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One of the significant things that happened during the time I was away cooking was the trip my DH and I took to New York City on our day off, last Wednesday. We had a number of things we wanted to do on that day, but by the time we had traveled into the City by express bus and got our bearings, we realized that we only had time to do and see just one or two things properly. I had managed to get online prior to the trip and had seen that the Metropolitan Museum of Art had a special exhibit on the Treasures of Sacred Maya Kings, and I knew I wanted to see that -- I studied quite a bit about Central America as part of my Spanish major in college, and actually traveled to Mexico and visited some ancient sites, so I was keen to see this. Hubby was content to follow my lead, and so we decided to spend all our money and energy on the Met.
We had had a very nice lunch in the Museum cafeteria, but we were hungry by the time we got out and going again. We decided not to take the subway back down to the bus, because you can't see anything decent from the subway! Tired as our poor feet were, we decided to walk back, via Broadway this time, and since we didn't feel fancy anymore, we ate at reuben sandwiches at a marvelous deli, then headed back to the bus and New Jersey.
We were tired, but in spite of sore feet, we didn't get blisters. It was an excellent day, and I hope we can do it again sometime. There's a lot to be seen in NYC, and one day is not nearly enough -- not even to see one museum!
The bus dropped us at Port Authority, which is not far from Times Square, so we walked from there to Central Park, along 5th Avenue. It was a fun walk, as that is a famous and bustling part of town. We took our time, and enjoyed the sights, and kept our eyes open for some kind of nice restaurant where we might eat later to celebrate our anniversary.
Times Square (where we had some Starbucks coffee to fortify ourselves)
The Trump International Hotel
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is located in Central Park, but not at the southern end, so we had a pleasant long walk through the park on our way to the Museum. It was pretty hot that day, but we did well enough. Central Park is huge, of course, so by the time we got to the Museum I had already had to have a wee snack -- the obligatory street hot dog -- and lots to drink.
We ended up spending about 6 hours in the Museum -- they had to chase us out at closing time! We couldn't take flash pictures, so unfortunately, some of our camera shots turned out quite blurry, but the cell phone pictures turned out amazingly well! Here's one of us just before we went in, looking a bit hot and tired already!
I can't begin to describe everything we saw, but I'll mention some of the things that were particularly memorable, or struck a chord of some kind with us as we were touring the museum -- the pix are from our camera and phone, and supplemented with pictures from the Museum website, as well :
The Mayan exhibit, which included this Stela from Guatemala.
Lots of really nifty paintings, including Van Gogh -- these two of cypress trees were in different places in the Museum, but I have always loved them, and it was fascinating to see them up close for real.
The painting of Washington crossing the Delaware was HUGE! We got up close and noticed a couple of places where the artist repeated images of people from the foreground in the indistinct background -- but it was still very impressive.
The Arms and Armor exhibit is always a favorite -- we saved it for last, and spent a lot of time there. There was a special exhibit of armored horses on this occasion:
The really exciting part of the day was when we discovered the corner where they had the Indian armor and weapons. Squeeeeee!!!! Look what I found -- a musket blunderbuss from the cache of the Tippoo Sultan, complete with inlaid tiger motif and tiger head-shaped doghead for holding the flint, just as described in Sharpe's Tiger!!! :-D
"It must have been one of the Tippoo's own weapons, for its stock was decorated with ivory, its tiger-head lock was chased with gold, and its barrel engraved with Arabic writing... 'Might be pretty, sir,' [Sharpe] said, 'but no amount of fancy work on the outside will make it more accurate...'"
That sure made my day, I can tell you -- since I happen to be reading Sharpe's Tiger these days (yes, my fellow Sharpe readers, I am quite far behind at the moment...) I just wish I had thought to copy down what was written about the weapon on the placard in the display. :-(
Times Square (where we had some Starbucks coffee to fortify ourselves)
The Trump International Hotel
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is located in Central Park, but not at the southern end, so we had a pleasant long walk through the park on our way to the Museum. It was pretty hot that day, but we did well enough. Central Park is huge, of course, so by the time we got to the Museum I had already had to have a wee snack -- the obligatory street hot dog -- and lots to drink.
We ended up spending about 6 hours in the Museum -- they had to chase us out at closing time! We couldn't take flash pictures, so unfortunately, some of our camera shots turned out quite blurry, but the cell phone pictures turned out amazingly well! Here's one of us just before we went in, looking a bit hot and tired already!
I can't begin to describe everything we saw, but I'll mention some of the things that were particularly memorable, or struck a chord of some kind with us as we were touring the museum -- the pix are from our camera and phone, and supplemented with pictures from the Museum website, as well :
The Mayan exhibit, which included this Stela from Guatemala.
Lots of really nifty paintings, including Van Gogh -- these two of cypress trees were in different places in the Museum, but I have always loved them, and it was fascinating to see them up close for real.
The painting of Washington crossing the Delaware was HUGE! We got up close and noticed a couple of places where the artist repeated images of people from the foreground in the indistinct background -- but it was still very impressive.
The Arms and Armor exhibit is always a favorite -- we saved it for last, and spent a lot of time there. There was a special exhibit of armored horses on this occasion:
The really exciting part of the day was when we discovered the corner where they had the Indian armor and weapons. Squeeeeee!!!! Look what I found -- a musket blunderbuss from the cache of the Tippoo Sultan, complete with inlaid tiger motif and tiger head-shaped doghead for holding the flint, just as described in Sharpe's Tiger!!! :-D
"It must have been one of the Tippoo's own weapons, for its stock was decorated with ivory, its tiger-head lock was chased with gold, and its barrel engraved with Arabic writing... 'Might be pretty, sir,' [Sharpe] said, 'but no amount of fancy work on the outside will make it more accurate...'"
That sure made my day, I can tell you -- since I happen to be reading Sharpe's Tiger these days (yes, my fellow Sharpe readers, I am quite far behind at the moment...) I just wish I had thought to copy down what was written about the weapon on the placard in the display. :-(
We had had a very nice lunch in the Museum cafeteria, but we were hungry by the time we got out and going again. We decided not to take the subway back down to the bus, because you can't see anything decent from the subway! Tired as our poor feet were, we decided to walk back, via Broadway this time, and since we didn't feel fancy anymore, we ate at reuben sandwiches at a marvelous deli, then headed back to the bus and New Jersey.
We were tired, but in spite of sore feet, we didn't get blisters. It was an excellent day, and I hope we can do it again sometime. There's a lot to be seen in NYC, and one day is not nearly enough -- not even to see one museum!
