I looked like a drowned rat; Kelly looked marvelous. The doorman where we dropped the car, after taking our bags, commented that the garage was under the hotel so we needn't mess our coiffures in nasty weather. Too late. It was kind of odd. One of the doormen needed to look in the trunk before we could drive under the building. I understand the security issue, but, really, if I had a load of dynamite in the trunk, do they think I'd stop for the doorman?
Anyway, everyone treated us wonderfully in spite of my drowned ratish appearance. They gave us a complimentary upgrade (including two free bottles of water - whoopee!) to a room on the 25th floor. It ended up being half a suite, but the other half was open when we arrived, so of course we snooped around.
This is Kelly snapping a shot of our entry hall. The door reflected behind her enters into the adjoining suite rooms. (The reflection is off the mirrored doors of the full wall closet -- complete with two comfy robes!)
To her right (off the left side of the photo) was the bathroom. Not crazy spacious, but all marble and it had both a TV and phone. We didn't use either, but we were happy to know they were there in case we got the flu during our stay.
To the left of Kelly, across from the bathroom, was our bedroom. Besides the beds, sitting area and TV armoire shown, there was a lovely writing desk with lots 'o' postcards (one of which we sent to you)!
Our room had a lovely view of Park Avenue and the City lights on two sides. Here I am blocking said lovely view.
Through the door in the entry hall was the suite room and another bedroom and bath. The suite room had a large sitting area, TV armoire ...
and a gas fireplace.
Despite the grandeur of our accommodations, Kelly and I walked down to 34th as we had a tight schedule planned and we wanted to go to the observation tower of the Empire State Building. But guess what. When we arrived, we were told the visibility was zero.
We said, "Oh, but the lights will be pretty."
He said, "No. Zero visibility."
We said, "Oh, bother." (Or something like that.) Then we said, "Hey. Where can we find a Panera in New York?"
He said, "Nowhere." (Well, actually not. He (the ESB information booth guy) told us he didn't know, then he looked in the NYC yellow pages and said there were none listed.) He then argued that as we were in New York we should not be eating at Subway (which was our second choice) but at a good, local joint. He recommended four; three of which we found and one of which we chose!
So we ate at Patsy's on Third Avenue and 34th and had some nice New York pizza. It was very good, but both Kelly and I still prefer Nicky's. This would be Kelly after our meal at Patsy's.
After dinner we walked up to Park again and strolled home. It was cold, but not snowy anymore and the night was pretty. Back at the hotel we planned to have dessert, but nothing from the room service menu appealed to us (thankfully as desserts were $11 each plus all sorts of service charges and gratuities), so we ordered cocoa and cappuccino (don't ask the price) and played Sept Families before going to bed. The next morning I went down to Starbucks to get coffee for me and cocoa for Kelly before we packed up and prepared to hit the streets. One of the nice features at the Waldorf was that we could check our bags while we ran around, then get them when we got the car to head home, and since we had parking for 24 hours, we could use the hotel all day!
We checked out about ten to start our day. That will be tomorrow's post.
We checked out about ten to start our day. That will be tomorrow's post. Oh, and one other note about our Waldorf stay. The suite we were in apparently was used by Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow when they were living in New York. There was some kind of big brouhaha when Ava Gardiner was in town, and she ended up staying in the other room. Once Cole Porter passed away, Frank and Mia moved up to his suite and this one became available for guests. Like us. Yippie.
A bientot.
No comments:
Post a Comment