Rockefeller Center, Grand Central, and the Met

Grand Central Terminal

Leaving the Public Library, we walked a couple of blocks down to the Grand Central Terminal. We weren’t planning to ride a train, but I had heard about this place all my life and I wanted to see what it looked like. There was a construction project (what a surprise) in progress by the entrance, but we appreciated the design of the bridge over Park Ave. to the entrance, and the fancy clock over the door.

Inside we found high ceilings spotted with stars in constellations, huge beautiful windows and stunning chandeliers. And lots of people, going in all directions simultaneously. Which is what you expect for a train station. What you don’t expect in a train station is elegant track signs. But at Grand Central, each track has its own fancy sign. And there are gold mail drops!

Down in the basement, we found plenty of shops and restaurants, including the highly recommended (and highly priced) Oyster Bar. We wandered around there for a while but didn’t stop anywhere. Instead, we went on up Park Ave. which is the prettiest street in New York. We enjoyed the sights, and had a very nice lunch at TGI Friday’s. The restaurant was at the top of a building, and there was a skylight with stained glass.

St. Patrick’s Cathedral

On the way up to Rockefeller Center we stopped for a quick look at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It’s kind of a shock to see this elegant Gothic church amongst all of the skyscrapers of downtown Manhattan. We stepped in for a peek at the interior – elegant, as expected. And the wooden doors are beautiful.

Friendly Lego Dragon

The Lego store had lots of museum-quality Lego creations in it. This dragon, up at ceiling level, was one of our favorites.

Rockefeller Center Shops

You can see that this area is packed with people. At Christmas time they put a huge tree right in the middle! Right below this area is the big skating rink, with lower-level shops and restaurants all around it.

30 Rock

This is the main building of Rockefeller Center. The iconic artwork out front (created in 1933) is in the Art Deco style; examples can be found on all of the Rockefeller Center buildings.

Skating Rink

Ringed with the flags of the world, this huge rink is packed with skaters.

Lego Skating Rink

In the Lego store, one of the best models was a recreation of Rockefeller Center’s skating rink, with all of the flags and buildings around it.

Metropolitan Museum

At the end of the day on Friday we were pretty tired, but we wanted to see the famous Metropolitan Museum of Art. It’s a huge museum, like the Louvre in Paris, and we had to select which sections we would explore. We decided to see the Ancient Near East section and the French Impressionists.

In the Ancient Near East section we saw pottery, jewelry, and sculpture from ancient Mesopotamia (~3000 B.C.) up through Roman times. In the French Impressionists we saw a lot of Monets and a few Van Goghs. On the way out, we saw a display of old military recruitment posters from World War 1, and I’ve included a couple of them in the photo grid below.

Be sure and click on anything that is of interest – you’ll get to see a lot more detail.