Being back in New York City is like slipping into an old pair of shoes -- a worn, smelly pair of hard, narrow shoes that cost much more than they should. It's cold and we know, just because it's below freezing doesn't mean it's really cold. It could be worse, like close to zero. Or snowing. I mean, it's still fall and all but we're not exactly cold weather people anymore.
Course, that doesn't mean we can't take advantage of things like the huge, gorgeous natural wonder that is Central Park. We took a nice long walk through it the other day, hitting up the North Woods section on a meandering stroll south from Harlem to the Upper East Side.
Doesn't look much like Manhattan, does it?
More like something you'd find upstate or outside of the Big Apple, but Central Park is an integral part of the City, just like Prospect Park is an essential part of Brooklyn. Both of these parks draw people together and form lynch pins in their respective boroughs, aligning and fusing together disparate neighborhoods into something approaching a coherent whole. Without the concrete jungle surrounding them, these sprawling parks wouldn't hold the same wonder, luster and awe.
Once we made it down to 82nd, we decided to dip into the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a what is easily the best entertainment value in NYC. As New York residents we can still Pay What We Want for admission to the Met. Feeling generous, we paid $5 and spent more than three hours taking in all the amazing exhibits. That's like $1.40 per hour. Pretty great value there and tons of culture points.
We wandered through the Egyptian wing and were disappointed we couldn't get to see the Temple of Dendur as it was closed for a Karl Lagerfeld Chanel fashion show. It is the City, after all.
We also got to see the fun new Jewelry exhibit.
We also checked out the exciting new Delacroix exhibit and the immersive video installation Stasi City.
Then we went through the European painting and sculpture wing, where we had to check out some of the jaw dropping impressionist works on display.
No trip to the Met would be complete without at least a partial pilgrimage to sip at the chalice of the master Van Gogh.
We also had to check out the arms and armor section because they have some really amazing pieces in there, not just from European antiquity, but also from Japan and many other places.
Then we did a tour through the Pacific island section.
And finally ended up rounding out our three plus hour tour at the Modern wing where we were greeted with Georgia O'Keefe's stunning painting below.
There's just so much to see, you could spend a day in each of the wings and still not scratch the surface, but since our time is limited we had to see as much as possible in one trip.
With so much on display, it's easy to overlook the modern section but they have some real masterpieces in the collection that just have to be seen like the Picasso above.
And of course, they've got a huge Christmas Tree on display in the Medieval section. It's not quite as enormous as the one at Rockefeller Center, but it's impressive, nestled into a Cathedral, covered in gorgeous ornaments, surrounded by a sweet Nativity scene.
