Back home - or nearly back

Yes, I'm back home since yesterday - but I'm still not really arrived. For one that might be due to fatigue and the Jet lag, but there is also the fact that the five weeks in America, nearly all the time with Americans, have been very impressing and I think I'll be "working through" all these impressions for some more time ... In the last few days in NYC there was not much time left for may blog. Again I was engaged preparing the transfer to the airport, the packing and the flight back home. And, of course, I tried to exploit my last days in the States. In NYC, for the first time in this month, I felt surrounded by tourists - in the museums for example and also at the guesthouse - and believe me, that was not very pleasant, but probably was kind of a transition for my return to "good old Europe". As always tourists from all over the world tend to gather in places where there is little of the real surrounding. The Guggenheim and the MOMA, for example, as impressing as they are, could be in any place of the world. and on my visit they were filled with "trendy" (and some of them even spoiled) people, who exhibited themselves. This contributed to the fact that I didn't enjoy these two museums as much as for example the Museum of NYC or the Met (Metropolitan Museum of Art). My reluctance to hear all these French, Italian and Swiss syllables was almost physical... Well maybe it was also kind of an indigestion of museums, because on monday I went to three museums, and that was evidently too much for one day. So I decided to have a day of rest from all the culture and I wheeled down the Riverside Park (incredible how much green there is in NYC) and the new Riverside Walk (very nice and few people) till the pier where the Circle Line departs, and I made the Full Island cruise around Manhattan (3 hours). That cruise - with sunshine and a little wind - was really pleasant (even if, needless to say, on the Ferry there were mainly tourists).

Circle Line and Skyscraper silhouette

Man-Made Waterfall (art object 2008, Olafur Eliasson)

Manhattan is (also) green!

Well, there were quite a few other things I've seen in these days and there would have been even more, if I had had more time. As always only after a few days I knew where to find the interesting things - and than it was already time to pack (which I really hate).

What was really fantastic: on the last evening I went to a (free) dance performance at the New York City Center. Julie, my Greeter from Saturday had seen the advertisement on a newspaper and we met at 6pm. The Gwirtzman Company showed a work in progress and the choreographer explained how they usually work. Very interesting!

D. Gwirtzman

On my last morning in NYC I went to the Riverwalk again for a farewell to the Hudson river. My last taxi ride in NYC, to the airport, went smoothly (just in order to make up for some other taxicab experiences). With the aid of Elizabeth of the guest house office we had checked and double checked that the cab would be there early enough (it was moving day for the students, so Elizabeth really had an awful lot of work on this day).

American Airlines was also a pleasant surprise, for one I could take my own wheelchair aboard (in the closet space) and the assistance at JFK was great - not too much, but just adequate (and that is not my usual experience at airports with the exception of perhaps Zuerich).

The experiences on this trip were absolutely great. For the first time in my life I've traveled as far and I've had as long a holiday. Even if it was also continuing education and acquisition of language and not only a vacation, I enjoyed my trip very much - and I would really like to visit the US again. I've had to do an awful lot of planning, but it was for sure worth it. A next time perhaps it might be a little easier. Who knows ;-)

Thanks to KME, my school, which allowed me to have a sabbatical of ten weeks. Without that, it would not have been possible for me to do this big trip.

Thanks to my TRAC, which permitted me to be very independent in the big cities. Even if the price was to support all this additional planning and expenses for the transfers.

Thank you to ALL the people who followed my travel - even if most of you didn't write comments on the blog. Your support during my planning and your mails through the voyage have been nice.

Thanks to my son Philipp, who took care of the apartment and some other things during my absence and who gave me a lot of good advices concerning the US.

And thank you especially to ALL the nice, helpful and interesting American people I've met in Philadelphia, in Boston and in NYC!