Day 225 - Peace be upon you sister

New York City

We thought it was time we visited Harlem, so we caught the subway and followed a self guided walking trail through some surprisingly empty streets. We walked past an incredible number of churches, and as it was Sunday morning some services were still going and we could hear sound of gospel singing coming from inside.

When we reached the Abyssinian Baptist Church, which is one of the larger and more famous churches, K walked up towards the door to listen more closely. She was stopped by a sour faced woman who told her not to come any closer, but it wasn't said in a nice way, the woman was quite nasty in her tone and manner. A little later we passed another, smaller church - pretty much the same thing happened. We were shocked at how unwelcome we were made to feel ... aren't churches supposed to be places where that kind of behaviour should never happen? We get that they may not want tourists interrupting their church services on a Sunday, but they sure could be a lot nicer about it.

It soon became pretty clear why the streets were so empty, everyone was in church. Before too long the streets started filling with people dressed in their Sunday best, they were mainly dressed in all black or black and white, some of the men with white ties and the ladies with either black or white hats.

We walked from Harlem back to our apartment, and finished the afternoon with a visit to the diner featured in Seinfeld which is just a few blocks from our apartment, then a walk along Riverside Drive and Riverside Park, which both run along the edge of the Hudson River.