Saturday, October 18, 2025

New York City

Friday, October 17th, New York City to Bronx and return -- The weather continues pleasant with clear skies and cool temperatures.  Our day was spent traveling to the Bronx, visiting the Bronx Zoo (in a word, "amazing"), visiting "Little Italy" and Arthur Avenue with dinner at Enzo's, before heading home via a short bus ride and longer subway ride.

The Chrysler Building, some think this is more representative of NYC than the Empire State Building.

We had breakfast in our apartment before walking to a subway entrance at Lexington and 59th.  After entering the first entrance we found ourselves on the wrong side of the tracks -- downtown line only.  To go uptown, we had to exit the station, walk across the street and find another entrance.  Back down underground (way down, with no escalator) we loaded our new OMNY cards, entered the station, and boarded the subway for the ride north to the Bronx.  After about 20 stops, we got off at East 180th Street.  We walked over the Asia Gate of the Bronx Zoo.  The rest of this blog is mostly photos of the variety of animals we saw in the zoo.  Note, the zoo is 265 acres, has 11,000 animals spread over 640 species, and is focussed on species conservation.  It uses the monicker WCS, which means Wildlife Conservation Society.  This grew out of the American Bison Society, which was created to save bison and started by the first zoo director, Theodore Roosevelt and others in the early 1900's.

To say that this is an impressive zoo is an understatement.  I wrote down over 40 exotic species that we saw (that are noteworthy), among the many birds and small animals in several other buildings we did not have time to visit. Many of the animals were firsts for us - we had never seen them before anyplace.  We were pretty well burned out after 4 hours, so skipped a number of the exhibits - there is always next time. . .

The Bronx River, which runs through the Zoo.

The Asia Gate, southeast corner of the zoo.

The Zoo layout - north is to the right.

Ibis.

The monorail, a ride around Asian animal exhibits/paddocks.  The ride is 1.6 miles in length, took about 30 minutes, and the conductor narrated what we were seeing.  The animals in these paddocks could be viewed only from the monorail.

Crossing the river.

Przealski's Horse, an early evolution of horses only found in Siberia.  The species has been brought back from extinction by organizations like the Bronx Zoo.

Gaur or Indian bison.  It is the largest living wild bovine, weighing over a ton.

One-horned Asian Rhino.

Some of the many varieties of Asian deer.

Ditto.

Asian Mountain Goat.

Red Panda.

Asian Otters.

Exotic turtle, wearing a leaf.

Tree Kangaroo scratching its chin.

Archerfish.


Puffer fish (tiny but toxic).

Monkeys in the mist.

Tapir.

Tree frog species.

Tree Monitor.

Gharial, a type of alligator.

Grevy's zebra.

Mongose or shrew.

Hornbill.

African Painted Dog.

Sifaka.

Silver-backed Gorilla (male).  

Ditto.  He chest-bumped the glass just before sitting down here.

Gorilla (female).

Flamingoes.

Komodo Dragon.

Leaf-Tailed Gecko.

The zoo is celebrating its 125 year anniversary.

The Rockefeller Fountain.

Lots of lemurs in the Madagascar House.

Ring-Tailed Lemur.

Ring-Tail Mongoose.

We left the zoo at near closing time and walked about 5 blocks west to Arthur Avenue, the Belmont district and location for Little Italy.  (Thanks to Ken Kane for this tip.)  We walked up one side of the street and down the other, enjoying the shops and cafes.  We had skipped lunch so opted  for an early dinner.



Lasagna and Chicken Rustico, preceded by a Cesar's salad and accompanied by Gavi de Gavi wine.  Everything was excellent.

The lasagna was 4 inches square and just about that high.

The waiter at the restaurant was friendly and advised us on how best to get back to Midtown Manhattan.  It involved a bus ride on Fordham Avenue (which runs next to Fordham University) and then the subway ride to the same stop we boarded in the morning.  What an interesting day.....









3 comments:

  1. Jealous, we love Arthur Ave., haven't made it there on the last few trips, maybe next time!

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  2. Sounds and looks like you had a great time. I enjoyed the zoo and a dinner in Little Italy for my birthday a few years ago. ET

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  3. Enjoyed every minute of this post. Love New York!

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