They say New York is a city for walking, so I decided to find out for myself

Now that the city is slowly emerging from lockdown, Holly Baxter has braved scorching heat and dodgy bridges for a nice long stroll

The walk was a good way to burn off an overpriced lunch (AFP/Getty)

Back in February, one of my good friends from the UK moved to New York City. I was excited – being an expat who moved to NYC in my thirties, I had to leave most of my friendship group behind in London and I knew making friends wouldn’t be as easy as it might be as a student – and I envisaged lengthy Saturday brunches on the Upper West Side, Sundays in Central Park and weekday nights getting beers in my favourite bars in Brooklyn. We’d take the boat to Governors Island for the day, we’d sunbathe during beach trips to the Rockaways and we’d shelter from early spring snow in speakeasies.

Or so we thought.

It will come as no surprise to hear that we have yet to do any of these things, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown. My friend spent the first few weeks of her New York experience unable to leave her apartment, in the epicentre of a global emergency while also trying to unpack furniture that slowly made its way across the Atlantic. We met for a walk and a coffee in March, just before the stay-at-home order, and we hadn’t seen each other since – until a couple of days ago, when I decided that enough was enough. Having not visited Manhattan in months, I decided that now New York has entered Phase Three (allowing outdoor drinks and dining), I would leave Brooklyn and give a new British transplant a bit of a taste of the East Coast life she was missing.