TwoFools in Zürich

It was my first trip to New York. My chance had finally come in the form of yet another business travel ride-along with my husband, and I took it.

Photo by tylonbrew

So? How was it? Big. Really damned big. Skyscraper canyons, massive crowds surging down the avenues, taxis jammed up for blocks. Coming from tiny little Zürich, with its old world, low-rise buildings and narrow streets just wide enough for two trams, the Big Apple was a big shock.

New York Moments

Taxis, I loved hailing taxis, learning along the way that rain and rush hour mean that no taxi will stop. Ever. But I loved them anyway: so cheap, so ratty, the drivers almost entirely indifferent to their passengers. I loved taking taxis through Central Park, usually in another futile effort to make it to a museum before the crowds. I even loved riding through Midtown and got all verklempt as we passed by S&S and McGraw-Hill on Sixth Avenue. Seriously. There was a bit of a flutter, and my heart beat a faster.

Photo by Kathy

Walking. It rained most of the time but walking downtown from Chelsea to Washington Square Park was a good moment. Walking Midtown––not really so good. I even ended up ducking into a B&N just to find a place to stop moving. Central Park––would have been great, except for the light rain that turned into a drenching downpour.

Photo by tylonbrew

Foodie Americana. Bagel with a schmear, Jacques Torres "chocolate chip" cookies, brunch at Pastis, perfect medium rare hamburgers at The Green Table (topped with kimchi), farm-to-table goodness at Cookshop. 

Photo by tylonbrew

Of course I totally failed to plan ahead and therefore failed to book the really cool spots like Momofuku Ko, but we still managed to find the fun. A late lunch at the bar of  Gramercy Tavern gave us the kind of laid-back gourmet indulgence we hadn't had since Bouchon, while taking refuge from the rain one afternoon at the Boathouse in Central Park offered a chance to observe the middling bourgeoisie in their native habitat along with our lobster roll and champagne.

Sights. I've mentioned before that I really suck at making it to the sights. This trip was no different. Museum trips were mostly failures as I alternated between mixing up opening times and losing heart at the length of the lines. Best museum moments: the Kandinsky at Bauhaus exhibit at MoMA and the Fricke Collection, where I spent most of the time trying to figure out the family narrative that old robber baron Fricke was trying to create with the lush excess of portraiture he collected: all those eighteenth-century notables painted by Gainsborough, Reynolds, and Romney. And how do Holbein the Younger's portraits of Moore and Cromwell fit the story?

Density with cars
I often try imaging living places I visit, weighing the pros and cons of relocating. I could not decide about about Manhattan. It's a demanding place to live. It's densely packed with people and with cars (and the car dominates the city in a way I didn't expect––horns around the clock, fumes, motors). The city overwhelms; it's too much. The humidity, even in May, is fierce and unrelenting. There's an intense energy that sometimes feels like a threat. But for all it demands, I can also imagine the rewards.

In any case, it was a nice place to visit.