Susanne I headed down the hill to the Brooklyn Navy Yard and then further south along the riverfront to a magnificent spot right between the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge. From Brooklyn Bridge Park I enjoyed a breath-taking view of both these renowned bridges , combined with a phenomenal view of the Manhattan Skyline. Just past the Brooklyn Bridge I stopped at the East River Ferry terminal and grabbed a vegetarian quesadilla which I enjoyed against the impressive backdrop of Manhattan on the other side of the river.
Then I pushed my bike through Brooklyn Bridge Park, past sightseers and sunbathers and made my way south on the Brooklyn Bridge Park and Greenway. All along the views of Manhattan’s skyscrapers are beckoning across the river. Brooklyn offers some of the best views of Manhattan anywhere. Traffic was thundering on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway to my left until I turned into the neighbourhood again and climbed up the hill through the gentrified neighbourhoods of Park Slope.
My next stop was Prospect Park, New York City’s second most well-known park. Like Central Park in Manhattan, this 585 acre green space was also designed by famous landscape architects Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux. It is home to the Prospect Park Zoo, an Audubon Center and has numerous sports facilities and Brooklyn’s only lake.
The final stop on my bike tour was the Brooklyn Brooklyn Botanic garden, a 52 acre facility which features the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden, the Cranford Rose Garden, the Shakespeare Garden, the Children’s Garden and a fragrance garden. This botanical garden is a veritable mecca for photography lovers; particularly the colourful water lilies in the lily ponds caught my attention.
In the evening we headed back into the Park Slope neighbourhood and enjoyed a walk past the many restaurants on 5th and 7th Avenue and finally settled on a tasty Mexican dinner at El Pollito Mexicano which featured a delicious rotisserie chicken. This part of Brooklyn combines the big city feel of New York City with a safe and downhome, slightly bohemian ambiance. We liked it so much that we decided we are going to spend more time in Brooklyn on our next trip to NYC.
