12/9/22 I’ve Met this before

Well the forecast rain didn’t happen but I headed of to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) since last time we didn’t look through the whole place, and missed the rooftop area.

Directly across from the hotel - trees growing out of everywhere!

To get to the Met from the hotel I had to get a subway (entrance is right next to the hotel) and then a cross town buss. After some buggering about trying to find the bus stop that wasn’t where the app said it was, a helpful bus driver told me to go across the opposite side of the intersection for the stop. I was pretty sure that was for the bus going in the opposite direction, but I had an unlimited pass so if anything else I was going to get an unplanned tour of the city. As it turned out, it was the correct stop, and in fact was in exactly the right place, I just got confused when I came out of the subway and thought I was facing in the opposite direction. My bus tour of Harlem will have to wait another day.

They take their trees seriously here

One of the areas I hadn;t seen was Arms and Armour which may have been closed off last time. There were some bizarre and complicated weapons here, and I suspect a pointed stick would have been far more reliable and effective.

Happy to see they catered for me sized people as well

This gave me the complete heebie jeebies

My favourite stained glass window of all time, loved seeing it again

The yard glasses used to be so ornate, but must have be hellova heavy

The guy on the left edge of the photo was dicking about with his mobile phone setting it up for a photo.

I kind of gave up waiting for him to bugger off so I started leaving. I turned around for one last shot to see him posing thoughtfully looking at the statue. I guess it was for his art appreciation instagram, or it could have been a comedy piece, it made me laugh. Twat.

I found where they put all the decent stuff 

And here I was thinking that music and a cushioned seat was the height of toilet luxury.

As a side note I’ve found out that Americans are either embarrassed or don’t understand what a toilet is.

They will go to such lengths to avoid talking about basic body parts or functions. And they have the cheek to call the English repressed.

The original Egyptian collection of Happy Meal toys.

A French bedroom from the mid-18th century from memory. The laundry must have been a bugger to do. Those beasties on the ceiling would give me nightmares as well.

The view from the rooftop

My first view of the buildings around Central Park again.

Some new long thin buildings have cropped up along the edge since 2019

Lunch - a very good hotdog, from the King of NY Hotdogs as featured on Netflix’s Street Food and a bunch of other programs.

5th Avenue, fair heaving with people

I probably shouldn’t walk about with a cap on, I went past this and didn’t even realise until I turned around to see what people were taking photos of.

The famous Katz Deli, as featured on so many food programs

Luckily the wait wasn’t as long as it could have been, I got inside straight away. It still took a good 20 minutes before I was served because it takes a while to slice up the meat.

There was a woman behind me in the line (she’s getting served in this picture, with the black t-shirt on) who thanked me for not causing a fuss when she accidentally brush past my arm. As a NZer of course I ended up apologising which only confused a strange situation even more. She also asked the mother and daughter ahead of me where they were from, and when they said Manchester she said they had a beautiful accent. Again, confused looks all around - pretty sure nobody has ever said that about a Manchester accent before. Luckily her mum mom in the next line got to the front and was looking confused for different reasons so she left us to queue in peace like normal people.

It’s all a bit complicated for the first timer - you get a ticket at the door that you have to hand over any time you order something. They write the price on the ticket and at the end you give it to the cashier to pay. The sandwiches are made in one area, other hot food is served in another area, drinks in another area.

Finally I got to sit down and contemplate what I had brought upon myself.

A pastrami on rye, with a Dr Browns Creaming Soda.

This is definitely not your 100g of shaved pastrami from the supermarket. It was so juicy and delicious, a taste of smoked meats and just so good. They also ship their products, but only around the States. 

This was definitely worth the wait.

The line after I had left - so glad I went when I did.

Not the most upper class of neighbourhoods but plenty of people about, mostly just sitting about enjoying the cool evening breeze and people watching.

Just an evening on the Downtown Train (actually the Uptown F subway)

I think I’ll do the tall buildings tomorrow - Empire State, 30 Rock, One World Trade Centre, The Edge and the Vanderbilt. It’ll make a nice change to go up instead of walking about down below them.