While walking from The Cloisters in Upper Manhattan to the 190th Street subway station (about a 10 minute walk), we walked past one of the most beautiful little parks i have ever seen: Fort Tryon Park.



It looked so, so beautiful. Locks of cherry blossoms dripped from tree limbs, sweeping the stone walls and paths. Boats zipped down the Hudson River, leaving streams of bubbly water in their wake. Joggers and fathers with baby strollers peppered the paths. It was so lovely! I wish we'd had more time to explore the park. We were hurrying to the subway to get back to Penn Station, in order to make it to the Amtrak train on schedule. What a difference between the two places- Washington Heights is busy but friendly, cluttered but clean. Penn Station is hot, steamy, dirty and impersonal.

So I am very impressed with Washington Heights in Manhattan. It must cost an absolute fortune to live there, but it's so lovely, something that photos and online video conferencing couldn't depict. It has the elegance of an Old World city with cobblestone streets and old-fashioned street lamps, but also has the energy of a big city with the playgrounds full of children and the shops and city buses. What a great place!