US Trip – 2024 Edition – Page 8

Traveling across the North-East of United States, focusing mainly on New York but also visiting neighboring states all the way down to Washington. D.C. We find some great food, music and sights in a week long trip.

Day 7 – March 8, 2024 – New York City

We’re more than halfway through of our New York trip. NYC is not only Manhattan, we want to explore other boroughs. Friday is sunny so it’s great time to cross the Brooklyn Bridge and finally enter Brooklyn. Opened in 1883, it’s the first fixed bridge that crossed the East River. At the time it was also the longest suspension bridge in the world with its length 486 meters.

The Brooklyn Bridge offers amazing views of both Manhattan and Brooklyn, but also much further so you can see Statue of Liberty while crossing to the other side. Nice views are also from under the bridge – great lookout is from the John Street Park.

Now of course there are more bridges connecting boroughs and one of the famous ones in the Manhattan Bridge. Leading from Manhattan to DUMBO neighborhood it offers one of the most popular views for tourists. We had to make a stop there and also at the Gleason’s Gym.

Good shopping place in Brooklyn is Dumbo Market. We enjoyed great variety of fresh fruits and eye catching shelves. Funnily enough, we weren’t the only ones photographing the store. This particular grocery store opened in 2022.

Next steps led to the Cadman Plaza Park where you can find the Brooklyn War Memorial, dedicated to 11,000 Brooklynites who died in the World War II. There’s also U.S. District Court for Eastern District of New York.

After taking the subway, we got to Bedford-Stuyvesant. This neighborhood has the largest collection of intact Victorian architecture in the United States. On the area of 7 km² you can find almost 9,000 buildings built before 1900.

In Bed-Stuy neighborhood is also place where Spike Lee set his movie Do the Right Thing. Filmed in 1989, the story talks about racial tension on a hot summer’s day. The section of Stuyvesant Avenue where the entire movie was filmed was renamed after the movie in 2015 and it’s the only street in New York City named after a work of fiction.

It’s not that far to Cypress Hills cemetery so we went for a 2 kilometers long walk there. It is the only United States National Cemetery in New York City and has more than 21,100 interments of veterans and civilians. There are 24 Medal of Honor recipients buried in the cemetery, and also veterans from American Revolutionary War, Spanish–American War, Korean War and Vietnam War.

As I said before, New York is known for its pizza. Well, we were on for a treat that day. We found our favorite pizza in Brooklyn after tasting one at L’industrie Pizzeria. First opened in 2017, it quickly became very popular. The New York Times ranks their Burrata Pizza as the 6th most essential dish to eat in New York. And we wholeheartedly agreed. Thin but crispy slices with absolutely delicious Mike’s Hot Honey topping makes it perfect pizza.

One week after our first visit of Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater, there was another jazz performance waiting for us. Friday, 8 pm, Frederick P. Rose Hall and brilliant trumpeter Wynton Marsalis played two sets with the JLCO and also accompanied by saxophonists Joe Lovano and Walter Blanding.