Skyscraper Museum

New York is the birthplace and home of skyscrapers, and it is not enough merely to see some of them. One must also visit the Skyscraper Museum at the very bottom bit of the island. Of course, the museum doesn't have any skyscrapers in its collection, but there are plenty of pix and illustrations, including some beautiful oldies. Not a must-see, unless of course you're really into architectural history...

Entrance, at 39 Battery Place

Major temporary exhibit of mass timber construction;
River Beech Tower is/will be the tallest timber building
ever...

Size matters

The neighborhood; yes, it is very near the 9-11 site, and
was indeed closed in those years

Helpful model of the district, back in the day

Way further back; most of the piers on the port side are gone now,
land filled-in...

Post card collection

Brooklyn Bridge under construction

Among the interesting historical exhibits

The Burj Khalifa, in Dubai, which we saw in 2017;
tallest yet

How high is up?

Personal favorite

We live now in the age of the tall skinnies...

Heritage Eats In NYC

We mostly self-catered in our weeks in NYC. There was a full if small kitchen in our apartment, and the Lidl we shopped at in Harlem was really quite good and--for New York--quite affordable. We did indulge in a few restaurant splurges, twice at Katz's Deli (alas, the Carnegie is no more) and once at Peter Luger's in Brooklyn. Both qualify as heritage eats in our book, both having been around for ages and of continuing fame and popularity.

Always a line to get in at Katz's

And once you're in, there are 8 more lines to choose from; we
quickly surmised that, once in, you fan out: some of the cutters'
lines move quickly, some pretty slowly...

Inside...the Where Harry Met Sally sign marks the spot from which

Estelle Reiner uttered the very famous "I'll have what she's having" 

line...#33 among Hollywood's most  famous...

In line for one of the 8 cutters

More ambience

A  $29 Reuben coming up

Cutter cutting

Finding a table wasn't as hard as we'd imagined; the variety of pickles
comes with the sandwich...Vicki's favorite is the pastrami, mine the
Reuben

More ambience

Evidently it took them 10 years to become known as
the best

Also in the neighborhood

Attitude

At Peter Luger's

Past glories; I'd never thought of Luger's as a Michelin
sort of place...just where we'd had the best steak ever, way
back when; the Times ripped Luger's several years ago, but,
judging from the lines and crowds, it's as popular as ever

Our steak...very, very good flavor, texture, cooked just
as ordered (though we now prefer the bifstecca fiorentino);
the frites were OK; creamed spinach no longer comes
with the steak

Key lime pie and schlage; we look forward to having
the steak again

Mama's Too was a block or so from our apartment...always
a line there, too...here's a slice of Vicki's inch-thick peperoni
pizza; I'm more a Neapolitan type; we also visited Absolute
Bagels more than once, also nearby, said to be NYC's best
bagel shop; now permanently closed by the health department;
hmmm...

The Met: Lehmann Wing

The Met has many storied donors, and most have been satisfied to have their gifts integrated into the museum's various collections, departments and divisions, as curators and educators saw fit. You're apt to find a Carnegie or Morgan or Rockefeller item anywhere. Not so the Lehmanns, who specified that their collection be kept together and indeed in a special building, the Lehmann Wing. I guess you can do that when you're a major benefactor and also chair of the board. Anyhow, we toured the Lehmann Wing on October 15th. There is much that is impressive, but we were taken mostly by the paintings.

Deruta, plate inscribed "he who washes the head of an ass wastes the
soap," 1550

Part of a whole room of dishes, cups, bowls, etc.

Another 16th century plate, this one inscribed to Pope Julius II,
patron of Bramante, Raphael, Michaelangelo 

Nice ceiling treatment

A Botticelli Annunciation, late 15th

Memling, Annunciation, late 15th

Petrus Christus, "What do you mean, it's not 22 carat?!" or
"Darling, maybe you could take your headphones off for a
moment," mid-15th

Nice Cranach showcase

Giovanni de Paulo, The Creation of the World and The Expulsion from
Paradise, mid-15th; two-fer

Giovanni de Pailo, Coronation of the Virgin, mid-15th

Osservansa Master, St. Anthony Abbot in the Wilderness, 
tempera on panel, c 1435; a striking piece, I thought, 
for its vintage

Rembrandt, Portrait of a Woman, 1632

Ditto...a man...1632...smaller collar

Last Supper tapestry, early 16th, Netherlandish 

Ingres, Portrait of Josephine-Eleomore-Marie-Pauline de Gallard
[I swear I am not making this up] de Bressac de Bearn; aka the
Princesse de Broglie; 1851; mostly she just went by "Jo"

Degas, View of Saint Valery-Sur-Somme, 1898

Renoir, Sea and Cliffs, 1885

Corot, Diana and Acteon, 1836