New York City

I recently had the oppertunity to visit my friend Ryan in Stamford, CT. One of the things on the agenda was to revisit NYC. But first we checked out Stamford a bit. Nice small-town feeling with inner-city Barcelona like traffic. Very strange, but very funny and even familiar being from Europe... Ended-up in a very nice Spanish restaurant sampling some of the tapas and the obvious Sangria. Good food, good drinks, good company. For some weird reason we thought it would be a good idea to go see 'Fantastic Four'. Well, lets just say that you don't go for the story-line...

The next day we left for NYC by train. Perfect way to get to NYC, you're dropped off at Grand Central station and you're in the middle of Manhattan without any hassle whatsoever. Great. We took the Subway to Ground Zero since I wanted to see that place again. The last time I was in NYC I stood on top of the WTC. We took the elevator of the Millenium Hotel to try and get a good aerial view, but the look-out was of the East river and Brooklyn. It made for an interesting shot of NYC (for that and other shots of NYC, see NYC Photos). Later we did find some decent photo-oppertunities and continued our stawl through Battery Park towards Wall Street. Found a Gaudi in the process. Just go two blocks north on Nassau Street and look towards your right into a small side-street.

From there we wanted to see the Intrepid Sea-and-Air museum, but somehow ended up taking the Subway the wrong way and almost ended up at Kennedy Airport. After a quick change of lines we were on our way again, but lost too much time (and dodged a nifty thunderstorm in the process). We decided it was time to get some grub and walked towards the Jeckyll and Hide restaurant on 57th and 6th. Made some interesting BW shots of the NBC studios at Rockefeller Plaza. The restaurant is geared towards kids, but it holds enough to be a very interesting place for 'older' kids as well. If you catch yourself there, I had the Pasta Jambalaya. Excellent.

The main event of the day was a show on 42th Street called 'Rain' by 'Cirque Eloise' out of Montreal. It is what is called 'Modern Circus', in the line of Cirque du Soleil. This 'troupe' did away with the fancy decors and costumes and replaced it with a bit more humor. Too bad it was the final weekend, otherwise I would STRONLY recommend it. Very intriguing and absolutely hilarious. I'm watching their website for encore presentations, so stay tuned. After the show we took the train back to Stamford for some drinks and reflections on the past day, with the show easily taking the most reflections.

The Sunday was a more relaxed day with a tour of the EdgeLab offices on the UCONN campus in downtown Stamford. After a tour of Old Greenwich looking at what old money can buy we decided to get some R&R at the pool of the apartment building. Good idea, especially since my flight to Cleveland was on the schedule as well, so by 5pm I was back at the airport for a quick and uneventfull flight home.

You gotta love those short breaks. Thanks for the hospitality Ryan!!