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My wife has been looking forward to visiting the Cloisters for a while now.
So,

brickhousewench and

palusbuteo joined us and we set off good and early.

It’s about 180 miles, and who knows what you’ll encounter on the drive?

But, it is a nice drive.

And, there are balloons.

We took the road with the bridge with wings.

And, went past the cellphone tree.

And, soon we were driving down west side of Manhattan.

The Cloisters is in a park right along the Hudson river in upper NYC.

So, off we went into the museum.

There are a lot of stairs.

The museum was made for displaying architectural artwork that the Met had. Including actual cloisters that made central courtyards.

Most of the artifacts they have are religious as was most of the artwork in the middle ages that the museum has.

One of the things I’ve been looking at in the artwork since we went to the costume exhibit at the Morgan last spring is how the costumes are shown in Medieval art.
They always show the costumes (except for Jesus) as being contemporary. So, even though this painting is supposed to be the Pharaoh 3500 years ago, the costumes are from when it was painted.

There are some pieces that have some very impressive work like this carved altar.

Of course, just the setting itself is very nice to look at.

We have a reproduction of this tapestry in our living room.

They do have a unicorn horn as well.

And, the gardens are very nice.

You can see the park and the Hudson.

The folks who made the museum had the foresight to buy 300 acres on the opposite shore to make the the view stayed nice.

We spent the morning exploring the museum.

On the way down

brickhousewench had been talking about playing cards at faires, so it was nice to see their set.

This one has always impressed me with the amount of ivory used.

There are lots of other impressive things.

I liked this cup a lot.

I also liked this box.

I certainly don’t advocate killing animals to take their ivory. But, I have to admit I like ivory. So, if any animals just want to leave some lying around, I’m OK with using that. Just wait until they’re done with it first.

This 800 year old scroll impressed me a lot.

It is one of those things that if I did have a time machine I’d like to go back and tell the person who made it that in 800 years it would be on display as a treasure.

I like this academic scepter.

I did spend a lot of time in the garden. I don’t remember so many poisonous plants last time I was there.

My wife seems to like the gardens too.

And, continued with her habit of having her picture taken in stone windows.

I did decide to finally buy a membership to the Met, that includes the Cloisters. I had hoped for the less expensive membership for people who live more than 200 miles away. But, I only live 180 miles away. And, they did check my zip code and said I was too close for that. But, they did have a special web membership that wasn’t too expensive and our fee for going that day was put towards it, so it wasn’t too bad.
And, the day you join you get 20% off in the gift store. So, that was nice.

We had packed some sandwiches for lunch, so had a nice picnic in the parking area over the Hudson.

Then, back into the museum.

I really like the Cloisters. But, it is a small museum that I’ve been to several times before.
So, while others looked around some and we were waiting for our tour to start, I did go and sit in the garden and watch Doctor Who on my iPad.

Other folks did more artistic things.

My wife did join me in the garden, but picked a sunnier spot.

I did ask one of the guards if it was OK for me to sit on the stone wall as I know some of the stone sections are original. He thanked me for asking and told me it was OK as long as I didn’t move any of the plants to do so.