In Between I

I'm not yet in New York but all arrangements are up to speed. We already booked the hotel in NYC, actually we had to book two, as it's, even a few weeks in advance, pretty difficult to find a good one. When we first sat together we were thinking of the Royalton (44 West 44th Street), which has been designed by Philippe Starck. However, the rooms, which combine a funky mix of modernd and classic styles, were just a bit too expensive for some of us. Anyway, we will check out the Bar 44 in the Royalton which is a inviting mecca for conversation and cusinie as stated on the website. Now to our hotels: The first one we booked is the Kitano (66 Park Avenue at East 38th Street), rated by Lonely Planet as a Deluxe Indie Inn. Just have a look at the web if you're intrested. More of that as soon as we'll have checked in. The second hotel is the Roger Williams (131 Madison Avenue) that blends vibrant color, bold architecture and a hip and homey feeling in the fashionable Murray area of midtwon Manhattan. Okey, that's it with NYC for now. More in the next post.

The days after I returned from Vienna were, again, just great! First, a photo that I took in Asakusa in Tokyo was published in the newspaper and I now could win a MacBook or an iPod touch. But actually I don't care about the prizes, it's cool enough to have it published. Then I went swimming in the Rhine with Sophie on a beautiful evening. We met just after working in Zurich and took the ICE to Schaffhausen together. Then we walked to the Rhine, which was not that warm on this day, and had a long swim. As swimming made us hungry we went to Güterhof and had a drink and grilled fish with a delicious salad. After that I went to see Gran Torino on top of the castle Munot as the Munot Openair Cinema took place up there. That, once again, was just marvellous. The atmosphere was just great, the weather fine and it was fullmoon, which made it even more special. Two days later I stayed in Zurich and met Livia after a workout in the gym. We bought some ingredients for a delicious salad with citron and blood orange dressing. We made some pasta with red pesto and opened a bottle of wine. We sat on the balcony and enjoyed the menu as well as the superb view on Zurich. Besides, the next day I bought Jamie Oliver's book Happy Days With The Naked Chef. I'm looking forward to some more cooking sessions! Then on Saturday I went again to the Güterhof with Kai and Tobias, who is currently doing an internship as investment banker in Frankfurt/GER. So we talked quite a lot and enjoyed the evening further on at Oberhof and Orient. It was a really great evening and a foretaste of New York!

This past week I was out with Kai and Thomas on Thursday, as we met at Güterhof for grilled fish! I love these summer evenings where you can sit out until it gets dark! And unfortunately it's getting dark earlier and earlier each day... Anyway, on Wednesday I met a friend in Zurich and first had coffee at Starbucks and then enjoyed the sun at the Limmat. I left soon after as I joined Thomas for the train back to Schaffhausen, where we talked a lot about architecture. And today we went to Stein am Rhein in the morning and drove down in the rubber boat! We listened to chillout sound, had a stop now and then for ice cream and just enjoyed the ride back down! Pure life!