On Sunday afternoon I walked down through Chelsea, criss-crossed the Meatpacking District and spent a couple of hours wandering the beautiful West Village neighbourhood.
The West Village is bordered by the Hudson River on the west, Sixth Avenue on the east, 14th Street to the north, and Houston Street to the south. The neighbourhood has always had a distinctly bohemian, artistic vibe, and luminaries like Dylan Thomas, Jack Kerouac, Jim Morrison, and Bob Dylan were part of the neighbourhood furniture. Against that backdrop, it just feels right that some of the city's best boutiques, vintage bars, top-class restaurants and hole-in-the-wall coffee shops can still be found in the West Village today.
It's very easy to get lost in the maze of crooked, narrow streets that characterise the West Village; but just gawking at all the beautiful architecture here will be worth the disorientation. Everywhere you turn, you're treated to gorgeous brownstone townhouses, up against converted artist lofts, next to preserved historical architecture, alongside charming green spaces with impressive fountains and sculptures.
I just did a whistle-stop tour of the West Village on Sunday, but please take a look at my photos here. You'll see I did my best to track down some of the historical sites along the walk, in between cups of strong, fair-trade coffee of course. I even managed to resist a decadent cupcake at the iconic Magnolia Bakery too, but I did gaze longingly into the windows.
