No room at the inn. No inn at the inn.

In July of 2000, at the end of my solo tour of English cathedrals, I spent a night in London. When I got to the B&B I had booked there was a handwritten note tacked to the door; it directed me to another address around the corner. When I rang the bell at the new location a gentleman unlocked the door and said, “Welcome, Walter.” It was a bit odd, but all turned out well.

Yesterday in New York Ransom and I had an odder experience that turned out even better. We had booked a room at the Park Central Hotel, 7th Avenue at 56th Street, just across from Carnegie Hall. As we were driving down the West Side Highway, Ransom phoned the hotel to ask about parking; the cheery woman on the phone told us they managed their own garage and we could park there – for $60 per night, but that’s a story for another day.

We chose to park at a different garage and walked into the hotel. The man behind the desk gave me an odd look when I said, “Room for Wilson, Ransom.” He swallowed a look of confusion and smiled as he responded, “This hotel is closed.”

That made no sense. We had a confirmed reservation. We had just called the hotel ten minutes ago. WTF?

He was, of course, right. The hotel was closed. Something about a broken water pipe and the city forcing the hotel to close. How a broken water pipe could close an entire 761-room hotel is beyond me. Even odder, a Google search and an online search of the New York Times turned up no more information. When I visited the Park Central’s website everything looked normal, except that there were no rooms available for every day I checked.

But there’s a silver lining – a gold lining really – to this tale. Although the hotel failed to let us know it in advance, they did have a room for us at the Doubletree at 51st and Lexington. That’s not as convenient as the original west side location, but we could manage – especially when they told us they were refunding our entire room charge and the Doubletree would be ours for free – full hot breakfast included. We had paid $311 for the Park Central so, as I say, this deal was golden.

The Doubletree was lovely, the breakfast first rate and the whole reason we were in the city, the New York Philharmonic’s showing of The Godfather, was thoroughly enjoyable.

(Regular readers may remember that I saw the NY Phil screen 2001: A Space Odyssey while the musicians played the score and that I traveled to Boston to hear the BSO do the same with West Side Story. The Godfather would not have been my third choice, but it was my birthday and seemed a fun thing to do).

We ate dinner before the movie/concert at Pasha, an excellent Turkish restaurant I’ve been to several times.

Thank you, Ransom, for a wonderful trip. It was a grand birthday -- and if I can say that AND save $311 then I’m all in favor of “odd.”

The lobby of the Park Central Hotel; it was just about this empty when we walked in yesterday.