Art Museums.....

Thursday was a medical travel day.  Nephrology finally got word to us (at the extreme last minute) that they were fitting us in at 8:30 AM. Since Neurology was at 3:30, it left us a big gap.  The trip between hospitals can take an hour in tough traffic, but even taking that into account, we had 9:30 - 2:30 to do as we pleased with.

We've had the Philadelphia Museum of Art on our list for a long time.  Babygirl loves museums of all kinds, and I'm game for just about anything, really.  The weather in Philly yesterday was amazing for mid-January, a balmy 60 degrees.  We took a look at all our transportation options (subway, bus, taxi), checked a map, asked the locals and opted to walk.

Philly has a lovely riverwalk up the Schuykill river.  The hospital is only a couple of blocks from the river, so we crossed over and hiked the two miles to the museum.  We watched dozens of people try to sprint up the stairs and then take photos a la "Rocky."  We chatted about how, in some ways, the view down Ben Franklin Ave felt a little bit like Paris (side note:  The steps up the museum are in 5 rounds of 13 steps.  Since that number is considered unlucky you almost never see steps set to that number if it can be avoided, and it certainly could have been on an outdoor flight.  There has to be some bizarre Masonic historical context there).

Admission to the museum was more affordable than to the museum at U. Penn, surprisingly.  I asked the desk whether the museum had a Van Gogh on display, and was delighted to find out that they had several.  I've never really seen one.  He was surprised when I (shamelessly name-dropping LOL) told him that the Louvre doesn't have any, nor any Monet/Manet paintings - they are all in a separate set of museums that we never got to.

Babygirl had no specific interest in those artists, however, and on learning there was to be a guided tour of the South Asian art section decided that we should go with the tour.  It was admittedly fascinating.

"A soul outside the cycle of time." My mind is still a bit boggled.



The ever-popular lay-on-the-floor-to-get-the-ceiling shot:



The tour thankfully left us enough time to swing through the impressionists wing as well.  Seeing great art in person is completely different than seeing a photo.  Brushstrokes, layers, lighting, movement.  Amazing.

This is one I had never even seen a photograph of, called "Rain" by VanGogh.  Sorry for the odd sizing.

 

This gives a pretty extreme closeup of one of the sunflower series - it ALMOST does the brushstrokes justice.....



And then there is this oddity, by Toulouse-Latrec, a portrait of his dog painted on a random piece of cardboard (seriously, I suppose there is only so much Moulin Rouge to paint...):



The locals had recommended downloading the Uber app and catching a ride if we needed one.  I was truly surprised at how easy and affordable that was.

The ride from Philly to Wilmington was complicated by a handful of accidents on I-95 south (one apparently involving a truck full of carpets?), and Google rerouted us through an urban neighborhood where we saw a man come out of his rowhouse with a white german shepherd and a pig.   Not a little Vietnamese potbelly, a 400 pound white pig.  Sideshow, as it were.

Medically all is well.  The kidney is happy, Botox is helping the headaches at least for half of the time it is supposed to and we have marching orders for the next few weeks.

DeeDee