Day 4 - Ikea - Central Park - Guggenheim

This morning, while the boys slept in, I ventured out to walk the Red Hook area and visit the big Blue Ikea store.

IKEA (Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd) is a privately held, international home products Swedish corporation that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture, appliances and home accessories. The company is now the world's largest furniture retailer. IKEA was founded in 1943 by 17-year-old Ingvar Kamprad in Sweden, named as an acronym comprising the initials of the founder's name (Ingvar Kamprad), the farm where he grew up (Elmtaryd), and his home parish (Agunnaryd).

On my walk down to the Ikea store (it is about 1.5 miles from the apartment) I grabbed a bagel and coffee. Once I got in the store, I discovered they have a very nice cafeteria. Oops.

Love this faucet.


And this kitchen.


2 hours later, after browsing the whole IKEA store I returned to the apartment.

Next on the agenda..........Central Park.

We visited the John Lennon memorial named Strawberry Fields.


We also walked across the street to the Dakota, the actual place where he was shot. There are no signs there because they are trying to discourage site seers.

We walked all around Central Park and found that Belvedere Castle is open on the weekends so we could go up on top. This really excited Brian because he had never been up there before.


Belvedere Castle is a building in Central Park in New York, New York, that contains exhibit rooms and an observation deck. Built as a Victorian folly in 1869, the castle caps Vista Rock, the park's second-highest natural elevation. Constructed of Manhattan schist quarried in the park and dressed with gray granite, it tops the natural-looking woodlands of The Ramble, as seen from the formal Bethesda Terrace. As the plantings matured, the castle has disappeared from its original intended viewpoint. Its turret is the highest point in the park.

View from the top.

Then it was a short walk to the Guggenheim.

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a well-known museum located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan just across the street from Central Park. It is the permanent home to a renowned collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions throughout the year. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, it is one of the 20th century's most important architectural landmarks. The museum opened on October 21, 1959, and was the second museum opened by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. It recently underwent an extensive, three-year renovation.

We didn't pay the $25 to see the whole museum, but they do allow visitors to view the building from the ground level for free. Way cool.

Next stop was the Neue Galerie New York on Fifth Ave. It is a museum devoted to early twentieth-century German and Austrian art and design.

We had coffee at the Café Sabarsky,

which bears the name of Neue Galerie co-founder Serge Sabarsky, draws its inspiration from the great Viennese cafés that served as important centers of intellectual and artistic life at the turn of the century. It is outfitted with period objects, including lighting fixtures by Josef Hoffmann, furniture by Adolf Loos, and banquettes that are upholstered with a 1912 Otto Wagner fabric.


Then we took a very, VERY crowded bus ride to the subway station so we could get home. The bus was no fun and it was the only time we ever took it.