A ramble is defined as "walking for recreational activity and sport" or "a leisurely excursion for pleasure." The walkers choose the distance and the pace; there may or may not be a destination. Usually, rambling is done in the countryside.
When Randye and I said we wanted to do a long walk on Saturday, I suggested that we make it an "urban ramble." But what was that? We would have to create it. What luck!
It was raining lightly Saturday morning as we started out from 7th Street, made our way to Park Avenue and began walking down town. The rain didn't matter. Rambling is about looking around. Never mind the elements. We looked. We talked. Conversation flowed and the blocks melted away.
At the Kitano Hotel, we stopped to pick up the schedule for live jazz (every Wednesday through Saturday). Later, we stopped for lunch at Smorgas Chef at Scandinavia House. There our "looking around" caused us to inquire about the six Scandinavian flags atop the food counter.
"What is the sixth country?" we asked. "We can only think of five."
Though they tried, the wait staff couldn't come up with the answer. "You'll have to Google it," someone suggested.
Later, one waiter returned to say that the sixth flag was a flag for all of Scandinavia. By that time, however, we had noticed there were two flags of Norway. (I gave him credit for creativity, nonetheless!)
We had hoped to examine the crafts, but time was passing and we were committed to ending our walk with the Ikebana International Flower Exhibition. The show would be closing in less than an hour. So, rested and reinvigorated, we picked up the pace and continued on to the Tenri Gallery on West 13th Street.
There we ended our ramble in conversation with the flowers and with their arrangers. It was a perfect ending to a perfect day.
Postscript: We took the subway home. This, too, may be said to define an urban ramble!
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