Metropolitan Museum of Art

After visiting the Cloisters we were able to visit the MET. It was incredible. There was so much amazing art to look at that I couldn't believe it. We were there for five hours and so tons of stuff, but after looking at the floor plan later I realized that we didn't see hardly anything! Every corner we turned or doorway we entered exposed a whole new section of and unique and fantastic pieces of art. We would be walking through one section and catch a glimpse of another room through a doorway, arch or window and get so excited about the things in there. We finally had to stop looking ahead and concentrate on the section we were in to actually internalize what we were looking at.

The building itself is four city blocks long. I guess it is no surprise that we saw such a small portion of it. It is a beautiful building with high ceilings, columns and arches throughout. It would be beautiful to tour without anything in it.

We started out in the Instruments section. They had so many instruments, some we knew about and a whole bunch we didn't. We got to see Ringo Starr's gold drum.

There was a room filled with beautiful pianos and harps. This one was my favorite.

This gold instrument is actually a harpsichord. It was pretty over the top.

At this point we broke away from Sean and Andrea and went to find the Egyptian exhibit. This was by far my favorite section. We spent two hours in this part of the museum and didn't even see it all. I loved looking at all of the hieroglyphics, statues, jewelry, beads and figurines. I could have stayed there the whole time looking at everything. The ancient Egyptian culture has always fascinated me.

They had some pretty large statues there.

I loved all of the jewelery. It was very elaborate and ornate.

This room was awesome. The building in the center is an Egyptian temple. I loved the wall of windows. The water ran all the way around the room.

This is a picture of us inside the entrance of the temple. The walls were covered with carved figures and hieroglyphics.

Piece of papyrus.

They had shelves, and shelves of tiny turquoise beads. The tiny carvings in them were very detailed.

There were rooms filled with slabs of stone that were covered with paintings and carvings. I couldn't believe how much stuff they have. We would think that we had seen most of it and then we would turn a corner and a whole new hallway of rooms would appear.

Reluctantly we dragged ourselves away from ancient Egypt and went to tour the Arms and Armor section next. There was a main room that housed the suits of armor. Smaller rooms branched off from it that were filled with swords, rifles, pistols, shields, Samurai swords and daggers. The collection of arms they have is pretty amazing. Brian was in heaven.

These are war masks that went with the Asian armor. They would wear them to intimidate the opposition.

The next section we visited was the Asian Art section. The first room we entered was large and contained a huge mural. You had to stand back from it a ways to see the whole picture. You could only see swirls of color when you were standing right next to it.

There was more than one room filled with Buddha statues.

Brian and I both loved this circular door. It was the entrance to a Japanese garden room. Inside the garden it was cool, quiet and peaceful. There was a small waterfall running into a pond that filled the room with the sound of running water. The pond contained Koi fish.

Off to one side of the garden room they had a Japanese house set up. You could walk inside. Everything was so beautiful.

We wandered through a section that had gorgeous Japanese hand painted screens and wood block prints.

There was a whole display of very beautiful and very old vases. These are from the Qing Dynasty which was from 1644 to 1912. They are in amazing shape for being that old.

After the Asian section we wandered a bit through the Drawings and Prints. At this point my feet gave out. We realized that we had been on our feet for nine hours minus a couple small breaks here and there. I wanted to keep going so badly, but my feet were done. Brian and I decided that it would be nice if you could just change pairs of feet like shoes. We would be unstoppable!

We went to find Sean and Andrea. On the way we walked past this view of the front entrance of the building. We're on the second floor. Like I said, its a huge and beautiful building.

We found Sean and Andrea sitting in the Egyptian Temple room resting their feet. They had decided that they were done also and had seen all that they were going to see. We all hobbled out the door and to a subway stop and home.

If you ever come to New York City you HAVE to go to the MET. It was the coolest experience to see all of the wonderful things they have there. My mind couldn't even grasp that some of the things I was seeing were hundreds or thousands of years old. The other museums we've been too were nice and interesting as well, but if you only have time for one museum I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the MET.

Brian and I had such a fun time wandering around and discovering things. We had so much fun in fact that we are planning a second trip this Saturday. So be looking for a second installment of photos.