It started well at Immigration. I was the first ‘Visitor’ go through as the entire immigration hall was empty. They look my fingerprints. The man said they pay him well for overtime, but he would prefer to be home. Fair enough. He asked what my profession was and I was tempted today ‘au pair’, but that would have been lost on him for sure. No humour in the Trumpian universe.
At the baggage carousel I heard my name mentioned in an announcement. Never a positive moment. Of course my suitcase didn’t make the connection and was travelling on its own some 2 hours behind me. Never mind they would deliver it tome at my hotel (little did we know how that would work out).
So I made a swift exit and met my driver for the trip in to Manhattan. This was relatively uneventful though there was a bit of honking as he liked to drive with the passenger-side wheels on the lane markings. I just waved to passing drivers.
Things took a turn for the worse when I arrived at my hotel to find that my booking had been cancelled and the hotel was full. Fortunately I was struck dumb – fortunate for the receptionist.
So, with baggage being delivered to a hotel I was apparently not staying at, I got on the internet and tried to book accommodation at 10pm on a Saturday night in Times Square. I couldn’t get my credit card to work for a booking at the Park Lane on Central Park South, so I caught a cab there.
‘No room at the inn’ was the response at the reception desk. This probably explained why I couldn’t get my card to work.
Back on the internet I found a room at a swish apartment hotel around the corner. Not far to drag my hand luggage.
So here I a at the AKA Central Park. Could it be nicer, I think not.
Although I only booked two nights initially, as it is expensive, I have decided to stay here for the full eight nights. They were so helpful to me unlike the hideous Marriott who cancelled my booking. And it is in a much nicer area, next to my second favourite building in New York – the Solow building. And opposite The Plaza (can’t stay there because it’s owned by Trump).
Father M 