For my final day in New York I headed across Central Park again towards the Guggenheim museum. At least I thought I was heading towards it - a few wrong turnings and I ended up 15 blocks down from where I had aimed to be! When finally there the Guggenheim museum had a good display of selections from its permanent collection (again on an abstract theme) and a photography exhibition. Just as interesting though was the building. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright it was set out in a spiral foundation, meaning that you moved around and up the building rather than (in the main) being in traditional galleries. It was different (if a little corridor-esque) and quite clever. What was also clever was the method they had for hanging pictures which meant that they appeared to float away from the rear wall (which itself was on a slope)!
From there the last stop of my trip was further along the road (known as "museum mile" - the "Met" which I visited on my first day is also along there) at the Museum of the City of New York. This had displays on the history of banking in New York plus on protest movements over the ages. The final gallery I visited had a photo display of the streets of London over the years - appropriate as London was my next stop, flying back to the UK.
Overall it was a good and busy week in New York. I say "New York", practically I haven't been outside of Manhattan during the time that I was there (despite one attempt to do so!). I have tried to make full use of the museums pass that I took out, and have probably done so (although with hindsight I should have been a little better at planning where I should go - there are still plenty more places that I haven't been to see yet). What was interesting though was some of the limited opening hours that some attractions had - many were closed on Monday (not just because it was the Labor Day holiday) and on Tuesday (or another day) too. Very few were open before 10 (some not until 11) and started closing at 4, with almost all shut by 5:30. For a city with the number of tourists that New York attracts, I found this very surprising.
Over the week, the weather has been variable. Always quite warm, there have been some spells of sunshine, but also some rain (as seen when I was up the Empire State Building) and quite a lot of cloud. Not enough to stop me doing anything though.
One of the surprises of the trip has been the New York Subway system - but not in a good way. Arriving in New York last Saturday I found it terribly confusing to work out where it is I should be going. First I found that directions are given as "Uptown" or "Downtown" which I didn't know whether was geographical, numerical or psychological (actually, both the first two apply). Secondly, although a train may go along a route, it may not stop at all the stations along it (arriving on a Saturday evening there were signs that "A goes along C line late night". Not knowing when "late night" was, an A turned up and I got on it. Fortunately I just caught the announcement that it was going non-stop through the station that I was wanting to get off on!). On a train there is very little indication as to where it is going, where the stops are etc apart from some announcements which are very difficult to hear. There is little indication on the platforms either - most do not have a "next train" display nor a clear display of the next stations on a line. One even left it very unclear that there were no trains at all that day! The platforms themselves are generally as hot as the bowels of hell itself, fortunately the trains themselves are air conditioned. They are not always terribly easy for getting about on, for example in Manhattan the trains generally run for north to south - there are very few that go across (hence all the walking on Thursday!) However, I still managed to get about!
All in all it has been a great trip - I have seen three very interesting cities and a lot of museums, galleries and historic sights within them. It has been all go all of the time (I suppose the train journey was my "rest day" but even that wasn't just having a sit down!) - I probably need a holiday now!
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