Friday, October 20th, 2023
Today we awoke to rain. Not light rain, not a smattering of drizzle, not showers…but thick, grey heavy rain that looks socked in all day. The forecast offered little in the way of respite and as such we planned our day to be indoors. Yesterday had been far too busy, but we packed things in as we knew today was going to be miserable. We took our time in the morning as there was little to get up for with most things not opening until 10 am. Instead, we relaxed a little, “enjoyed” the view from our room, and planned the day.
MoMA – $30
The first stop was the MoMA. This is one of our favorite Museums in the City and a perfect wet weather activity. We considered the Met or the Natural History Museum, but chose the eMet as it’s just so much more compact and we had walked so much yesterday.
Again, the weather was no secret and we were not the only people to decide the MoMA was the perfect way to escape the rain. The queue stretched right along the front of the building, and then up the side of Sixth Av…and then all the way behind the building and it was raining. To be honest, the Museum wasn’t open yet and as soon as the doors opened the queue moved fast and we were inside in 15 minutes.
There was quite a lot of work going on and most of the guest exhibits were changing over, but all the classics, that we come to the MoMA for were on display. Van Gough has several amazing works here, including The Starry Night, one of our favorite paintings ever. Some of Monet’s best Water Lillies are here along with plenty of Picasso, Gauguin, Cézanne, Warhol, and Pollock.
Another standout for us is Salvidor Dali’s, The Persistence of Memory, you know the one with the melty clocks. The Museum is one of the most concentrated collections of Modern art in the world and there are so many famous pieces on display, far more than any one other museum. There must be 30-40 paintings in here that would be the headline at most museums, and of course, Starry Night is perhaps one of the most famous paintings ever put on Canvas. We can only think of a few more fanatic paintings anywhere…(feel free to let us know of any more famous ones in the comments)
Gallaghers Steakhouse
After our favorite Art Museum, we headed to our favorite Steakhouse for lunch. We adore Gallagher’s Steakhouse. It’s a quintessential part of the City and offers a really great old-school steakhouse experience. Not to mention their Steaks, Dry-aged at the front of the store are some of the best in the world. The only way to really improve upon Gallaghers is to make it cheaper…and their lunch special does JUST that!
for $32 per person, you can get a 3-course Lunch Menu Special. Soup or Salad to start, with a choice of Entries including Fillet Steak, and a dessert of Cheesecake, Keylime Pie, or Ice Cream. It’s a great deal and while it does not include a Porterhouse, which is our favorite we will make do with the Fillet. The Pork chop is also great, but we come here for Steak.
Full Disclosure I upgraded to the 10oz Fillet which is a little ($18) more, but absolutely stunning. The Chowder we started with was okay, but we are not huge fans of Manhattan Chowder, preferring Maine style instead, and the clams were a little rubbery. The Fillet was stunning and melted in the mouth, and we ordered the Key Line and the Chesecake and shared, both were out of this world.
Overall, while not cheap as such, the Lunch deal is such great value. This is one of the best restaurants in the City and to dine here for $32 each…it’s a steal. This meal would have been $200+ in the evening.
Catacombs Tour by Candlelight – $37
Next up was something we had been wanting to do for a while, a Visit the Catacombs under the OLD St Patricks Cathedral. We had just never got around to it, it’s not that centrally located and takes quite a bit of time. As the rain was washing out most of the day we decided this was the perfect time for it. So we had booked a slot this morning and headed over.
Unfortunately, we had a complete nightmare with the Subway and overshot the station, I was just not reading the stops correctly. Usually, this is no issue, but we were on the Red Line and we had missed the last stop in Manhattan and the next stop was 10 minutes over the Manhattan Bridge. This would be cutting it fine…however, we got stuck behind a work train and this stopped every 50 feet to carry out repairs. it took 45min to reach DeKalb Av, where we hopped off, crossed platforms, and headed back.
We emerged from the Station with minutes to spare and somehow got to the office just in time to join the tour. Really this tour wasn’t quite what we expected. The Catacombs by Candlelight conjured up images of sprawling underground tombs with ghostly light and ghoulish vibes, perfect for Halloween. But the reality was a bit more down to earth.
It’s more of a tour of the Old St Patrick’s Cathedral with a little visit to the pretty small catacombs at the end. Remember this is the OLD St Patrick’s Cathedral in Little Itlay, not the new one over on Fith Av. It’s a lot smaller and a lot less impressive. It was built when New York was smaller and growing and was replaced by the newer model once the city started to boom.
It’s a really interesting history lesson, presented in a fun and interesting way. The tour starts at the burial grounds outside where you learn a little about the growth of the City and how the cathedral was central to early New York, about how burials became banned in New York after repeated cholera outbreaks, and lots of other interesting History bites you won’t find on most tours around the City.
The tour then heads inside the Cathedral, and while the outside is pretty drab, the interior is stunning. This is best explained by a few pics:
Finally, the tour heads downstairs to the underground burial plots or Catacombs. These are the final resting places for hundreds of some of the early cities big players and while there are no “famous” people here they are all important and notable in the history of the City. The experience wasn’t as creepy as we imagined. There are only 3 corridors and the (electric) candlelight is not really needed as there is plenty of light down there. This part of the tour was a let-down but overall we really enjoyed exploring the cathedral and learned a lot.
Little Italy
The rain was still pouring down after our tour but we still took the time to explore the area and take in some of Little Italy. As we wandered around the rain really started pouring down and we spotted our favorite sign…Happy Hour! We scarcely even checked the name of the restaurant but darted in and were offered seats at the bar with half-price cocktails and half-price Appetizers. Score!
It turned out to be Parm on Mulberry Street and offered decent American-Itlaian food right in the heart of Little Itlay. Italian food can get a bit of stick in little Italy, but we find this is because some people expect it to be Italian food, but in reality, it’s American Italian. The Italians have been here for well over a hundred years and their cuisine has diversified, while we LOVE real Italian food, we also love the Americanised version, it’s not better or worse, it’s different, and tbh we come to New York for their version of the cuisine, if we want authentic Italian, we would go to Italy!
PArm is definitely the Americanised version and we had the Pizza Knotts and Mozzarella Sticks along with a nice old-fashioned and an Aperol Spritz, all for a total of $40ish plus tip. We really felt we had eaten very well today for a very reasonable amount of money…New York doesn’t have to break the bank.
Disney Store and Early Night
With the rain still pummeling down, we decided to call time on the day nice and early, heading back to the Hotel to recoup and get ready for another big day tomorrow. We stopped in at the Times Square Disney store for a spot of early Christmas shopping and then had to fight our way across the madness of the Square on Saturday Night.
Go City New York All Inclusive 3-Day Pass – Running Total
- Attractions Today – 2
- Total Attractions – 7
- Attractions Cost – $67
- Running Total – Day 2 of 3: $321
- Cost Of Pass – $249
- Savings – $72
This was a light day on the Pass. We absolutely packed it in yesterday so it left less to do today due to the rain. We had planned a couple of other things too but time and motivation got away from us and we spent more time eating than just about anything else. Still, this puts the total savings at $72 and we still have a full and Packed day ahead of s tomorrow.
Walking Total – 15,907 Steps – 7.9 Miles
The rain also kept the walking to a minimum so we ended up with a pretty light day on our feet. Don’t worry we are back on the steps tomorrow…
