Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2007-08-17 01:21:14 - Graham Ellis
I'm in Troy - upstate New York, at the tidal head of the Hudson river 150 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. Troy is proud to be named after Helen of Troy, with her beauty shown on the top of a tall pillar in the town square.
Troy is also proud to be the town of origin of Uncle Sam - someone else who's name I have oft heard, but about who's history I know very little. His fine statue stands in the Waterfront park, where a military band was playing last night in the bandstand to entertain rows of "Vets". About as American as they get!
But grand though the architechure is, the old town of Troy has clearly seen better times, with some elements of our hotel - the Best Western Rensselaer Inn - leaving something to be desired. On the first evening, the door of the list shaft was propped open and we could hear the sound of running water from within; on the second day, we were moved to another room as "we'll be digging up the floor outside your room and there may be a bit of dust". On the third day, we popped back to see what our old room looked like!
Let's be fair - we're well away from the works in the new room, we have a view of the pool rather than the car park, and now that we've learnt not to ask for a shuttle before 9 a.m., to order a taxi 20 minutes before we really need to travel, and to give the breakfast time to warm up by not going down soon after it starts, we're getting along just fine. Internet access is excellent in the middle of the night, but patchy with lots of dropped connections when all the business people need to be on line at the same time - 6 to 9 a.m. and 4 to 8 p.m. And we are within walking distance of the town.
I'm in Troy - upstate New York, at the tidal head of the Hudson river 150 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. Troy is proud to be named after Helen of Troy, with her beauty shown on the top of a tall pillar in the town square.
Troy is also proud to be the town of origin of Uncle Sam - someone else who's name I have oft heard, but about who's history I know very little. His fine statue stands in the Waterfront park, where a military band was playing last night in the bandstand to entertain rows of "Vets". About as American as they get!
But grand though the architechure is, the old town of Troy has clearly seen better times, with some elements of our hotel - the Best Western Rensselaer Inn - leaving something to be desired. On the first evening, the door of the list shaft was propped open and we could hear the sound of running water from within; on the second day, we were moved to another room as "we'll be digging up the floor outside your room and there may be a bit of dust". On the third day, we popped back to see what our old room looked like!