It was below freezing most of Sunday and Monday, March 2 and 3, 2014. No matter. We savored the white snow over Central Park and the flat, gray light that made shadowless photographs.
Our Gospel Music walking tour began at Trinity Church on Wall Street at 9:30 a.m. We paused to take photos on a Wall Street plaza and then to wander around Trinity Church.
For some reason, this very traditional church felt it needed to freshen its image with some modern art.
Quite by accident, I discovered the tombstone for Alexander Hamilton. One item on my bucket list is discovering how he and I are related. Alexander's family originated from the same parish in Scotland as my Hamilton relatives.
Our tour guide gave us an introductory lecture, at Trinity Church, about the characteristics of gospel music (repetition, call and response) and how it is derived from songs sung by slaves in the fields. She also talked about the abolitionist preachers who sheltered runaway slaves before the Civil War and welcomed Southern choruses, after the Civil War, who wanted to popularize Negro spirituals. We then took the subway to Brooklyn, where we stopped by the church of Henry Ward Beecher. He was an abolitionist preacher before and after the Civil War, and the most famous man in America. He was also the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote "Uncle Tom's cabin." Abraham Lincoln reputedly said, when he met her, "Here's the little lady who started the war."
"This is an architectural tour, too," our guide said. She led us along the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, where stylish New Yorkers strolled after moving across the East River into mansions in Brooklyn.
The area near the docks, below Brooklyn Heights, eventually became a gritty industrial area, with a great view of Manhattan.
We walked through Brooklyn Heights, passing substantial brownstone, federal, and Queen Anne style houses. Brooklyn is now again a trendy area, and the houses have soared in value.
Some of the houses, including this one, were way stations on the Underground Railroad. We peeked through glass inserted in the pavement to lighted basements underneath, where runaway slaves were hidden before the Civil War.
We finished the walking tour on the main plaza of Brooklyn, with the Brooklyn Bridge in the background.
We then spent an hour listening to the well-known gospel choir at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, a huge church which was completely filled by the time the service began.
We ate lunch after the service at Panera, and thought of our grandson, Michael Flindt, who was such a good worker at the Panera in Redmond, Washington.
Next stop was the Brooklyn Art Museum. I had always known that it was huge, with amazing collections. I spent my hour there in its American collection and Dave spent his time in the Egyptian collection. Both are highlights of the museum. I especially enjoyed the portraits by early colonial painters, a painting of Trinity Church among Wall Street's skyscrapers, and its collection of paintings by African-American artists.
There were huge Rodin sculptures in the lobby. We will definitely have to come back.
Dave and I changed hotels this morning, from the Hampton Inn in Lower Manhattan to the Washington & Jefferson Hotel near Times Square. We reserved a "regular" room, which turned out to be so small that we tripped over our bags as we tried to get out the door. We had no choice but to upgrade to the "premium" room, for $60 more per night. I thought of the bait and switch tactics for washing machines of which Sears was accused....
Our Broadway show of the day was Chicago. It was stylish and edgy, with great dancing.
"We've got to be inside today," David begged on Monday morning, when he learned that the temperature was 19 degrees. We decided to go museum-hopping. One problem--we rode the subway up the west side of Manhattan, and then had to hike across Central Park to get to the Met.
These picnickers were more oblivious to the cold than we were!
Finally, we made it!
There is no end of great things to see at the Met. I spent my first hour in the Byzantine collection, thinking of the early Christians in Turkey and Syria, and how their world morphed from Rome to Constantinople.
By chance, I passed by the Thomas J. Watson Library at the Met. I thought of my mother, who was the private secretary to Thomas J. Watson while she lived in New York. Watson was, at the time, president of IBM, yesterday's Microsoft. He was apparently an art donor, as well. I thought also of all the NYC playbills I found in my mother's files after she died. She loved Broadway as much as I do.
I spent my next hours at the Met wandering among the European paintings--Gaugin and Van Gogh, among others.
I particularly enjoyed the paintings from Picasso's "blue period." He painted melancholy figures with a blue palette. I have trouble with Picasso's cubist works, but I love the more realistic ones.
Here is a painting from Picasso's more optimistic "pink" period. His model is the same woman as in the mother and child painting from Chicago's Art Institute which I loved to visit with Jonny and Jenny.
Renaissance madonnas are another favorite type of painting of mine.
After leaving the Met, Dave and I took the subway downtown. We peeked over the wall at City Hall (below).
For this trip, I wanted to find bits of NYC from Revolutionary War days. We visited Fraunces Tavern, which was standing while the Colonists and British Army fought over New York during the early years of the Revolutionary War. After the War, when NYC was the first capital of the US, George Washington entertained his former army officers at a dinner at the tavern.
Our final stop of the afternoon was Rockefeller Center. We took an art tour of the Center and then took the elevator to Top of the Rock for a view of NYC at sunset.
We had a fun, feisty guide who tangled with security guards who objected to us blocking the walkways as we studied the murals and artwork of Rockefeller Center.
As we watched the skaters, I thought of Camille taking her family skating at Rockefeller Center over Thanksgiving.
I loved the art deco staircases and the murals depicting the history of transportation. Eastern Airlines was a longtime tenant, before its merger. John D. Rockefeller developed Rockefeller Center and his wife, Abby, chose the art. Abby also started the collection at MOMA.
This mural shows Lincoln with the country's workers.
The views from Top of the Rock were spectacular.
Most theaters are dark on Monday nights. Dave and I attended "The Fantasticks," the longest-running show on (Off)Broadway. There have been more than 20,000 performances. We loved this gentle story about the bittersweetness of life. It reminded me of "Our Town," another favorite.
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