Archives for September 2009
365: Good morning New York
Another day, another state, another hotel window. This is a view worth waking early for, looking south from E27th street towards the tip of Manhattan.
365: I open the curtains
And it’s sunny. And I’m tired. And discombobulated. Where the hell am I?
365: Saarnien’s TWA Terminal
A hop, skip and a jump from my final destination, after a trip straight from the half marathon, to the airport, to New York, to the hotel for four hours, and thence to Florida.
Last time I came through the JetBlue terminal at JFK it was dark and I couldn’t find this building. It’s Erno Saarinen’s beguiling TWA Terminal, a modernist dream that reflects a time when jet travel was exciting and special. Today we’re herded through anonymity.
Sadly one can no longer enter here, the skyways have been truncated and some windows are broken. At least it’s still standing.
365: Windsor Half Marathon
It was awful. Slow and awful. Crowded, hot, hilly, narrow. The lesson was that I needed to train more, drink more fluids, sleep more and not consider a beef/cheese/chocolate/beer diet the right way to load up for a half marathon.
It was terrible. Never again, not here at least.
365: Sur la Plage
One of the best meals I’ve had in a long time, ordered in broken French, served from a small beach shack. We sat overlooking the very beach on which my grandfather, my father’s father, landed sixty-five years ago. An odd sensation.
365: Pegasus Bridge
The early hours of 6th June 1944 saw the first coup de mains of D-Day as Major Howard and his men took Pegasus Bridge. To walk the very structure about which I’d read and seen so much in the past twenty-five years was peculiar.
It was the start of a long day touring the battlefields of Operation Overlord with Pop Down, a day in which it was almost impossible to imagine what both sides went through, the scale of the invasion and the the number of casualties. A visit to the region is highly recommended.
365: To France
Can’t get any clearer than this.
365: Cramming it in
Ten days, five cities, three countries, and a lot to cram into one suitcase. No carry-on this time.
365: The London Skyline
Isn’t all tower blocks and skyscrapers, as this view from the top floor restaurant at Waterstone’s reveals. Birthday treat for Ma Down.
365: Glorious Goodwood (Revival)
That’s my own hat. It’s time for hats to make a comeback. Especially with these ears.
