Sore Feet!

Did a lot of walking today! A lot of walking. Departed the Hotel at 10:00am and headed north up Park Avenue to the closest of the five listed AMEX business offices. It still took a good 35-40 minutes of steady walking to get there though. Not open! A local guy said to try the next closest, which was located near the corner of 62nd East and Lexington Ave - another 35-40 minutes. This one was open - but was now just a franchise travel agency and not a business centre/center. For sure I could draw some cash out at the AMEX branch in the Marriott Hotel at Times Square, they said. This took around 35-40 minutes more, by which time my feet were starting to ache. Anyway, found the Times Square office only to be told "sorry - you can't draw any cash out with your card without a PIN". I explained that I had called the Australian AMEX number before leaving home to discuss exacly that issue and was informed that no AMEX cards had PIN numbers and I just needed to take ID into a suitable branch! Still, I did get to see Times Square close up.



Undeterred, I decided to forget about drawing any extra cash out (and provide any more tips to New Yorkers as a consequence - not my fault after all!) and I headed back up to Central Park (yep - about a 35 minutes walk). I was not due to meet my Big Apple Greeter until 3:00pm but it was outside the Met, which is located east side about half way up the park.

No stash of cash so decided to forget about lunch and settled for just a cheap Starbucks. At least I took the weight off my feet for 30 minutes - bliss!

Then walked through much of the lower half of the park - very scenic and busy with weekend locals running, playing baseball, roller-blading, etc, etc. Far less porkers in NYC than LA that's for sure... Made my way to the Strawberry Fields section, which was created on the west side of the park just about opposite to where John Lennon lived and died (the Dakota building). Apparently he spent a lot of time in that section of the park and loved it. Yoko Ono and one of the kids still live there I'm told.


Strawberry Fields - Imagine site

A selection of pics taken today around Central Park














Met my Greeter as arranged and he was nothing like I had imagined. Reasonably young guy who had decided to change his high pressure and obviously well paid job in finance as a consequnce of 9/11. Apparantly he used to be based in the WTC until about 2 years prior to the incident and still had many friends killed in it. Anyway, he was not the older retired guy I had envisaged beforehand but we hit it off and instead of the 3 hours alloted under the programme, we ended up spending over 6 hours together. We walked back into Central Park and he showed me where Jackie Kennedy Onassis lived and the reservoir named after her.



Also pointed out a few other landmarks and we made our way past the Gugenheim to the Bicentennial Exhibition at the Whitney Gallery. It is a longstanding event and past exhibitors have included the likes of Andy Warhol. It is an opportunity provided to fresh pop-art type artists to display their work. Some of the pieces were too weird for my liking but it was interesting and something that I definitely would not have experienced but for the Greeter programme.

One of the first things Peter did when we were having lunch was to suggest I try my Bendigo Bank debit card in one of the Chase Bank ATM's - and hey presto, cashed up! AMEX can get stuffed, I say!

Finished up with a beer close to the park before thanking Peter and walking back to the Giraffe - much longer than 35-40 minutes this time. Hence the really sore feet - light day tomorrow, probably sticking to the local neighbourhood as there are a few places I want to check out.