T-Rex!
The Roosevelt hall at the Museum of Natural History
Apparently, this is ‘contemporary art’. I think it could also be ‘litter’…
Warhol at MoMA
Day 11 - New York City
Today, Katie and I decided to divide and conquer with her tackling some more shopping and me hitting the museums and galleries.
We had breakfast in the apartment, then as Katie headed towards Banana Republic and Victoria’s Secret, I set off for the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). I have to be honest and say that I’m not that much of a fan of modern art, and even less of most contemporary art. Still, there were some interesting works and the Warhol/Dali/Magritte pieces were particularly good.
Next up was the Metropolitan Museum of Art which has a simply obscene number of amazing pieces. Every square inch is crammed with bits and pieces. The armour and weapons section was pretty interesting and I got to check out some old art to balance out the modern stuff. I was looking forward to seeing the drawing section, including bits from Leonardo, but this was unfortunately closed for works.
At this stage, Katie had shopped and was starting to queue for Broadway tickets at the TKTS last-minute booth in Times Square, where you can get tickets for shows that night, although there may not be much choice about where you get to go. After a very long wait, she managed to get tickets to ‘Bengal Tiger in the Baghdad Zoo’, starring Robin Williams - not bad at all!
My last stop for the day was the Museum of Natural History, across Central Park from the Met. This place was great - stacks of interesting exhibits and lots of things for the kids running around everywhere to do and poke at. The dinosaurs were amazing, as were the dioramas and models of global landscapes. The space section and the models about the development of the galaxy and Earth were also very well done.
Katie had made it to the Metropolitan Opera for some more shopping for Tiina by this stage and we were both pretty pooped, so were rendezvoused at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel - at the bar on the 35th floor that has a great view of Central Park. We had a couple of cocktails while thinking about how hard we have it, then dropped our stuff off at the apartment before heading around the corner to see the play.
Robin Williams was excellent as the titular tiger and the rest of the cast were also really good. The story revolves around two American soldiers based in Baghdad and the effect that their deployment has on them, their translator and the tiger that they are guarding in the Baghdad Zoo. The play itself was quite interesting, with some really good ideas and funny lines; however, I think that the whole was much less than the sum of the parts, with some aspects, particularly the comedic lines given to the character of Uday Hussein, missing the mark by quite a distance. All up, it was a great night out. We also managed to secure tickets to a preview show of ‘The House of Blue Leaves’ later in the week, which will be a chance to see Ben Stiller on stage.
Katie dressed up in our apartment, ready for dinner at Balthazar.
Day 10 - New York City
Another early start today - no flight this time, but discount shopping instead! We were heading to Century 21, a designer discount store, and Katie insisted that we get there early (it opens at 7:45). We joined the rush hour crowd and passed by the site of the World Trade Center towers and made it to C21. There was loads of stuff in there and being early was a good idea, as it was packed by the time we left. Four hours later, we’d bought a new suitcase and had already filled it :) We spent a lot, but saved more than we spent on the retail prices, so that’s like making money, right?
Anyway, shopping had made us hungry so we made for a restaurant close by the apartment for lunch, Pigalle, then went home for a siesta.
Later in the day, we got back on the subway and headed down to the top of SoHo, Prince Street. We had a look through many of the shops on our way to our dinner reservation at Balthazar, a great French-inspired place that was busy and bustling. Dinner was good (Katie’s trout was the day’s special and I decided to see how American lamb fared against Australian), the French red even better and the crème brûlée was fantastic. To top it off, Balthazar just happens to be around the corner from the SoHo Apple Store, so we dropped in and I picked up a new 13” MacBook Pro from the particularly happy Apple staff - very exciting stuff.
Getting off the subway again at Times Square, the Hershey’s store was too much of a temptation to pass on the way home, so we grabbed some late-night snacks from the slightly strange staff there before returning to the apartment and finishing a fun, but expensive, day.
Katie in front of the Empire State Building
Looking north over Central Park from 30 Rock
