Hidden Gems in Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of the five boroughs of NYC, with estimated 2.7 mio. residents. It was named after the Dutch village of Breuckelen and borders Queens, which is also located on Long Island. The first settlement in the area by Dutch farmers in 1636 was soon followed by other settlements. In 1816 the most populous section of Brooklyn was incorporated as a village and in 1834 as a city. Brooklyn became a borough of New York City in 1898. Today, Brooklyn, if independent, would be the fourth largest city in the United States after NYC, Los Angeles and Chicago. '

Think about the size and how spread out Brooklyn is! It's certainly a city on its own and has not a whole lot in common with Manhattan. Feels like being in a different place, with so many diverse neighborhoods. Tuesday morning we took the subway (F Line) to get to our friend Dom's apartment in Gravesend (pic below), to the far south of Brooklyn. Together with him (he's a tourguide by profession, check out www.madeinbrooklyntours.com!) and in his car (traffic and drivers are crazy in NY!), we explored parts of the borough we've never been before and probably wouldn't have dared to visit on our own.

First stop: Rockaway Beach (pics above), a neighborhood on the Rockaway Peninsula. It is the largest urban beach in the U.S. stretching for miles along the Atlantic Ocean. The beach was once known as the "Irish Riviera" because of the large Irish American population in the area. It was devastated by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and there are still some houses boarded up as well as new (ugly) buildings coming up. For the rest: very peaceful, very beautiful!

Jamaica Bay contains numerous marshy islands and is a wetland estuary surrounded by the Rockaway Peninsula to the south, Brooklyn to the west, and Queens to the east. Comprising an area almost equal to the size of Manhattan, the bay consists of numerous islands, meadowlands and a labyrinth of waterways, along which people are living in houses on stilts (e.g. in Broad Channel):

The region is famous for its many species of birds, butterflies and fish and as a favorite stop for migratory waterfowl, especially, in the Gateway National Recreation Area. We watched a hawk and different ducks. In the background we watched planes starting and landing: JFK Airport is closeby and Manhattan's skyline is to be seen from far.

On we drove, east, to the Brooklyn-Queens border. Highland Park contains the Richwood Reservoir (pic) - today a large nature park/forest. The Reservoir operated as a water supply for Brooklyn from 1858 to 1959 and there are still the historic pumping stations . In 1990, the site was decommissioned and in 2004, Mayor Bloomberg announced to develop the site into a public park.

The nearby Cypress Hills neighborhood is part of East New York, located in the eastern section of Brooklyn, bordering Queens. It's mainly populated by Latino-Americans and African Americans - Puerto Rican, Dominican, West Indian, but, also South Asian populations. Our friend recommended not to carry the camera openly when we walked the main axle, Fulton Street, underneith the highline, but I didn't feel unsafe at all. English isn't widely spoken in this neck of the woods, and when we went in an Ecuatorianian restaurant ("Antojitos Ecuatorianos") to have lunch, we pointed out on the illustrated menu what we wanted ,,, and lucked out. The meal was good and plenty, spicy brown rice with different meats and seafood. Afterwards we went to a little bakery and had coffee and dessert and then Dom brought us to a subway station and we bid him farewell.It's been wonderful last day in NY!