Rant of the Week

New York City

Aug 10-14, 2009

 

Hi Marg,

We had a great trip to New York.  "Hair" was fantastic, and the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) was also fabulous.  We hung around Times Square for a while-- it looks like a very interesting place-- lots of glitter and lots of people around-- but not much to actually do except grab a coffee at Starbucks and hang out.  However, if you don't have tickets in advance, you can buy heavily discounted tickets for Broadway shows there by lining up in front of a TKTS booth and seeing what is available.  These tickets are typically 40% off, available for shows that night, most of which are in easy walking distance of the stand.  You can't miss the booth-- it's right in Times Square. We didn't use it because we already had our tickets, and you wouldn't have been able to get tickets for "Hair" there anyway.

We loved MOMA.  It's on 53rd St. near 7th Avenue-- it's closed on Tuesdays!  Especially the 5th and 4th floors, which had a lot of Picasso and other modern artists.  Beautiful building, and we really enjoyed lunch in the cafe on the 2nd floor.  You can take pictures (no flash) and most paintings are unprotected (no glass barriers).  Right now they are also showing this "installation" that consists of the possessions of a Chinese woman who "kept everything".  It's actually quite intriguing.

If you want a great view, there is Empire State Building of course, but you will probably have a better experience at the Rockefeller Centre on 50th St. also around 7th Avenue (near MOMA!). 

Everything, by the way, is expensive.  I find you just have to kind of ignore prices and do what you want to do-- you came all this way and went though all the trouble of getting there, so why not? 

The Museum of Natural History is pretty good-- a bit like our ROM but bigger.  It's on the West side of Central Park (I assume you'll have a touristy map).   Oh-- there is a "Titanic" display on 44th Street, near Times Square.  I thought it would be kind of cheesy, but it is actually very interesting.  It features a lot of exhibits of items retrieved from the wreck, beautifully presented, with lots of basic information.  There is even a recreation of a couple of state rooms and the grand stairway.  Expensive again ($25) but we thought it was worthwhile.  Took about two hours to go through.

We weren't high on Ellis Island-- they haven't done very much with the building-- just placards, text, and pictures, really, though it was interesting to see the island.  You won't get into the Statue of Liberty-- it's all reservations now, and they are convinced that Al Qaeda is determined to attack it (!) so you'll have to wait in line so they can scan your lunch bag.  You do wonder if they shouldn't be investing the huge cost of it into protecting something that really matters.  It would probably be cheaper to buy a spare Statue of Liberty and keep it in a warehouse in Brooklyn in case it's needed.

 

Bill

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