No day shall erase you from the memory of time

Virgil (Seen at the 9/11 World Trade Center Memorial)

Arrived downtown Manhatten right on time at 6:30 pm and yes we knew immediately we were in New York City. Streets busy with variety of traffic, large sidewalks busy with people and seems everyone walks at least short distances, like 20 blocks to Yotel Hotel near times square.

Traffic in town has been interesting, reminds me of riding bikes in Kathmandu, Mendoza, Salta, and LaPaz. The riders I was with there, taught me it can be fun with the right attitude. Like road riding or mountain bike riding different strategies. Here there are lots of bike riders I suspect 90% are electric, due to the speeds they travel. A few pedicabs as in Chicago with music blaring. But lots of vehicles trucks, cars, buses all vying for space. As in city bike riding one must be aggressive. Generally follow the rules but stand your ground. And that includes pedestrians, which have wide sidewalks, and dedicated walk paths on the streets. It seems if you are a driver honking your horn magically makes the traffic disappear in front of you. From our pedestrian viewpoint I saw no disappearances and magic movement, but the honking went on.

People are nice, smiling and returning waves and such. Last time we were here in 2018, Jeanne exclaimed to a New Yorker ” I thought people would be more rude”. The response was ” Oh you have to go to Boston for that”. Everyone on the streets from business men in suits, to delivery people to school kids, obviously from a variety of backgrounds. I ascertained that because of the variety of clothing worn.

And an incredible diversity of people. I cannot count the number of languages I have heard and not only tourists but apparent locals. The diversity is really nice. Halloween is coming up in 2 weeks and it is obvious it is a big deal here as already people out and about in costume. Willy Wonka, captain jack sparrow, dinosaurs, witches, skeletons, plus a variety of who knows what, some of which I do not think are costumes but everyday dress. Most fascinating.

We arrived at the Yotel Hotel, where we stayed last visit because it is one of cheaper hotels in town at $400/night. And it is a techno hotel which helps with the most important aspect of life in New York City – real estate. Maybe 12 feet by 16 feet (4 meters x 5meters about), the bed is a futon and one hits the button to turn it into an incredibly comfortable bed. Lots of plugins, both electrical and devices. Check in is person less with electronic and if you have big bags a robot will store them as not much room in the “cabin”. But it is very nice.

Chose to eat at Halal food food truck outside hotel on sidewalk. They are everywhere and very good. We each had a lamb gyro to eat in room and managed to make a mess. It was so good we ate the same next day after returning from all day at the 9/11 memorial.

Subway to 9/11 memorial much easier to figure out than Chicago, although perhaps I did not give Chicago a good enough try. I checked the maps for directions and driving would take 35 minutes, walking 28 minutes, and subway 20 minutes. arrived for our tour and spent the day at the memorial including the observation deck of the new freedom tower built to replace one of the twin towers. A tour explaining a lot, and 3 hours in the museum. A defining moment in USA history. The museum and tours were rudimentary in 2018 as still ongoing development. Museum was good, large and had a large number of artifacts, and personal stories from recording made at time, Smashed fire trucks, ambulances, building and airplane pieces. The actual memorial of descending waterfall where you cannot see the bottom made from the footprint of the original twin towers.

Did a great Broadway show “Hells Kitchen” by Alicia Keys. Awesome

And today was reserved for walking the high line trail, but never made it. That is a park made from an abandoned elevated rail. 100 feet wide and 4 miles long. We had done it before and great, but alas never made it today. A day of relaxation. I got out and walked a bit marveling at how just because a store door front is small does not mean the store is small. Vertical is a dimension here. This hotel has an entry on the street level but actually is floors 4-25. Target store covered 3 stories.

One cannot say ” this is how we do it back home”, because it often will not work here. As my father used to say. ” Be careful out there, they sometimes do things different, not better not worse, just different”

A delightful dinner with the son of one of Jeanne’s cousins, and his girlfriend. Finally figuring out directions, as I am used to north, south, east, west. that seems to mean nothing here, but downtown and uptown are the directions. Times Square where we are is uptown and dinner last night downtown. A good Italian dinner although they had to interpret the Italian for us. Fried artichoke hearts, sea bass, roasted beets, amazing stuff.

He sun rises in the east

And now on to Baltimore.