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Strolling Through the Met

One day last week while Husband was in meetings, Eustacia and I took a cab to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's in Central Park at 82nd Street, and we determined that was too far to walk from Times Square.

The Met is huge and so full of everything, you couldn't possibly see it all in one day, and as we entered the lobby, I remembered what Eustacia said after a couple of hours at the Tate—"My head is sinking down into my spine, and I can't hold myself up any longer." So, we planned to just look at some highlights and not try to do too much.

We started with the Egyptian artifacts. This is Eustacia standing in the tomb of Perneb, a court official from the 5th dynasty. We took a gander at some sarcophaguses and funereal gold, and tributes to a female pharaoh:

And then we found a bronze-age Starbucks:

We had lunch in an atrium with Tiffany windows, and then we spotted this studiolo, a tiny Italian studio covered with thousands of wood inlays. It was built for "intellectual pursuits," and you can see more details here.

The Met has a wonderful music room filled with instruments from around the world in their various evolved states. This is the evolution of the horn:

Teachers bring their classes to the Met to study famous paintings or styles of painting, and in some of the more popular rooms, there are usually little kids laying on the floor and drawing what they see. It's an inspiring sight:

I loved this lone kid studying a Monet painting off on the side by himself. He was busy drawing and erasing and being creative with his box of colored pencils.

We were jealous of these kids because we think the museum should offer this kind of interactive tour for adults, too. All in all, though, we had a nice visit to the place, and we capped it off with a walk to Pinkberries for some frozen yogurt and people watching.

Comments

kyle@sift said…
When I was an art student we were encouraged to go to the museum (it was free) to draw and study. It was not uncommon to find several dozen art students in the museum on any given day. I have come to realize, some were there to draw but many of us were just getting out of the cold of our poorly heated dorm rooms and apartments.

I'm so glad you had a great trip.
1:04 PM
dive said…
What a grand day out, Robyn! That's one place I simply must get around to visiting (if ever I can figure out a way of getting across the pesky Atlantic).
Belated apologies to Eustacia for forcing her to endure the Tate.
5:03 AM
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