Homage to the Masters!

Friday was all about the Masters.

Tracey and I rose early and went to the local supermarket. Usual lot of groceries but, more importantly, we'd run out of Coronas (that's a type of beer Mum) and had to stock up while they are still on special!

We then rounded up the young-uns and headed up town to West 86 Street, this street runs east west and is about half way up Central Park. This was as far north as we have been and you don't really want to go much past the top of Central Park which is 110th Street.

We headed through Central Park, past the Jackie Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, to the Guggenheim Museum. This cork-screw like building was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in the '50s, it is pretty impressive though not particularly big. They have an interesting collection of art both old and modern and there were heaps of people milling around. The central section has a large sculpture hanging from the roof just called 'All' by a dude called Maurizio Cattelan, lots of bits hanging from the roof including the biggest fooz-ball table I have ever seen.

After inflicting culture on the teenagers we went outside and partook in that great New York culinary tradition - Street Meat.

All over town there are little carts on the footpath selling hot dogs, kebabs, pretzels, nuts, and lots more. They usually smell fantastic and some of them will have a queue of people waiting to be served. We tried a hot dog from the cart out the front of the Guggenheim - verdict, it was OK. Probably should have tried one of his other offerings.

We caught the subway back into town and split up, the boys hung around town for a bit and then headed back to the apartment. Trace and I went to the MOMA - Museum of Modern Art - which is in the middle of the shopping district in town. There are some great paintings here - Monet, van Gogh, Cezanne, Picasso just to name a few. Once again there were lots of visitors to the Museum and their gift shop was quite interesting.

By this time it was quite dark so we headed back to the apartment for a quiet evening in.

A few points I have noticed/learned so far:

- There are heaps of tourists especially from Europe
- The gutters are steel so the snow plows don't destroy them
- Man-hole covers really do have steam coming out around them (don't know why)
- Everyone travels by subway and they have grates in the footpath that blow air like the scene from the Marilyn Monroe movie
- Driving would be nightmare as pedestrians think they have the right of way and the traffic is so bad anyway
- The spike at the top of the Empire State Building was designed for airships to moor to it but only 1 ever did as it was considered too dangerous
- New Yorkers are very friendly and happy to help a tourist
- It is a very safe city
- The architecture is stunning, every day we see something that makes us stop and say 'look at that'
- Americans love (and I mean LOVE) peanut butter. Today Trace and I found those Lindt chocolate balls filled with peanut butter, you can also get M & Ms, cupcakes, and bags of chocolates all filled with peanut butter
- Light switches turn on/off the wrong way - down is off, up is on
- Power points don't have an on/off switch, just the plug holes
- I have taken over 600 photos

Tomorrow it is mid-town madness!Read more