If you should ever find yourself visiting Brooklyn, do yourselves a favor and walk — down boutique and café-lined avenues, tree-shaded streets and, by all means, across one of New York City’s most beloved landmarks, the Brooklyn Bridge. The bridge, which links the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn for walkers, bikers and drivers, was, at its opening in 1883, the world’s longest suspension bridge. Its location provides visitors with spectacular views of the NY skyline.

Looking from the bridge toward downtown Manhattan. The buildings under construction (just behind the cables) are part of the World Trade Center site. The one on the right (with two cranes on top in a V-shape) is the Freedom Tower.
While there are many people who jog and bike across the bridge, I prefer a slow stroll along the pedestrian promenade.

Visitors insist on leaving their mark. Rather than vandalizing the bridge, they now lock their messages to the bridge.
Arriving on the Brooklyn side of the bridge, you will be in Brooklyn Heights. Here is a chance to wander off the main thoroughfare and get lost among the smaller streets and their dazzling show of window boxes.
When it comes to planting in pots or window boxes, I tend to keep the same plant in its own pot – and then group the various pots. I never mix and match in the same pot – more out of a lack of confidence and fear that I will end up with a mismatched jungle. Yes, window box planting is a skill of which I am truly in awe, and I am completely surprised by the variety that these Brooklynites have on display.
Clearly, all of this walking burns a lot of calories — but this is Brooklyn, one of the best boroughs in which to replenish those calories. Although I didn’t take photos of our food, here is what and where Joe and I ate.
Lunch: Totonno’s in Coney Island for some thin-crusted pizza. It’s a small place and certainly not fancy — but it is one of the pizza parlors that is always touted as the best among pizza afficionados. You cannot order by the slice, so Joe and I ate a small pie — that’s four slices each and that kept us quite full.
Dinner: Still full from lunch, we opted for a small bite at Dellarocco’s in Brooklyn Heights. An order of meatballs was perfect — but the tables around us were overflowing with pizzas and calzones. Delicious!
Dessert: Yes, there is always room for dessert — so we returned to Joe’s childhood neighborhood for some spumoni, which is an Italian ice cream, at L&B Spumoni Gardens. YUM!
Yes, this was definitely a day worthy of an all-capital YUM.