A Day at the MET

Saturday was our first "touristy" day and we chose to spend it seeing one of NYC's many museums - The Metropolitan Museum of Art. We started at the Cloisters (a branch of the MET in the northwest part of Manhattan) and finished at the main museum building on the stretch of 5th Ave known as Museum Mile.

For those of you wondering "What's a Cloister?" Here's the wikipedia definition. Basically it is a rectangular-shaped courtyard commonly found in monastic buildings. The Cloisters have many Medieval cloister fragments/sections that they have been rebuilt to replicate the original buildings. Even the arrangement of the gardens are consistent with how the gardens would look in the Medieval era, and a lot of the plants are actually plant species that would have been found in Medieval cloister gardens. It was a very pretty place and a fun learning experience. Below are some pics :)

A Medieval cloister garden.

Hops growing in a Medieval cloister garden because the monks knew that beer was good :)

Enjoying the views from The Cloisters.

After The Cloisters, we made our way over to the main MET building via an hour-long bus ride (what a joy public transport is ;)). The main MET building is HUGE and a tinsy bit overwhelming to try and conquer in one trip. So, first we went to the cafeteria to get some sustenance. (You can tell where our priorities are!) Actually, we were super impressed with the MET cafeteria. It had a great selection of food, snacks, desserts - either made to order or from a buffet. The food was good and it was pretty affordable. But, back to the museum - we decided to focus on a few areas and chose Egyptian Art, Medieval Art and American Landscapes. These were all very interesting and enjoyable, and we will definitely go back to explore more areas of the museum. Below is my favorite pic from the MET. For some reason, I really liked these guys :)