Long distance plane travel often reminds me of Douglas Adam's description of ... (in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, with the very quotable reference to "Lemon-soaked paper napkins" which were to be loaded shortly.

I was particularly reminded of that quote by my final connection (15 hours into my trip), which was 75 minutes delayed by the time I got into the airport and proceeded to get progressively later as each previous estimate was exceeded. The flight finally boarded two and a half hours after the scheduled departure, pushed back from the gate another hour later, and finally took off just under four hours after the scheduled departure. This meant my carefully planned arrival well before midnight ended up being an early morning arrival.

However I did well compared with many affected by the weather delayed flights -- I got to my destination on the same night I planned, and had a room to go to (I even had a quick connection to the shuttle bus to the airport hotel). I heard on the way that pretty much an entire international flight worth of passengers were sleeping at the airport, and my hotel told me that everything in the area had been booked out that night. (Booking well in advance, and perhaps pre-paying, likely helped even though I arrived many hours after the start of check-in.)

The hotel was a fairly typical, budget, airport hotel. As a class airport hotels tend not to be all that pretty, or spacious, but tend to be chosen because of free shuttle transfers, flexibility around hours, Internet access, and ideally quiet throughout the day/night. My airport hotel managed most of those, although it could definitely have been quieter (sound insulation costs extra). But it did let me get the first decent sleep in a couple of days, even starting well into the morning.

After checking out at noon, the rest of the day was used moving into the city to my hotel for the next few days, purchasing a few items I'd left behind (fortunately all cheaply replacable) and a little sightseeing. The trip into the city by public transport went very smoothly (and having been to the area once before, al beit over 10 years ago definitely helped with navigation), and with a bit of hunting the new hotel even managed to check me in about half an hour early (housekeeping were still on the floor).

Thanks to some hints from friends, and picked up from the blog of someone else I follow -- who had been here recently -- I managed to pack quite a few things into only a few hours, all within walking distance of my hotel. (Cities designed for public transport and walking have much to recommend them for ease of access.)

Particularly worth seeing was the Hudson River Park and the Highline Park. The former is nicely converted former wharves which are now very scenic and remind me a bit of Wellington's waterfront in terms of uses. The latter is a park created out of an elevated railway line, turned into a garden and walking path (a delightful suggestion from a friend). It provides a "nature amongst the city experience" quite different from most due to being elevated above the streets -- the backdrops to views and photograps (and there were lots of photographers there) is the middle of the buildings rather than street level. There's still quite a bit of development to do (only the first section is open), but it is well worth visiting even now.

It was also impressive (and drier at one point in the afternoon) to wander around B&H Photo and see the scale (and prices) of the stock and to walk through the world's largest department store.

Tomorrow begins the lead up to the conference that brought me here, and hopefully a bit more time for sightseeing (in amongst helping with the setup).