Rain and thunderstorms are forecast for later today so we go indoors again, to the Metropolitan Museum of Art or just the Met for short, on 5th Avenue within the Central Park quadrangle.
First though, we plan to check out the Guggenheim Museum also on 5th Avenue and just a few streets further north, between 88th and 89th Street.
We were not planning to go inside for 2 reasons, we have been inside Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the outside far outweighs the inside and we have read that the whole rotunda is currently closed off as they are installing a new exhibition. Still, we wanted to check out the outside and as said, it is very close to the Met.
We spoke to a young lady who was trying to get the punters away from the shooting area and asked her what this was all about. She was not very forthcoming with information, but apparently the bloke in the JH cap to the left is the director (we figured that) and also famous (we still have no idea who he is, but that probably is more due to our ignorance than lack of fame on his behalf).
Of course the young lady did not want Hans to take photos of the great man but Hans can be sneaky. The director is talking to actors who play a young couple with a toddler on the stroller. Boy did that kid look bored!
Well, filming seems to attract all kinds of individuals. Unfortunately, neither of us got "discovered" and we were not asked to join the cast. There were 2 cameras in use from what we could tell, this one on a track below, set opposite on the Central Park side of 5th Avenue.
And this camera at the corner of 5th Avenue and 89th Street pointing south towards the museum. And we're... ON.
We watched one take but it was clear they were going to do it again. Not for us..
A last picture of the Guggenheim Museum before we go. Interesting building of course, but nowhere near as spectacular as the one in Bilbao, Spain.
We wander back to Lexington Avenue and 89th Street for a coffee and bagel at Green Cafe before we decide to conquer the Met. Hans is ready...
The Met had a much smoother and faster ticketing system than the Natural History Museum and we were inside in no time at all. Admittance fee is still recommended, here $25, and we still only paid $20 for the two of us. Here is the lobby.
If you didn't know, the Met is enormous. The building, or buildings as it looks like more space had been added over time and time again, covers 4 blocks north to south and perhaps 1 1/2 block west to east (hard to say as it is built into Central Park's space). In other words, you have next to no chance to see it all so you need to be selective. We wanted to see the Egyptian Art and it was on 1st floor so that's where we started.
A few pics to start off...
Di demonstrating that this must have been one big mummy...
Face off...
The Temple of Dendur was shipped from Egypt and reassembled in its own large room inside the Met about 40 years ago. USA had donated $16m to Egypt to help save some treasures that were going to be flooded by a new dam. Egypt in exchange gifted this temple and some other pieces. It is amazing (not the people in front).
Graffiti definitely is nothing new. Tourists and interested parties in the olden days many times had little or no respect for history. Hence, there were names and slogans and dates (mostly the year) engraved into the rocks in many places.
We liked this cut down version of a croc.
And the outlook from a skewed angle. Hard to take a photo as people obviously were walking in and out of the picture frame. The painting was done in the 1800's and displayed in a rotunda near City Hall, where people could visit and take a vicarious trip to France. It works - the perspective is fantastic and you do feel like you are there.
This was a strange and funny part of the American Wing. It was called Visible Storage and showed paintings and furniture and what have you inside many many very narrow space behind glass and with several strong lights burning just above. Clearly the Met has way too many pieces in its collection for proper display (the Met quotes its collection as 2 million pieces!) so they put some of it in these glassed cabinets and you can wander through.
The problem is you couldn't step back to see any of the paintings from a distance and the harsh light made them all look, well, ordinary. In fact, some paintings were down right awful and we were joking that if you commissioned somebody to paint your family and the painter came back with some of the paintings that we saw, you would be... well... peeved.
Even George Washington has ended up here - see the portraits furthest right in the first case.
Also as part of the American Wing was this lovely very open space. You can't really see it here but to the left there are lots of windows towards Central Park giving the space lots of natural light. There is also a cafe at ground floor level, but we didn't venture in there.
Close up shot of those lovely street lamps they had in the atrium area.
This is Latona and her children, Apollo and Diana. Well, Hans joked that could that be Carolyn and Dianna instead?
A Spanish room of sorts. One way...
And the other...that's Di on the ornate balcony in the middle.
One of Vincent Van Gogh's numerous self portraits had found itself to the Met. That's the painted picture to the left. The guy to the right still has both ears.
That's you, that's me, that's Claude Monet...by the way they have several rooms dedicated to Monet's work (not just a handful of paintings).
The Met has a rooftop garden area, with a kiosk selling refreshments and with great views south towards midtown. A self portrait was absolutely in order.
Close up of buildings lining up 5th Avenue towards Central Park's southeastern corner.
We've only scratched the surface of the Met after more than 3 hours but we are hungry and had already decided to treat ourselves to lunch at Sylvia's (the Queen of Soul Food) in Harlem. We were introduced to her restaurant during our Harlem walking tour and figure it can't be hard to get up to 125th street on the subway.
"Sugar plum fairy came and hit the streets... Looking for soul food and a place to eat..." as Mr Lou Reed sang once upon a time. Well, Sylvia's is apparently the place.
Given that we were on the Upper East Side, the subway in it north south fashion took us to 125th Street in East Harlem (our first venture there) and walked west from there to Lennox Avenue.
We arrive at Sylvia's just in time to still order the lunch special before that finishes at 3pm.
The walls are full of pictures of famous people who have eaten here - Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder and of course The President himself, Barack Obama. He appears to be chewing on a fried chicken leg and has a side order of collard greens visible in the photo.
We order a similar dish to Obama (if its good enough for the Prez it's definitely good enough for us!). For $8.95 it's a decent meal - a fried chicken Maryland and 2 side dishes. We both went for collard greens and Di ordered candied yams, with Hans unable to resist garlic mash potatoes. All very good. We like soul food!
Sylvia has passed away now but her brand lives on - with some personal recipe products appearing in supermarkets (like collard greens) and this "triple strength" sauce (although Hans said it was not any hotter than Tabasco).
We leave NYC on Friday so we had a last chore of clothes washing before heading back on the road. A final visit to O'Henry's Laundromat across the road and its all done by 6pm.
We made no plans for dinner as we feel we've eaten plenty today. We just snack on some leftover dumplings and soup. Easy.
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