So Friday rolled around and we ended early and everyone else swanned off to their flights out of town. I returned to my hotel and packed a small bag for my impending trip to the Big Apple. It was my first time and I had debated many things, taking a train, driving, catching a plane. Catching a plane would have been ridiculous but I still thought about it, in the end I resolved to drive. It is only a short distance  and since I had the car and didn't want to get held up by trains and having to change stations I resolved to just, well do it!

I pulled out my trusty GPS and started punching in the address and was perplexed to find that I had failed to upload the State of New York into the memory - gaaaaah! This infernal device, whilst wondrous in its day was starting to drive me mad.  First the maps were cumbersome to update, secondly it had no USB port, thirdly, the ac adapter fuse appeared to have blown but could not be located and the antennae was not always functioning properly. Above all, it is so heavy and bulky. There was no way I could get my head around travelling to the big city sans a map, no printer was easily available and i had no map.

I had been lusting after a similar gps model to the one Allison and Victor had bought when I was there in April last year, and had noticed that the price of the Tom Tom's in particularly had come down progressively. Since my shoes had developed a crack in the sole and were now leaky I resolved that a trip to Nordstrom's Rack was in order and that a pass at Best Buy at KOP might work too.  I found a nice pair with a plastic sole and leather uppers, not the best in the world, but they will do, besides they were 35% off the list price so i managed to get them for well under $40. At Best Buy, the array of GPS available are dizzying, garmin, magellan, tom tom and more. The Tom Tom's always get rave reviews, are pert compact things with bright touch screen displays and apply open standards to much of what they do. I settled on a modestly priced model that was blue tooth enabled, allowing for traffic and roadworks updates from your internet enabled phone and which sticks to the windscreen with a big sucker. the salesman was very excited to also tell me that the latest S model also includes turn by turn street name call outs - woo hoo! Unfortunately when it came time to actually buy one, there were none in stock - gaaaaah!!!

8 were located in the computer in Plymouth Meeting, so using my existing Streetpilot III I set off for Plymouth Meeting, getting hopelessly lost on the way - so much for technology. I get there in sheets of rain, and I meet Raju, who greets me like a long lost cousin and tells me all about the resounding cricket success that south africa is having in bangladesh at the moment - amazing! He has the S model too, so I pay and fire her up to set me off home, wow I am so pleased. The technology is not perfect but what an upgrade! Most important, I pulled it out plugged it in and it worked without me doing anything, a bit like just getting on a bicycle and riding it!

Back at the hotel I fired up the phone but couldnt get the two things to talk, even my blackberry was stumped, In the hotel room, I downloaded some new voices for the turn by turn instructions, interesting choices included fee paid celebrities like John Cleese! Next morning i set off a little later than expected and suprising passed through a bunch of toll roads and paid the proverbial filthy lucre to hirelings for roads that have long been paid for by the millions of vehicles that pass through these booths every year. Very soon I found myself in manhattan and in no time was at the parking garage recommended by the hotel. It is one of those places like that featured in Anger Management, except that a gang of latinos fetch and deliver your vehicle for you, you're not allowed to get into the situation painted in the movie.

a walk around the corner and I was at my hotel, the Marrakech. At first I was uncertain whether I had made a good choice, the place had the tiniest of entrances and the porters were dressed in black suits and looked like night club bouncers, they called up to reception on walky talkies when we entered. The reception is up a flight of narrow stairs. Strikes me, that the hotel was once a boarding house or apartments, I don't know, just altogther very interesting. there was a photo shoot going on in the lounge area which struck me as vaguely pornographic but in the end i concluded it was just my imagination getting carried away with itself - my little fantasy - lol!

With key card in hand i wended my way through a warren of dingy coloured but freshly painted corridors until i reached another flight of stairs. Three floors up and down another narrow corridor and i was at my room. The furnishings were new, modest but effective. The bathroom was relatively new, had stains in the tub, but the place was definitely clean. A great deal! A place on Broadway and 102nd for less than $150 a night, you cant really complain.

Since it was afternoon and I had a mission, I set off by foot. I traipsed across Amsterdam and Park Ave and through Central Park to 5th Ave and then down several blocks to the Neue Gallerie, passing the Guggenheim (under facelift), the Smithsonian and the Jewish History Museum. The Neue is in a lovely neat little building on the corner and inside once again there were plenty of rather intimidating museum staff with coils of wires protruding from their ears like secret service agents. Inside, there is currently a large exhibit of  Klimt from some of his earliest works from the Lauder and Sabarsky collections and a bunch of pieces of furniture of the period as well as some sculptures and clocks as well as a recreation of his studio. It was wonderful to see the pieces up so close and in particular to see some of the sketches and school pieces he did as a student. 

On the way back to the hotel I stopped at the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt Design and Technology museum which had just opened it's Rococo exhibit, this too was rather fun including a substantial section on Art Nouveau with Tiffany, Lalique and Mucha pieces including jewelry and posters. The gilded rococo pieces of course were sometimes quite ridiculous and included an all solid silver dressing table!

That evening I took a yellow cab down to Lafayette St to Joe's Pub at the Public theatre Complex and took in Kristina Train along with a number of other artists including Ben Arthur. Train was stunning to listen to and watch with her fiddle and powerful voice. If you get a chance to see her live - she is treat.  When I was ready to leave unfortunately I had a minor altercation with the useless hired help which told me that it was customary "here in the united states to pay a 20% tip - please fix it!" I didnt have the heart to tell her that her service was crappy and that she was lucky to get anything, but then I am a chickenshit I guess - lol - I complied and she got waaaaay more than she was worth.

Sunday I took a cab down to Time Square where the weather was bone chilling but sunny, I found a good spot just off the square to grab brunch, watch the passing parade and steel myself for the uneventful drive back to PA.