Christo's The Gates |
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Saturday, February 12th - Frankfurt / New York
5:00 getting up, 6:30 leaving for the airport. 7:00 arrival at the airport.
Shocking news: It looks like not being able for us to be seated next to each other :-(
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With Singapore Airlines it is generally not possible to make reservations up on front, and from our booking through the travel agency it obviously was not possible to tell that the two of us belong together ... So we were supposed to spend our time with a stranger instead of doing crossword puzzles or watching movies together or just chatting ... But fortunately we met a very competent Sing Air agent who was able to arrange a seating next to each other: We received an upgrade to Raffles Class -- so we finally got to enjoy flight :-) Right after the landing we checked into the Warwick hotel and went straight to meet Christo and Jeanne Claude. Well, not really personally, but at least we headed right to the Central Park to have a first look at The Gates. Among the many guests we meet some rather interesting people in the park ;-)) The Gates seem to be absolutely unusual in the beginning. But the longer one walks through the park taking a picture once in a while and therefore checking out different perspectives within the park, the greater and more beautiful seem the gates to turn. And finally you really believe it is art ... After wandering around for some time we had the impression it was time to see some other parts of the City as well. For dinner we went to Korea Town to a very authentic restaurant where we have been the only whites with only a few exceptions :-) It was very delicious and not too hot ... After this great meal we went ... Watching people in the Times Square area is always very interesting. But sometimes a little sad as well: This guy seems to have all his belongings with him. Sunday, February 13th – New York Breakfast at the Au Bon Pain 51st St / Park Ave After that we HAD to go to the service at the German church, where Steph 10 years ago had gone regularly, to attend the service as well as joining others for au-pair meetings. Swen was absolutely happy that they had heated the church - what he hadn't expected ;-))
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Other than that nothing spectacular happened. The priest was not the same as 10 years ago any more, and among the parishioners there was only one familiar face of which we were not sure whether it would recognize Stephie ;-) So we signed the guest book, had a quick sip of tea at the church cafe to head straight to the Mount Sinai Hospital to meet Jackie, Steph's first host Mom as an au-pair. Together with Jackie we went to the Ethiopian restaurant Meskerem at 45th St / 9th Ave. That was absolutely our taste. We had lunch with our fingers. It was lovely to meet Jackie after all these years, and for sure we had many stories to tell, as one can imagine. Swen was sitting pretty quiet among the two chatting ladies but it was interesting for him to listen to their exchange of words ;-)) After having said good bye to Jackie we had to return to Christo and his gates ...
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On the way back to our hotel we had a well-earned rest at the Peninsula Hotel to have two cocktails at the bar Afterwards we rushed to our hotel room to get ready for the musical. We were walking to the Wintergarten theater (pretty well known due to the long lasting Cats performance) Our hotel was located absolutely perfectly so that EVERYTHING was in walking distance ;-)) Where we were watching Mamma Mia, which is definitely worth watching for everyone who does not dislike ABBA music The story is funny and fancy and the show is just stunning A short version of the story: This sunny, funny tale unfolds on a Greek island paradise. On the eve of her wedding, a daughter's quest to discover the identity of her father brings 3 men from her mother's past back to the island they last visited 20 years ago. ... Well ??? Become curious ??? Then just get your own tickets to experience the show !!!
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Monday, February 14th – New York / Frankfurt
Well, real fast the last day of our week end had come
We had real farewell weather: Rain ...
But we don't want to complain, as the forecast was rain for all three days, and we still had two beautiful sunny days
For breakfast we went to the Starbucks at Rockefeller Center, after we had checked out three other places which have been full up ...
After breakfast we took the ferry to Staten Island which crosses very close to Ellis Island and Statue Island ...
We just went back and forth once without really leaving the ferry.
This was definitely not the perfect weather for taking any pictures, but we haven't developed the film yet so we don't know how the pictures turned out ...
From the Staten Island Ferry we took the subway to Queens to have lunch at a Tibetan Restaurant - a hint from the Merian magazine.
Here as well we have been the only exotics until shortly before we left the place ;-))
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The plan for that after noon was to go for a (so badly needed!) digestive walk crossing the Brooklyn Bridge but with regard to the weather we decided to rather take the subway to Brooklyn where we wanted to have a tea at the River Cafe with the great view onto Manhattan's skyline and then return to Manhattan via subway.
Unfortunately the River Cafe was closed for Valentine's dinner preparations, so that we went to an Italian bar around the corner to have a short rest before heading towards the subway again. So we had a few drinks WITHOUT view onto the skyline of Manhattan
So afterwards we ran back to the subway through the rain ...
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Published on Sunday March 6th, 2005 by lilli_sg_sk
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