Thoughts & Reflections

Tag: Museums

A Weekend of Holiday Trains

With the holidays now upon us, life has gotten more busy during the last few weeks. Between checking out all the holiday shops, craft fairs and pop-up stores as well as meeting up with friends, I did make room for a few free events going on around the city this month.

During a recent stopover at Grand Central Terminal, I walked by the Transit Museum Annex and detoured inside to take a look at the holiday train show the museum puts on display every year. The tiny shop/museum annex was full of people as some bought gifts while others (like me) went in to admire the models of trains, buildings and city and country landscapes.

The biggest set was a miniature version of Grand Central Terminal itself, with taxis, cars and buses driving up Park Avenue and into and around the terminal. Crouching down below is a cut-away view of tracks, platforms and vintage trains. I love the retro feel of it as it reminds one of the golden age of travel by train.

And the following day, I decide to enjoy the real vintage trains by hopping on for a nostalgia ride. I took a regular train to Queens Plaza and arrived in time to watch the vintage train entering the station. There were plenty of people already waiting for it at this end of the route and we all hopped on board once it arrived on the other track to head back into Manhattan. The car I happened to enter was already filled with people as there were musicians and a singer already there, entertaining the people who had stayed on board the train.

The Grand St. Stompers sang and played throughout the ride to the Lower East Side, filling the car with holiday songs. Everyone took photos (of course) and enjoyed the music as well. Once we arrived at the end of the route, another band greeted us on the station platform as well dancers and many more people dressed in fashionable vintage attire. It was nice to get a glimpse of the past.

For those interested, there’s one more Sunday left to hop aboard and ride the old trains before they go back to the Transit Museum in Brooklyn. And the holiday train show at the Transit Museum will be on display through mid-February of next year.

December 21, 2015
The Dyckman Farmhouse

I recently spent a weekend up in Inwood, the neighborhood at the northern end of Manhattan island (though it’s not the furthest neighborhood of the borough; that honor goes to Marble Hill). Usually, I’m only in the area for the annual Medieval Festival or a visit to the Cloisters but for once, I travelled beyond Fort Tryon park and rode the A train to the end of the line.

The Dyckman Farmhouse is over 200-years-old and the last remaining farmhouse left in Manhattan. It currently sits a few blocks south of where the original house was located; the one that stands today is of a later date since the first house was destroyed during the American Revolution. Almost a century ago, it was converted to a museum that is now run by the New York City Parks Department.

Surrounded by modern construction, the farmhouse sits on a corner lot atop a slight hill. Enter at the corner and climb up the path to reach the front porch. On the day I went, the museum was hosting a fall festival event so there were a lot of children poking around indoors and out. Most of the rooms are open to the public so one can walk inside and examine the furniture and objects up close to get a sense of what life must have been like for the Dutch settlers.

There is a large garden behind the house as well as two smaller buildings. The larger of the two is a reconstructed military hut used by the British and Hessians when they had an encampment in Inwood during the Revolution. It was locked but there is a plaque just outside the hut with more information. With their fair going on, there were a few tables set up in the gardens for children’s arts and crafts as well as a demonstration of an old press for making apple cider. There were different events set up throughout the day but I didn’t stick out for most of them. The farmhouse is fairly small and one can see pretty much everything in under an hour.

October 14, 2015
Alice in Wonderland Tea at the Morgan Library

Currently, there is an exhibition at the Morgan Library devoted to Alice in Wonderland. I love children’s literary classics and Alice is one of them, what with the rhyming, songs and cast of crazy characters. I met up with my friend Q once more and we went to check out the exhibit the day after her birthday.

Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t feeling well at all that morning but I went anyway (I did feel much better later on in the day) and tried to enjoy it as much as I could. The exhibit is titled Alice: 150 Years of Wonderland and some of the items on display included photos of Lewis Carroll and Alice Liddell, sketches and illustrations from the book by Carroll himself as well as John Tenniel. And of course, there were copies of the book itself including a limited first edition that had been recalled because Tenniel wasn’t satisfied with the quality of how his illustrations appeared in the printed copies.

We also checked out a photography exhibit upstairs after we finished with the Alice exhibit and then went down to the cafe for the Alice in Wonderland themed afternoon tea that is currently on their lunch menu. We ordered one tea set and split it between us. The tiered tray was absolutely adorable, decorated with illustrations from the book and topped with a sign that said “Eat Me”.

The were four tea sandwiches, cut into spades and clubs. The ones I tasted were egg salad and I think a chicken salad; there was a salmon one and I’m unsure what the last one was. On the top tier was a scone (with jam and clotted cream topped with purple glitter), a treacle tart and a heart shaped linzer cookie. For a casual cafe, I thought the offerings were fine though Q didn’t enjoy it much. Since it wasn’t a fancy hotel tea, one should not have high expectations but for me it was enjoyable. I might have been more critical if I had been feeling better but a cup of hot tea did go a long way in helping me out (I was freezing in the exhibit rooms).

For those that are interested, there’s still time to check out the exhibit. It runs through October 12, 2015.

September 22, 2015
Visiting Versailles

A visit to Paris is never complete without a visit to Versailles as well. Mindful of the crowds, we made the palace our first stop on our first full day in France. After a little hassle buying our train tickets (coin-only vending machines are so not our friends) and figuring out which train would get us there, we boarded an early train that arrived just as the château was opening for the day.

As we approached the gates, we could see the long queues for the security check and I walked very quickly to the ticket hall knowing we’d have a long wait ahead of us. There were signs everywhere cautioning the presence of pickpockets and sure enough, there was a commotion at the head of the line that involved a thief, an Asian tour group and a fight. Thankfully the guards came quickly though the line was stalled as they sorted things out.

There were plenty of people wandering inside the Palace by the time we made it inside. It was a slow moving procession at first but we squeezed through the larger groups and there was a bit more breathing room once we got past the Royal Chapel. Versailles is a lot like other grand palaces open to the public; it reminded me a lot of Schönbrunn Palace, where we just walked from room to room admiring all the grand furniture, richly decorated walls and large portraits of royalty hung in every room.

I think I liked the larger halls better since there was a lot more space and not as dimly lit as some of the royal apartments were. The Hall of Mirrors was spectacular, especially by daylight with the sun reflecting off all the mirrored panels, gilded decorations and on the sparkling chandeliers. I also liked The Battles Gallery, not only for the grand paintings of famous battles involving France but also for the beautiful glass ceiling above our heads.

We exited the palace from the back which led to the great gardens that formed Louis XIV’s backyard. The grounds are huge, spreading out literally as far as the eye could see. Sculptured lawns, broad allées and plenty of water features to catch one’s eye. The most prominent thing to see from the steps of the palace is the Grand Canal as it stretched further and further back. At the end closest to the palace, rowboats are docked along the side, available as rentals to traverse the canal.

There are several admission tiers to the Palace of Versailles. P and I bought the Passport, which includes the main Palace as well as two smaller ones some distance away. A tram runs between all three palaces but it costs extra. We opted to just stroll through the gardens but the map does not reveal just how extensive the grounds really are when traveling on foot; in hindsight, the price of the tram would have been well worth the cost because we were exhausted by the time we reach the Grand and Petit Trianon.

Unfortunately for us, we had arrived too early. After the grueling hike to get there, we found out that both the Grand and Petit Trianon would not open until noon, which left many people (us included) wandering around the nearby gardens to kill time. I suppose that was a good thing after all since our sore feet deserved a much needed rest.

We ended up visiting the Petit Trianon first since it was slightly closer to where we sat waiting for the palaces to open. There was a lovely and tiny courtyard through which we passed to get into the Petit Trianon and once inside, we saw it was really petit, when compared with the main palace. It’s much more comparable to the large mansions of modern day.

Petite as it may be, there are some lovely and large (by modern standards) gardens around the Petit Trianon. Winding paths around the back run parallel to a small lake that eventually leads to a sculpture of Cupid in the Temple of Love in the English Garden. Taking another route would bring a visitor to the French Garden. The garden connects the Grand Trianon to the Petit Trianon and we were hoping to use it as shortcut but alas, it wasn’t opened that day.

We ended up retracing our steps from earlier that morning and entered the Grand Trianon by its main entrance. After seeing so many elaborate rooms, they nearly all looked the same after a point. There were fancy rooms, more paintings but also a lovely peristyle that connected the different wings and provided easy access to the gardens out back. We didn’t stroll through the grounds this time, having seen enough trees and landscaped shrubbery.

After five hours at Versailles, I think we covered about 85% of the entire estate. Our feet really were too tired to do any more walking; there were plenty of cobblestones in the courtyard and the grounds weren’t always level so we did walk uphill at some points. My only regret is that we skipped out on the Hamlet near the Petit Trianon. It would have been interesting to walk through but I do think it would have to be on another visit.

July 2, 2015
The Old Stone House

Two weeks ago, I ended up strolling along Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn and crossed from one neighborhood to another. From Boerum Hill, I walked south and made my way into Park Slope and my tired feet stopped at 9th Street to catch the train home. When I got home that evening to see how far I walked, I saw “Old Stone House” pop up on the map right next to my route. Curious, I returned to the area this past Sunday to learn more.

The Vechte-Cortelyou House really is an old stone house located right in the middle of a park, sandwiched between ball fields, playgrounds and a school. It’s a very unlikely place to situate a museum but apparently, it’s right near the original location of the building. (The original house was demolished in 1897 and rebuilt years later, in 1933.) The house itself is a lovely little building, surrounded by a front garden with other educational gardens nearby. There is a suggested donation of $3 to visit the museum and once inside, there is one exhibit located in the main room on the ground floor (the second floor was off-limits due to some sort of event and the side wing has public restrooms installed for the surrounding park). The sole exhibit is all about the Battle of Brooklyn during the Revolutionary War, with posters along the walls describing the battle and there are glass cases filled with objects that date from that time. Right in the middle of the room is a diorama of the original house during the Battle, which resulted in the British defeating General Washington and his troops.

It’s amazing where one can still find pieces of old New York these days. There aren’t that many of these old buildings left and the few that remain have also been turned into museums and educational centers, which benefits everyone interested in a bit of history.

September 23, 2014
The Frick Collection

One of the best perks at my company (before the spin-off) was the free admissions to many of the city’s museums. Thanks to corporate admission, I would find myself visiting museums more often than I would had I been a paying guest (though yes, many do offer paying a “suggested” amount if one doesn’t wish to pay the full amount). Over the years, I’ve been a frequent visitor of the Met and the Cloisters, MoMA and the American Museum of Natural History. One of the museums that wasn’t on the corporate admission list but I’ve been meaning to visit is The Frick Collection. During frequent forays to the uptown Ladurée, I would walk by the entrance and gardens of the museum and always wonder when I’ll get around to finally seeing what lay inside.

Yesterday was finally the day.

On Sunday mornings, admission to the Frick is “pay as you wish”. I managed to get uptown during those hours and pay a fraction of what it normally costs (like the Met and MoMA, a ticket for the Frick costs as much as going to the movies). There were already plenty of people inside but it wasn’t too crowded once one gets past the entrance and reception halls. Even though there are many rooms in the mansion, for me it was more or less a straight path to get from one area to the next and not end up in the same room over and over again.

According to Gothamist (which was what prompted me to finally visit) the most-photographed room at the Frick is the beautiful Garden Court. That’s no surprise since the museum does not allow photographs anywhere else inside. The Garden Court is very lovely though, with plants, sculptures and a fountain situated on the former driveway; there were many people sitting on the benches and taking a break from all the art. While I liked it very much, it would have been nicer to take a walk around the gardens outside but alas, they were off-limits. I guess I’ll continue to admire the manicured lawns from the street then.

July 7, 2014