New York Night

Warning: Hillbilly-like travelogue ahead...

So we got to NYC on the train in mid-afternoon. Weather was good but COLD. Amtrak is ok, but nothing like the sweet Euro or Japanese trains I've been on. (why can't we have a good, inexpensive point to point rail system in this country? oh never mind I know the answer...) Penn Station is where the trains come in, from there we caught the subway uptown. I love the NYC subway (how many people say that???) and am glad we were there before what looks like a certain strike. Anyways, Penn station is nothing special, big and sprawling, nothing to look at. A better station comes later.

The place we stayed was like something out of a movie. A beautiful classic 6 between Lexington and Park. Very gracious board members from the day job allowed us to stay with them...country mice go to the city. I think we walked in awe around their place for a half hour. Books, original art, baby grand, everything perfectly placed and beautiful. And most surprisingly of all, very comfortable and not pretentious in the least. It was amazing. One block from the subway, a perfect base of touristy operations.

After freshening up we hit the streets. I am a master navigator and planner, and wanted to take advantage of the clear afternoon and evening. So we walked. Miles. Madison Ave, 5th Ave, gawking in the windows of American commerce at its best (worst?) New York pulls out all the stops at Christmas. Not being commercially oriented, and in fact generally aggressively opposed to being force fed advertising or come-hither pleas to spend and buy, I found to my surprise the whole thing to be enjoyable. It is so over the top its like its not real. Saks, Bloomingdales: Department stores of unbelievable size selling everything under the sun! It's crazy!. The Trump Tower- gaudier than you'd imagine, all pink marble and bright brass, truly a monument to bad taste. I was laughing out loud. The flagship Sony store (ok, I'm a gearhead and I really dug this place). Chestnuts roasting by corner vendors, everything decorated way past any reason. Elaborate store window displays (as an artist, I was pretty impressed by the craftsmanship, but distressed it was just a temporary installation to facilitate commerce). A jillion people, sights sounds smells...sensory overload.

We went to Rockefeller Center, and saw the oversize Christmas bush, famous the world over, and the skating rink, being Zambonied to Christmas tunes at the moment. In a fit of touristic lack of sensibility, we went to the observation platform. It had just opened, I don't know how many stories up, and it was worth every penny. I think you could see a thousand miles in every direction, the city lit from horizon to horizon. People sure can build stuff.

Back down, and now ice skaters in the rink, hundreds of them whirling and twirling and falling. A latte's worth of watching and then stroll down towards Central Park. So many shiny things all around. Cut across a few streets, and into a pizza palor dive for slices of NYC's finest and to sit a bit with the city cops and Bloomingdalies on their breaks, watching a Knicks game. Great pizza, good humor, fine vibe. Then the last few blocks back to the palatial apartment, greeted by the doorman by name no less (!!!) and in for the night. Blessed reclining, feet up. Planning the next day's adventure and drifting off to sleep.

We are so easily amused. This is good, because it's cost effective.

More tomorrow. Hope everyone has a great evening- are you guys getting ready for the holiday? We're not big celebrators, so the closer it gets, the quieter it gets around our house. Now, I'm off to walk in the cool twilight with Lucy and wait for the moon to blast over the ridge. It is going to be clear and cold tonight; the light show we'll have will be better than the city I think....