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Published: August 9th 2014
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Philadelphia
The Thinkers in full pose with the Thinker PHILADELPHIA here we go again - once in a while (well to be honest it happens a lot) we just get this craving for Philly cheesesteaks - thinly sliced meat, onions and dripping cheese, etc, etc, etc. And since Philly is just a couple hours away and the home of the cheesesteak we try and make it out there as often as we can. It was cold, dreary and rainy in Stamford so off we went for an overnight stay in Philly. First up was the restuarant "10 Arts" by Eric Ripert. Nikkie love Ripert and "just happen" to know that he has a restaurant in Philly. It is a very typical hotel restaurant (in the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton) with views of the hotel lobby. We started with the raw oysters and seafood chowder (very good with nice big chunky pieces) and also had the trout and scallops (all good) and finished it off with the banana mouse (ok) and beignets (good). A good meal at a fair price with some nice touches in the food. One day we'll do the real Ripert.
We have always enjoyed going to Philly as it is an extremely artsy city with a
Philadelphia
The streets of Philly are loaded with wall art lot of fun things to do (see many previous blogs on Philadelphia). We love the Benjamin Franklin parkway in Philadelphia - it is without a doubt our favorite street. Starting at city hall and walking down/up to the PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART is an experience. You start with fountains everywhere and the street is lined with museums. In addition the entire street is lined with the flags of the world - each country being represented. We made the walk on a cold wintery day - the fountains are shut-off - so you are able to actually walk "in" the fountains and take some close-up and personal pictures with all the characters in the fountains - bulls, frogs, horses, soldiers, crocodiles, bears, eagles, etc. We also love this city because of all the murals painted on the walls all over the city and the suburbs.
Just a short distance before the PMOA you will find the THE RODIN MUSEUM - one of the gems of the city. Over the years I have fallen in love with Rodin. The things he did and the materials he did it with is truly astonishing at times. Right outside the museum is a full
scale replica of "THE THINKER". We had some fun with the sculpture in taking pictures. A couple feet on you come to the entrance of the museum and you see what I consider to be one of his true masterpieces - THE GATES OF HELL. An absolutely astonishing piece of work. The detail, size and intricacies of it is truly remarkable. One of the great things about it is that couples love to come take wedding pictures in front of it and the irony being that the entire sculpture represents a scene from hell. We loved standing in front of it and just looked at every little piece of detail. Wow. Going inside the museum there is hundreds of pieces and the fascinating part is seeing individual sculptures of all the small pieces depicted on "the Gates of Hell". We truly enjoyed it and would highly recommend it.
A short walk away is the PMOA. In front of the PMOA is the "infamous" Rocky steps. In the Rocky movie Stallone is absolutely spent after running up the steps. In reality there really are not that many steps. It is but a short run or walk. It is still fun
to re-create his run up the steps and looking out over the city once you reach the top. Don't forget to visit the ROCKY STATUE at the bottom of the steps before heading into the museum. We were extremely surprised by the size and breathe of the collection inside the museum. Just to list a couple of the painters represented - THOMAS EAKINS PAINTINGS, PICASSO PAINTINGS, MIRO PAINTINGS, LEGER PAINTINGS, DE KOONING PAINTINGS, POLLOCK PAINTINGS, and MARCEL DUCHAMP PAINTINGS. This is just a small sample. In addition wondering through the maze of paintings we also saw a couple big works including n VAN GOGH'S "SUNFLOWERS" and CEZANNE'S "LARGE BATHERS".
The museum itself just kept going and going. We walked and walked and still felt like we only really touched the collection. As it's close-by neighbor the PMOA has plenty of RODIN SCULPTURES on display. In addition there is a very impressive ARMOUR COLLECTION. The AMERICAN COLLECTION was also very impressive including many paintings and drawings from one of our favorites - Georgia O'Keeffe. The ASIAN ART collection is another truly impressive sight. There is a an original JAPANESE TEAHOUSE and an original CHINESE PALACE HALL on display. To see
these original structures are pretty awesome. This is what makes this museum really special - not only dies it have paintings, but also many other forms of art. Keeping with the trend we also saw an original HINDU TEMPLE, an original FRENCH CLOISTER and the STONE ARCHWAY OF ABBEY OF SAINT-LAURENT. We loved our 3 - 4 hours in the museum even though we felt the time was completely inadequate for the size of the collection and what else was left to see. A fun day in a fun city exploring art. One of the surprising pieces we absolutely loved and just got a total kick out of was the Boy with a rooster sculpture by Cecioni. It was this boy clutching a rooster balling his eyes out and throwing a total fit. Just an awesome sight - we can totally imagine our kids behaving like this one day
Before heading home we capped it all off with CAPOGIRO GELATO where we had MELOGRANO (POMEGRANATE) and THAI COCONUT MILK gelato. Definitely some of the best gelato we have ever had and the flavors are pretty awesome too.
Another brief stay in Philly for us. We crossed off two
Philadelphia
Absolutely love, love this! things including Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Rodin Museum and Capogiro Gelato. 217 down and 5,564 to go.
Til next time from the city of brotherly love
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