After the library it was off to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was absolutely fabulous - the collection is very well presented and the building is huge. You really need a couple of days to do the collection justice. Given our limited time we decided to focus on the American art collection, although we did pass by some of the other collections on our travels. The photos below give a feel for what we saw.
After the museum we strolled back to the hotel through Centralish Park. It was very popular, no doubt because of the weather, sunny but not too hot. We had one of those "you just had to be there" moments. Rhonda noticed a bird of prey (small eagle or large hawk, we're not sure) in a grassed area and we went over for a look. The bird of prey had killed a smaller bird and was trying to eat it. Other small birds were swooping down on it, so eventually it flew off, taking its meal with it.
I told Rhonda that I'd show her a good time in New York, and sure enough there were people having a good time everywhere in the park.
A final reflection on the day. Up to now I've spent a fair bit of time criticising the lack of thinking that goes into signs here. To be fair, the Americans do some things really well. One of the things they do well is traffic reports on the morning news. Instead of simply telling viewers that certain roads are busy, they show a graphic which is a road map, with the main roads colour coded according to how fast or slow the traffic flow on them is. It makes it much easier to take in the information. A screen shot is below.
That's all for today, we'll be back tomorrow after visiting the Tenement Museum and walking through Greenwich Village and Brooklyn. By for now.
