Day 7 NYC
A quiet day today. My left knee is complaining about having to climb down stairs (though it’s happy to climb up and to walk downhill) so I decided to give it a little break.
Shirley has joined me for a few days, hurrah! This afternoon we went to Hadestown at the Walter Kerr Theatre.
We arrived 40 minutes early and joined a very long though quickly moving line to have our vaccination status checked. Tickets were checked after we passed through a metal detector. It’s good we arrived early; with the lines and a preemptive visit the ladies room, it was not long til the show started.
It was a little surreal sitting in a full theatre again. I had an aisle seat which made me happy as there was no one on one side of me, and masks were required throughout. And once the show started, I completely forgot about my neighbours. I have to have a COVID test on Saturday for my Monday flight home. I am trusting my vaccinations are doing their job.
Hadestown won the best musical Tony award in 2019. It’s the story of Orpheus who goes in search of his beloved Eurydice who has descended to the underworld of the King of Hades. There were so many things about this show that I loved – some great performances, a wonderful set, amazing choreography – but somehow the show as a whole didn’t grab me. Nevertheless, it felt so good to be back to live theatre in New York.
Day 8 NYC
The Met Cloisters is the museum owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) with the weirdest history of all. American scuptor and art dealer George Gray Barnard sold his collection of medieval art to John D. Rockefeller Jr. who purchased it for The Met in 1930. But there really wasn’t a good place to house the collection, so Rockefeller hired an architect to design a medieval monastery on a steep hill he purchased in Washington Heights. Most of the museum was newly built, but several sections came from four or five medieval French monasteries that were disassembled stone by stone and shipped to New York for The Cloisters.
The Cloisters overlook the Hudson River and the New Jersey palisades. Rockefeller didn’t want that view sullied by development so he also purchased the visible land and donated it to the state of New Jersey no doubt with a caveat against development. It really is a remarkable building on an amazing site, but what a lot of stairs and uphill climbing to get to it!
Steeper sections of the walk up to The Cloisters have stairs. 
Gentle upward sloping path. Still up though! 
The Met Cloisters 
Sure feels like a medieval monastery even though built in the 20th century 
These beautifully carved stone pillars came from France 
Gothic chapel, Shirley egging me on 
This section of the Cloisters clearly was imported stone by stone from France. 
Photoshoot! 
Garden cloister, plants used in cooking, medicines and poisonings! 
Tapestry with the image of a unicorn most associated with the Met Cloisters
This afternoon Shirley and I went to the New York Botanicall Gardens for lunch and a stroill. I loved the selected whimsical works of Yayoi Kusama, a contemporary Japanese artist and scuptor, that are on display along with the annual scarecrows and pumpkins event. And the dahlias! What an amazing display of these gorgeous flowers.
After a deliciouis dinner at Rosemary’s excellent restaurant – if you ever go, you HAVE to have the caprese focaccia! – we went to Social Hygiene, a truly strange and pretentious Canadian film from Denis Côté playing as part of the New York Film Festival. There is actually dialogue in the film in spite of the impression given by this short trailer. Have a watch. See if you too think it’s weird.
Tomorrow I’m going waaay down south in Manhattan and over to Governors Island. See you there!
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