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The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
Robert A. Caro

Secret Mall Apartment

"Can't let youse in."
"Wha-Why?"
"Dress code."
"We wore our sombreros!"
Milk & Cheese

The train arrives and it is packed full. No room in the sleeping cars, no room in the coaches. And it's all second class. We are forced to stand in the gangway of the coach. More drunks, mostly young. It's the party train.

Everyone in Europe smokes. I guess a "No Smoking" sign really means "Don't Smoke Quite As Much As Usual." They all come out to smoke with us. Thank you. We end up having to stand the entire 7 hours to Amsterdam. The combination of painful feet, lack of sleep, secondhand smoke and probably motion sickness makes us feel quite funky by the time we (finally!) get off the train.

We reach our hotel (it's a nice one) and shower and sleep for a few hours. Later, we visit a shop and get juice, soda and munchies, then stop at an Italian restaurant for dinner. No herring for us. Afterwards, it's back to the hotel (the Hotel Beethoven, by the way) for TV and more sleep.