Street Markets of Geneva and New York

Plain Palais, Geneva, Switzerland and 14th Street Union Square, NewYork , US.
What's common between these two places? Your Plastic money cards can take rest at these two street markets!!! Dont be too surprised only cards can take rest and not your money (In this world only handful of places exist where money can take rest :-) ).

Let me compare both the markets, Plain Palais market sells most of used items and is bigger in area, whereas the 14th street market sells all new items and they also sell flowers, fruits and fresh vegetables. I know that Plain Palais market opens only on Saturdays (as usual nothing works on sunday in Switzerland) and not sure about the 14th Street market (I was there on a saturday). You can quench your thirst or fill your stomach with good food in 14th street, but you have only very few food stalls in Plain Palais.

If you want to relax but at the same time want to collect your take away souveniers these are the places you have to visit. I have the picture of 14th Street market but not the Geneva market.

How to Reach:
Plain Palais Saturday Market - Take tram 13 or 15 from Gare Cornavin and you will be there
14th Street Union Square Market - Subways trains L, N, Q, R, W will take you there. Take 4,5 or 6 directly from Grand Central terminal to reach the market.

Have fun and explore!!!

American Museum of Natural history

I was thinking twice before I decided to go to this place. Museum, the word that made me think should I go? will I get bored? come on why to waste time there?. But, I should thank the weather that made me go to this wonderful site in New York city. Thank God I didn't miss. The weather was so bad that day and it started to rain, so we are put in a situation to visit any indoor tourist attraction and this museum was first in the list. We also could have tried ESB (Empire State Building) but because of bad weather we could not have had a good view of the city/MANHATTAN.

Seeing the museum I realised this was the one that featured in the movie "Night at the museum". OK, now I am amazed atleast by this fact that the museum that I am visiting featured in Hollywood movie!! Later I realised I had lot of other reasons to get excited about this museum. Seeing the name i thought it should be one of the biggest museum and yes, it very much exceeded my expectation. I would say its THE PLACE to visit if you are in NY. There are so many exhibits that you will loose count of. Along with this you can also visit the Rose center of earth and space. It is in the same campus as this museum. What a splendid view of our world and atmosphere!!!. If you are a geologist then you have to travel to NY and see this museum so many types of rocks and soils are kept for display. One other attractiing feature is that there are simulations available for all forces of nature. They simulate storms, earth formation, atmospheric composition etc., and etc.,

Leave out the advanced crowd of geologist/college grads who are taking notes out there, for kids this place is a blessing. I could see many parents taking their kids and they are so keen in explaining their children what those exhibits are about. I really felt at heart that I was not able to see these when I was a kid. I wish atleast my younger cousins could see this now and get to know things in a wonderful manner.

I promise one day is not enough for you to see all the exhibits. I suggest you better plan well by visiting www.amnh.org. Some of the interesting halls in the museum are:

North American forests
Milstein Hall of ocean life
Gottesman hall of planet earth (Rose center for earth and space)
Birds of the world and
Saurischian dinosaurs (Not to miss!!!!)



You can reach this place through subway trains A/B/C/D (Easy to remember rite?). Remember A and C are express trains and they dont stop at 81 St - Museum of Natural history. Get down at 59st - Columbus circle and take either B or D local trains and you will be there in 3-4 minutes. Pls. get on the last compartments of the B/D trains as the entry to museum's ticket counter is very closer to the last compartments and you need not wait long (a travel tip...:))

Wishing you a good trip! :)

Regards,
Sriram Srinivasan