Park Slope: the brownstone slope and the other great park
Brownstone streets, a Civil War arch, and the park Olmsted and Vaux liked better than Central Park. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Grand Army Plaza & the Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Arch
Start at the great oval, where John Duncan's 1892 triumphal arch crowns the entrance to the park, a bronze chariot on top. On a Saturday the greenmarket fills the plaza; any morning the arch is the door you walk through.

2. The brownstone streets
Before the park, double back a block or two into the slope — Carroll, Montgomery, the avenues of bow-fronted brownstones that give the neighbourhood its name. Then return to the plaza and go in.

3. The Long Meadow
Olmsted's ninety-acre sweep of open grass, the first thing you meet inside the park and the thing he was proudest of. No buildings in the sightline; that was the point. Walk its length south.

4. The Ravine and the Boathouse
The park's wooded heart — Brooklyn's only forest, a watercourse with small falls, and the Beaux-Arts Boathouse sitting on the Lullwater. Quietest in the morning before the joggers thicken.

5. Brooklyn Museum
The Beaux-Arts pile on the park's east side, with the Brooklyn collection and the feminist wing. You don't have to go in to make the walk work, but the steps and the fountain plaza out front are worth the pause.

6. Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Next door, fifty-odd acres of cherry esplanade, a Japanese pond garden and glasshouses. The cherries are an April thing; the rest holds up year-round. The B/Q out is a few steps further on.

Park Slope: the brownstone slope and the other great park