The day it was almost the end September 21, 2007

Today was my last full day in Boston. I’m leaving tomorrow afternoon and I will arrive quite late in NY then, I’m really not sure I will be able to post here.
My day started early again, with a visit of Harvard and the Museum of Natural History (in Harvard). The museum wasn’t as big as the one I saw in NY, but it was very interesting and I’ve learned several things. Do you know the color of the pigment of a blue feather? It’s black, but some air bubbles make it look blue, hahahah!!! You didn’t know, right?
After that, I walked a little more in Harvard and then took the bus to the JFK museum. I’m happy I took the time to visit it. The museum is outside the town
and from there, you can see Boston from the South. The museum includes a lot of videos and make you travel into the past, with a reconstitution of Kennedy’s Headquaters for the 1960 elections or Bobby’s office and a lot of pictures, letters, clothing and other objects related to JFK and his family.
When I came back in the center of Boston, I stopped at South Station to visit Chinatown and walked to the hotel to have a (very) short break. Then, again, I took the subaway and went straight to the north, to visit the Museum of Science... it just seemed they made the museum just for me: The whole part related to the earth was excellent. I spent so much time there that I didn’t make it to visit the rest of the museum. I had a great time there.

The day I went to the town of witches September 20, 2007

I had the schedule for the trains to Salem and someone in the room took it *me happy*. I went out of the hotel quite early and went to North Station, rushed to take my ticket on time for the 8.30 train boarded and 35 minutes later, I arrived in Salem.

NY was smaller than I thought, Boston is small and Salem is… tiny.
A lot of houses a made of wood, there’s a small port and a lot of museums about witches.
The first thing I did was to walk around the town, taking some pictures (well, I didn’t really had the choice because it was only 9.00 and the 1st museum opens at 10.00, hahahah!!). It really looks like a town for tourists addicted to witches and other strange stories.
At 10.30, the tour of the House of the Seven Gables started. No pictures. You listen politely to the guide telling you all the details you don’t care about, you then take a few seconds to look at the objects before your leave the room. I hate guided tours. They take such a long time and you don’t really see the things as you want.
At the end of the tour, I stayed in the garden to take pictures and then went to the Peabody Essex Museum, a huge collection of objects from all over the world brought there by sailors. There were a lot of very nice items.
It was hard to leave the museum, but I had to as I also wanted to visit the Witch Museum. It looked far on the map, but in the reality it wasn’t: I went 1 street to far, and lost time… only a few minutes, but that was enough to miss the 12.30 guided tour!!! It really bores me to wait 30 minutes for a guided tour, and also, with the 1.00pm tour, I would have missed the train to Boston and could have said good bye to my other visits in Boston. Because of that, I decided not to wait for the next tour and to go to the station. You guessed I missed the train by 2 minutes and had to wait for almost 1 hour.
I arrived in Boston at 2.15, picked a trolley pass for tomorrow (one of these trolleys fo tourists that go from one site to another, with comments by a guide). Then, I went to the Gibson house (one of the houses I wanted to visit yesterday) and had to wait 15min for the no-pictures-please-guided-tour, wich lasted a little more than one hour… of course, the “little more than” costed me to miss the other house because it was too late for the last guided tour of the day.
Did I ever tell you that I hated guided tours???? I’ll remain polite on this blog, but I promise you I have enough of these guided tours. I’ve wasted a lot of time and missed a lot of beautiful places because of them.
I was so tired and fed up I went to the hotel to have a rest and decided not to go to the museum of contemporary art, because modern art is not my thing.
End of the day.

The day it was too late September 19, 2007

I’m very tired and today, the post will be short. I’m also a little fed up because the museums close early and I didn’t do what I expected to do: for a lot of small museums, you must follow a guide who speaks english and tell you much more than you need to know and all this make you waste your time and miss other museums. That could sum up my day.

It started well because I managed to catch the first Boston Duck Tour: you sit down in a huge car, visit Boston following the streets, and at one moment, the car jumps into the water and becomes a boat, sailing on the river!!! Was really fun!
After this, on the way to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, I stopped at the Mapparium of the Mary Baker Eddy Library, wich wasn’t very interesting (even quite boring… and I had to wait 15 minute before the tour started and couldn’t leave before the end… 20 minutes later).
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is absolutely gorgeous!!! The building itself is amazing: the inside court is a trip to Venice with its decorated windows, the rooms are wonderfully decorated from the floor to ceiling, the furniture is incredibly well done with a million details, and as it wasn’t enough, you have a wonderful wollection of paintings, drawings, sculptures… I would have been the museum of my dreams if only could have taken pictures there but, once again, it was forbidden… I’m starting to hate that city.
When I went out of the museum, I had a cruel decision to make: to be on time for a cruise on the Liberty Fleet Tall Ship, I had to choose between visiting some house-museums (3, with very short open times and all with guided tours), or to visit Fenway Park, the famous baseball stadium home of the Red Socks. The Red Socks being the symbol of Boston, I’v opted for the tour of the park (and also because I’ve visited quite a lot of old houses recently). I thought the tour of the park would last half an hour as there were tours every 30 min… but in fact, there were several guides and the tour lasted 75 minutes… oooops!!! The tour itself was culturaly very intersting and the guide captivating because it was obvious he LOVED the Red Socks. On the other hand, at the end, I was looking at my watch, thinking I would never arrive on time for the cruise. Indeed, I took the subway right at the end of the tour, but when I arrived at the port, all I saw was a wonderful “sold out” sign on the cruise board. If I were a cartoon character,i would have had a very dark cloud above my head. Grrrr!!! I just hate that.
Let’s go back to the center of the town to visit the house-museums. I lost so much time to go to the port, 1 one of the museums was already closed. I went to 1 of the other 2 (the one closing first), thinking I would have enough time to visit the 3rd one… pffff! Once again, I had to wait for the begining of the guided tour and the guide was talkative and the tour ended too late for the 3rd museum. It really drove me mad.
At 5.00pm, I went to the Museum of Fine Arts wich is closing at 9.45pm on wednesdays!! I left the museum at 9.15 and had dinner before going back to the hotel. I’m now lying on my bed, almost sleeping… I don’t know what I will do tomorrow, but I hope it won’t be too late again!!
Good night!

Almost no pictures today, sorry!

The day I tried to understand modern art September 15, 2007

Today is Saturday and all the museums open later than on week days… a good excuse to wake up a little later (7.45 instead of 7.00). I realize that I’m leaving on Monday morning and my stay in NY is almost over. I’ve seen all the major places and museums here, except 2: the Van Cortlandt House (in the Bronx) and the Museum of Modern Art.

I really started the day at 10.30 and to the subway to the North, and stopped at the Van Cortland park to visit the Van Cortland House, a Georgian-style mansion, symbol of NY’s colonial past. Even if I knew that NY was one of the first settlments in America, I didn’t imagine I would see such an old house kept intact, with all its furniture and everyday life objects. It was one of my favourite visits since I arrived in NY.

The second and last museum of the day (because museums open later AND close earlier on the week ends) was the MOMA (Museum Of Modern Art). I won’t say it was my favourite visit in NY, because I don’t understand anything in modern art. I tried but well, that’s not my thing. It sometimes made me think that they did some colour testing to choose the right one to paint the walls of the museum. For the records, we’ll only say that I went there and saw some artwork by Picasso, Kandinsky, Cézanne, Matisse and many others.
I came, I saw, I went away.

One my way back to the subway, I crossed the Avenue of the Americas and at first I thought the San Gennaro feast had invaded the street, but it was something else, with more international food (with some crepes, a taste of Paris).
I was so tired I went back to the hotel early and collapsed on my bed.
Tomorrow will be my last day here and it’s supposed to be a sunny day. I hope I’ll be able to go to Staten Island.
Good night or whatever.

http://www.vancortlandthouse.org/
http://moma.org/

The day I saw the Statue of Liberty September 13, 2007

Another busy day has ended here in NY. This morning, as I planned, I went to South of Manhattan and took my ferry ticket to go to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The sky was bright and the temperature just perfect. The Statue of Liberty is a must-see as it’s one of the most famous monuments in the world, but the most interesting part of the stop on this island is the view: you have a breathtaking view of the south of Manhattan. A little further you can also see the Empire State building. I took the time to sit down, drinking slowly a good cappuccino and admiring the panorama. Un-for-get-able

After this, I took the ferry to Ellis Island. The 1st thing I did was to search for members of my family on the computers installed at the entrance. It returned 1 answer: Angelo Bonzi. but these computers do not give all the names of the immigrants (only the name of ‘honored’ people). That’s why I went to the American Family Immigration History Center, which allows you to pay 5 dollars to search (during 26 minutes) the whole list of immigrants who have arrived in Ellis Island. I got 4 other names, all from the small Italian village where my grandfather was from.
The visit of Ellis Island was very interesting and longer than expected. When I took the boat to go back to NY, it was to late to catch the ferry to Staten Island (I wanted to visit 2 museums on that island). It was too late for Staten Island, not for NY. Being in the South, it was only a short walk to Wall Street and the NY Stock exchange (you can see the pictures), which of course I only saw from the outside.
If you know me, you also know that I love a few american series like CSI (Les Experts), Chips and FBI portés disparus (sorry, i don’t know the US titles) and of course, you guessed I didn’t miss the visit of the NY city Police Museum.
I then headed to South Street sea port (a few blocks away to the north). From there, you have a wonderful view on Brooklyn and Brooklyn bridge (remember, I was there yesterday). Last year (or 2 years ago) I’ve seen a documentary on Arte about Fulton Market (a huge fish market) which was moved to the outside of the town. Before this, it was right there, on South Street sea port. It was strange to be there because I knew the story of the place, saw interviews of people who had worked there… it was like I was back home after a long while. In the gallery, you can see the 2 boats I have visited (I also did visit the museum located on Fulton Street).
I was already really tired, but there were too many things to see in the area to go back to the hotel. I walked to the Church of St Peter, Ground 0 (see the picture), Trinity Church, Chinatown and 1 crowdy street of Little Italy, all decorated for the San Gennaro Feast, and I bought some zeppole (du sucre glace avec des beignets bien gras dedans).
It was a long looong looong walk. You can guess I was happy to arrive at the hotel tonight!!