We made our way inside and purchased our City Pass tickets which give us entry into several different museums and observation decks for a discounted price, plus we get to bypass the usual ticket queues. Sharon then joined the coat check line which was ridiculously longer than the ticket lines and it took her close to 30 minutes to get to the front and check in our coats and bags.
With this chore aside, we entered the gallery space and proceeded directly to the photography level. There were some amazing images on display with some from world famous photographers like Ansel Adams and Henri Cartier-Bresson. Most were classic black and white photographs, but there were some more contemporary colour works and even collages on display.
We then headed into the architecture section and saw some great cutting edge design contributions that have been made to modern society over the years. Furniture items, cars, and even typeface fonts had a section.
From here we went to the first section dedicated to paintings and saw some amazing pieces from artists such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, and Vincent van Gogh, including one of my favourite ever paintings 'The Starry Night' which was stunning to see in person and experience the three dimensions of the oil painted brush strokes and the texture of the canvas.
We continued through to other sections of the museum including the contemporary art section which had some really great modern works in it.
It was almost closing time for the Museum so we grabbed our coats and bags and headed back out into the streets of Manhattan. We'd spotted a little diner on the way up and were headed there for a late late lunch. The diner, Apple Jack, was a great typical New York style diner that had a great vege burger that we proceeded to devour.We then came back to our apartment and had showers and changed ready to head out to Birdland Jazz Club on W44th Street, about a 5 minute walk from our apartment. We arrived a little after 8:30pm and were shown to our table in the venue. It's a great venue that is a little similar to Notes Live in Newtown in Sydney, but with more of the vibe that The Basement has with Black and White photographs of Jazz performers along the walls.
We ordered a bottle of red wine and settled into the atmosphere of the venue. About 20 minutes later the Freddy Cole Quartet came out to the stage and began what was a fantastic set of great laid back jazz. Freddy Cole is the brother of the legendary Nat 'King' Cole and has some similarities in his vocal although he phrases a bit more like Frank Sinatra. Freddy is also a great pianist and played piano on most songs. The rest of the band were outstanding musicians also, a guitarist, a double bass player and a drummer all adding to the overall sound of the quartet. This was a brilliant experience to see such a great jazz band in this legendary New York Jazz Venue. One of the best live performances I've ever seen.
As there was a second later performance in the venue we had to make our way out and decided that we weren't ready to call it a night so went to a wine bar we'd spotted early in the day just up the street from our apartment. The wine bar was called 'Balkanika' and is on 9th Avenue between 47th and 48th Streets.
It was a great little wine bar which had a girl playing solo violin. We settled in at the bar and ordered some red wine and olives. We started up conversation with the three waitresses and continued chatting with them through 2 more glasses of red wine each and a vegan dip and vege platter.
This took us up to closing time around 1am and we then headed back to our apartment for bed after quiet a packed day of New York exploring and experiences.
P.S. I've posted a few more sunset photos on the 'Day 6' entry if you're interested.
Today's Weather
Wind: Variable at 7 MPH (6 KT)
Visibility: 6 mile(s)
Sky conditions: overcast
Weather: Mist
Temperature: 48.0 F (8.9 C)
Dew Point: 48.0 F (8.9 C)
Relative Humidity: 86%
Pressure (altimeter): 30.05 in. Hg (1017 hPa)
