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Today was a spectacular day.  Erica arranged for us to see her at work as a teacher.  For those of you who do not know, Erica and Lindsay are teaching English to elementary school age children this year (and have signed up to return again next year, sob, sob).  Patrice and I got to see a superstar in action.  Erica was fantastic.  The children and her compañeros (fellow teachers) all seem to love her (see attached).  Patrice and I were sort of superstars ourselves.  The class spent the first hour asking us probing questions such as what is our favorite color, who is our favorite futbol player, what is our favorite color, do we live in the country of California like Erica and of course, what is our favorite color.

First let me say happy birthday again to my mommy who is 99 years old today. May I be so lucky in longevity and maintenance of my wits as she has been.  I call her every daywhen I am in the States and she repeatedly puts me in awe by the things she says.

This morning we visited the historic Carnegie Deli to meet up with some friends from, of all places, California.  We were all entertained by our waiter, Wayne, who gave us some very good advice.  “Don’t get an egg sandwich, you can get that anywhere, here you get corned beef or pastrami!”, “No sharing!”  “There is a charge for sharing and I have my eyes on you!”.  But then he brought us some free samples of pastrami and corned beef enough to make a small sandwich.  Wayne also recommended that we drink some of John Steinbeck’s favorite, “The Novel-tea”.  Not to be outdone I asked if they had something for a friendly doctor, maybe some “Hospital-i-tea?”.

Today we set out for some real culture.  After grabbing a quick breakfast we headed north to the upper westside to “The Cloisters” a museum created in the style of a medieval monastery.  It is situated just off the Hudson River in a lovely pastoral landscape with rolling hills leading up to the museum.  Inside are scores of medieval artifacts.  Many of the columns are over seven hundred years old and are incorporated into the structure of the building.  Frescos are on the walls and have been transferred there from their places of origin in Europe.  How such works could be moved without destroying them is beyond me.

 

Today we decided to go to the 911 Memorial and museum.  We have now seen it in all 3phases.  We saw the horrible sight of the empty hole that became known as “Ground Zero”.  Last year we saw the Memorial and this year we were able to see the museum.  The museum houses some incredible artifacts of the tragedy such as large sections of support girders that were mangled as if they were just a child’s broken toy.  Fire trucks and equipment destroyed by the aftermath of the collapse of the structures (see attached).  There were numerous samples of items recovered from the wreckage serving as evidence of the many lives lost in this national catastrophe.

The Spain portion of the trip was my job to plan but I left the NYC portion of the trip to Patrice.  This morning we started off with a great late breakfast at Un Deux Trois a French restaurant (found by Patrice) where they offered us outdoor seating which we declined (see attached photo).  I decided on “Eggs Norwegian” (how could I go wrong with a Norwegian dish at a French restaurant?).  It was a fantastic variation of Eggs Benedict (smoked salmon instead of ham).

Many of you know that Patrice and I are on our way to meet our little girls in Madrid for a road trip to the north of Spain.  This will be the first time I have ever rented a car or even driven a car in Europe.