The Cloisters

So just to warn you, this post is super long. I tried to only include the highlights, but it was all so cool that there are a lot of them. :) I know I include a lot of stuff on my blog, but it is mostly for my family and friends back in Idaho. I am getting to see and do so much while here in New York, and know that they probably won't get to ever see any of it, so I want to share every little detail with them! Also, I don't want to forget anything that I've seen while I've been here. Therefore, there are lots of pictures and detailed explanations.

This last Saturday, while Sean and Andrea were still here, we went to the Cloisters Museum and Gardens. It is located in northern Manhattan (way north!) on the western most side near the Hudson River. The museum is a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art so when you pay admission at one or the other, you get granted access to both during the same day. The MET is located on the east side of Central Park in mid-Manhattan, so we decided to journey up to the Cloisters first.

It took us about 45 min to an hour to get up there by subway from our apartment in Queens. The subway stop is right near the entrance to Fort Tryon Park where the Cloisters are located.

To get to the Cloisters you have to walk through the park, usually a ten minute walk if you go directly there, which was our plan until I saw this...

The park was absolutely GORGEOUS!!! I was in heaven. :) I couldn't believe we were still in Manhattan. It's crazy how fast trees and countryside appear once you get out of the city. I guess we were still technically in the city, but on the very outskirts. There was no city noise, the air was fresh with scents of grass, trees and flowers. It was amazing. From the park there are also beautiful views of the Hudson River.

You can see the entire George Washington bridge spanning the river from a few lookout points along the park. This is the bridge that took us three hours to get to when we were coming back from Palmyra/Niagara Falls. It's a pretty bridge when you're not waiting for hours to cross it. ;) I do have to say I love all the bridges here in New York that connect the island of Manhattan to Long Island and New Jersey. I can't help but gape at them whenever they are in view. You don't see many (any) huge suspension bridges in Idaho.

Thankfully Andrea, Sean and Brian were patient enough to let me explore the gardens a bit before we kept going to the museum. Here are a few of the spectacular views we were able to enjoy.

I absolutely loved the flowers planted among the huge slabs of rock. There were mounds of forget-me-nots, heather, phlox and blue bells. Ahhhhh... so happy! I cannot wait until I have a yard/garden of my own.

I also love, love, love the flowering dogwood trees! They are everywhere here in New York. I had only seen pictures of them before, but now I couldn't even count the number I've seen. They are so pretty.

After reluctantly leaving the gardens, we pressed onward through the park. They had a small animal fair going on that we briefly passed through. They had a tent full of live turtles, a fenced off area with horses, and an area with live owls. There were other booths with children's activities about different animals and a stage where there was going to be music. We stopped to see a few of the animals before continuing on. After we made it through all of the distractions, we found the museum. It was a beautiful building.

We each made our donation which was far less than the suggested admission price. Happy again. We all agreed that more things need to have suggested prices. The museum was super awesome. The building itself is constructed of parts of European abbeys that were built during the medieval time period. The windows, doorways, arches and even some of the ceilings are from these old buildings. Most of the art in the museum is religious in nature. There was so much to see...

This is a picture of a rosary bead that is probably the size of a golf ball. It was filled with very tiny, yet incredibly detailed carvings. I couldn't believe the detail of some of the figures' faces!

I fell in love with the giant arching doorways throughout the museum. They are each different and hundreds of years old.

I included this picture because I though the candle was awesome. It was so crazy huge and thick. The candle holder was pretty incredible itself.

This is a view of the first cloister. The cloisters were so simple yet beautiful. The atmosphere of the gardens and museum was very quiet and peaceful even though there were a ton of people milling around.

Brian trying to imitate the sculpted head. I love him! (Brian that is, not the sculpture)

Here is a picture of the second cloister. This one was completely indoors. The ceiling was made of windows to let the light into the area. I really liked the different styles of columns running around the outer edges. Some of them were from the late 12th century!

Here is a view through one of the doorways looking out to the first cloister.

The architecture was so cool. Like I said there was so much to look at not just the paintings, sculptures and relics but also the windows, doorways, ceilings and walls. It was so fun.

This wooden ceiling was made in Tyrol, Austria and is from the late 15th or early 16th century.

This is the first room we entered on the lower floor. It contained sepulcher lids and boxes. Brian really liked them because there was a dog carved into the stone at the foot of each of the people on the lids.

The stained glass windows throughout the museum were gorgeous. I could have spent all day looking just at them.

On the lower floor they had cases that contained bowls, vases, smaller sculptures and books. This cup and plate are hundreds of years old. They are so simple, almost crude, but I thought they were beautiful.

The third cloister was located off of the lower floor and contained plants native to Europe. There was a tall fountain in the center and the walkway went around the perimeter of the garden.

The fourth, and last cloister that we saw was my favorite. It had four blooming quince trees in the center. The garden was filled with labeled herbs. Two of the sides were located at the edge of the building and were lower so you could look out over the area surrounding the building.

There was an espalier peach tree off to the side of the fourth garden. It was so cool.

After seeing all of the cloisters and walking through most of the museum we decided we had better go so that we would have time to visit the MET also that day. We waited out front of the museum for a bus to take us to the subway stop so that we could save some time. Here is a view of the front of the building while we were waiting. The cloisters were an unexpected surprise. We really enjoyed touring the museum and seeing the beautiful gardens and grounds.

We took the subway to Central Park where we had lunch and sat for awhile to rest our feet before going into the MET. We ate across from a homeless man reading a newspaper who was only wearing socks. I noticed because his socks were covered with papery seeds from the trees around the walkway. I'm so grateful for shoes!

We each got a falafel sandwich from a street cart. Falafels are so yummy. The only way I know how to describe them is that they are like balls of cornbread but they are made from garbanzo beans instead of corn. The balls are fried and served with lettuce and tomato on a pita. Sometimes they include eggplant, red cabbage, pickles or French fries depending upon the cart that you buy them from. You can get a white sauce (not really ranch) and hot sauce on it if you want. I ate one once with the hot sauce and thought my lips were going to melt off of my face it burned so bad. Now I just stick to the white sauce. I don't handle really spicy food very well though, I'm a mild sort of girl. Anyways they are delish.

Here we are in Central Park with our tummies full of yummy falafel and our feet rested after a short break. I love tourist days in New York City.