New York City & Georgetown

It’s been a while since I wrote! Had a snotty afternoon in the rain (the poor old Mister has got a delayed season-change/I’m-off-work cold), two wild, crowded, wet shopping days in New York and an afternoon back in Washington wandering through Georgetown. (Still no snow although ‘ice pellets’ are forecast for tomorrow – hail perhaps?). Here’s a few thoughts and pics.

• Amtrak is pretty amazing. Expensive but efficient. We thought Switzerland was efficient but it seems that all places we’re going in the States we’re experiencing the same thing. They’re so set up for crowds and so staffed to cope with the crowds. Jam-packed metro (underground train) stations are always clean and escalators always operating, there’s always a bus when you need one, there’s always your size, or it’s ‘just out the back ma’am’ – you get the idea. Aaaanyway, back to Amtrak – we got to Union Station in DC and shoved the credit card into an eft-pos looking machine (and yes there were plenty of these machines, and signs pointing to where they were, just when you needed them) and it asked us to confirm our itinerary and printed our tickets. Then whether for the early morning departure or late night arrival – cafes and shops are OPEN in case you need a snack. The train left and arrived perfectly on time, the conductor told you what all the stops were, the train was wired for the internet, and went fast. Fantastic.
  
  
  
• New York was wet. We rejigged our plans for our walking route through the city and left Central Park until day 2 (lucky for us – gorgeous and fine the next day). There was Christmas stuff everywhere – every tree down every side street was covered in lights. The Rockerfeller tree is tear-enducing (hmmm, kind of embarrassing!) And man there were crowds – the sidewalks, the shops, the Apple store (although if there’s a word for MORE than a crowd, that’s the word to use to describe that place – just crazy – but again – set up for the crowds – there were tonnes of staff including mobile cash register people so that if you were buying something small off the shelf you could just do eft-pos with a person wherever you found them instead of having to line up), the toilets (*every* toilet stop involved a 10 minute wait), the dressing rooms (again, the 10 minute wait) and special mention must go to Times Square and 5th Avenue. Wall to wall crawl. But god we love that city. Our second day was lovely and fine so we had a lovely wander around Central Park.

• Beef is different here. Tender. The Mister had a blue beef Wellington at Morrell’s on Rockerfeller Plaza on Thursday night and he was almost bawling with ecstasy over it – or was it one of the many glasses of wine he sampled. What a wine list! 19 A4 sides of wine that could be ordered by the glass from all around the globe. He made me try the beef – it’s not that I don’t like beef – I just wouldn’t choose it for myself and I don’t much like cooking it. I have to say, it was damn good. For the rawness of it, it didn’t taste of smell like raw meat which is what puts me off rare stuff in New Zealand. It tasted like the best well done steak I’ve ever had. The Mister’s brother tells us it’s because the beef here is fatty, grain fed.
  
  
  
• Today we had a lazy day and took a trip out to Georgetown. A great different view of the malls and monuments of Washington. Wide outdoor streets full of fairly high fashion shops. Lots of lovely helpful sales assistants. The Mister came home with 3 designer store bags including Diesel shoes for the grand total of US$150! Absolutely unbelievable – boutique sales are amazing! Didn’t see anyone famous out there though although we’re told that’s the place to spot movie stars, diplomats and politicians.

• Only 2 more days here 🙁 The Mister’s off at ‘the game’ tonight (basketball) – how American!