NYC Day Four
We’re back home, but I still need to post about our last day in New York.
Ben got us a “late” checkout from the hotel – 1:00 instead of noon – but we were happy to have the extra time to get our bags packed. We decided to head to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was going to be a little bit of a time crunch.
We stopped by the concierge desk before we checked out of the hotel and they told us that our best option for getting to the airport (Newark this time) was going to be to take the airport express bus that leaves every half hour from the Port Authority bus terminal on 42nd Street. That meant that we needed to be back from the Met by 3:00 so that we could get our bags and take them over to the bus station in time to buy tickets for the 3:30 departure. We wanted to make sure to allow plenty of time to get to the airport in case of traffic.
We took the subway to the Met. We had to transfer lines at Grand Central, but unfortunately, we did not have time to go into the station and look around. Once we got to our stop, we had a little bit of a walk over to Central Park East. As we were waiting at the light to cross over to the museum, we heard a chorus of female screams. We looked in the direction they came from, but didn’t really see anything going on. I decided whomever the important person was (bride? birthday person?), they would probably be walking toward the front of the group that was headed toward us. When I spotted her, I thought, “She looks familiar….”
Turns out it was Blake Lively, better known to me as the actress who portrays Bridget in the movie The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. She was shooting a scene for her television show, Gossip Girl, on the steps of the Met.
A brief moment of panic followed, as I realized the crowd of people around her were paparazzi armed with cameras – I’m pretty sure Ben and I were in a few shots. Yikes.
Anyway, we made it over to the museum okay and were totally crunched for time.
I was overwhelmed. The decision to go was a last-minute one, and I was unprepared. I didn’t have time to figure out exactly what the Met had and what I needed to see. I just had to go by what was listed on the little map they give you at the information desk.
We managed to see several more Van Goghs (Wheat Field with Cypresses, Olive Orchard, and a surprising new favorite, Shoes) and lots of Rembrandts. (I do love Rembrandt!) We also saw The Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David.
After a whirlwind tour of the European paintings, we went downstairs and trekked through the Egyptian art.
I wish we’d had more time – it was AMAZING. I was impressed by the sheer volume of each type of art the museum had. It wasn’t just one or two items of each genre; it was literally THOUSANDS.
We made our way to the American Wing. Ben really wanted to see it and I thought it could be interesting. Much of the wing was closed for renovations, but I’m actually glad. What they’d done was take all of the art work and put it in glass cases – aisle after aisle after aisle of glass cases. Instead of having things spread out over several galleries, it was all compacted into one gigantic room. We were able to see everything from paintings to glassware to rocking chairs to grandfather clocks in a span of just a few minutes. It was really pretty neat! I was thrilled that the artwork wasn’t put away during construction; just spatially-condensed and temporarily relocated. Loved it!
Once we’d finished in the American Wing, it was time to shop for souvenirs. We caught the subway back to Times Square and picked up a couple of things. Then it was back to the hotel for our bags and off to the bus terminal. We got on the bus without any problems and soon enough, we were dropped off at Newark Liberty International Airport, Terminal A. There’s where our troubles began.
My next post was written at the airport….
April 2, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Is that your new coat? Loves it.