We stepped out of the door of Terminal 2 and immediately we heard it—the
incessant honking of horns. Ah, back in
New York City. We were there to
celebrate Christmas with our younger daughter, Erin. We climbed into a taxi which wound its way
through traffic to her apartment in Brooklyn.
Our first outing was a walk of several blocks to the small local
grocery store. This is a transitional
neighborhood consisting mostly of black Caribbeans but also of Hasidic
Jews. An interesting combination. The grocery store aisles were tight and the
selection was limited but we found everything we needed. The vegetable section included some items we
don’t usually see but the quality was poor.
Everything was carefully placed in Erin’s foldup cart and we trudged
back up the hill.
Winter is not the best time to see Central Park, but that’s when we
were there. The bare limbed trees, while
not so pretty, do allow you to see the city skyline. Bundled in warm coats, and wrapped in
scarves, hats, and gloves to guard against the icy wind, we walked around one
end of the park. Horse drawn buggies
were either empty or held passengers huddled under blankets. We wound around one path and down some stairs
into a tunnel to be serenaded by a violin and bass. We lingered a while with others, thoroughly
enjoying the beautiful notes which echoed off the walls of the tunnel. Continuing along the path we encountered
sculptures of Hans Christian Andersen reading “The Ugly Duckling” and the
characters from Alice in Wonderland.
A bit further we encountered Cleopatra’s Needle, an obelisk with
Egyptian hieroglyphs, which was built in Egypt then transported to Central Park
in 1881.
By this time the wind had picked up and my nose was totally
frozen. My husband, daughter, and I
decided it was time to head over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, better
known as the Met. We all got the audio
tour which was quite informative. It was
hard to know where to begin. Erin led us
to her favorite parts of the museum. We
viewed Greek and Roman Art, European painting, European Sculpture and
Decorative Art, Arms and Armor, a special photography exhibition, part of the
American Wing, and we breezed through African Arts and Egyptian Art. The three of us also enjoyed the Christmas tree with the wonderful nativity scene beneath it. We spent 5 hours there—more than we had
planned but not nearly enough. My
favorites? Van Gogh’s self-portrait and
his landscapes, Monet, and Degas’ sculptures and paintings of dancers. The Roman and Greek sculptures also
fascinated me.
We hustled back to Brooklyn for a late dinner, very tired but glad for
what we saw.
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