The High Line

What a beautiful day here today. The temperature was in the upper 60s and the sun was bright. We started our morning by heading to Riverside Church in Harlem this morning. Our interesting train story today is that some kind of comic book something was going on and people kept getting on in costumes. I sat next to Flash Gordon! Due to train construction we had to do some adjusting and a little more waiting time but took us about an hour and a half to get there plus about a 10 minute walk. This church is beautiful inside and outside.

Riverside Church

The service was absolutely wonderful. The place is huge and the sound was great. They had a guest preacher today - Frank Schaeffer, and he had a great message.

You can't really capture the inside but this will give you an idea.

Afterwards, we walked over to the Hungarian Bakery Shop to have a treat. We planned on doing it last week since it's right across the street from the Cathedral of St John the Divine but it was really crowded. So, we fought the crowd today but it wasn't anything like last week. We took it "to-go" and went across the street to sit in the courtyard of the church. It was so delicious!

Our plan for the afternoon was to go to the Chelsea area to walk the High Line. It is the old railroad line that has been transformed into a sky-high green promenade for walkers. Well, a lot of other people had the same idea but what a great idea for something no longer used. There is a lot of seating along the way and parts are shaded. They have plants and grasses along the edge. There are some areas where you can see the Hudson River and you also pass by Chelsea Piers. We started at the beginning and walked the whole 18 blocks.

This is what parts of it looked like. Other areas were wider and had either benches, wooden lounges or small tables with chairs.

This is another view along the way.

Towards the end we had a great view of the Empire State Building.

We got off and walked along 34th Street to the Starlight Diner for dinner. Several costumed people came in there too. Some were really fully made up. Then we walked over to 33rd Street to see the huge, main post office. It's open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and takes up a whole city block. Then we went past Madison Square Garden, Penn Station and the Pennsylvania Hotel. We were worn out and headed back to Brooklyn.

Our walking total today was 7.75. We were a little short of our 8.5 but didn't really get started until church was out at 12:30. Our grand total is now up to 114.81 miles!!!

Time to plan tomorrow.

Conrad and Linda