The Met, Central Park, and 5th Avenue

Belvedere Castle
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New York City is so interesting and filled with so much beautiful architecture, activities, and shopping areas, that we walked 46 blocks this day and barely noticed them passing by!  We took the subway up to 86th St. and then headed over to the Met on 82nd St and 5th Ave.  The Met, or Metropolitan Museum of Art, is so huge that you really don't want to do it all in one day - you will just get exhausted.  This time, we focused on the 19th and Early 20th Century European Paintings and Sculpture section.  I was especially happy with the Impressionist (my favorite!) section.  There were so many Monets!  I also lingered over the Manets, Renoirs, and Van Goghs.  Pictures (no flash) are allowed.  We ate at the cafeteria there at the Met, which opens at 11:30am (we were hungry when we arrived there and disappointed to learn that!) and has a great selection of pre-made sandwiches, drinks, desserts, and other deli-type items.

Wollman Rink
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Next we meandered our way through Central Park.  We walked by the Obelisk (not really that impressive) and then to the delightful Belvedere Castle.  The Castle is built over a rock outcropping (taking advantage of slightly higher land) and, though small, provides pretty decent views of its area of Central Park.  We walked through The Ramble, a nice, quiet walk through "woods" - trees and more narrow paths, anyway.  We ended up at Bethesda Terrace, where the first Amazing Race started - very cool for us, followers of that show!  There is fountain there with a statue of a winged angel on the lower level.  We ran up the stairs there, pretending we were starting the race.  Then we continued on down the Mall, a 1/4 mile long promenade bordered by elm trees.  One of my favorite things to look at in Central Park came next, the Wollman Rink.  What a scenic place to have an ice rink!

Part of the giant armored polar bear stuffed animal at FAO Schwarz
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Central Park ends at 59th St.  From there we continued all the way down 5th Avenue to our hotel on 40th St.  If shopping down 5th Ave, make a stop at FAO Schwarz.  It is such a fun store!  Only go if you can handle crowds, though.  I've been there twice but still haven't played on the giant piano there because I am too impatient to wade through all those people!  Still, there is something for everyone there, even if you think you are too old to enjoy anything there.  Seriously, they have an ice cream parlor, movie memorabilia (from Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and so on...), and random things like socks.

A stop at the New York Public Library on 5th Ave between 40th and 42nd St. is always a good idea if you are working your way down 5th.  It's fun to take pictures of the stone lions in front (recognize this from "Ghostbusters"?) and to peak at the main reading room, a huge space with high ceilings.  It is so grandiose I can't imagine actually getting any research done in there!  When we stopped in, they were having a great Kerouac exhibit, for free.  What a neat place.

The last thing we did with our day was go to Broadway!  We saw "Spamalot", which was just hilarious.  If you enjoy comedies and especially the Monty Python movies, then this is the play for you!