I went to New York yesterday. The way I used to go, pre-9/11. Take Amtrak to Newark, NJ, transfer to the PATH train and get off at the World Trade center stop.

They opened the temporary WTC station in November 2003, but I hadn't gone to downtown NY since then. The trains take the same path that they used to, although now as the cars make the long, noisy curve into the station, it's not pitch black. It's bright, because instead of being completely underground, you come out right into "the pit", five stories below street level.

It's weird. It's also strange that the stairs and escalators are in the same places as their predecessors. A bizarre feeling of not-quite deja vu.

But at least one thing was the same - I still got lost on my way to my meeting. When I first started going up to New York years ago, I used to be able to find my way to the Home Insurance Company's office from the Trade Center - and that was it. If I needed to find my way anywhere else downtown, I had to walk to the Home first and then proceed to wherever my destination was. Even after the Home went out of business, it was still my reference landmark.

Yesterday I decided to try to find the office without going to the Home first. It was a lovely, scenic stroll down to Water Street - the long way. Made it, finally, but decided to do better on my way back in the afternoon. Cut across the street, dodged a taxi or two, a couple of blocks then a left turn . . . and there I am, right in front of the Home.

[Deja vu all over again.]

Quote du jour:

"All that is gold does not glitter;
not all those that wander are lost."

-- J. R. R. Tolkien (1892 - 1973) English novelist, scholar

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