59 Hours and a Plan -- The Met

Going back a few weeks, before the events of Christmas took over life and the blog, I was talking about my quick trip to New York, which one must do while in Bermuda because it's only a 2.5 hour flight.  As well, one visiting New York could easily tack on a couple of days and visit Bermuda -- staying in one of the cozy homes advertised on vrbo.com.  I had finished the events of Day One -- The Guggenheim, Central Park, the Macy's Christmas displays, and a walk through Manhattan to see the Christmas lights.  Last night I watched the movie "New Year's Eve" and smiled as I recognized specific places and even the some of the same Christmas displays that I photographed on that walk.

On Day 2 in New York, the main plan was to go see the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art.  I now knew the subway route, and decided to take the train rather than walk it, which would also allow me to take a few daylight photos of Grand Central Station, and wander through some of the shops there.  It was inside there that I found an artist's stand called "Heart Art" and saw the perfect Christmas ornament reminding me of Jaycena -- a heart with a flannel "Love" pattern on it.

Grand Central Station

After that I hopped on the train and headed towards the Metropolitan Museum of Art, located at 1000 Fifth Avenue, not far from the Guggenheim in the area named Museum Mile.

The entrance to the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Looking out on one of the wings from inside -- the building itself if a work of art

Gravestone marker in the Roman/Greek room

I could not wait to get my geek on and study all of the displays.  I really had no idea what I was getting into.  I expected to be able to see thousands of things.  After an hour I had not yet worked my way through the Greek and Roman Art room, there was no time to read even just the label on each item.  The Met has amassed artwork covering 5000 years of human history and is divided up into American, Greek and Roman, Islamic, Oceanic, Egyptian, European, Asian, Arabic, and periods such as Medieval, Modern, Contemporary, 19th Century, and style including sculpture, painting, drawings,

A Roman hairclip -- making the bun sexy

photographs, plus instruments and decorum of all times.  Most of the art doubles as an archaeological treasure.  Like I said, I expected to see thousands of things.  I quickly realized there were hundreds of thousands of things in plain site.  When I actually looked into it, the museum is one of the world's largest and has one of the most significant collections.  There are actually two MILLION artifacts in its permanent collection, divided up into the 17 sections.  Plus 3 special exhibits, which were jewellery, an ancient Asian culture that I can no longer recall (told you I was overwhelmed), and my personal favorite, Girls and Cats.

the "headholder" -- eww

There are simply more stories housed in the Met than one can imagine in the span of a day, or even a few days.  After looking at a few hundred Greek and Roman grave markers, each exquisite and well preserved, many larger than me, I felt a pang of disappointment and decided they must be plaster casts, or they would all be under glass to ward off sticky little hands of its many young visitors.  On speaking to a staff member, she informed me that I was incorrect.  There is only a very small number of replicas in the collection, almost every piece is a genuine artifact in its original form.  Including the gilded head-holder that still houses the skull of a leader beheaded for Christianity.  I could have lived without that bit of knowledge!  But it did make the experience even more incredible, that I was looking at authentic pieces, carved and crafted our of the deepest human experiences -- love, grief, war, passion, death, religion...  I gave up photographing after a while -- although it is worth mentioning that you could photograph almost anything in the museum, including Picasso's, Renoirs, Rembrandts, etc.  The special exhibits were off limits, but everything else was fair game.  So I did

Cabinets with thousands of things

take a lot of photos of little things that caught my eye.  I can't include them all here, but there were Faberge eggs, ancient texts, some Egyptian structures rebuilt, rooms completely decorated in the period, be it French, English, or American -- and yes, the French rooms were literally gilded from ceiling to floor.  The arms collection is famous, ranging from all types of suits of armours and swords, and if there were guns I missed them -- easy enough to do in the maze of the Met.  The Sculpture hallway was fantastic, one called Winter really caught my eye.  The paintings were astounding.  There is just something about standing

Rooms with hundreds of cabinets with thousands of things

in front of famous works of art -- you realize that millions of people have gazed at the same thing as you, over centuries.  It makes the world feel like a much smaller place.

Winter

Picasso -- although more stunning are his works before he went all abstract

A beautiful fake -- the real one sits atop the grave of Elizabeth Duvenuck outside of Florence

Just a couple of full knights and steeds in armour on display

So that was my day at the Met.  But...I was only 28 into my 59 hours so there was still ground to cover.  I went for a fabulous dinner at an Italian restaurant, and headed on to the Empire State Building.  I apologize for the poor quality of this photo, but am including it because I never knew which building was the Empire State building in the New York skyline.

The Empire State Building is the colorful one with the needle on top in the NYC skyline

The interior of the Empire State building has recently been restored to its original shiny glory.

Lobby at the Empire State Building

Due to the Rockefeller Christmas Tree Lighting happening at the same time, the lineups really were not too bad.  There is an open air patio that goes around the building allowing you to see NYC as far as the eye can see in all directions.  You can see all that you really need to see by going to the first level -- buying a ticket to go to the very top just gives you the same view, slightly higher, but behind glass.

View from the Empire State Building

Now that the Empire State Building was checked off the list, I decided to walk back to the Hotel Mela via Times Square.

Busy busy NYC

All lit up like Vegas

I have to admit I really enjoy all of the lights

I even stopped to get a drawing done for $5 by a street artist.

My trip souvenier

The next day I had time to pick up a few items, enjoy the last tastes of American civilization (Starbucks), post some items to Canada, and make my way back to Bermuda.  59 hours was just perfect to cross off the last few items on my NYC to do list.

Loved this ad!

Pricey ad slots...in excess of 3.5 Million Dollars a year