Leaving Brooklyn: Where to Take Your New York City Vacations In the Other Four Boroughs
- c/o nycgo.com
Manhattan
The Cloisters, and really all of Fort Tryon Park, is one of my favorite things in all of Manhattan. A branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cloisters houses the museum’s Medieval art and architecture collection, and is itself evocative of several ecclesiastical and secular European buildings. It’s a perfect place to wander around—the medieval garden alone is worth the trip—and it has the distinction of never feeling too crowded, something that is hard to say for other museums in the city. Make sure to take your time examining the tapestries, they’re Boschean wonders, full of unicorns and other fantastical beasts. Post-Cloisters, head over to Red Rooster in Harlem for some of the best deviled eggs in the city—all I’m going to say about them is chicken skin mayonnaise. That’s all you need to know.
And, I don’t know, what more is there to say about vacationing in Manhattan? You know it all by now, don’t you? Sure you do. I’m not going to sell it much harder. There’s things to do and people to see and you know, probably also check out the peacocks up by the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, because there’s a white one there and it’s beautiful and you like beautiful things, don’t you? Sure you do. Why else would you even be in New York. So go to the Cathedral. See the peacocks. Have an uptown kind of a day. Maybe also check out the beautiful mosaic benches outside of Grant’s Tomb (formerly the top tourist destination in New York City, just like Green-Wood Cemetery, people used to really love visiting graves.) And then get back on the subway and whisk yourself home to Brooklyn. Bring something good to read. It’s a long ride.
The Cloisters; Fort Tryon Park, Inwood
Red Rooster Harlem; 310 Lenox Avenue, Harlem
Cathedral of St. John the Divine; Amsterdam Avenue between W. 112th and 114th Streets, Morningside Heights
Grant’s Tomb; Riverside Drive and W. 122th Street, Morningside Heights