The Metropolitan Museum was the destination for today, and as a second visit I decided to concentrate mostly on the second floor which I had not visited previously. However, first there was a quick detour to the Temple of Dendur which was closed on my first visit. There was a wonderful special exhibition of a collection of Impressionists, with mouth-watering Renoir, Monet, Cezanne, Degas etc works - however, unfortunately it meant that they did not have my favourite version of the Monet Water Lilies on display, so you can't win them all.
My other favourite was an exhibition of the designs of Poiret of the House of Worth, one of the greatest of the French couturiers. His designs could be worn today as the height of fashion. And one Chanel "little black dress" also on display would fit in as well today as it would have nearly 90 years ago. In fact in some ways they are more wearable than some of today's haute couture.
Much snapping of photos was done, through the many wonderful displays, so they will be added to the blog in due course. I even upset one little man to get my photo of Hercules - he was one of many artists working throughout the museum copying or sketching works, and he did not quite appreciate that I wanted the Greek god photo minus his decidedly un-Greek-god-like little self peering at the private bits as he sketched them!!!!!
Tomorrow is off to revisit Ground Zero and the southern tip of Manhattan for my last day in town.......
Friday, July 13, 2007
On the NY Tourist Trail
The Guggenheim was my first dose of NY culture, and despite the jackhammer chorus in the background, it was great. However apparently the wonderful Frank Lloyd Wright design has proven to have a few structural flaws as time has passed - hence the jackhammers working away to fix it up - the whole exterior is covered in scaffolding as they try to repair the cracks, and some of the internal steelwork which has a few problems. But inside, the works of art were amazing - Guggenheim collected over 100 Kandinsky paintings on one trip to Europe to build his collection, so as you can imagine, there is quite a rich display.
Tuesday was a "wander the Village" day as I headed over into the West Village, then meandered my way through Greenwich Village, and in and out of many shops.
Wednesday was Anna's birthday, so we "played ladies" and headed for a posh lunch at the Morgan Library and museum, the former home of Pierpont and JP Morgan. This is an amazing house, built with the proceeds of their fortune built in the cowboy days of Wall St. JP Morgan's drawing room was regarded as the most beautiful room in America in the late 1800s, though to our eyes now it is very rich and sombre and ornate. The library and foyer are equally beautiful, and include marble columns shipped in from a French chateau built in 1 month, as a bet with Marie Antoinette that such a thing was possible!! There is also a beautiful art collection financed by the Sunny Crawford von Bulow foundation - she is the one around whom there was a huge scandal as to whether her husband Claus von Bulow had tried to murder her with an insulin injection, putting her into a 20-year coma, in which she was only kept alive because her huge fortune could pay for the absolute best 24-hour care. Meanwhile her acquitted husband divided NY society on his guilt/innocence, as he used his control of her fortune to acquire high social status with million dollar gifts to the Met Opera etc. So quite a place of many stories......
At night we went to dinner at a hyper-cool NY restaurant Buddakan in the Meatpacking District - you have to book weeks in advance, and everyone there looked impossibly hip - my disguise must have worked, as I was not ejected by the style police. So quite a busy day ......
Tuesday was a "wander the Village" day as I headed over into the West Village, then meandered my way through Greenwich Village, and in and out of many shops.
Wednesday was Anna's birthday, so we "played ladies" and headed for a posh lunch at the Morgan Library and museum, the former home of Pierpont and JP Morgan. This is an amazing house, built with the proceeds of their fortune built in the cowboy days of Wall St. JP Morgan's drawing room was regarded as the most beautiful room in America in the late 1800s, though to our eyes now it is very rich and sombre and ornate. The library and foyer are equally beautiful, and include marble columns shipped in from a French chateau built in 1 month, as a bet with Marie Antoinette that such a thing was possible!! There is also a beautiful art collection financed by the Sunny Crawford von Bulow foundation - she is the one around whom there was a huge scandal as to whether her husband Claus von Bulow had tried to murder her with an insulin injection, putting her into a 20-year coma, in which she was only kept alive because her huge fortune could pay for the absolute best 24-hour care. Meanwhile her acquitted husband divided NY society on his guilt/innocence, as he used his control of her fortune to acquire high social status with million dollar gifts to the Met Opera etc. So quite a place of many stories......
At night we went to dinner at a hyper-cool NY restaurant Buddakan in the Meatpacking District - you have to book weeks in advance, and everyone there looked impossibly hip - my disguise must have worked, as I was not ejected by the style police. So quite a busy day ......
Sunday, July 08, 2007
New York, New York
1 am the next day saw me at JFK airport, and a death-defying drive into the city with a Haitian driver trying out for the Indy 500 next year. I gave up protesting at the speed, because when I did, he turned around to the back seat, with his eyes completely off the road, to ask what I was saying, since he could not hear me due to the blaring French radio programme!!! He then proceeded to consult the screen of his cell-phone while passing every other vehicle on the freeway - fingernail grooves were worn deep into my palms by the time I reached Steve's apartment. Today has been a quiet day, with a little wandering around, and a trip to the supermarket to stock up on some supplies for a bit of home cooking. Proper sightseeing will start tomorrow.......
Galway, Gales, and Gaelic Rellies
On Wednesday morning I collected, Julia, Shaun and a rental car from Dublin airport, and we headed out of Dublin for the western coast of Ireland - right across the country from one coast to the other. Julia's blog at http://www.juliashaunstrip.blogspot.com/ also has details of this. We saw lots of the green Irish countryside, and scary driving through narrow winding country lanes with stone walls either side, a 100kph speed limit, and me the slowest thing on the road at 80kph. Sheridan and Helen could get their fill of rally driving just going from village to village - and there is even oncoming traffic to add to the excitement.
The Cliffs of Moher were beautiful, but the gale prevented us from doing the illicit coastal path the Kathryn recommended, as we might have joined the gannets flying down the cliff-side. The west of Galway is beautiful in a bleak windswept sort of way, and we marvelled at all the little fields fenced in with stones all dug from the soil they surrounded - back-breaking work over centuries, no doubt. The night was spent in Limerick, with a garrulous B&B owner chatting enthusiastically to us when we arrived at 9.30pm - I thought he was going to spend the night in the room with us, kissing the Blarney Stone!!! But he was very friendly, and his elderly father who did the obligatory Irish breakfast, waved us off like long-lost friends.
Heading towards Killarney the next morning, (with helpful guidance from some locals when we stopped to make a phone call, who honked and waved as we left - more Irish friends...) we met up with Danny O'Sullivan, my second cousin, who at 91 still milks 10 fat cows on his 58 acre farm (plus a few dry stock). He regaled us with tales of the past, including the machine gun hidden in the hay loft when the Garda came looking for hiding Republicans, and blowing up rocks with gelignite to provide materials for building the new house in the 1950s. The original stone house, many hundreds of years old, is still there. But Danny is also up with the times, and daily checks the prices of his Irish Insurance, and Kerry Dairy shares by teletext on his TV. He is truly an advertisement for clean Irish living, and his secret ingredient, which is unpasteurised Irish milk which he claims can cure cancer!!!! Apparently pasteurising takes all the good out of it, and we were presented with a mug of the real thing taken directly from his chilled vat - quite delicious actually - so we are now duly protected. His dog was one of two very friendly dogs we met that day - another one adopted us while we were picnicking in the car later. It abandoned its protection of a nearby farmhouse and came lolloping over to lick us and gaze soulfully in the windows hoping for scraps.
The night was spent in Cahir, a lovely historic town on the way back towards Dublin, with ancient forts and bridge, viewed during another howling gale!!!! The B&B was delightful, with lots of Irish knick-knackery and more friendly Irish people. On the road next day, we headed for Dublin, and I dropped Shaun and Julia off at their hostel for a few days' sightseeing before they head back to the UK. I managed to get lost in the one-way streets of central Dublin for half and hour before I extricated myself and headed to the airport for the plane to the UK then New York.
Ireland certainly lived up to its misty green image, and seemed to be full of very friendly people and dogs!!!!
The Cliffs of Moher were beautiful, but the gale prevented us from doing the illicit coastal path the Kathryn recommended, as we might have joined the gannets flying down the cliff-side. The west of Galway is beautiful in a bleak windswept sort of way, and we marvelled at all the little fields fenced in with stones all dug from the soil they surrounded - back-breaking work over centuries, no doubt. The night was spent in Limerick, with a garrulous B&B owner chatting enthusiastically to us when we arrived at 9.30pm - I thought he was going to spend the night in the room with us, kissing the Blarney Stone!!! But he was very friendly, and his elderly father who did the obligatory Irish breakfast, waved us off like long-lost friends.
Heading towards Killarney the next morning, (with helpful guidance from some locals when we stopped to make a phone call, who honked and waved as we left - more Irish friends...) we met up with Danny O'Sullivan, my second cousin, who at 91 still milks 10 fat cows on his 58 acre farm (plus a few dry stock). He regaled us with tales of the past, including the machine gun hidden in the hay loft when the Garda came looking for hiding Republicans, and blowing up rocks with gelignite to provide materials for building the new house in the 1950s. The original stone house, many hundreds of years old, is still there. But Danny is also up with the times, and daily checks the prices of his Irish Insurance, and Kerry Dairy shares by teletext on his TV. He is truly an advertisement for clean Irish living, and his secret ingredient, which is unpasteurised Irish milk which he claims can cure cancer!!!! Apparently pasteurising takes all the good out of it, and we were presented with a mug of the real thing taken directly from his chilled vat - quite delicious actually - so we are now duly protected. His dog was one of two very friendly dogs we met that day - another one adopted us while we were picnicking in the car later. It abandoned its protection of a nearby farmhouse and came lolloping over to lick us and gaze soulfully in the windows hoping for scraps.
The night was spent in Cahir, a lovely historic town on the way back towards Dublin, with ancient forts and bridge, viewed during another howling gale!!!! The B&B was delightful, with lots of Irish knick-knackery and more friendly Irish people. On the road next day, we headed for Dublin, and I dropped Shaun and Julia off at their hostel for a few days' sightseeing before they head back to the UK. I managed to get lost in the one-way streets of central Dublin for half and hour before I extricated myself and headed to the airport for the plane to the UK then New York.
Ireland certainly lived up to its misty green image, and seemed to be full of very friendly people and dogs!!!!
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Ireland and More Rain
I will be getting trench foot shortly, from tromping around in wet shoes, plus the odd patch of mildew around my ears................... Ireland is very green, of course, but I could do without all that rain.
I have been doing the corny tourist thing in the double-decker bus around Dublin. Trinity College is lovely, the Guinness Brewery has a great view, but the Kilmainham Jail was the emotional high/low point as we walked around the very jail where the Easter Rising leaders were imprisoned, and the yard where they were shot by firing squad, however the cruelty of even executing one tied to a chair because he was too ill to stand turned the tide of public opinion in their favour, to eventually bring Ireland freedom, so martyrdom brings ts rewards.
Tonight was Irish bands and dancing at the Arlington hotel - great fun, thanks Kath - so tomorrow morning is hopefully meeting Julia, todrive to Killarney to meet Danny - time is out at the internet cafe - more to follow,,,,,
I have been doing the corny tourist thing in the double-decker bus around Dublin. Trinity College is lovely, the Guinness Brewery has a great view, but the Kilmainham Jail was the emotional high/low point as we walked around the very jail where the Easter Rising leaders were imprisoned, and the yard where they were shot by firing squad, however the cruelty of even executing one tied to a chair because he was too ill to stand turned the tide of public opinion in their favour, to eventually bring Ireland freedom, so martyrdom brings ts rewards.
Tonight was Irish bands and dancing at the Arlington hotel - great fun, thanks Kath - so tomorrow morning is hopefully meeting Julia, todrive to Killarney to meet Danny - time is out at the internet cafe - more to follow,,,,,
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Heathrow, then Bochum Conference
I left Oxford at 6am to drive via the Vale of the White Horse, and by 7.30 I was clambering over the grassy slopes of the mountain below the horse, past some really, really black sheep minding the hills. My shoes got soaking wet, and the wind whipped around, but it was worth it for the view above and below. There was beautiful scenery across the patchwork of the Thames Valley, and lots more lovely hedgerowed lanes to meander through. Fortunately this detour brought me onto the M4 which is the easiest access to Heathrow, and did not require any hair-raising zipping on and off interchages to the M25.
Arriving at Heathrow, I discovered the city was shutting down because of the Tiger Tiger nightclub car bomb scare. Luckily Heathrow was not affected, so we flew out on time, to the unfolding story as we arrived in Germany, of the next car towed to the impounded zone for illegal parking. The next day of course came the Glasgow airport car bomb, so luckily Bochum is not on any terrorist´s radar, I would imagine. Hopefully my flight to Dublin tomorrow is not affected.
The conference is now in its second day, my presentation is over, and I´m sure no-one wants details of the latest genre analysis or cognitive theory approach to writing, so I will leave that out. The university is so far out of the city there is no possibility or temptation to slip away for some shopping, so I may break my routine of always buying some interesting clothes as a memento of a conference!! Bochum is "post-industrial Ruhr" which is very solid and serious, although the beer halls last night were full of large German drinkers, plus several groups of young women doing their version of a hen night.
So tomorrow night is off to Dublin, then meeting up with Julia and Shaun on Wednesday.
Arriving at Heathrow, I discovered the city was shutting down because of the Tiger Tiger nightclub car bomb scare. Luckily Heathrow was not affected, so we flew out on time, to the unfolding story as we arrived in Germany, of the next car towed to the impounded zone for illegal parking. The next day of course came the Glasgow airport car bomb, so luckily Bochum is not on any terrorist´s radar, I would imagine. Hopefully my flight to Dublin tomorrow is not affected.
The conference is now in its second day, my presentation is over, and I´m sure no-one wants details of the latest genre analysis or cognitive theory approach to writing, so I will leave that out. The university is so far out of the city there is no possibility or temptation to slip away for some shopping, so I may break my routine of always buying some interesting clothes as a memento of a conference!! Bochum is "post-industrial Ruhr" which is very solid and serious, although the beer halls last night were full of large German drinkers, plus several groups of young women doing their version of a hen night.
So tomorrow night is off to Dublin, then meeting up with Julia and Shaun on Wednesday.
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