Day 7 - Culture eagles

Another day, another museum.  Today we visited the New York Public Library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  The Americans do 'grand' buildings really well.  We first called in at the library and it was a beautiful building.  Unfortunately, the main reading room was closed for renovations, but the areas we saw were beautiful, as we hope you can see from the photos below.

 

 

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.

Day 6 - Culture vultures

A day of culture and we set off for the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).  It's located in 53rd Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues, and, but for the signs on the outside of the building, you'd never notice it. One of the least impressive buildings from the outside housing one of the most impressive and inspirational collections on the inside. 

MoMA starting to get busy

The Starry Night - Van Gogh (Vinny to those who know him well)



A Picasso - I think he needed glasses

Salvadore Dali - The Persistence of Memory (ironically I forgot it almost instantly)

 The art at the MoMA was wonderful, and they also featured works of design and had a great bookstore.  There was something about the MoMA that resonated with me and Rhonda.  The museum also had a courtyard sculpture garden where we had a bite to eat for lunch.  A few of the sculptures are shown below.

A Henry Moore - those of you who know your sculpture will be impressed

The same from the front

 

Not a Henry Moore - but I liked it

This just looked cool

By the time we left the MoMA a storm had arrived and we experienced a new aspect of life in New York - getting wet.  We've been very lucky with the weather and the few episodes of bad weather haven't stopped us doing anything.

In the evening we made our way to the Snapple Theater Center to see an off-Broadway play - Perfect Murder.  Jan (who else) had organised tickets for us and we met her at the theatre to pick them up.  The theatre was small and intimate and our seats were in the second row.

 

The play has been running for 25 years and was very good.  We had three ladies sitting to our right and they made the night even more interesting, with their comments about a painting on the wall of the set that was featured in the play.  All in all a great experience.  The walk back to The Hotel was eerie, with the tops of the skyscrapers disappearing into the clouds.  The pictures below give an idea of what it looked like.

 

I'll finish off with another sign showing why thinking is important.  How much do you think it costs to park for the day?

 

The answer is about $30.

We'll be back tomorrow with more culture - our visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Day 5 - Peace in our time

Feeling guilty about our hedonistic lifestyle, we decided to do something good for the world.  Being in New York, the site of the United Nations headquarters, world peace seemed like a worthwhile goal.  To help achieve this we called once more on Jan Muir, whose advice and support have been fantastic, and she organised for us to visit the UN. 

While at brunch on Saturday, Jan invited Amanda (an Aussie working as a waitress at the restaurant, when not making documentary films or working as a photographer) and Amanda's father Rob (visiting from Australia) to join us on the tour.  Jan met us outside the UN and escorted us in.

Richard, Rhonda, Jan, Amanda and Rob



After signing in and receiving our visitors passes Jan took us to the gardens to look at some of the statues and sculptures donated by member nations of the UN.  These were very interesting and quite moving.

A section of the Berlin Wall

Part of a sculpture commemorating refugees

Then it was on to the serious stuff.  Jan showed us the Economic and Social Council Chamber, the Trusteeship Council Chamber, and the Security Council Chamber.

Economic and Social Council Chamber

 

Trusteeship Council Chamber

Security Council Chamber

We were mildly surprised, given the troubles in the world, that the Security Council wasn't dealing with anything while we were there, so we headed off to the (temporary) General Assembly (the proper one is being renovated at the moment) where I called for more effort for world peace.   



Richard speaking to the General Assembly at the UN

The entire audience (of 5) agreed with my resolution (Jan will be impressed that I remembered the term 'resolution') and Rob and Amanda represented Australia with dignity and a steely resolve. 

 



Rob and Amanda voting support for Richard



After our tour Jan took us to the staff canteen for lunch and then we visited the visitor centre and souvenir shop.  We were all very impressed by the UN precinct and have a much better understanding of how things work.  Jan was a fabulous host and very generous with her time (it was a normal workday for her).

We said a fond farewell to Amanda and Rob and set off for the hotel.  On our way we stopped at the north-western corner of the UN precinct to look (through the fence) at one final sculpture.  It is a very large (pretty much full size) elephant, shown below.

The elephant is surrounded by a 'modesty hedge' because, apparently, it is a bull elephant with a very large appendage (we kid you not).  During our stroll back to the hotel I noticed the following sign in the window of a tailor shop.

It would seem that they have branched out into the field of plastic surgery.  After a short rest at The Hotel (close to Times Square) we set off to Pier 62 to meet up with Jan for a sunset champagne cruise around the bottom half of Manhattan Island.  It was fantastic.  The crew were welcoming, the boat comfortable and the views of Manhattan, and the Statue of Liberty, were amazing.  Seeing the lights start to come on as the sun set was beautiful.  Some happy snaps are below.

Our boat - thankfully not the "Minnow"

 

 

 

All in all another great day.  Tomorrow we're becoming more cultural, visiting the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA - not to be confused with the Metropolitan Museum of Art [MMOA], we'll be there the day after tomorrow) and attending an Off-Broadway play.

Day 4 - Quiet contemplation

Sunday was a day for quiet contemplation, so we headed south on Manhattan Island to visit the 9/11 Memorial.  Our friend Jan had lent us a set of cards with self-directed walking tours on them, so we picked one for the 9/11 Memorial and one for the Wall Street precinct.  The walks are quite easy and take you to points of interest, with some notes given to explain their significance.  After a subway ride we reached a point near the memorial.  While walking there we saw a new item of Police equipment, shown below.  It's a van with a box that can be raised hydraulically to give the occupant a better view of the surrounding area - very cool.

The 9/11 Memorial is very moving.  Two huge holes in the ground where the towers stood, each surrounded by a wall engraved with the names of all the victims who died there, including the emergency service personnel.  Water cascades down the walls, and the sound is quite soothing.  The photo below, showing Rhonda taking a picture of one of the two holes, gives some indication of the scale of the site.

 

I noticed a few white roses, inserted into names on the memorial, which are engraved quite deeply, and Rhonda saw the sign below, which was incredibly poignant.  We were both very moved by the experience.

 

We walked from the memorial to Wall Street, hoping for some fiscal inspiration.  Both of us found Wall Street to be quite underwhelming - it's not a very big area.  The New York Stock Exchange is near the middle of the area, and it's also quite small.

 

From Wall Street we walked to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, another of Jan's recommendations, for a free harbour cruise.  The ferries run every 30 minutes and we arrived at the terminal with 15 minutes to wait - but it seemed to take forever.  There were quite a lot of people waiting and we hoped that the ferry wouldn't be too crowded.  We needn't have worried because the ferries are big, each can take over 1400 passengers.

 

The route of the Staten Island Ferries takes them past the Statue of Liberty and you get a great view back towards the southern tip of Manhattan Island.  Unfortunately the day was a bit misty, so the view wasn't the clearest, but it was still a great experience, and fabulous value for money.  A couple of happy snaps are below.

 

 

Jan had told us that there wasn't much to see on Staten Island, at least within walking distance of the ferry terminal, so we were happy to go straight back to Manhattan.  Because our ferry was going out of service after arriving at the terminal, we had to disembark, find the next ferry and get on board before it left.  We were a bit concerned that we'd miss the ferry and have to wait a whole 30 minutes for the next one.  Thankfully about 90% of the other passengers had the same idea as us, but, unlike us they knew where to go, so we just got carried along by the crowd.

 

Americans certainly like anything "labour saving".  In a pharmacy (the grocery shops on Manhattan seem to be pharmacies as well) I saw the following item in the Men's Grooming section.

 

I like the fact that the label states: "Helps stop razor bumps".  Of course it does, because the instructions on the back of the can tell you not to use a razor.  By the same logic, growing a beard also stops razor bumps.

 

That's all for today, tomorrow we're visiting the United Nations (with Jan as our tour guide)and going for a dusk cruise around Manhattan.  Hope this finds you all happy and healthy.