Bagels, Pizza, Hot Dogs and Race Tracks - New York City?

Frank! (can i call you Frankie when i yell at you when i first see you in a crowd?)

Can you describe one of your walk-abouts for me? I'm trying to get a sense of timing. Please?

link back to Ruth's Hotel thread

Well...you certainly can call me Frankie.

And as for the walk-abouts...you might no want to tackle some of the treks I take. I often walk over a hundred blocks at a time.

Lola gave you some great ideas for places to walk.

My personal favorites are visits to: Central Park...Bryant Park...the West Side waterfront from Midtown down to Battery Park...the East Side waterfront...especially the area around the South Street Seaport...and the United Nations area....Soho...the Village...and my personal favorite...Chelsea.

I also like to visit Times Square and the Rockefeller Center. St. Patrick's cathedral is a must not miss. The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Natural History are both special.

Tell me more, Frank.

One of the hotel finalists is in Chelsea (not the clothing optional lounge one in the gay hotel) - and yes, it sounds like we'd be walking in similar areas.

I occasionally do 'tourist day' with a friend of mine here - and we're out walking and talking for 10 - 12 hours. Our blocks aren't as easy to count as yours, but I'm guessing I'm not a total wuss in the walking department. :wink: Not a Frank-grade walker, but scary enough.

Oh, yes! How could I have forgotten the Museum of Natural History? Check out the thirty minute IMAX programs on space, especially the one narrated by Harrison Ford, "Is Anyone Out There?" or something like that.

Serendipity -- that's the ice cream shop!

Blue Ribbon in either Soho or Park Slope Bklyn is excellent surf & turf & the kitchen's open until 2-4am.

It's all sounding great.

I'll skip the IMAX though. It's a Canajun company, and I'm kind of IMAX'd out due to proximity to several of their major venues.

I may be wrong in calling it IMAX. It's just a presentation with the ceiling being the screen. Seats are very comfortable. The questions raised and information delivered in the presentation are very interesting to me. But not everyone is as interested. Still, if you are, it's great. The planatarium at the Museum of Natural History is relatively new and very well done. You won't have time for everything, so you'll just have to come back. (good excuse, huh?)



This one is short and free.

http://www.vacationidea.com/new_york_city/hayden_planetarium.html

http://www.amnh.org/

I figured I walked twelve miles my first two days, at a totally rough count of 12 blocks a mile, which may not be true for those blocks, but gives you an idea.
I remember leaving the Y at W. 63rd, going town to Columbus Circle and taking the street at the lower end of Central Park (is that 59th?) across to Fifth Avenue, up Fifth to the Met Museum, where I was early to meet an abuzz friend, and over to Madison around 84th(?), where I found a Patisserie to kill some time. That all took about 40 minutes to the door of the bakery, and I had stopped and stared at buildings and trees and dogs several times along the way.

Diane and I walked from Greene Street in Soho to 24th in Chelsea; I don't remember the time, but it wasn't very long to us. I'm thinking we also walked from the Met (82nd or so) to Pierre au Tunnel on 47th; seems like it took us an hour, but we did a break to check out the Plaza Hotel and then we found the candy shop...
Diane is one of the world's fast walkers, to me, and I'm not usually a slow walker.

That's helpful, ossoB. I keep forgetting how differently blocks are handled in the U.S. At a wandering pace of about 4 miles an hour, that would be over 40 blocks an hour. Is that right?

hmm - so that was about 35 blocks in an hour - and Diane's not a fast walker to me - funny that we can use her as a mutual measuring tool

I stay away from Pierre au Tunnel. The sidewalk is very, very hard and screws up your face when you hit it. :wink:

Glad to hear you are a walker's walker.

We'll take a walk together.

f.

Oh, I hope you two do take a walk together..

Ehbeth, I was figuring, lessee, 35 +/- blks in 40 minutes; that would be a block in a minute plus a bit. I must be fibbing, but I remember the 40 minutes and I remember where I stopped and started. Hmmm.

(blocks vary, of course. At twelve blocks a mile, that'd be about 440 feet long. Dunno how long the blocks along Fifth are; the ones along 59th are longer...
so this is all quite vague, just timing estimate.)

On speed, depends on if I know the territory. New York, I had to look around.... plus, I'm not in my walking prime. Back in Venice I used to walk 5 - 7 miles 3x a week. Damn, this conversation is making me want to go for a good long walk today.

i think the speed of walking will be somewhat influenced by ehbeth interest in looking for BARGOONS in various shops - such as "ALL PRICES REDUCED A FURTHER 80%" , that'll slow her down just a bit ! hbg

On at least four occasions, I have walked from Penn Station (32nd St. & 7th Ave.) to 112th St. & Broadway. "Why", you ask? To have an omelet here:

Ooooh, you don't just talk the talk...

that was practically my 2nd home as a youngin'...