Rock-Village.com

Menu
Rock Village Website banner picture, a rocky area with cairns

New York City

June 2011

We visited Diane and Frank recently in New York City. This was our 1st time there, and long overdue!

I woke up on the day we went down with a bad kink in my shoulder and neck; I could hardly turn my head. That didn't get in our way at all, though, and now (a week later) it is substantially better. That is really fast for something like this, in case you were wondering.

Their apartment is in a great location, with their building's open space out one window, and the adjacent building's open space out the other. So they are living in a forest in the middle of the city.

View across a bright apartment living room reflected in mirrored closet doors, with green trees visible through the windows

On Friday we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, walking through Central Park on the way. Here are Paul and Diane when we entered the park.

Woman and man standing together at the entrance to Central Park with the stone gateway behind them

And here we are in front of the Reservoir, with it's fountain. There were many ducks in the water, although you can't see them in the picture. In fact, we heard a lot of birds in the park.

Woman and man standing in front of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir with the fountain and skyline behind them

One last picture for this page: the reservoir and the tall building on the West side of the park.

View across the reservoir toward the skyline and fountain, framed by dark leafy branches

Close to the MMoA is Cleopatra's Needle. This is a very interesting looking monument, although the only thing they have to do with Cleopatra is both being from Egypt.

Man gesturing toward Cleopatra's Needle rising above the trees in Central Park

In front of The Met is a fabulous fountain with a long line of flowing water.

Long low fountain in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art with rows of white water jets

We first entered through the Roman area. Paul and Diane posed in front of an impressive statue.

Woman and man standing in the Met's Roman gallery in front of a large classical marble statue

Our course on the Met featured selected objects, and we were able to see many of them. One was this wonderful sarcophagus, with it's 3-dimensional relief figures. (Marble sarcophagus with the Triumph of Dionysos and the Seasons) It certainly took amazing skill and effort to create this.

Large carved stone sarcophagus with high-relief figures displayed in the museum

We spent a lot of time in the European Art area of the collection, which is very large. The 1800s collection features a large number of French painters, because one of the major donors was particularly fond of those paintings.

You can't really appreciate Van Gogh until you see some of his works in person. Here is Paul about to make off with one of them...

Playful museum photo with a framed Van Gogh self-portrait in front and a man's arms extended from behind it

I was extremely fond of the Irises painting.

Woman standing in front of Van Gogh's Irises painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

One extremely large painting was The Horse Fair, with strong and accurately painted equines. Paul spent a great deal of time studying this painting.

Man standing beside Rosa Bonheur's large painting The Horse Fair in the museum gallery

I took this next picture, of Jean-Léon Gérôme's Before the Audience, for Jenn to admire. (This piece seems to no longer be at the MET.)

Jean-Léon Gérôme's Before the Audience displayed in an ornate gold frame

in report

Updated April 2026