Saturday, March 26, 2005

The Apple bites back

Back from a week in New York. Had a great time doing all the tourist-stuff: Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island tours, a pastrami sandwich at the Carnegie Deli, the Broadway show "Wicked," a Knicks game and about 1,001 slices of pizza and half-dozen pretzels from street vendors.

If you're looking for some exercise and don't want to join a gym, all you need to do is hit the streets of Manhattan. For dinner one night we walked 45 blocks and on Sunday afternoon we trudged from NYU down to Ground Zero. The distances may be far but it never seems a difficult trek as you're constantly beseiged by all the visual stimulation and not worried about how far you're going.

Our hotel was the Roosevelt and it was a real coup. On the corner of Madison and 45th, it was just around the corner from Grand Central and a perfect location as a starting point for any excursion. Catching a subway at Grand Central was easy amid the chaos there. Rush hour at Grand Central is something that shouldn't be missed. Thousands of people all in a hurry to get somewhere, all laser-like in their focus to make their train back home.

March is a great time to spend in the city as you can catch the beauty of both winter and spring in a matter of hours. On Tuesday, it was a glorious 55 degrees and blue skies. The next day it was raining in the morning and by 5 p.m. the snow was falling hard.

New York's a great town. Not sure I'd want to live in the city but living in the burbs and coming to Gotham by train wouldn't be the worst way to spend your working life.

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