Getting in a little culture before leaving

Tuesday morning we packed up, checked out, and headed to Museum Mile.

"Our" subway stop

Over the course of the day, between the two museums we visited, I saw works by almost every well-known artist from the couple of centuries. Miro, Rodin, Chagall, Klimt, Kadinsky, Picasso, Degas, Georgia O’Keefe, Cezanne, Matisse, Tanguy, Manet, Monet, Van Gogh, Seurat… I could go on… Seeing all these famous pieces up close, seeing the cracking paint and brush strokes, was absolutely amazing. Next time I have to make it to MoMA and all those other museums we missed.

Hendrik in front of the Guggenheim.

We got to the Guggenheim for opening. It is such a cool building! Love Frank Lloyd Wright! Unfortunately, it was one of the loudest museums I have ever visited. It was so bad I put on my iPod to drown out the crowd. Ignoring the noise, it was a great experience overall. There was a really interesting photo exhibition and the permanent collection is also spectacular. It’s a relatively small museum and it took us about 2 hours to get through, although if we had more time I could definitely have been there longer.

We grabbed lunch from some food carts. I decided to try a New York pretzel. Bad idea. Probably one of the worst things I have ever eaten. It was dry and salty. So, so salty. Unfortunately, it was also the only vegetarian option.

My pretzel after I had already shaken off some of the salt. You can still see it.

Jazz band in Central Park behind the Met.

After eating, we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Wow. It’s huge. Absolutely massive. A gallery I wanted to see was closed, but there was still so much to see, even skipping almost all of the ancient and medieval galleries. The gallery that was closed had some Dadaist works and other pieces I wanted to see. Next time…

Interesting map of modern Europe in the Met. Only missing a few countries...

One exhibit that stood out for me at the Met was Leon Levinstein’s Hipsters, Hustlers, and Handball Players. It was a collection of photographs of New Yorkers from 1950 to 1980. But not clean, upper-crust New Yorkers. The pictures captured normal (somewhat quirky) people doing everyday things.

In the Van Gogh gallery. There were so many people every where! At least the Met was quiet(ish).

There was a bamboo installation on the roof of the Met. They're working on building a huge wave. You could go up into the structure, but you had to book ahead of time.

Bamboo on the roof.

The roof had a great view of Central Park and the city, too.

One disappointing thing at the Met was getting herded out 15 minutes before closing time. I was worried about finding Hendrik because I wasn't sure if we could get to our meeting place. Luckily we did and I didn't lose my cousin right before leaving!

The steps of the Met at closing time.

The ride back was uneventful. I wasn't sure if the border guard would believe I was only bringing back $2 worth of goods, but it went smoothly. (I only bought 2 postcards in New York.) I guess I'll just have to go back!

Public Spaces – From relaxing to hectic

After parting with Peter in the Meatpacking District, Hendrik and I walked along the Highline park for a little bit. It’s an old railway track that has been turned into a really interesting raised park/walkway. I had read about it a while ago as a potential model for what could be done with the Gardiner in Toronto. It was very cool!

Highline Park

 From there we headed to Central Park. Hendrik and I both like wandering around and exploring, so that’s what we did. Lots of neat things to see, so I’m just going to post some pictures.

Central Park

Alice in Wonderland statue.

On a rocky hill with a nice view of the city.

Massive globe in Columbus Circle.

 From Central Park, we headed to Times Square, passing through Columbus Circle first. Here are the requisite nighttime Times Square shots.

Times Square tourist shots!

Monday was definitely a long day. But there is just so much to see in New York!

Hope you brought your walking shoes

Early morning above NYC.

Me partially blocking the view from the Empire State Building.

We woke up early on Monday morning to get to the Empire State Building before the notorious line ups. We were lucky… It took about 10 minutes to get from the entrance to the top without any line. I can’t imagine how long it would take in the middle of the day. We had a good overview of the city from the top and it wasn’t too crowded. A NYPD helicopter did a low sweep of the viewing deck which was pretty neat. I also noticed there were far fewer cars on the street than I would have thought, despite being there during morning rush hour. Lots of taxis and buses though.

Excitement at the Empire State Building.

After that, we had breakfast at a mediocre diner before meeting up with Christina’s friend Peter. Peter is extremely knowledgeable about New York and might just be the leading expert on the history of the New York subway system. Needless to say, he gave us a very informative tour.

We started off at the World Trade Center site. He took us through St. Paul’s Chapel across the street from the site. It is the oldest building in continuous use in New York and a place that people took refuge in in the aftermath of 9/11. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much, but being there and seeing all the cards and police badges and other memorabilia was very moving. You can see the impact of 9/11 all over the city. One prime example is the New York Stock Exchange, where we went next. You can’t get a car near the building and you need to pass through a metal detector before entering the building. Interestingly, there is a building across the street from the NYSE that has pockmarks in the walls from an attempted drive-up bombing a long time ago (I believe Peter said it was a carriage, not even a car).

St. Paul's Chapel, across the street from the World Trade Center site.

 From Wall St., we went to the South St. Seaport, which is unfortunately like so many other historical tourist districts. It reminded me of Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. But there’s a deck with a nice view and it was a good place for a short break.

Our next stop was the Lower East Side, where we’d spent a bit of time the night before. We walked through SoHo and the NYU campus. I’ve looked at grad programs at NYU a bit, but housing is obscenely expensive. Peter told us a bit about the history of the tenement housing that is common in the area. It’s interesting how areas that used to be crowded, low-income, working immigrant neighbourhoods are now super expensive and trendy. Also, full of high-end stores that try to look exclusive, but that we have in Toronto. Okay, maybe I’m just saying that because I did no shopping whatsoever in New York and I’m trying to console myself.

Entertainer in Washington Square.

 We stopped by Washington Square Park near NYU, a great place for people watching. The square was full of all kinds of people doing all kinds of things. It’s always nice to see well-used, well-loved public spaces. We continued on through to Greenwich Village, where we stopped at Magnolia Bakery for delicious cupcakes. And then on to the historical White Horse Tavern, once frequented by people like Dylan Thomas, Bob Dylan, Jane Jacobs and Jack Kerouac.

Washington Square Park.

 We then walked to the Meatpacking District where we ended our lovely tour.

Note: These posts are from August, but I gave up posting for a bit because I was playing around with Wordpress. I decided to stay on Blogger for now because importing to Wordpress changes a lot of my formatting.