A fabulous weekend in New York! We flew down Friday night, on the same flight as Molly who was going down to visit her sister. With the new Air Train connection to the NJ Transit commuter rail service, Newark is really quite convenient from New York. From Penn Station we had a hair-raising taxi ride to Brooklyn, where Paul and Kelly had a wonderful steak dinner waiting to welcome us.

After a slightly uncomfortable night on an underinflated air mattress, we had a feast of a breakfast and set off into Manhatten. The weather was gloomy and cool, so we steered for the Frick Collection, a fine little museum housed in the massive parkside mansion of a wealthy industrialist. We spent a few hours seeing it properly, by which time the weather had cleared up outside and we had a lovely stroll downtown to Broadway. En route we picked up pretzles from a streetside vendor, and thus fully transformed into New Yorkers we wandered down past the Park Zoo. Once we hit 58th Street we realized we were going to be short on time, so we picked up the pace and made it down to the theatre only 5 minutes late (and 5 minutes before Kelly showed up at a dead run!) We enjoyed "Gypsy", which had just started its Broadway run two weeks ago, starring Bernadette Peters. It was an excellent production, and though we had rafters tickets (at $65 US each), we could see and hear everything clearly. Finally, in the evening we went out to Court Street with Paul, Kelly and Jamie and had a nice dinner at an Indian restaurant.

On Sunday we packed up and thanked Paul and Kelly for their wonderful hospitality. We once again ventured through the subway system to midtown, where we found our very cool hotel, the Shoreham, on 55th Street. It was too early to check in, but we left our bags and set off north to the Park. This time we weren't on a schedule, so we ambled at leisure up through the paths, past countless New Yorker having picnics and catching the rays. We passed a large pond where families were sailing model sailboats, and a small lake where couples had rowboats out for a gentle spin. Finally we reached our destination, the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Met is a huge facility, and takes a very traditional approach to displaying its treasures: each age or category of art has its place, and the visitor simply decides what category they're interested in, and goes to see it. Until last year I assumed this was the best (and only) way to see an art museum, but the Thyssen-Bornemisza has spoiled me and now I find traditional art galleries a bit dull. The important works are all there, but there's no context to draw you in, and very little effort made to point out the innovations and creativity expressed by the artists within the timeline of art, in their region and in the rest of the world. So as a result of that, though the Met is a wonderful gallery with a fantastic collection, it didn't blow me away the way it did the first time I visited it.

We did have only a few hours to see the museum, so we picked out our goals and ventured forth. The massive building swallows throngs of people without issue, so for the most part there were no problems getting to see the masterworks. After an initial trip through the Egyptian collection, we went upstairs and toured the musical instruments. From there, we did a quick pass through some of the European art section -- and here was where I missed the context the most -- before taking a detour up to the roof for a cappucino and a fine view of the city. Back downstairs, we completed our visit with a trip through the ground floor section of the modern art collection and a stop in the massive museum shop.

After the Met, we wandered back to the hotel, checked in, and changed. We headed back outside and up to 82nd St. West, where my cousin Olga and her boyfriend Rob have their apartment. They really scored: it's a wonderful location, right by a subway stop and by the park, and a block north of the Museum of Natural History. Aside from Rob and Olga, my uncle and aunt were there, as was my cousin James. We had a great meal of chili, salad and herb bread, with cheesecake squares and fresh strawberries for dessert. It was great to see Helena and Peter again. It was their last day in New York: they flew out to Colorado yesterday.

Monday morning dawned sunny and warm. Anne and I set off with two goals in mind: Starbucks, and a post office. I'd remembered to bring Peter's jacket back to New York to return to him (they'd lent it to me after I forgot my goretex on the train in France last April), but I'd forgotten to take it to dinner. Rather than haul it back home, we resolved to send it along, and after a fairly lengthy hike we found a post office in Grand Central station and duly parcelled the jacked off to Vail. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at St. Patrick's cathedral for a spiritual moment with fantastic stained glass, and at Saks Fifth Avenue, across the street, for Anne to have a spiritual moment with a shoe sale. It was a spectacular day. We checked out, caught a cab back to Penn Station, and were on our way back home.
posted by Tom at 9:52 AM | link |