As we spend our last day here in New York I thought I’d put together a video that shows a lot of the different sights we saw while here. Sure, it’s not entirely representative of what New York is, but there is so much more to New York than what can be shown in one video. So sit back and enjoy it

On our part, we’re looking forward to some warm weather in Miami for a few days, and then we’ll be off to Mexico to enjoy the rich history and culture there.

These last few days in New York we haven’t had that much time for sightseeing as we’ve been so busy finalizing work we had to get done before we go. It’s amazing how much work seems to come up in the last minute, but at least we’ve been able to get most of it done.

Grab the bull by its horns!

“5000 years of art” is how The Metropolitan Museum - usually just called The Met - describes its collection. It is nearly a quarter mile long, and in its more than 2 million square feet of display space, it sure lives up to expectations.

Egyptian stone age artifacts -some over 100,000 years old

Our first stop at The Met was in the Egyptian section. This one section is extremely massive, covering everything from early Egyptian artifacts - some over 100,000 years old - up to “recent” Egyptian art made during the times of Roman occupation.

Fully transfered Egyptian temple

There is even an Egyptian temple that was moved stone by stone from its home in Egypt, thus saving it from being flooded by the building of damns on the Nile.

3000-5000-year-old papyrus on display

By the time we made it through just half of the Egyptian section, we realized we would have to hurry up if we wanted to see anything else in the museum before it closed. It seems that the curators of the Egyptian section felt somewhat similar about cataloging the innumerable items on display, and there is a section with thousands of artifacts grouped by artifact type or where they were found. This section looks more like an archeologist’s cataloging room than a neat museum display, and that gives a feel as to the immensity of items held at the museum.

Greek/Roman statues on display

The Greek and Roman section of the Met seemed as equally massive as the Egyptian section. But due to time constraints we had to zip through it pretty quickly. Some notable exhibits include 2500-year-old Greek armor (it’s amazing it has survived in such good condition), a huge display of Greek and Roman statues, pottery, and more.

European room transferred to the Met

Just like the Met was capable of transplanting an entire Egyptian temple from its original home to the museum, it has also done the same with important and intricately painted/carved bedrooms from 1600-1800’s homes in Europe. These rooms look so at home at the Met, thus giving us the feeling we were visiting an old European palace.

The Toilet Of Venus , by François Boucher, 1751

There is far more in this museum than I could write about in one blog post. But there is one more interesting section we saw: Exhibits of art. Visiting this section was a pleasure especially after having bought a piece of renaissance art at Christie’s in New York. Many of the renaissance artists whose pieces were being sold at Christies, also have pieces displayed here at the Met.

One of the few free things in New York is the Staten Island ferry. Since it is free, many of the passengers are tourists who ride it - like we did - to get a view of the Statue of Liberty.

The smudges are from raindrops on the ferry’s window 

The iconic Statue of Liberty was actually a gift from France in 1886 to commemorate 100 years of independence in the United States and as a gesture of friendship. It’s covered in copper which, thanks to normal corrosion, gives it the iconic green look.

We decided to take the ferry in the afternoon to catch the sunset. And this is what it looks like. Those clouds gave the sky quite a beautiful look!

As we’re nearing the end of our 1 month stay here in New York, it’s really great to see how much we’ve done while here. We’ve managed to devote time to work, squeeze in some time for meetings, see what the Big Apple has to offer and experience what it’s like to be living here, not merely as a tourist per se.

Today was another day packed with work, but it wasn’t just an ordinary day - it was the first day it really snowed while we were here in New York. So we decided to put our work on hold for a few minutes and go out and enjoy it. After all, we don’t know when in our trip we’ll get to see the next snow.

Finally, some real snow in New York!