Blog Special. NYC Holiday 12/23/2016

 

We walked through Central Park to THE MET, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.  This gigantic facility occupies 4 city blocks;  it holds 2,000,000 artifacts (not all shown at the same time) spanning 5,000 years. The Louvre in Paris claims to be the world’s largest museum but I’m not sure.  Notice in the photo the long lines when it opened at 10:00.  The museum seems to be crowded any time you’re there – just like the Louvre.  The photos here are intended to show, in a small way, the diversity of The MET.

                

Art from Rome 3,000 years ago, Africa 500 years ago, France and Egypt.

                                              

 

         

Brenda, Glenn and I visit the MET’s Photo Gallery shown on the right.  Glenn and I have an interest in photography and hope to visit two photo galleries while in New York.

We have lunch in one of the three cafes in the museum.  I return to the hotel for rest, recovery, relaxing and blogging while the others visit another museum.  Glenn, Patrice and Brenda visit the Neue Galerie which owns Klimt’s “The Woman in Gold” painting.  This painting was the subject of the movie by the same name, starring Helen Mirren.  There is also a special exhibit of Klimt sketches and paintings on loan.  A very interesting exhibit.

 

We take Subway #1, a block from the hotel, to Columbus Circle because we have early dinner reservations at Bouchon Bakery and Café.  This is one of Thomas Keller’s 12 restaurants.  Of course he is most famous for The French Laundry in Yountville, Ca. and Per Se, also at 10 Columbus Circle in New York.  Grandson/chef Austin spent 4 months working as an extern at Per Se when he was a student at the CIA (Culinary Institute of America – not the Central Intelligence Agency) three years ago. At that time, Per Se was rated #2 in the US and #5 in the world.  But they have lost their reputation, or at least their following, and are probably in the bottom half of the Top 100 today.  None the less, our dinner at Bouchon was great.  Photo is of Brenda and I in front of Per Se’s “blue door”.

Back on #1 Subway we’re headed for Time Square because we have tickets for a Broadway play, The Humans.   7th Avenue is more than crowded (see next paragraph), it’s wall-to-wall humanity from the store front to the curb.  Progress is slow and we don’t have much time.  The play starts slow but quickly gets very intense as well as depressing.  We thought it was great.

Speaking of crowds, I read in the New York Times that New York City has 5,000,000 visitors each year from Thanksgiving to New Years.  Between 8,000 and 10,000 pass Macy’s decorated windows EACH HOUR.

The best value in the city (for visitors) is a one week subway (and bus) pass.  You can go anywhere all week for $29.  We’re here only for 4 days but with at least 4 rides per day, these rides are less than $2.00 each.  BTW, the NYC Taxis are challenging Uber and Lyft with their own app, CURB.  This will hail the nearest driver, track the taxi arrival in real time, and allow you to pay in the app with your credit card.

Before  leaving Texas, I bought NYC maps.  I left them in Dallas and bought more here.  But I don’t need them.  All I need is Google Maps above ground and the NYC subway map app.