Walking in the Park

While in New York last month a couple of colleagues and I took a break from back to back meetings to stretch our legs and clear our heads. I led the group on a walking tour of Central Park, sharing some of my favourite highlights. We wandered past the baseball fields, around the perimeter of the Sheep Meadow (which transforms itself into a sea of sun-baking flesh during Summer weekends) and on to Bethesda Terrace that overlooks the Lake. The edge of the Lake was frozen, making for a hilarious scene, as breadcrumb chasing ducks slipped and slid across its surface.

The terrace is also home to the Bethesda Fountain and its sculpture, Angel of Waters. The sculpture, installed in 1873, is reached via a tiled arcade that passes under 72nd Street. The arcade's ceiling is lined with ornate Minton tiles which have been painstakingly restored, after spending more than 20 years in storage. This was my first opportunity to see the results of the US$7 million restoration. The result is impressive.


We then made our way through the wood-lined Rambles up to Vista Rock. Here is perched the quirky romantic Belvedere Castle. The stone building was designed in 1865 by Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould as a Victorian “Folly” (a fantasy building). Its primary function was to provide a panoramic outlook over the park’s northern reaches. This was my first visit to the castle, despite many previous walks in the park.

Besides offering breathtaking views the Castle is also a weather station. Any time you see a reading for Central Park, it comes from here. We were in luck on this occassion as it was open to the public. We took time to explore the castle’s viewing platforms, set on two different levels, before heading back to our meeting.


The view from the castle's is dominated by the Turtle Pond and the 55-acre Great Lawn, site of Simon and Garfunkel’s famous park concert. The Lawn also hosted an open-air mass by Pope John Paul II in 1996. More than 125,000 people attended in what was to become his final trip to the USA.


I took the group down through the tree-lined Mall and on past Central Park Zoo. We were lucky enough to see one of the park’s Polar Bears on display in the distance. Garry and were last here in 2006 celebrating his birthday. On that occasion one of the bears put on a spectacular swimming display.

Our walking tour finished with a brief stop at the ice-skating rink where children were slipping and sliding much like the ducks we’d seen earlier. An hour in Central Park proved the perfect antidote for a week of intense meetings.