Cloistered

In an effort to actually leave my neighborhood and see some more of the city, I set out one day to check out the Cloisters. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but the website told me it was the medieval wing of the Metropolitan. It also told me that it's way the hell uptown. I took the 'A' train (cue Duke Ellington) to 190th st and made the 10 minute walk north through a very hilly Fort Tryon park. It was a pretty stellar day, a bit too hot in the sun but nice in the shade.
I followed the signs and found myself high on a ridge overlooking the Westside highway, Hudson river and the vast forests of North Jersey. The Cloisters is a museum where the building itself is part of the exhibit. There were all sorts of arches, doorways and well...cloisters built into the larger building (the link explains it better and more thoroughly). The building and gardens were smaller than I expected, but it was pretty amazing. If it wasn't for the sound of the highway, you could pretend you were in 15th century France. Well, I could anyway. Medieval art has never been something I knew or cared too much about, but the stuff they had was pretty awe inspiring. It was mostly religious artifacts with a lot of super ornate bowls & goblets. It's all pretty pointless to try and describe and most of it didn't photograph well, but I highly recommend it as a New York activity.