New York; Sunday, 16 April, 2017

Another early start, breakfast in the diner and then off up to Times Square to pick up the once a day tour of the Bronx.

Thankfully I’d learnt from the previous day and was at the bus stop very early, but there were still about 20 people ahead of me in the queue. In the end the bus left about 10 minutes early as it was completely full (I can only assume there must have been another bus behind us as nobody appeared to be really kicking off in the queue).

Unlike the other tours this one had a live guide who gave quite a bit more information and a bit of a locals view on many of the areas we passed through on the tour – including offering lots of suggestions of places to go both for sites and to eat (probably receiving a healthy commission on each!)

Back at Times Square I had about 90 minutes’ time left on the ticket so I picked up the downtown bus and took it round to the start of the High Line.

The former goods railway has been turned into a spectacular urban park, taking advantage of the trees and flowers that seeded themselves on the line once it closed to trains with added planting to make it more of a city oasis.

The line runs for just under 2 miles down to Penn Street Station and I wandered the whole line taking in the views and art displays along the line. Down at Penn Street I hopped onto a bus to the nearest metro station and caught the metro out to Brooklyn and the Botanical Gardens.

The Botanical Gardens had been recommended by several people, particularly as it was the height of blossom season, and it was clear they were popular as there was a pretty lengthy queue to get tickets, but once inside I wasn’t disappointed.

I had a long wander round the gardens before heading back to the subway. I had intended on heading back into town – but I noticed that the subway station headed out to Brighton Beach and Coney Island so I hopped on an outbound train down to the beach.

I got off at Brighton Beach and wandered down to the board walk before having a walk along the back towards Coney Island, where I took in the views of some of the old fairground rides.

By now the sun was rapidly heading below the horizon so I headed back to Coney Island Subway station and caught the train back into town for some dinner and then back to the hotel.