Inside the Guggenheim

The major disappointment with the museum was that most of it was closed due to the installation of a new exhibit. We got in at a reduced price and were able to see the art in the new wing. But the main spiral ramp inside the iconic building was roped off. Still, we were able to view the space from the main floor and from each successive landing where the two sections of the museum intersected. Here are a few of my impressions.

A museum worker on the ramp.

I took no photos of the art we saw, and we saw plenty. I was a little disappointed not to be able to walk the ramp, but I'm glad I got to see it at any rate. Maybe on my next visit!

An incredible volume created by the architect.

After the Guggenheim, my friend L and I walked a few blocks down Fifth Avenue to the Neue Gallery to see Klimt's The Woman in Gold. It was amazing. The gallery also had Munch's original The Scream, a very small pastel, not at all as I imagined it to be. Photos were not allowed inside the gallery.

The level above the museum's café, looking out over Central Park.

Then we got back on the subway to Grand Central Station, where we shopped at the NYMTA museum store. I found what I was looking for: a mouse pad with the NYC subway map printed on it. Next, we decided to walk down to Penn Station to get the train for our trip home. Along the way we stopped at a wine bar called Madison and Vine, predictably on Madison Avenue, for a glass (or two in my case). The weather was drizzly, but the city was sparkling and it was all great fun. The wine ensured that I napped a little on the train ride back to Albany.

Another interior shot.

More exterior views

Here are a few more shots outside the Guggenheim Museum on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. I walked around a little for different angles. It's hard to get it all in, of course, even with the wide angle lens. And "clean" shots (without cars, traffic lights, and other bits of real life) are nearly impossible. At least for someone like me walking around on the street.

A neighboring building had some very interesting sculpture at the top.

The view from 5th and East 88th Street.

The view from 5th and East 89th Street. The large rectangular building that rises up behind is the museum's "new" wing, completed in 1991.

The Guggenheim

After our wonderful lunch, L and I made our way over to the Guggenheim Museum. There was a line to get in, but it wasn't very long. As we waited, I took the opportunity to take some pictures.

My first glimpse of the famous museum as we approached 5th Avenue along East 88th Street.

It turns out that the Guggenheim Museum was opened in this building in 1959. That makes it exactly my age, as I was opened in the same year.

A couple views of the museum building from the outside.

Bocado Café

The restaurant that my friend L and I found is called the Bocado Café, on the corner of Lexington Avenue and East 87th Street. It looked very inviting, the menu looked good, and there were plenty of tables available (it was just before the lunch rush). We sat in the window on the 87th Street side.

The Bocado Café and Wine Bar on Lexington Avenue. I highly recommend it!

I ordered a glass of white wine. I've forgotten now which wine it was, but it was probably a California chardonnay. My friend L had a glass of sparkling prosecco, another recurring theme during this trip.

Lunch is served!

Lunch was a delicious Caesar salad for me, and L had a wonderful looking omelette. It was a perfect meal and we were happy. We were soon off to the first of two museums we would visit that afternoon.

Inside the restaurant with the wine bar at the back of the photo.

I'll take Manhattan

Another thing that I really wanted to do on this trip was to visit the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. I had never been there and, as a student of architecture, I had always wanted to see Frank Lloyd Wright's Manhattan masterpiece.

87th Street at Lexington, from inside the restaurant we found.

So I asked my friend, L, if she would be interested in going. She was enthusiastic. We took the train from Albany down to New York, a two and a half hour ride into Penn Station, one Friday morning. On arrival, we hopped the subway to the upper East Side hoping to find a good place to eat lunch before going to the museum.

A view down Park Avenue. The swank upper East Side.

We got out of the subway at 86th and Lexington and started walking north. Within a block we saw a place that looked inviting for lunch and in we went!

Fun in Troy

One of the things I wanted to do while in Albany was to visit Troy, a smaller city just north and across the river. My plan was to spend a morning or afternoon walking through the historic downtown taking pictures, but I never got it together to do that.

Behind the bar at the Lucas Confectionery.

Still, I managed to get to Troy three times for fun. The first time, I had dinner with a high school friend, her husband, and their daughter at a downtown brew-pub called Brown's Brewing Company. It was great to reminisce and enjoy the local beers together. I had a tasty cheese steak sandwich with fries and a couple glasses of Brown's pale ale. Yum!

At Brown's Troy Taproom with J & L. Photo taken with my camera by their daughter, J.

My second trip to Troy was to meet my cousin in a downtown wine bar called Lucas Confectionery. Again, I had great fun catching up with M. I last saw him in 2012. The bartender was friendly and informative and, in addition to the wines we ordered, he offered us tastes of several more, along with stories about the wine makers.

Me and my cousin M. enjoying wine at the bar. Photo taken by the bartender with M's smartphone.

Lastly, I enjoyed a dinner party with blogger and facebook friends at their home in Troy. There were six of us all together, and we enjoyed wine and a home-made beef stew with carrots and potatoes, a terrific mixed salad, and vanilla ice cream with a raspberry coulis for dessert. Scrumptious!

After dinner at the home of J&F, with S&J and J (who's not in the photo because he's snapping the picture).

So, maybe I'll get to wander around downtown Troy on my next trip!

SUNY Administration Building

This is what we used to call the D&H Building, a gothic-style office building at the foot of State Street on Broadway. It was built in 1914 as the headquarters of the Delaware & Hudson Railroad company, and the broad plaza in front of the building was the terminus of most of Albany's streetcar lines and, later, city bus lines.

The flags depict each of the university's campuses and schools around the state. At the top of the spire is a weathervane in the shape of Henry Hudson's ship, the Half Moon.

Although I didn't take a photo of it, just to the south is the distinctive old ticket office building for the Hudson River Day Line, a passenger steamboat company that, until 1948, sailed between Albany and New York City about 150 miles to the south.

The building's 13-story central tower seen from the Corning Preserve amphitheater on the riverfront.

In 1973, the State University of New York (SUNY) purchased the building and renovated it to serve as the system's central administrative headquarters. The renovation included closing the plaza to traffic and replacing it with a grassy park. SUNY moved into the renovated building in 1978.

Part of the old Plaza, now a park, and Broadway. The southern tower's upper floors are the official residence of the SUNY chancellor. Nice digs!

I certainly have memories of The Plaza, as it was called, as a terminal for the city's bus lines. Those old rounded city buses from the 1960s were an impressive sight. I didn't know it then, but much later I would end up working for one of the larger bus and streetcar operators in the nation.