With only a day and a half in New York things were a bit rushed. I met Amanda at our hotel which was just across from Central Park which was really nice. We spent some time walking around the park with the song Danke Schön floating through our heads. Walked a bit through downtown Manhattan. The neat thing about NY is the uptown and downtown really mean exactly that.

Saw some of the big sites. We went up to the top of the Empire State Building which is fairly impressive, but very windy. Visited Grand Central Station which was a bit less impressive as it wasn't very crowded and busy - I was expecting something more like Victoria station in London.

It is strange to be in a city that you see so much on TV and in the movies. Everything seems so familiar; Broadway, 42nd. street, Ed Sullivan Theatre, the Jumbotron. So we spent quite a bit of time just walking around, doing a bit of shopping and even checked out Sacks 5th Ave on 5th Avenue!

We decided to see a Broadway play When Midnight Falls with Matthew Broderick (Hey Ferris!). After sprinting four blocks to get there on time we were treated to the worst play I think I have ever seen (and that includes elementary school plays!) The play was sort of a murder mystery, but from the beginning you knew who did it, and there didn't seem much point. The acting and script were terrible and by the second act there were three people around me sleeping (and I wasn't far behind), well so much for Broadway!

After the play we went to a nice vegetarian restaurant and managed to stay until it closed (wow, we closed a restaurant in New York City!) Next morning we bought some stuff and had a picnic breakfast in Central Park under the wonderful sun, a perfect way to end to the visit.

Then it was on to Chicago. I met Erica at the Airport and we went back to her apartment. She has big, brick, hardwood floors, spacious, Chicago type apartment. We went out to boy's town to a bar called the Closet which was fun.

We were talking about the foods that I missed in the Netherlands. I mentioned that I missed doughnuts, so they suggested that we go to this doughnut shop that they had heard of called Krispy Kreme which was suppose to be really good. It was about a 45 minute drive but I was not prepared for what we found when we got there. A parking lot with over a hundred spaces, a lineup filling most of the store, people who had made the trip from two states over, and doughnuts - lots of doughnuts. I was expecting to get a couple of doughnuts each, but at this place they ask you how many dozen you want! And wow they were good, best doughnuts I've ever had.

Time was short in Chicago too. Erica dropped me off at the airport at about 9pm and my flight was at 9:45pm, plenty of time, or so I thought. When I had left NY for Chicago I had changed my return flight from 8pm to 9:45pm. Since intercity flights don't have actually tickets, they told me "OK, it is changed". When I got to Chicago I verified the change since I was a bit nervous about not having an actually ticket. They said it was verified and even printed an information sheet for me. However when I got to the check-in counter there was quite a long lineup. When I got to the front it was 9:30 already. It was getting close, but I thought

it wasn't a problem. The check-in person told me that since the time change involved changing airlines, the other airline had to issue a flight coupon and they should have known this. Unfortunately the other airline was located in terminal 1 and I was in terminal 2. With no choice I ran, caught the inter-terminal shuttle, ran to the desk, got the flight coupon, ran, caught the shuttle back, ran to check in and just made it. Nothing like a bit of excitement!