A Week in the Life of….
Monday, July 16th, 2007It was all India this week, with a little golf and Washington added in for a splash of color. Monday, Dick Evans and I made our way to the Trenton train station to catch Amtrak’s regional train to Washington, D.C. to meet with executives at Amtrak, and for me to review the Willard InterContinental Hotel. We were impressed with the on-time performance of the regional train, which pulled into Washington’s Union Station right on time at 2 p.m.
The Willard is a wonderful grand dame of the hotel industry where President Grant coined the phrase “lobbyist” and where the famous Round Robin Bar was mentioned in a Walt Whitman poem. I stayed the night in a wonderful suite with views of the Washington Monument; the suite consisted of a master bedroom, a large living room with a desk, an overstuffed sofa and chairs, and a dining table…..of course two bathrooms are a must!
From here, I took the Acela Express from D.C. to New York Penn Station, upgrading myself to First Class on the Acela Express for a future review in Global Traveler. The service was good onboard, but due to the excessive heat we were unable to go above 80 MPH (Acela Express’s top speed can reach 150 MPH).
That evening I attended the gala dinner for Air India celebrating the launch of non-stop service from JFK-Mumbai on the new Boeing 777-ER aircraft. Kim Krol will be taking this first flight on August 1 to Mumbai and then will also travel to Goa for Global Traveler. She will surely have some interesting blogs, reviews and articles in GT!
The following day, I attended a golf outing courtesy of our paper supplier Clifford Paper at the wonderful Muttontown Country Club. A day at Muttontown is as much about the food as it is about the golf! Muttontown was the former Fonda Estate where Jane and Peter Fonda grew up after the divorce of their parents. (What a backyard!)
After the game, I made my way back to New York City for the launch party for Jet Airways, a new Indian airline starting service to the U.S. next month. Jet Airways is focusing their service toward the premium market with a First Class suite rivaling that of Emirates Airlines and a superior business class product to India. Unlike Air India, Jet Airways will not have nonstop service to Mumbai, but will stop in Brussels en route.
The week closed with an outing at Global Traveler’s home course Jericho National with executives from the Millennium Hotels and Resorts.
Such is one week in the life of the publisher of Global Traveler. Until next week…enjoy your travels!
 -Fran Gallagher, publisher and CEO
