where I would live (and then I could shop at Bergdorf's).  This tree-lined street has beautiful town houses built in the 1920s by some of the most famous American architects. And you have to live on Gramercy Square to get a key to the private garden. Wouldn't that be great, your own private garden in the middle of the city? Ooh, I would love that. 

Gramercy Park

E. 19th

E. 19th

E. 19th

E. 19th

Gramercy--love that ivy

I continued down Irving Place,  just off of Gramercy, and decided to stop at Friend of a Farmer for lunch. We had been here for brunch once before, so I knew it was delicious, and it's a really cute place.

After some refreshment, I continued down Irving Place and over to Broadway where I shopped around the Union Square area, stopping in at ABC Carpet and Home (Martha shops here),  Printicon, a fancy paper store that I have been in before and liked, City Bakery (just to look), and I may have stopped in Fish's Eddy again.

One of the places I have to visit every time I am in Manhattan is the Strand Bookstore, just south of Union Square. It is a great old bookstore, four floors, but I like the basement where I always browse their extensive collection of used and new gardening books. I have found a few treasures there, but didn't find anything this time that I had to have.

Pretty window boxes in East Village

East Village

Leaving the Strand, I decided to head east on E. 11th St.  I walked past Julia's old apartment at the corner of E. 11th and Second Ave., where the gardens look just as pretty, and then headed back up Second Avenue, all the way to E. 42nd. Another day of a lot of walking, but that's what I like about New York, you walk everywhere and because there is always something to look at you don't even realize how far you are walking. Another thing I really like about NewYork is all the small parks in the middle of the city, every couple of blocks it seems. I saw lots of little children playing on playgrounds, young mothers with their babies in strollers, enjoying the park, and of course the every-present homeless guy sleeping on a bench. Thursday was the first day of school for New York kids, so I saw lots of little ones being walked home by their parents, and tons of middle schoolers hanging around the bus stops.

Flowers on the corner

Walt and I decided to have dinner at Libretto's on Second Avenue, a short walk from our hotel. It was one of Julia's go-to restaurants when she lived here, cheap and cheerful Italian food. I had rigatoni with vodka sauce and Walt had lasagna. It was delicious. After dinner, we walked a a few blocks over and up Park Avenue towards Grand Central (and surprise surprise, there is a Magnolia Bakery inside Grand Central), then back down 42nd St. to our hotel. Love those cupcakes!

Grand Central Station, at night