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!