Tuesday Part 1 - Bryant Park and Morgan Library

This morning after breakfast I went to Bryant Park. This is a block in the centre of Midtown Manhattan  made into a lovely park with nice lawns, fountains, paved areas, flower beds and lots of tables and chairs. Last year I enjoyed this space for myself and I appreciated lots of things that have been done to help other people enjoy the park. It was no different this morning. I arrived at 9.20. There were not many people around. I sat at a table in the ‘reading room’ to have my coffee and croissant and whatever else I wanted to do. The guy did not come till I was leaving at 10.15 to take  the covers off the racks of books and fill the newspaper racks, so I could not read  about what NY’s response to the Boston trouble is. There is a 9/11 memorial fun run/walk on this Sunday in NY that I have entered.  

There were lots of birds in the park ( maybe I will go on an early morning bird tour) . There are many bulbs out ( maybe I will go on a flower tour). There is a ‘games’ room and, according to the magazine about the park, you can play anything from scrabble and mancala to dominoes. I had to look up ( easy on the WiFi throughout the park) what mancala is. Near me , near a permanent flower pot, there was a small pipe sticking up from the ground with a cover on the top to protect the 2 electrical powerpoints. There are 42 of these throughout the park.  Later in May and then summer they have lots of concerts, classes, exhibitions etc. The last entry in the magazine was an article about a one-off event on the lawn. Giant musical chairs with 400 people.  I looked at a youtube clip of last years event. They started with lots of circles of about 9 chairs, whittled these down and then reformed the circles etc etc  till there was 1 winner.. What fun ( except if you were eliminated on the first round) .

I then walked to the Morgan library. On the way I saw a sign  in a dry cleaning shop. It said “ We clean your clothes with EM ( Effective Microoganisms) soap."  Really ??  

Pierpont Morgan was a very wealthy financier  1837 to 1913 who assembled a large collection of manuscripts, printed books, and other artefacts.. These are now housed in his original library plus another building. In 2006  a new addition designed by Renzo Piano joined these buildings and  added more space.  It is an interesting building. Many things are on display in some of the lovely old rooms. One of his 3  Gutenburg bibles are on display. ( 4 institutions in Australia have 1 page each)   There were illustrated manuscripts and very old Sumerian stone tablets with cuniform writing.

I had a nice late lunch at a café I enjoyed last year ( same block).  I enjoyed it again.

I have just had an afternoon sleep so that I won’t fall asleep in Rigoletto tonight.