11th September, 2018

As you may have gathered, this was 9/11, the 17th anniversary of the attack in 2001, so not really the day to head downtown as various dignitaries and a great deal of security were descending on the Memorial, so instead we climbed aboard the Uptown Tour. Interesting photo of Val, looking a bit like Barbara Streisand in ‘What’s Up, Doc?’

Times Square is located at roughly 45th Street (streets run east-west across Manhattan and Avenues north-south) and we headed North up 8th Avenue along the west side of Central Park. The latter is huge and runs some 2.5 miles long with 5th Avenue running down the east side. Lots of very expensive apartment blocks run its length including the famous Dakota Building outside of which John Lennon was killed in 1980. Apparently Yoko Ono still lives there.

We were taken as far as Harlem which is now becoming quite trendy apparently. We past the famed Apollo Theatre, which still has Amateur Night, where many stars of the future were first discovered including Jimmy Hendrix and James Brown and where Buddy Holly played, which it seems was a bit of a surprise at the time as they didn’t know he was white when he was booked!

We then headed down 5th Avenue and hopped off at our first stop, the Guggenheim Museum of Art. This is a truly amazing building, designed by Frank Lloyd-Wright with a central atrium and a slowly ascending walkway going around it a bit like a white orange peel assuming you are able to peel an orange like that. I am not sure you will relate to that analogy, so here are some photos!

The main exhibition which ran along the edge of the walkway, was of works by Giacometti, who seemed to specialise in tall thin statues, a sample of which can be seen in the photos. There were a few other galleries, one of some works by Impressionists and Cubists et al and some more experimental stuff by some Chinese artists in an exhibit called ‘One Hand Clapping’, the most notable aspect of which, in my opinion, was the title.

It was then off again on the bus, but not far, as our next stop was more culture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is a combination of the V&A, the British Museum and the National Gallery and is really good. There was far too many rooms here to see in one visit and we plumped for Asian art, with some stunning exhibits of Indian, Chinese and Japanese art. We started with some sculpture…

Then some Japanese works…..

We also had a look into the main exhibit which was rather incongruously based on fashion and the Catholic Church, but which looked rather exciting, but unfortunately we had limited time (and energy) and we had one more port of call a bit further down 5th Avenue at the Frick Collection. Rodin’s Burghers of Calais were also spotted…

The Frick is the collection of art in the original home (mansion) of Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919) who was a very rich magnate of the 19th and 20th centuries who decided to collect and display only the very best in his home. It only takes about 30 minutes to go round, depending on how long you like to dwell, but you can see a whole room of Gainsboroughs, Constables, Reynolds and other British artists, with Rembrandt, Vermeer, Titian, Turner, Ingres, Goya, Watteau, Frag, Holbein, Manet, Renoir and many others also displayed. And all in a lovely interior. Sadly no photos allowed other than the central courtyard.

It was time to ‘hop’ back on the bus and make our way back to Times Square passing the typical high rise architecture of New York.

We were now exhausted, so we hailed a cab and collapsed back at the ship. At least it stopped raining!