Exploring Brooklyn Bridge Park

When my mom was in town two weeks ago we spent our Sunday afternoon exploring Brooklyn Bridge Park.  It is an excursion that one of my friends would consider a $2.50 trip, a journey to somewhere in New York City that you can get to on the subway and where admission is free.  (Granted, the subway fare went up to $2.75 a few months ago but we will just ignore that for now).  

Somehow, even after living in New York City for three years, I had never walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and figured my mom’s visit would be the perfect time to rectify that.  We took the subway down to City Hall and embarked on our journey from Manhattan to Brooklyn stopping along the way for photos and to enjoy a delicious fresh mango from a street vendor. 

When we crossed the bridge we doubled back and walked down went to the base of the column alongside the river, entering Brooklyn Bridge Park.  As it had been hours since brunch our first mission was to locate Smorgashburg. Unlike the one in Williamsburg the Brooklyn Bridge Smorgashburg is only open on Sundays. When we arrived I was surprised that it was not in a park, like the one on Saturdays, but instead in a desolate parking lot with tons of pot holes. I also think it had more lines than the one in Williamsburg, however, it could have been the fact that we were there late in the afternoon on a beautiful Sunday in June.

There was an average of ten people in line for every single vendor and we joined the queue, because that is what you do.  We picked out a short rib, a shrimp, and a spicy tuna taco from Takumi Taco to split them between the two of us – it was the perfect snack! I will have to go back some other weekend and wait in line for the Ramen burger I’ve heard is the best thing there.

These girls.  #icanteven

I was so enthralled with one art installation the way to Smorgashburg that my mom and I slowed our pace  to gaze and it and after our snack, we circled back to examine it.  The exhibit Please Touch the Art just opened in May and I am sad to report that there were far to many people around this spiral to get a clear shot of just how unique this one piece is.   Created by Berlin based Danish artist Jeppe Hein the three part exhibitionincludes neon benches, a splash pad like water installation called the Appearing Rooms, and this Mirror Labrynth.  You can learn more about it here. sss

Along with the mirror labrinth consisting of a spiral of mirrors in varying heights, we saw children playing in the splash pad, and a handful of Hein’s 15 neon benches.  My favorite was this one, Modified Social Bench #05, as the view could not be beat. And even though I am not a huge fan of modern art I do love the name of the exhibit,  Please Touch the Art, and how unique the pieces are! 

After wandering through Hein’s art we headed to the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge to find Fruin’s glass house which I had been dying to see. This four sided garden house called Kolonihavehus was designed by Tom Fruin and consists of roughly 1,000 locally-sourced scraps of salvaged Plexiglas.  It has been in the Brooklyn Bridge Park, at the end of the Empire Fulton Ferry boardwalk, since 2010 but this was my first time seeing it in person.  Clearly I was not the only one keen to take photos with the beautiful structure! 

Have any of you been to the Brooklyn Bridge Park?