Our last day; flight home leaving at 19.40.
Determined not to waste the day in effect waiting around for the taxi to JFK, after an early breakfast we set off for a lengthy 4 hour stint of culture-vulturing.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art:
The 'Met' was created in 1870 by the New York State Legislature as a kind of civic education project, and decamped to its present site in Central Park in 1880 though over time various additions have completely surrounded the original structure.
It's one of the greatest collections of art treasures in the world, owning over two million works of art spanning 5000 years of world culture - almost every civilisation on earth is represented.
We knew this couldn't be a mistake like the Guggenheim, and we were right. You could spend an entire week here and still not have seen everything or been sated by what you had seen. It's mind-blowing to see so many beautiful things in one place; they just keep coming!
There was no sense in bringing a camera as the whole point was to luxuriate in the brilliance here. But the link below will give you a glimpse of what's on offer.
http://www.metmuseum.org/
Like the majority of visitors, we headed first up the Grand Staircase for the European Paintings 1250-1800 (galleries 600-644), but between us we also covered
- Modern and Contemporary Art (900-926 and 917-925),
- Asian Art (200-253),
- Medieval Art (300-307),
- the Robert Lehman Collection (950-965) and
- 19th and early 20th century European Paintings and Sculpture (800-830).
And what a fabulous place to have lunch .... not just for the food (which is delicious and not expensive) but also for people-watching.
Today was a truly special way to round off a happy, memorable and thoroughly enjoyable week!
Big Apple Advice:
In no particular order ....
If you're planning a trip
- Do it!! You won't regret visiting New York.
- invest in a weekly subway card (we certainly got more than our money's worth).
- check out in advance what subway station(s) your hotel is near. We didn't, but Wall St. turned out to be a great station to be using as all the main lines, including express lines, went through it so we never had to change.
- be ready to walk MILES.
- New Yorkers are friendly and helpful. They'll stop and help if you're looking lost. Try getting that in London!
- Holiday Inn Express on Water St. was clean, comfortable, very convenient for everything AND has a complimentary breakfast (hot and cold) too. The lady who runs the breakfast room couldn't have been nicer and takes such obvious pride in her work.
And ...Thanks for the memories:
- Pastrami on rye.
- The coffee shop that gave Steve 2 chocolate cakes as the one he had originally ordered wasn't available.
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