It's a mild sunny day, perfect for exploring a new neighbourhood. Brooklyn is huge so I'm just going to pick an area! The lonely planet has mapped out a walking route that covers the new Brooklyn bridge park and then some of the architecture highlights so that seems a good place to begin.

I start with brunch at Vinegar hill cafe - brunch is hugely popular on the weekends and is served as an all day breakfast menu. Vinegar hill is a dodgy poor part of Brooklyn but houses an incredibly popular cafe that has hour long waiting lists. The advantage/disadvantage of being a solo traveller is that you are seated at the bar - so you skip queues. This cafe is eclectically decorated, with staff in white aprons, full beards and old styled haircuts modelled on bushrangers, with the modern twist of tattooed arms. The menu is traditional with an edge, and everyone is drinking cocktails with their food. I order spicy tacos baked in their roaring wood fired oven and they were amazing.

The walk through DUMBO begins at the new Brooklyn bridge park, another reclaimed foreshore given back to the people as usable park and recreation space. The views over to manhattan are spectacular, and there is the constant roar of trains and cars rattling over the two bridges. The highlight is the restored carousel housed in an ultramodern Perspex cube named janes carousel after the artist who did the painting restoration work on the horses. It captures the magic of old, and it is good to see something low tech from another time being preserved. Outside in the warehouse ruins is a pop up street food market, and there are hordes of people grabbing snacks and lounging in the park lands.

I continue along the foreshore but there is still much of the park left to be constructed so I move up into Brooklyn heights where suddenly the houses change to expensive beautiful brownstones. Another park - the Brooklyn promenade follows the rows of houses overlooking manhattan.
The wind and chill factor has picked up, so I finish the walk past historical homes then jump back on the subway to return to scarsdale.