Home Again

Another major retirement adventure has come to an end, and we're back in the UK after a wonderful last weekend of this trip in NYC with my sister.   Once again, we spent most of the time ambling around Joy's new neighbourhood on the Upper West Side - what a great place to live, only one block west of Central Park, and four blocks east of the Riverside Parkway.

Outside 'The Met', on 5th Avenue

Typical Street Vendor, Upper West Side

Fantastic Bookshop, Upper West Side

Halloween, Upper West Side

Night-time View to the West from Joyce's Apartment

Once again, we discovered 'new' places to eat brunch or dinner, including a great cocktail bar/restaurant called 'Hi-Life', with an eclectic menu offering, which attracted our attention by the 1936 Lincoln parked right outside, complete with a neon Hi-Life sign on its roof.   Very cool!

The Hi Life Restaurant and the 1936 Lincoln

We also managed to fit in a trip to The Cloisters museum and gardens (we just love getting around by bus in this City - so very cheap, at $2.75 each per journey, or cheaper still if you buy a monthly pass).   The Cloisters, nowadays part of 'The Met', stands right up at the northern end of Manhattan overlooking the River Hudson.   It is dedicated to European medieval architecture, sculpture and decorative arts, almost all of which was originally found in, or part of, monasteries, abbeys and churches in countries such as France, Germany, Austria, Italy, The Netherlands and UK, and all of which were collected by and brought over to the US in the early 1900s by American sculptor and art dealer, George Grey Barnard.   This enormous collection is now displayed in beautiful architectural settings centred around four different cloisters and gardens.   When Barnard offered the place for sale in 1924, financier and philanthropist, J D Rockefeller Jr, provided the funds that enabled the Met to purchase the museum and its collections for the country.   It's quite a place!

Several Views Inside 'The Cloisters'

On the (suddenly very cold!) morning of our last day of the trip (Sun, 21 Sept), we visited the incredibly stylish Neue Gallerie - one of the latest additions to 'Museum Mile' on 5th Avenue - devoted exclusively to early 20th century Austrian and German art and decorative art.

The Gift Shop and the Design Shop, Neue Gallerie
(no photos allowed on display floors)

In the (even colder!) afternoon, we joined a small-group guided tour, conducted by Heather, an acquaintance of my sister's, taking in many formerly overlooked (at least by us) interesting aspects of the wonderful Central Park. Unfortunately, for me at least, the sudden plunge in temperatures and the ferocious wind whistling around that afternoon left me really struggling later on, as we packed for the next day's early-morning trip to JFK airport,  to remember many of the details of what had, at the time, been a really fascinating tour.   Maybe, as my brain thaws out, those details will start to filter into my memory banks!

Several Views 

For now, though, time to unpack, do the laundry, and settle back into our cosy and very Merry Cottage world!