Delhi Palace

Trying to please everyone is a risky business but this little place near the Sé Cathedral makes a decent fist of both Indian and Italian specialities. The owners are from the Punjab, but the cook worked for eight years in an Italian restaurant. The pizzas are nothing special, but there's a decent range of pasta and meat dishes. Unsurprisingly, it's the Indian food that's really worthwhile, with excellent ingredients. Vegetarians are well served - the vegetable pakoras are bursting with freshness and there are plenty of dals, and half a dozen salads.

Wrestling: US National Wrestling Championships

Not to be confused with the entertainment spectacle that is 'professional' wrestling, the US National Wrestling Championships includes the US Freestyle Nationals, US Greco-Roman Nationals, US Women's Nationals, US Veteran's Nationals and the Western Junior Regionals. More than 2500 of the nation's top wrestlers will converge on the Strip for four days of furious grappling that will determine who continues to compete in June for a spot on the World Team. Mercifully, Hulk Hogan will be nowhere in sight.

It's a Wonderful Life

This Frank Capra Christmas classic has just been completely restored and the Filmmuseum is putting it's brand new copy to good use with an extra long run to save people from having to watch it yet again on their tiny televisions. Bring the whole family and a huge bucket of popcorn to watch as George Bailey, played by James Stewart, has his suicidal disillusionment turn to hope-embracing warmth with the help of his guardian angel.

Ludwig Reiter

Bespoke yet cool shoemakers Ludwig Reiter have opened a new visible city-centre branch just off Kärtnerstraße. The shop is all confidence-inspiring bare boards and dark wood cabinets and the wares are as always highly desirable. Ranging from the magnificent affordable leather and suede trainers to the pricier bowling shoes and hand-made brogues, Reiter have one or two new lines including some funky electric orange pony hide jogging shoes and lovely ladies slippers. In short Vienna's finest indigenous shoe shop.

Uneasy Riders (Nationale 7)

Great, bolshy French comedy about disability and sex.

Pivnushka

The classy German restaurant Pivnushka was just the thing for a quiet tête a tête for Prime minister Tony Blair and President Vladimir Putin in mid-November. It's not that surprising Putin chose a German restaurant - after spending so many years spying in East Germany - and the area although it may not look like it, is a prestigious one with a huge road big enough for Putin's convoy and sniper team. The two shared a glass or two of vodka and a plate of goose and if you ask nicely you can sit in the same seat.

Body Worlds

More than five million people have seen this controversial exhibition which arrives in Berlin after stops in Austria, Japan and a number of other German cities. Condemned as unethical by some members of the church, 'Körperwelten' shows human corpses which have been stripped of their skin and preserved using a special technique developed by German doctor, Gunther von Hagens. It provides a unique insight into the inner workings of the human body by exposing the connections between organs, muscles, bones and nerve endings.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

1071 Fifth Ave at 88th St (212-423-3500)


Subway: 4, 5, 6 to 86th St. Sun-Wed 10am-6pm; Fri, Sat 10am-8pm. $12, students and seniors $7, under 12 free, voluntary donation Fri 6-8pm. AmEx, MC, V.

Other location: Guggenheim Museum Soho , 575 Broadway at Prince St (212-423-3500). Subway: N, R to Prince St. Wed-Fri, Sun 11am-6pm; Sat 11am-8pm.





Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the Guggenheim itself is a stunning work of art. In addition to works by Kandinsky, Picasso, van Gogh, Degas and Manet, the museum owns Peggy Guggenheim's trove of Cubist, Surrealist and abstract Expressionist works, and the Panza di Biumo collection of American Minimalist and Conceptual art from the 1960s and 1970s. The photography collection began after a donation of more than 200 works by the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. In 1992 the museum reopened after a two-year renovation; a new ten-story tower increased the museum's space to include a sculpture gallery (with great views of Central Park) and a café. Since then, the guggenheim has made news with its ambitious global expansion, its penchant for sweeping historical presentations (such as its elegant overview of 5,000 years of Chinese art) and its in-depth retrospectives of such major American artists as Robert Rauschenberg. Admission prices are some of the highest in the city; they do allow entry to the Guggenheim's Soho branch, but only for exhibitions being shown in both locations. Even if you don't want to pay to see the collection inside, visit the museum to admire the stunning white building coiled among the turn-of-the-century mansions on Fifth Avenue.
The downtown guggenheim opened in 1992 to showcase selections from the permanent collection, as well as temporary exhibitions.