New York City - Part One - The Museums

The skies were smooth and the late September weather was great as BowlingWidow and I coasted into JFK airport for our first ever trip to New York City.  After some initial confusion we hooked up with a cab company to set up the 45 minute ride into the city.  Other than some talk about our destination and cab fare, nary a word was spoken between us and the driver.  I wasn’t expecting to be on the Cash Cab or anything like that, but I thought New York cabbies were a bit more talkative than this one and the others which we encountered.

Our "Home" on the Upper West Side (2nd Floor...Open Windows)

We were in NYC for a full week, staying at a comfortable studio townhouse in the upper west side of Manhattan called (appropriately enough) The West Townhouse.  It was part of the endless brownstone row housing built in around 1890 that are abundant in the upper west side neighborhoods.  Our unit even came with a kitchen, giving us the ability to buy bagels, cream cheese and orange juice for the week and enjoy them at our leisure before hitting the streets and the subway.
 

Having a Kitchen Area Was a Nice Feature

For this blog post series, I’ve just made the executive decision to chunk the trip up into the following set of words and pictures:

Museums (that’ll be in this one)

Broadway and Times Square

Sites and Destinations

Walks

Food, Drink, and Concluding Thoughts

Let’s jump right into Museums…..

We regretted not visiting any museums when we were in Chicago, so wanted to make sure we went to the key ones in NYC.  We had plenty to choose from, and would have gone to all of them if we had a month to spend in the city.  That would have included places like The Frick Collection, The Guggenheim and the Jewish Museum of NewYork.  And then there’s the New York Public Library which we never got to.  Here’s what we did see:

The American Museum of Natural History.  This place has an amazing number of exhibits and buildings.  The planetarium show that we went to about the universe was interesting and well done.  There’s nothing like seeing one of these shows to help you walk out of the theater feeling really insignificant about your place in the solar system.  If you like exceptionally well done stuffed animals and dinosaur bones from all over the world, this is the place for you.   And it’s not just Natural History as the name indicates.  Artifacts and creations by cultures such as American Indian tribes are in abundance as well.

Well Made Stuffed Animals:  One of the Many Displays at the Natural History Museum

The Metropolitan Museum of Art.  At 2 million square feet, this is the largest museum of its kind in the country.  There’s no way one could get through this entire collection in a day unless you subscribe to the “speed theory” of art appreciation.  So we picked and chose.  They don’t just have paintings and sculptures here.  Sure they have Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Monet, and Picasso but their collection of musical instruments and armor, for example, is world class.

One of the Many Rooms at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Knights in Shining Armor at the Met

Museum of Modern Art.  Smaller than the Met and located in mid-town Manhattan, modern art here appears to be defined as “from 1900 to present”.  Mainly paintings, some of the more famous works here include “The Starry Night” (Van Gogh), and works by Jackson Pollock, Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol.  I’ll admit it….some of the more recent modern art acquisitions look like something I might be able to make at home in a couple of hours, although I’m sure that’s not true.  I guess we just don’t “get” art as many do.

Andy Warhol's Soup Cans in the Pantry at the MoMA

The Cloisters.  This is a small collection associated with the Met, and is a short cab ride away on the north part of Manhattan Island.  It’s essentially an exhibit of art and architecture from Medieval England.  Made possible by an endowment  grant by  John D. Rockefeller Jr., this can easily be experienced in a couple of hours.  It’ll probably take you longer to get to and from here depending on where you’re staying in the city.
    

Courtyard Garden at The Cloisters

Next up:  Broadway and Times Square