Day 7: NY to Paris,
May 16/17
Weather: muggy, raining in the morning, for most
part pretty decent
No fitness center, breakfast at Oscar’s again (cereal and
yogurt, bagel and cream cheese and lox), included. Subway to bottom of island
and a walk through Battery Park to see the Martin Puryear sculptures, missing
the Goldsworthy and Turrell (we didn’t have an art map, unfortunately, and the
locations of the work was at the top of the park).
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| Transfer from the 6 to the 5 |
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| WTC #1 (no #2, this one was very expensive as it) |
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| A picture of a picture |
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| A picture of a picture |
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| A very nice field near the bottom of Manhattan |
Subway back to the Pastrami Queen for lunch: two pastrami
sandwiches on rye (kosher, so no cheese), cole slaw, diet Snapples, $54. Walk back to hotel and pack up, head for JFK
airport around 3:30 for our 6:30 Air France flight to Paris.
Gosh, what a surprise: traffic at a standstill in Queens.
The ride is long enough that we have time to discuss taking the subway to/from
airport next time. It is impractical given that we have one large and multiple
small bags. $72 with a generous tip for driving smoothly and avoiding
LaGuardia.
Air France must have a very liberal Business and frequent
flyer check-in: there are 20 or so people in line and it goes very slowly. One
family of five is occupying one of the desk people the entire time we are
there, including having to open their bags to rebalance the weight. The woman
next to us at the counter is being told that biz class is oversold on her
flight; she’s probably still in line.
Security is worse, if possible: the slowest line is for
business class. You have to take off your shoes, laptops go through separately,
everything out of your pockets, and liquids can stay in the bag. Maybe THB is
suffering from lack of sleep: he just doesn’t care anymore.
As we get to the business lounge, another family with
children is trying to talk their way into the lounge. Guess the French have a
new attitude about kids.
And now a word from your sponsor: Dell. THB gave up on the
Chromebook which, as Neil sings, is a piece oh crap. Problems from day one.
Guess for $250 you don’t really get a functional travel device. Instead, for
about $1k, you get a very nice Dell laptop, with EM tech support to get going.
The Dell is handling all of THB’s travel needs: fast, loading pics to the blog
works smoothly, very fast to boot up, no problems with the charger, and it
holds a charge for quite a while.
NY Observations
1. Our Waldorf Towers hotel room was
great, and by some standards not that expensive given how great the layout and
space were; $750/night after factoring in the free night, which included all
breakfasts ($40pp in Oscar’s!), taxes (lots of taxes), the “freer” spa
treatment, and $50 worth of mini-bar alcohol (needed, much needed).
2. The hotel service level was pretty
awful: if someone else could take care of us, we got passed on. Nobody ever
accepted responsibility (one exception: the woman in the 26th
breakfast lounge that got us a huge bowl of berries).
3. In general, the same attitude seem to
be pervasive elsewhere in town (not always, it just never went away). Last
night in Shuko, the waiter is explaining the wine pairings and after he was
done, DB said no beer for her. The waiter started to explain how the beer went
with that course. When he stopped, I said that she didn’t want beer, that I was
sure they could find some way to accommodate her with another beverage. Oh yes,
he replied. They just skipped giving her beer, not offering even a top off of
her champagne (and the guy pouring the beer knew she didn’t want it). You can have it your way, as long as it is our
way?
4. Gosh, this town is bubbling with
construction and traffic (we had two horrible cab rides, one at 9:30pm on
Sunday and one at 10:30am on Friday). And, it seemed pretty clean (including in
the subway stations and cars), very few indigent types, and like all major
cities nowadays…
5. Full of people carrying smart phones.
Sometimes it seemed like half the population had one welded to their right
palm. Are we at the peak? And, not just listening to music, many of them
interactive (texting?). Elevators a worst case scenario: listening to someone
else’s phone beep without getting your own shot of serotonin. Maybe THB should
carry around a fake one that beeps every few minutes (WAIT: THB will still have
to keep the thing charged and turned on…not gonna happen!).
6. The art and design fairs were very
mediocre to not good. It gave us something to do, not sure it was all that
necessary. Have to think about whether to do these in future. Gallery hopping
is also a challenge, at least you aren’t stuck in the tent!
7. The Whitney came out very nice, and
starting at top and working your way done was easy as for the re-opening it was
in chronological order, oldest to newest.
8. The High Line has become the extremely
crowded High Line. It is on every tourist’s must do list. It’s good…is it THAT
good? Not enough art, just a stroll through some low level greenery that when
stuck between or around railroad tracks looks like a bunch of weeds kept well
maintained.
9. Don’t think the food here has kept up
with Bay Area standards. We had one very good meal, and the rest were pretty
decent. Of course, since we went back to some favorites, this could be just
fatigue (ours) setting in. Next time THB will have to force himself to branch
out.
10.Above does NOT apply to bakeries:
Lafayette excellent as was (as usual) Sullivan Street.
11.Lastly: being a West Coast sports fan
on the East Coast (or living on East Coast and trying to watch your team play
on the West Coast) is unbelievably frustrating. We are soooooooooo much better
off living West where games in East start at a very respectable 4 or 4:30 and
end on pacific time by around 10pm.
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