Educational Day ,,, new museums in NYC

Wednesday: Museum Day. In the morning it turned a bit cloudy and it even rained lightly, but during the day the sun came out again and it became really humid-warm, around 25 C/75 F! We started in the morning in our own neighborhood, Harlem, at 125th Street, where the famous Apollo Theater is located. It's undergoing renovation at the moment.

Checked out the nearby Urban Civil Rights Museum, which is supposed to open in November,,,

 ,,, and continued to the Studio Museum Harlem, which opened in a new building end of last year. It's focused on "Black Art" and besides a permanent collection shows a variety of changing exhibitions. Some examples of their great artwork and of the narrow building's interior:

A special feature of the Studio Museum is the rooftop terrace which offers a good view over Harlem towards Central Park!

Took the subway to The New York Historical museum, which added a new wing with a new exhibition about American Democracy (in time for the 250th birthday of the USA).

We revisited the older sections of the museum, too, and, especially liked their gigantic Tiffany lamp collection as well as a special exhibit about music in NYC.

In the Lower East Side, the Bowery (photo below) - a formerly neglected, not too attractive neighborhood of immigrants -, got a new (or, rather expanded) attraction: The New Museum
 

 

 

 

Museums accomplished, we walked over to Union Square and its fantastic market and to Strands, our favorite bookstore. Bought some provisions in our Harlem "Foodtown" store and called it a day with supper in our apartment.

New York - here we come again,,,

First day in NYC. Arrived at 5 am at Newark Airport and it took us almost until 8 am to get to our apartment in Harlem by public transport. After unpacking (what a relief to stay at the same place for a week instead of constantly moving around!) and a short nap we went out again for our first appointment: a tour at Barclays Center, the Brooklyn basketball stadium (left and below). 

Before the tour we were well taken care of at Love & Honey Fried Chicken, a new little restaurant we had to check out. It was delicious! Freshly fried, crispy chicken of all kinds with a variety of dipping saucees and tater tots.

 

Below the stadium from different perspectives. The Brooklyn Nets (NBA) as well as the (more successful) Liberty (WNBA - women) are playing in the stadium, plus, there are all kinds of events taking place, concerts, boxing, Disney on Ice, etc. We had a private tour and got to see all the fancy club rooms (who would have guessed that they have a wine cellar and velvet wall covering?).

Isn't it fancy?

The new "Modelo Bridge" - a combination of four bridges in NYC and used as another club:

Being in downtown Brooklyn already, we decided - considering the sunny, warm weather - to walk the Brooklyn Bridge. It was sure crowded, vendors everywhere,,,

Top level for pedestrians, next one for bikes and underneith the car lanes. Right photo: sort of a shrine on the bridge.

Above: View towards Midtown with Empir State Building, Hudson Yards and Chrysler Building.

We continued on to the World Trade Center Site, where on Sept. 11th the 25th anniversary took place.

9/11 Museum (left) and footprint with name plaques and waterfall below.

F

Bidding Farewell to the "Wild West"

1638 mi /2636 km driven in total in 12 days in our KIA Soul Mini-SUV. Considering that we only drive around 5,000 km in a full year at home, quite a distance! Returned the car on Monday evening after another full day of exploring and driving. Car had been okay, in this smaller category there is at least not always something beeping and talking to you,,, for other road conditions/weather, we would have taken a rental car a bit larger.

When we left Hot Springs in the morning, clouds hung low, it wasn't too warm, but roads were straight, traffic light and landscapes great all the way through North Dakota into Nebraska. Landscape changed in Western Nebraska which known for its vast grasslands and - approaching Scottsbluff - for the Scotts Bluff National Monument - a 800 ft high landmark along the North Platte River that served as a natural marker for 19th-century settlers traveling the Oregon, California, Mormon Pioneer, and Pony Express trails. We explored the region extensively in 2022 (see: http://travelingtramps.blogspot.com/2022/10/unknown-gems-in-western-nebraska.html), but wanted to at least pass by again.

On we drove into Wyoming and to Cheyenne, the Capital of the State, famous for its Cheyenne Frontier Days, held annually since 1897, the world's largest outdoor rodeo and called "The Daddy of 'em All". Still on our bucket list! Furtheron, there is the Cheyenne Depot (photo) and the Wrangler Western Wear store among other attractions in town which we had seen already. Stretching our legs we strolled through downtown, drank a cup of coffee in the Depot and watched the endlessly long freight trains there. 

Next: Into Colorado and approaching the Rockies again. In Fort Collins we stopped for a stroll, too, and checked the downtown area. Since it's a college town there are many nice little local shops, cafés, restaurants and bars. And, last but not least, some breweries like New Belgium and Odells as the bigger ones.

Even before we reached Fort Collins, traffic became denser and when we departed we had partly stop & go and slow moving traffic in the late afternoon. Only about 1.5 hours to drive to the Denver Airport, but we still had to fill up the tank before. Arrived around 6 pm at the rental car station and the rest was easy. Only departed at midnight (pic below shows DEN Airport), on time, which gave me time to catch up with this blog and with the photos. 

We flew on a "red-eye", 3 hours only, but 2 hours time difference to NYC. The plane was packed, but, for a change, we lucked out and one of the two seats which stayed empty, was our center seat!!! 

Nevertheless, the flight was too short to nap, and, touch down in EWR (Newark) was at 5 am. Luggage arrived quickly, the trip by bus, train and subway into town took much longer. At around 8 am we arrived to our apartment in Harlem. Photo below shows the descend over New Jersey, further below our strenuous trip by public transport from Newark/New Jersey to Harlem.