The view from my room:
Hotels, though, are never my favorite places to be. I don't sleep well in most hotels, and especially not when I'm away from my beloved of 30+ years. As hotels go, though, the Hilton in downtown Portland is very comfortable in most important respects. The staff here is extremely courteous and well trained, executing professional service at every encounter. Quiet rooms, very comfortable beds, nicely furnished, responsive elevators, ideally located in the center of this wonderfully walking-centric town. In fact, I might even say this is an ideal hotel, with but a couple of significant issues: the monkey in the HVAC system and the almost entire lack of wireless Internet service.
The HVAC monkey only showed up at 4:30 this morning. At a guess, I'd say he crawled into the bowls of the building's HVAC system armed with a small jackhammer and set to work doing whatever he has been so ceaselessly doing ever since. A high pitched drone and metal-on-metal rattle coming from someplace not-quite-here woke me well before my alarm went off. It is hard to describe accurately, but it isn't a sound you sleep through. It wasn't long before I could faintly hear my neighbors on either side also moving around, so I know I wasn't alone. The front desk was courteous, of course, but apart from indicating they would dispatch someone to explore, offered only sympathy and no explanations.
As for wireless service, well, that phrase has proven to be an oxymoron here. Like most semi-expensive hotels, access to the wireless is an à la carte option you pay an additional $10/day for. While I would rather this modern-day-essential be factored into my room cost rather than billed separately (who doesn't need wireless access these days; they don't make access to hot water an à la carte option), I don't object to paying for this service one way or another. I know it is an increasing cost to hotel operations, with bandwidth demand growing incredibly fast. But when I do pay for this service, I expect to get reasonable bandwidth and reliable service.
Here the wireless service amounts to an occasional passing whisp of bandwidth, like smoke from a cigarette walking by (and it does seem that most pedestrians here in Portland smoke). Here one moment, gone the next, and never much of it at any one time. Even checking email is painful, when it is possible at all. I will probably have to retire to the main lobby in order to post today's blog entry.
Later this afternoon I and my colleagues will board a train for home, we hope. Coming down this past Tuesday we only barely took the train we had tickets for. It got us as far as Seattle, and there we sat for 2.5 hours because of computer system failure at B&N, making it impossible for Amtrak to get permission to use the line.
While waiting in Seattle, I had plenty of time to try and figure out what this curious row of signs was trying to signify (no idea):
With Amtrak telling us they had no idea when they would be able to move, and offering refunds to one and all, we finally rounded up 10 stranded fellow-passengers, called a shuttle van to pick us up, and were driven from Seattle to Portland. I really hope we don't have to do that again. I like the train journey between Portland and home, and am looking forward to a restful and scenic trip.
No soundtrack for today's commute, at least not this morning for the short elevator ride down to the conference rooms. With luck, though, I will enjoy some Sigur Rós on the train ride home later this afternoon.
- Posted via Hermes.
Location:Portland, OR
No comments:
Post a Comment