Day 18- (June 1, 2012)

We have neglected the blog for several days. I will make an effort to go back and fill in the missing days.

Our adventure today was a trip to the Cloisters.  We took the train up to the Dyckman stop, the next to last stop on the A train, at the far north end of Manhatten.

After leaving the train, we climbed a hill, which took us high above the Hudson River.  The  view across the river to New Jersey is wonderful- all trees.  Rockefeller purchased the land across from the hill so that the view would not be spoiled by buildings or factories.  Unfortunately, he could do nothing about the traffic along the New York side, so we could hear the traffic noise. 

Rockfeller  and the Metropolitan Museum of Art established the Cloisters to house the museum's collection of medieval art. Now, the building and gardens are, to me, more spectacular than the art.  They obtained various chapels and cloisters from Europe which have been reassembled into one large building.  Each chapel or hall contains a specific collection.  The cloisters which are interspersed within the building are planted with medieval plants- many of which we have in our gardens today. 
Probably their most famous artwork is the collection of six unicorn tapestries- and probably the most well-known of tapestries is the unicorn next to a pomegranate tree and enclosed in a fence.

I enjoyed the walk above the river and the gardens the most.  I had the feeling of being back in a 13th century in the  chapels and halls- aided by the fact that people are very quiet as they walk through them.  They have also done a good job of not crowding a lot of pieces of art into each chapel or hall so you can really look at each statue or window.

The museum has an excellent gift shop.  I do not recommend the cafe.  The food was not bad, just a let down after being in a beautiful museum.

After spending a very cultural afternoon, we went to Men in Black 3- rather the opposite end of the entertainment spectrum.

Then a stop at the fruit and vegetable stand for supper ingredients. 


Here are some pictures.

Sally

We continue to enjoy New York.  I am surprised at how easily we have adapted to living in 20% of the space that we have at home.  Of course, we don't spend a lot of time in our apartment. 

On Memorial Weekend Saturday, there was an exhibit of some ships at the port in Brooklyn that we went too.  There were ships from France, Mexico, Finland, Canada, Japan, and the United States.  The French and Mexican ships were training sailing ships.  The rest were Navy ships.  One of Sally's favorite pieces of new knowledge is that the Finnish ship had two sauna on board.  The Japanese ship was a helicopter carrier.  The Canadian ship was the largest ship in the Canadian navy.  It was pretty small by US standards. 

Mexico's ship

Japan's ship