Hello,

The question is really: what would you do in this situation? This will be probably be a rare opportunity in my life where there will be impetus to explore Schenectady, a city I've yet to explore in my over 40 years on this earth.

I'll be there from about 3:30 pm, catching a train to Chicago around 7:30 pm (in June). I won't want to stray too far from the train station. I'm not expecting to have a life-altering event, just trying to find a pleasant way to while away a few hours and maybe get an itty-bitty sense of Schenectady. A few things I notice: the Mohawk River is not far; is there a vantage point to see the river that possibly has a bench from which one may admire the river (I see a place called Riverside Park)? Union College seems not too far a walk; might it be worth a stroll over? I notice there are some cafes... maybe you have a favorite one to sit in if it's a rainy day (Moon & River Cafe, Ambition Coffee & Eatery are some names I've seen)? Really, a pleasant park, a lovely historic home, you name it I'm open to it.

Thank you in advance for all suggestions. Best wishes, Daniel

No personal knowledge, Daniel, but the Wikipedia article has lots of historic buildings and houses I would explore if I didn't have to haul around my stuff AND the Amtrak station were not in the middle of nowhere.

When all else fails, I find a public library to catch up on local history, surf the net, or read magazines.

Where are you bound this time? I look forward to your reports wherever you are bound

Daniel, Googlemaps is your friend. It indicates that from Schenectady Amtrak station to Union college is 9 minutes on foot or 7 minutes by bus even gave the # of the bus. I would guess you could put in any specific location and get similar results.

ackislander-- I'm thinking it won't be too bad to walk around nearby the train station if I have my rolling luggage and a backpack. I did exactly that back in 2013 in downtown Albany and quite enjoyed my afternoon. It makes me very happy that you look forward to the report--this summer if all goes well I'm off to do a 3 week course at a language school in Queretaro Mexico.

emalloy-- Union College indeed looks close on the map; I might stroll over if I learn that the campus has some attractive buildings.

The campus has some unusual buildings. Only you can decide if they are attractive. ;-)

Daniel, you won my admiration with your expedition to St Augustine from Jacksonville which required epic study of local bus schedules.

I have a cousin who does this kind of thing a lot, though he flies: BWI to PVD, then a van to Quonset Point, RI, to catch an obscure ferry to Martha's Vineyard, where he had lunch before catching a flat-bottomed scow of a ferry, the kind of ferry that will wind up in a Third-World country, to Nantucket. Some fun!

My best, known in my family as the Bataan Death March, was taking them from Brighton, England, to Ft William, Scotland, by train in one day. The hard part was getting them from Victoria to King's Cross on the Underground, with luggage, lots of luggage, in some very short period of time. The change of stations in Glasgow was child's play by comparison!

A couple of ideas

1. Yes, the Mohawk is right there. There is a bike path that runs westward along the river, and it's about 2-3 miles to Lock 8 on the Erie Canal. I always enjoy watching the locks in operation.

2. Schenectady has numerous small mom & pop italian restaurants. I'll dig up some recent reviews from friends and come back here to post them.

3. I believe GE has a museum in town - but I know nothing about it.

i dug this up.

http://traveltips.usatoday.com/thing...ork-14898.html

ackislander-- I'm glad I won your admiration in finding a way to traverse the 40 miles from Jacksonville to St. Augustine FL by local public transport. I actually thought it was very cool that the St. Augustine transit system had a bus that went 4 times daily to a mall in the southern outskirts of Jacksonville, from which one could catch a local bus to downtown Jacksonville. Best part was that it set me back a grand total of $2.50; unfortunate part is that there was no shelter at the bus stop in St. Augustine and it was pouring rain that day. Not nearly as long a journey as your (unforgettable?) Bataan Death March, but my clothes and luggage looked after the trip as if they might have been on such a journey. It was all worth it to see beautiful St. Augustine: walkable, with a fascinating history, my kind of place! Best wishes!

j62--Thanks for the article and the advice. I didn't realize Schenectady was so close to the famous Erie Canal!

The Mohawk river IS the Erie Canal in that area! The river you see today is a series of lakes, formed by dams at each lock. Lock 8 is just upstream as I noted. Lock 7 is about 5mi or so downstream, just past the GE Corporate Research center and the Knolls Atomic Power Lab where Naval propulsion systems are developed. Neither GE labs nor KAPL are open to the public.

J62-- Thank you; I've learned something here today! I remember a childhood song about 18 miles on the Erie Canal (I seem to recollect a certain mule named Sal that made the song rhyme) but I've never seen the Erie Canal. I always imagined the canal somewhere a little further west in New York State rather than the state capital area.

The Hudson river is open navigation all the way from Troy, NY to the open sea @ NYC - the 1st dam on the river is just above Troy, and is lock #1, and the canal continues all the way to the Great Lakes. There are several branches, including one that goes to Lake Champlain, and another to Lake Ontario near Rochester.

The main long distance traffic on the canal is pleasure boats transiting from FL or the Caribbean back to the Great Lakes, many from Toronto area.

The canal you see today is 1920's version. Concrete locks, larger barges. There are remnants of the original 1820's canal (Clinton's ditch) here and there, but I don't think there are any remnants in the immediate Schenectady area. Not far away in the town of Waterford are a series of the original stone locks - several of them in a row (a flight, which bypasses the Cohoes Falls on the Mohawk) that are a fun visit if you're into this stuff. Car required to get there.

Thanks for the ideas-- I remember enjoying locks at work on a field trip when I lived in London, England as a boy. One day I may explore the Erie Canal (possibly there are bike paths adjacent?). For this trip, however, I look forward to what I hope will be a pleasant stroll in downtown Schenectady, perhaps seeing the Mohawk River, as I while away a few hours before my train leaves.