Today we got up and decided that after breakfast we would walk the 15 blocks from our hotel to Central Park to walk around and see what it was all about. We have heard so much about the park, seen it in magazines and have heard so many people talk about it that we decided that we would just head on over and just "walk around". Well, after out little 15 block trek, we found out that the park itself it over 580 ACRES and then we settled on a nice little carriage ride. The ride that we took (which took about 45 minutes) would have taken about 2 1/5 to 3 hours if we had decided to just walk it. I decided to do 2 blogs for today because there was so much to see in Central Park that I wanted to be able to tell you all the different things that we saw just from riding around, and include the pictures. And YES...it was more than just some people sleeping under trees (which I did NOT include any photos of). Our carriage driver was originally from Istanbul, Turkey and came to New York to learn English and is now getting his masters degree here at the University. His knowledge of the area and the history of the city was unbelievable to both Chad and I and we told him that we were very impressed. He said that he had alot of American friends but it was also his job to know alot about New York. And let me tell you...he did his job very well. We asked him if he saw alot of celebrities riding through the park like he did and he said that he actually rode Robert DeNiro and his daughter around, Russell Crowe, Keanu Reaves, and has seen Jessica Simpson, Chuck Norris and many others. Then Chad and I both decided that he looked very much like Russell Crowe.
Anyhow....back to the photos. The first photo is the driver and his horse Billy. Next he drove us past a section of the park where there was a play ground, rides and a carousel that is run with live horses. It was packed with people. The next photo is a statue of Shakesphere in the area of Shakesphere in the park. The do plays and reading in the periodically. This next photo was WAY COOL!!!! This fountain is the Angel of the Waters Fountain and it is thought that anyone who touches the cascasding water is brought good health. The Angel holds a lily in her hand which represents purity and then the 4 figurines under her, under the water each represent purity, peace, health and temperance. (Can you tell that I really found this fountain most interesting to me....maybe it is the whole health and healing issue and relation!?!?!?). The original fountain is built in Jerusalem BUT the really cool thing about this fountain and this area is that this is where they filmed the scene in Ransom where Mel Gibson and Rene Russo's son is kidnapped...and while we were sitting there, you can just imagine the scene and see the kite or whatever it was flying away when they are trying to find him. Eerie but way cool!. The next photo is called Cherry Blossom and it was originally a fountain that was built for the horses so that they could walk around and get a drink of water (aaahh how sweet!!!!). The building in the next photo in the oldest building on the west side on NYC and the apartments are 45 million to buy. YES MILLION. Steven Spieldberg owns an apartment in this building. I forgot who else. He was talking kinda fast. The building with the little ball on the top (don't you like my technical terms) is the American Museum of Natural History, and the next building used to be a castle but now are residential buildings. I don't know how much they are each (although I am sure that they are BUNCHES) but I do know that Seinfeld has an apartment here and George Steinbrenner (NY Yankees Owner) houses one of his Porsche collections here and he opens it up two or three times a year for people to see. The next to last picture is Strawberry Fields. This is the memorial built for John Lennon. It was really pretty and the picture didn't really do it justice. And then the final picture is the home of John Lennon, where the American flag is hanging.
And that completed our tour of Central Park...
See the next blog for our PHANTOM OF THE OPERA NIGHT......
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