Steps to the Met Museum

The last time we were in New York City, we visited the Guggenheim Museum. My cousin, Renelle Velez, had met us in Times Square and we went to Guggenheim. MOMA was also closed for renovation back in December 2003.

This time around (29 December 2007), we were determined include culture and art into our itinerary.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art or "the Met" is one of the world's largest and most important art museums. It is located at the eastern edge of Central Park (which we haven’t really visited), along what is known as Museum Mile. According to Wikipedia, the Met occupies more than two million square feet or more than 20 times the size of the original 1880 building. Photo of Cecile on the steps of the museum.

After two train transfers, we walked down 4 blocks, following Paul Albano’s direction. We encountered a couple of tourists carrying the all-familiar blue MET shopping bag. “We are in the right direction.”

One would quickly be amazed by the façade of the museum. The bigness and magnitude. Plus, the crowd on its steps. We stopped for a few minutes for photo opps. “Let us do it now, as later, when we get out of the museum, it would be dark already.” I told my tired wife.

The Met's permanent collection contains more than two million works of art, from classical antiquity and Ancient Egypt, and more paintings from many all the European masters. The Met also has an extensive collection of American and modern art. We really couldn’t really see all these artwork. The Met Shop alone took much of our time. Books. Books and more books at reasonable prices. Thanks to American Express, we swiped nearly 200 dollars worth of items.

Cecile needed to rest her feet, so she sat at one of the benches in the lobby. I left one Met shopping bag and moved around the museum. She said, “Sige na go ahead… para at least one of us saw the museum.”

I really didn’t know what gallery to check out. The museum was really too big. My sense of direction led me to check out the “reliefs” in the Velez-Blanco Gallery. Yes, a Velez Gallery. Then, I moved quickly around the Clock Gallery and then, the Christmas tree display.

After 20 minutes, I returned to where Cecile was resting and told her to check out an entire sixteenth-century patio from the Spanish castle of Velez Blanco. Yup, a Velez castle meticulously reconstructed in a two-story gallery. And the large Christmas tree.

Olwen called and shared in our excitement and strongly urged us to see the Van Gogh Gallery.

Thus, we walked through the Van Gogh collection and saw Van Gogh's Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat.

Our next stop for that night was dinner with Paul, Rlyn and Paeng. Maybe, next year, more of Van Gogh, Rembrandts, Vermeer and Monet.