Literary Walk in The Mall

Literary Walk in Central Park is considered the park's main thoroughfare or gateway. It is one section of "The Mall", which is comprised of the Bethesda Fountain, Terrace Bridge, the Naumberg Bandshell, The Lake and the the Olmstead Flower Bed. There is always a mix of tourists and locals here, enjoying the views, entertainment and scenery.

Literary Walk is most recognized for its pathway of American elm trees that form a canopy overhead. This is the type of area that's so unique and scenic all throughout the year—whether it's sunny and leafy or coated in snow.

Additionally, there are statues of prominent literary figures along the walkway, including everyone's favorite, William Shakespeare!

Literary Walk in the Fall

To the right of Literary Walk, a little more green
(picture taken same day as the above)

The Shakespeare Statue in Central Park's Literary Walk

The Olmstead Flower Bed, named after Frederick Law Olmstead, one of the creators of the park,

 located at the south end of The Mall

Touring Central Park's Belvedere Castle

On Sunday I rushed off to Central Park just 10 minutes before noon for a unique tour given by the Central Park Conservancy called, 'The Castle and its Kingdom tour.'

The description of the tour, Take a walk around the lands dominated by Belvedere Castle, situated high on Vista Rock. Visit the tiny 55-acre realm on an eclectic tour of history and nature, had me looking forward to learning all about this structure and its surrounding area.

Tour-goers were to meet at the top of Belvedere Castle, located mid-Park at 79th Street. It was a warm Fall day, the perfect kind of day for sight-seeing in Central Park, an NYC attraction that has 35 million visitors a year.

View toward the Delacorte Theater


So for this tour we started at the top of the castle, taking in views of The Great Lawn, Turtle Pond and the Delacorte Theater below. We learned that the park's co-creator, Calvert Vaux, designed this castle as an observation tower or "belvedere", meaning panoramic viewpoint. Our two tour guides, who are volunteers with the Conservancy, then took us to the weather station next to the castle, which is used to measure the weather in New York City. We were standing right outside The Ramble when our main Tour Guide informed us that that is another tour in and of itself. So we walked along a trail past Turtle Pond (sans turtles, for some reason), toward the statue of King Jagiello on top of his horse, which was in the 1939 World's Fair in New York.



From here we were led to The Obelisk, an imposing 71 foot sculpture also known as "Cleopatra's Needle". It was transported to the US from Egypt in 1880, but not put up in the Park until the following year since it took so long to get it from the ship it came in on to the east side of the Park where it now sits on a restored and landscaped terrace. Behind the needle was the backside of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, plus a pretty good view of the Met's roof top where the current Big Bambu installation by Doug and Mike Starn is still up.
Cleopatra's Needle


Following a few stops along the east side of the Park was a stop on the outer edge of the Great Lawn, which presented great views of the ballfields, Belvedere Castle and Midtown Manhattan's skyline.
The Great Lawn and Midtown Manhattan skyline


The Great Lawn and Belvedere Castle amid the trees


The tour ended at my favorite part of the Park, the Arthur Ross Pinetum, close to 85th Street and Central Park West entrance. From there I headed to my next tour...

Boating in Central Park

On one of the last warm fall days of the year I made an attempt to go boating on The Lake in Central Park. For just $12 plus a $20 deposit that you get back, you can spend 1 hour out in the water with up to 4 people in your canoe.

Canoes are rented beside the Central Park Boathouse where movies like 'When Harry Met Sally' and more recently '27 Dresses' were filmed, and where shows like 'Sex and the City' taped a while back (think of Carrie and Big when they fell in the water)!

Despite there being several dozen other canoes paddling nearby, there was still plenty of space in The Lake to row through—though there were a few times when we bumped boats with 'canoe-ddling' couples who weren't paying attention or when we 'beached' ourselves along the rocks!

Here are some pictures I managed to capture and not lose by almost dropping my camera in the water...

The Gondola guy in front of the Boathouse






People on the bridge who waved hello!


Under Bow Bridge

Fall

Fall, if you were any prettier, I couldn't stand it!

Too bad this year's Fall got side swiped by an early Winter. Everything's dead and dry now... but for what felt like a couple of days back in October, everything was yellow and orange and lime green and perfect.

Turquoise

I was walking down 63rd Street towards the park (somewhere around there) when something turqoise caught my eye. You don't see a color like this in the city often. There is a beautiful small pool/water fountain within a building's courtyard that you can peek into through a fence somewhere around 63rd Street between Columbus and Central Park West.

Reminds me of some of those Dentyne Ice commercials...

The big yellow tree in Central Park!

Located near Central Park West and 63rd Street, this big yellow tree will remind you of what fall is all about!

People!

I rarely take pictures of people (too shy) but everyone was playing and having fun in the park on the day of the New York City Marathon, so I joined in on the photo taking under a beautiful big tree full of yellow leaves that were falling to the ground. Oh, Fall :o)