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It’s a cold dreary day in New York, and I have lots of time to waste before I head out to JFK airport for my flight this evening at 6:45. So let’s see now...what to do?
No kidding, it’s cold and damp in the big city. At least it’s not actually raining. Just misty.
So let’s go on a subway ride.
It’s the Neue Galerie, just across from Central Park on Fifth Avenue. The founder’s mom was Estee Lauder. Smelled great inside.
I snapped this while ignoring the guard who said no photographs. The Gustav Klimpt room is open today, but none of the other galleries, so I got a good deal on admission. This is the woman in gold whom I didn’t see at the Belvedere in Vienna last year because that museum was forced to give it up to the woman from whose family the Nazis stole it. The woman in the painting was Adele Bloch Bauer, wife of a wealthy Jewish banker and sugar manufacturer in Vienna around the turn of the previous century. Pretty, isn’t she? If you’ve never seen the movie, check it out: THE WOMAN IN GOLD, with Helen Mirren. There were other Klimpts on display and they were very nice, but this is the one I came to see.
Such a dreary day. Now I’m on the Long Island Rail Road, headed for Jamaica, where I will take the air train to JFK.
I decided to get here early because I have nothing better to do. Turns out I would’ve been better off sitting in the hotel lobby and waiting to catch a later train. The Swiss Air desk doesn’t open until 2:45 PM.
This little guy has come inside. Told you it was a dreary day out there.
OK I’m checked in with Swiss Air and they’ve told me their lounge is undergoing renovation, so I will have to use the Etihad lounge. It’s a United Arab Emirates airline. It will do.
It’s still a dreary day outside, but at least the lounge has a nice view of the tarmac. I will be watching airplanes come and go for the next three hours.
I’m getting a head start on my Middle Eastern food. Along with the red Thai curry, I have baba ghanouj, tabouleh, and hummus. Go easy, Bill. Don’t fill up before you get on the airplane and they feed you dinner. You’ve learned that lesson the hard way.
The tourist hates to wait. Little of interest should happen between JFK and arrival in Zürich in the morning, and then on to Tel Aviv. A hundred years ago the journey was a big part of the adventure, but these days jet travel is (one hopes) boring. Next up, the Holy Land. But for now, he waits.
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