Accomodation - Saint Moritz On The Park
AccommodationWe stayed in the Saint Moritz On The Park hotel (a place mentioned several times - quite bizarrely considering it's not exactly a famous hotel, or an expensive one - in the Kevin Sampson's extremely readable rockudrama novel, Powder), positioned alongside and facing Central Park midway between Fifth and Sixth Avenue. Although the hotel was an old (and no doubt once stately) 30+ floors, it was past it's best, and the room somewhat simple. As mentioned in the Rough Guide, they appear to be extremely understaffed, and we have an extremely long wait to check in, as indeed we do again later when we check out.
The room is doubly disappointing as the small, only window in the room overlooks the brick wall of an adjoining part of the hotel, offering no view, and causing the room to be plunged into perpetual gloom. Still, we were not in New York to sit quietly in our room watching telly, enjoying the (non-existent) trappings of our room. By this reasoning, it's impossible to be too negative about the hotel - it's in an excellent central location, and as long as the room is clean (which it is) and reasonably quiet (again, yes) and we're not paying through the nose (which we're not), it's difficult to grumble.
Instead, going up to the top floor we find that there's a superb view available, looking across Central Park and to the north of Manhattan. At night-time the view is excellent and we're grateful for being able to soak it up in silence, rather than sharing it with other tourists. We can watch police cars cruise along the winding paths of the park, and the towering apartment blocks surrounding it. Directly below, on the edge of the park is the famous open-air ice skating rink, and the whole sight is incredibly romantic.