The sights

Today was very, very long and tiring but impacting. We saw everything we planned which was great.

After a great big breakfast we headed out to The Guggenheim Museum which is (and please don't ask how we didn't realize this immediately) about 40 blocks away from our hotel - so on the way we saw a lot: a cigar shop at which John got a great deal on a pack (of Punch Champions ?) and some new shoes 'cause, like we expected, some necessary item failed us and needed replacing. Our route was up Fifth
Ave and we saw a lot of the fashion district and the uppityness that is the Upper East Side. The Guggenheim museum is really amazing itself, architecturally - the whole thing is a cascading slope and has some incredible art. We saw some gorgeous Picasso and Van Gogh and Monet pieces and I found a new favorite artist: Gorges Barque (???) or something. Anyway, I don't know much about art but I think I've come to know what I prefer to see and what I'm not so crazy about. I'm a big fan of abstract and cubist work, but (I think) realist / classical work is so, so much less interesting and exciting. You are taught your whole life to hold so closely to reality that those who dont have something special and unique about them.

Next we booked it over to the Museum of Modern Art where we saw a pretty amazing Andy Warhol special exhibit with moving portraits. There was a lot of other fantastic / provoking work but we were in a bit of a hurry to make it over to St Paul's Church at the end if Broadway for a tour, but we still showed up a bit late. Unfortunately we were told that the tour met in Times Square which was so, so, so misguided... We're talking 1400 street numbers in the wrong direction. We took a taxi (much less awesome than I thought it would be) and thankfully made the tour.

The tour was of Ground Zero and it was very impacting - our guide was pretty great and it was such an eerie experience - a lot more eerie than even the Neuengamme Concentration camp which was pretty
surprising. There isn't really much to say about it, I guess I'm still processing the whole thing.

We stopped to grab some food to share at an Irish Pub right beside ground zero, and worked our way back to Times Square where we figured out that our city passes got us a $20 credit at Planet Hollywood.. So we got more food to actually get filled up. (20 covered the bill!)

After a long day and a ton of walking we're kicking back and getting ready for our last day in NY tomorrow.