The day of Central Park, the MET and the Statue of Liberty

The day started out drizzly and we purchased some umbrellas from the hotel shop and embarked on our latest adventure.

First destination was Lincoln Square where John Lennon was tragically killed.

This meant that we walked parallel with Central Park until this point and then entered the park to see the Imagine memorial. There were many people milling around but we managed to get ahead of the pack for my photo.

Onward through the park we spotted some squirrels and stopped to watch their antics.

Central Park is enormous and our next destination was the MET (Metropolitan Museum for Art). It was drizzly but pleasantly cooler for this part of our walk.

We walked a bit too far so we did see the Guggenheim Museum building and finally found the MET.

The MET building was impressive and we were keen to see the Sleeping Beauties Reawakening Fashion exhibition which Scott had bought tickets for …….. yesterday….. apparently this happens often and it was not a problem to change to today without extra cost.

We queued up outside a row of Rodin sculptures and any artworks. The fashions were impressive and inspirational.

We then viewed the European paintings including Monet, Cezanne and Degas to name a few.

Once we had reached our cultural limit we made our way to find a meal which took us down Park Avenue, a very nice area!

We found Luke’s Bar and Grill on 3rd Avenue and noticed That it was patronised by the locals. We chose fish tacos, meatballs, guacamole and salsa plus beers. The meal was finished with cocktails we call espresso martinis but were on the menu as Cafè Noir Martini.

We entered the subway at Lexington and 77th, changed at Grand Central, alighted at Bowling Green and then walked to the Whitehall Terminal to catch the Staten Island ferry past the Statue of Liberty. This ferry was free and was used by many people as we made our way across the waterway. Everyone has to alight at Staten Island so we explored a little with the intention to catch the next ferry – they leave every 30 minutes.

There was an outlet precinct at this end so we looked around and made some purchases. Then decided to taste our first chilli dogs New York style. They were OK.

We took the ferry back and caught the subway to Grand Central where we alighted and explored the terminal. It was a spectacular building with impressive stonework.

The station also housed an Oyster bar where we decided to have dinner. We had a range of natural local oysters and finished with a clam chowder each. The oyster crackers served with the soup was disappointing and we found out that the sourdough they usually serve it with had run out.

It was only about a 20 minute walk home so we made our way back through Times Square and its craziness! It was very warm and humid so the air conditioned lobby in our hotel was a nice place to wind down, enjoy a refreshment and look at the view for our last night in New York.