New York City – Day 1

Last year IBM spun out their Managed Services operations and employees to a new company called Kyndryl. Michael works In Network Servies and was sent to the new company. This week he is visiting the two New York City locations – 280 Park Avenue tomorrow, and 1 Vanderbilt Avenue next Monday. He did the math and the cost was almost the same to go down twice or to stay for the week. So he decided to stay for the week and I am tagging along. I have wanted to come to New York City for years. I was here on two high school trips in Grades 12 and 13, and a business trip in 1991, but haven’t been back since.

It’s my first time on a plane since the pandemic started. Oreo was clearly not happy about all the commotion this morning and knew something, of which he disapproved, was up. I usually take Michael to and from the airport for his trips, but today we got a taxi. Michael is a fretful traveller, and the taxi not showing up is one of his fears, however, the taxi was 10 minutes early.

We had to have a covid test no more than one day prior to flying. A Rapid Antigen Test test is now acceptable, but needs to be administered by a professional or witnessed by a service. We chose to go to our pharmacy. It was quick and painless, and 15 minutes later, and $80 poorer, we knew we were negative.

We were able to scan our own boarding passes, which we received by email, scan our own passports, and check our own baggage – all self service. Yesterday we had to upload to the airline website proof of vaccination, and proof of a negative test. We were told to arrive “at least 3 hours before flight time”. Having done all the work ourselves of getting checked in, we had two hours and 45 minutes to spare. We were directed to a waiting area and told to listen for our flight to be called to proceed to security. We took a walk around the terminal – it wasn’t crowded despite being the beginning of March Break, a walk outside, and then we sat. When our flight was called the security line was long, but we were directed to join more than half way up the line. US Immigration didn’t take very long either. By the time we reached the gate I barely had time to wolf down my salad and we were boarding. That took a while because people had too much cabin baggage. We were 20 minutes or so late leaving, but the flight is only 90 minutes.

Part of the delay was due to a very thorough de-icing spray.

I recognized the intersection of Dixie and Derry, but we were soon above the clouds and there was nothing more to see until we got to the Catskills, Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes, and the outskirts of New York City.

It seemed like very little time and we were on the ground and in the terminal. Everyone was masking unless they were eating. By the time we got to the baggage carousel our suitcases were dropping. The line for the taxis was inside and took only a few minutes.

The tunnel to Manhattan seemed very long.

Even on a freezing March afternoon there were a lot of people on bikes. By a wide margin most bikes were e-bikes, then Citibikes bike share, and then a few regular bikes. There are red bus lanes everywhere. The cyclists seem to use then when there is no bike lane. On one street the two rightmost lanes were bus lanes.

We are staying at the Hyatt Grand Central.

Once we unpacked we walked to Michael’s business location for tomorrow morning. It’s very easy to navigate around Manhattan. Avenues run north-south and streets are east-west. Fifth Avenue separates the East and West sides, with street numbers increasing as you head away from Fifth. Broadway cuts through the city on a diagonal.

Right way we started seeing things on our list of places to visit starting with the Chrysler building right out our hotel window, and St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Anyone who watched 30 Rock would recognize the next two pictures.

Back at Grand Central we had a look at the main concourse, the food hall – crazy expensive, and the food court, busy with many places closed, I guess because it’s Sunday.

Michael felt like noodles so we found a place about 15 minutes walk and picked up dinner to bring back to the hotel. While waiting for the food to be ready we saw this scene more reminiscent of my memories of New York City and the gritty areas you see on TV, than the more touristy areas and business areas we had passed through to this point.

I knew New York City was known for its street food, but was surprised to see this!

Bryant Park is another spot on my list. We walked through it on the way back to the hotel. I think I’ll go back to Le Pain Quotidian for breakfast in the park tomorrow.

Back at Grand Central we spotted this restaurant under the bridge. It’s very close to our hotel. Oatmeal is $15 US!

Dinner was good, and by eating in our room we weren’t sharing air with others. We have a daily $ 15 credit at the market in the hotel. Tea was $5, an ice cream bar $3.50 so we went over the credit by a couple bucks. I went to the front desk and asked if they have kettles. She told me they could bring up a coffee machine that we could use without the cartridge for hot water. No charge. Half an hour later they appeared at the door with that and a kettle and a big bag of tea and coffee. No more five dollar teas in the market. We will use our credit for something else.

It was a good start and I looking forward to thoroughly exploring New York City over the next eight days.