Traveling Tramps: Museums, neighborhoods and piers

Thursday - the Frick Collection has been closed for a couple of years for renovation. Fortunately, we had arranged media tickets in advance, but lines to get in were long anyway, and, photography was not permitted besides in the garden court (above). Very sophisticated, clientèle very 50+!

This gorgeous mansion on NYC's fine Upper East Side, owned by American industrialist Henry Clay Frick, shows a unique collection of European fine and decorative arts from the Renaissance to the late 19t century, including artwork of Rembrand, Vermeer, El Greco, Tizian, Turner, Bellini, Ingres, Holbein or Whistler.

Madion Ave (below) on the Upper East Side is famous as an axle for luxury shopping and art, all high-end. Famous brands, elite customers.

We continued on Museum's Mile, the Upper East Side’s stretch of Fifth Avenue with several world-class museums and institutions. The largest museum, the Metropolitan Museum, on the photo left and below.

View towards the Central Park skyline with pencil-thin skyscrapers:

The Guggenheim Museum:

,,, and, subway Art, by Chuck Close (left) and new mosaics in a subway station:

Lincoln Center is home to 11 resident arts organizations, presenting music, theater, dance, film, opera, and more. Below the Met Opera House:

Alice Tully Hall - below - is home to the New York Film Festival and The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

On we went to Times Square - no need to explain,,, A new "visitor center" and immersive experience is coming up at Times Square One, where the famous New Year's Ball is located.

Bryant Park and the Public Library (building in the background) and the Chrysler Building (right):

Grand Central Terminal - the railroad station opened in 1913:

The famous Waldorf Astoria Hotel was closed for eight years. Now it's a mix of apartments (on top) and hotel rooms. The legendary lobby (below) with its centerpiece—the 1893 World’s Fair clock—returned in full splendor, and, the elevators are worth seeing, too!

Mundane problems: How to park in Manhattan:

We were fortunate and got a chance to experience one of the newer additions to the NYC culinary scene: Döner Haus (above), "Real German Kebabs". They have four locations in the meantime and the one we visited, was only open for a week! Delicious chicken or beef döner with fries and/or salad or as a sandwich or wrap. Big portions for a good price!

We had chosen the Döner Haus' Hell's Kitchen location, a neighborhood which had a gritty reputation for a long time and was a bastion of poor and working-class Irish Americans. There were large tenements, a lot of organized crime, gangs, illegal gambling, and, there were the West Side Piers.

Times have changed. Today it's a vibrant, vivid neighborhood with many inexpensive places to eat.

Nearby ("nearby" is relative in NYC!) Pier 97 was our next stop, a pier which is part of the Hudson River Park development, and just recently opened as a park and playground. Originally, part of the "Luxury Liner Row" (landing pier of Transatlantic ocean liners) it is now a relaxing park with chairs, a ball field, a playground and an observation deck. And, it offers great views of New Jersey and the Midtown. On the pic below the new VIA 57 WEST, designed by Bjarke Ingles Group (BIG) and a new standard of luxurious urban living.