New York City & Westeros

[fbhjr]

My wife is a big fan of the Game of Thrones series. She’s read all but the last book and watched the first two TV seasons. (We don’t have HBO, so we won’t get to see the third season for almost a year when it comes out on DVD...)

She had heard that there was going to be an exhibit on the show coming around.
http://www.game-of-thrones-exhibition.com

Turns out it is only 5 cities, only one in the US and for less than a week at each place. So, you have to be pretty lucky to see it.
The good news for us was it was coming to New York City, only a 3 hour drive for us. Given we just did the Florida job at 22 hours each way, 3 each way is pretty easy.

My wife works for a Jesuit College, so she got today off for Good Friday. I didn’t have it off, but still had 2 comp days from all the over time I did last summer. So, I told my boss I wanted it off and he said OK.

We got up early and were on the road by 6:30.


I tried to do a time laps on the trip down, but didn’t get it set up right at first. So, I do have one for the last hour of the 3 hour trip if you are interested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FZCGfRXsVQ

Sadly one of the most interesting things seems to be between frames. At one point as we drove along a turkey flew across the road and almost flew into the car ahead of us. It was very fast and the camera only took 1 frame every 2 seconds. So, it looks like we missed it. Very sad.

But, we did make good time and got to the city about 9.

The pre-trip traffic planning worked well and we had no problems going in.

I love the road that runs down the west side of the city.


We parked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and renewed our memberships. We’re coming back next month anyhow, and usually go there a few times a year, so it is worth it.


Then, we promptly went out the other door and caught a cab to where the exhibit was a mile or so south.

We got there at 9:57 for it to open at 10. There was already a considerable line.


As we waited I started to get very hot. Burning hot. My wife figured out that the curved building next to us was concentrating the light and we were at the focus spot.

Even though the air temperature was only about 40F/9C I had to take off my coat and was still VERY warm.

But, both line and sun moved so it did not last too long.


We waited about an hour along the side of the road waiting to get in. My wife and I were both interested in the man across the street who was repainting around the store name to clean up the lettering.


I wore my work shoes as they are more comfortable than my sneakers.

I think that says something bad about my sneakers and I should get new ones.

The line behind us got VERY long and we were glad we got there when we did.


We also spent time discussing the architecture in the area.

We both prefer the building in the foreground to the one in the background. (Trump tower in the background...)

And that guy was still cleaning the wall.


A tour bus went by and our line was pointed out by the tour guide as a sign of New York. (Big lines for big events.)

It is not often I get to be tour worthy.

We did finally get to the front of the pre-line so we could get in the actual line to go in.

If you had Time-Warner cable you could actually skip right to this point. There must have been more than a thousand people in line. I saw maybe 50 do this.
I guess that says a lot about Time-Warner and why they are willing to host this for publicity.

About an hour after we got there, we got to the door.


If you go in, they own all images of you in there.

It tempted me to do something to make it worth that, but I didn’t.

The gift shop was very strange. They showed you what was available, then told you the store was 15 blocks south. Can’t imagine that is good for sales. I know I didn’t buy anything.


I liked the maps. But, the tapestry one more.


Of course, we looked at their swords.


It was bigger than I had feared, but very crowded.


My wife was very interested in the costuming.


I like other things.


We came to the conclusion that the actors on the show must be very small. For instance, the “mother of dragons” seems to be roughly the size of my left arm. At least that’s my conclusion based on her dress.

(I am not standing closer to the camera in that shot. I am actually a bit behind the dress. It is that small.)

The dragon eggs seemed about the right size.


They had a good variation of costumes there.



And, some stranger stuff.


I mentioned crowded, right?


Of course, the real reason I wanted to go was to sit on the iron throne and get our photo there.


They took your photo for free, gave you a printed copy and emailed you one as well. I was surprised that was free. Happy. Don’t get me wrong, I was happy about it.


Just before noon we got out.

Line and exhibit just under 2 hours.

We started walking back to the museum as it was a very nice day.


I did stop at the Apple store to see if they had more variety than the one near us. They didn’t. More things, but the same. Sad really.


We walked over to Madison Ave to have lunch.


We ate at a little Italian place with high prices and bad service.
I did like my lunch.


I’m the head of mechanical engineering for a robotics company with 7 people working for me. I won’t say that lunch cost more than a day’s pay, but it was a near thing. But, what do you expect eating on Madison Ave, right? And the other stuff was free when I didn’t think it would be, so it was still OK.
I was sad about the service. It was fine up until we wanted to leave, then our waiter disappeared for a long time. The table next to us finally flagged down the host as they hadn’t had a chance to give their order. I used that to get him to bring us our bill too. Don’t know what was going on as it was good until then.

We then resumed our walk by Central Park.


They have a statue there to a Richard Morris Hunt there!


Apparently 150 years ago he was a big patron of the arts there, so they put up the statue for him. I’m sure he’s no relation. At that point my family was the postmaster of a small town in Vermont. I’m sure if we had patrons someone would have mentioned it before now.

We went back to the met and went to their special exhibits.


I love seals, so we stopped to see them too.


I also love old writing.



We went to see a rattan sculpture exhibit too, but no photos allowed. So look! Benches!


Of course, if you look past them into the next room you may see some of what I’m not supposed to photograph...


My wife likes Japanese art, so we stopped for this one too.


I found this one very weird. It is an actual body of a deer encased in glass.


I’ve worked at museums with stuffed animals. We’ve got a glass collection at home. I’m not sure why the combination seems weird to me, but it does.

My wife thought it was cool.

This is one of my favorite spots in the museum. I can sit there and watch that bubbling rock fountain for a long time.


Look, more benches.

There is also a nice spot in the Japan wing where you can see the Egyptian temple below you.


There are parts of the NY museum that are a lot like the Boston one...


It was good Friday. So we did go through the religious art area. MSNBC was doing some sort of live broadcast from there, so we didn’t linger as much as normal.



This is not how I pictured Moses and Pharaoh.


They also had an exhibit called Plain/Fancy where they compared the two styles.


See if you can tell which is plain and which is fancy.




OK, if you don’t get these...


We also stopped to see some Faberge eggs. Easter=eggs, right?



I also found a big wooden F for my initial! Maybe I’ll switch from the flame F some day.


Then, time to head home and try and beat the traffic.



There was some big accident, but on the other side.


It was clear enough you could see the Tappan Zee Bridge north of the city.


We hit some traffic, but nothing bad.



We got back to Shrewsbury just at sunset, stopped to pick up something for dinner, then headed home.


Time lapse of the way home if you’re interested:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gV0VIh0vBE

All in all, a good trip. I’m glad we went.

Comments

[endlessblush.livejournal.com]

These photos are fantastic Frank! Thank you so much for sharing them all.

I loved the time lapse of you going into NYC - one day I hope to do that drive myself. It all looks so brown though - I guess the Spring green has still not shown up. And I'm surprised bythe lack of housing along the interstate (??) but I'm guessing all those exits took you to towns that you were driving near.

The exhibition looks amazing - i wonder if they'll bring something like that to Australia. It all looked very cool. The actress who plays the mother of the dragons IS tiny. I'm so surprised that they gave you a photo for free sitting in the throne - how often do you get a photo for free?? (although did you have to pay to get into the exibition?) That is weird that the gift shop was so far away - I guess lack of space and they could sell stuff to people who didn't go to the exhibition.

The photo of you guys on the Throne is great! You and your wife are so lovely together :) That photo made me happy.

I prefer the older buildings too - so much more interesting than those glass rectangles (boring!)

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

The route we take down is a blend of interstate and "parkway". If we went interstate the whole way than the last hour would be all city all the time. But, the parkway runs a couple of miles inland and therefore through some VERY well to do areas.
So, they forbid trucks, and there is not a big chance of getting a speeding ticket there.
It is a much nicer drive. It's the light blue below:


The exhibit and the photo were both free. The only cost is waiting in line.
Sadly, as it is, it is not going many places. Hopefully a future one will go more places.

[endlessblush.livejournal.com]

Ahh I see - I understand. Funny isn't it - I thought you were coming more from the west, but I see you actually live north east of NYC.

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

Well, if you look through the center of the Earth, as you would from where you are, it would appear to be reversed.

[ravena-kade.livejournal.com]

The deer looks like it got caught in someone's magic spell. I love glass too.

[jenny_evergreen]

Yay for a great trip!

[chris-warrior.livejournal.com]

great photos and yay catching exhibit. :) i'm sorry it's only there a week. *sigh*

[brickhousewench.livejournal.com]

I always love a virtual museum trip with you guys. =D

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

But, you've been on the real ones. Aren't they better?

[brickhousewench.livejournal.com]

Of course. silly! But I can't hang out with you guys all the time. So I appreciate the virtual tours too.

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

YAY! I'm glad both of you got to go, and enjoyed it.

I just realized, you have your own 'game of thrones', being that of pictures of benches!

I don't remember / know that you have a thing for seals and old writing, cool!

[pallid-regina.livejournal.com]

Fantastic outing!

[elven-ranger.livejournal.com]

I AM SO JEALOUS AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[charliemc.livejournal.com]

Frank, I love your photos and the description! I feel like I was there with you...

Thanks for sharing. So glad you had a good time.

(hugs)