Martin um die Welt: 2) Cold Spring Harbor and my parents in New York

Samstag, 21. Mai 2016

2) Cold Spring Harbor and my parents in New York

The next morning (17.05.) we left Boston by bus. I quietly said goodbye to Boston while driving down I-95. In New York we entered close to rush hour, but still didn't have a large delay. I booked a room for my parents at Econo Lodge Times Square. Yet, when we arrived at the hotel, they were overbooked and sent us to the new Courtyard Marriott Hotel in Queens. It was a new hotel with 3 instead of 2 stars, but it was in Queens instead of being near the Times Square. It took us two hours until everything was settled. I explained my parents how to use the metro system and gave them a to do list for the next day. Meanwhile, I took the train to Syosset where I was picked up to attend a conference at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories. At the conference I met my German colleagues Kurt and Gerd. The next day (18.05.) my parents visited the Times Square, Central Park, 5th Avenue, Central Station and the Chrysler Building. At the same time, I enjoyed good talks at the conference as well as a wine&cheese party. I saw that the next day (19.05.) didn't cover topics of my interest, so I joined my parents for sightseeing. We met at their hotel room and hopped on the metro at Queensboro Station. We started the sightseeing trip at Wall Street, walked down to the ferry terminal and Battery Park. We continued to the 9/11 memorial and One World Trade Center. We bought tickets for the latter so my parents could visit the observation deck around sunset time. My parents started to be exhausted, so we ate bagels for lunch before passing the Brooklyn Bridge and walking along Main Street Park and Brooklyn Bridge Park. As my parents were quite exhausted, we took the ferry back to Manhatten instead of walking across Brooklyn Bridge again. I sent my parents on the Staten Island ferry to get a free look of the New York Bay area while not walking^^ In the meantime, I returned to Cold Spring Harbor. In the evening my parents visited the One World Trade Center observation deck. The next day (20.05.) they went sightseeing down the broadway passing the Empire State Building and Madison Square Garden. Meanwhile, the conference finished with a piano concert, which was when I saw Roger Watson who won the Nobel Price for discovering DNA, and the concert was followed by a lobster banquet. The next morning (21.05.) I picked up my parents from their hotel, we visited the Times Square together and did some shopping. In the afternoon we caught our plane to Buffalo airport where we got into our rental car and drove to Niagara Falls.