Thursday, 19 March 2015

walk on the wild side...


I have never seen so many bagpipes as in New York yesterday.  The St Patrick Day parade here differs from San Fran in a lot of ways. For a start there are no vehicles or floats. It’s all one long march from 44th to 65th. Our hotel is right near the start so we had a good view early on. Second difference is it’s actually on the day itself and finally, the number of people is huge.

So we walked the route then did the central library which sadly had its two most impressive reading rooms closed and grabbed a cocktail in The Campbell Apartments in Grand Central station. It’s a red velvet and brown chair sort of bar going back the Twenties, hidden away and very pleasant after a route march through mid-town.

Today was freezing at -3 degrees so a trip to Ground Zero should have been heart warming. It is still very much a building site, but the two memorial waterfalls were certainly a fitting tribute to the victims, demonstrating the footprints of the two towers at the same time. The viewing gallery of the new World Trade Centre will open in the next few months, and the views should be spectacular.

We walked most of the way back, and then finished the day with dinner at a training restaurant aptly called L’Ecole. We were joined in SoHo by our good friends Eins and Tina from Blundellsands who were also in New York for yesterday’s parade.

Tomorrow it’s back to Blighty but we do have membership of the Cornell Club for the day so will be dropping in there for WiFi and coffee at some point.

All in all a wide and varied 28 days with much to look back on and smile about….. talking of which did you know the tooth brush was invented in South Dakota? Otherwise it would have been called the teeth brush…….

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