Day at the museum

The past three days in New York have been a festival of sight seeing. They began with a visit to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) on Wednesday. As I'd become used to strolling through the National Gallery in Canberra, rarely seeing another patron, I was stunned at the hoards that awaited us at the 53rd Street gallery. Nevertheless Sam, Ben and I (Chris was at a meeting with the Guinness World Records NYC office) battled the crowds to catch a glimpse of Van Gogh's Starry Night and Edvard Munch's The Scream. As I jostled my way through the camera-toting tourists with Sam and a pram I understood Munch's inspiration for his most renowned piece. Around each of these famous works, gallery-goers were lined five deep snapping pictures of the pictures.

On Thursday we decided to catch the Staten Island Ferry to show Sam the Statue of Liberty. A sail-by is all we could manage as Ellis Island is closed until July due to damage inflicted by Hurricane Sandy. We arrived at the ferry terminal and were greeted by further hordes of tourists. Herded on to the ferry, we travelled to Staten Island and back again. The mission was accomplished, but Sam was disappointed that Liberty was a girl.

Last night Chris and I thought we'd get a jump on the crowds by pre-purchasing our tickets online for the American Museum of Natural History. We arrived ten minutes before opening and stood in the 'Will Call' queue (the US version of the 'Pre-Purchased Tickets' queue) with a mass of other forward thinkers. Once we had the tickets we stood in another queue to enter the museum. We confronted and overcame a number of other queues during our morning at the AMNH, but it was worth it. I love a good diorama!

Finally, we ended Good Friday with a subway trip to Brooklyn. No crowds, no shoulder-to-shoulder jostling, just a bit of peace and quiet and a fantastic view of Manhattan from the Brooklyn Bridge Promenade.