Since I started the thread, i will summarize to be helpful.
Personally I like Floris\'s version the best but it is marginally better than the 2nd image I posted which is a blend of HDR/single image 20/80. But Alichty is very close. Which is not to say the others are not good but it was 7AMish and they do look the closest to what I remember.
More importantly than this observation, I note that: 9/20 would go with manual blend. 4/20 went with adjustment to just one image. 2/20 went with Photomatix. 5/20 went with a blend of HDR/single image.
Which takes me back to my assertion at the beggining. Photomatix (with the settings turned down to modest) blended with a single image and with color adjustments is pretty dam good. A manual blend can do as well or better in skilled hands. So if you are interested in 90% results with 10% effort a workflow that does hdr, fixes colors and blends with single image is efficient to my mind.
Leaving me with the comment - thanks all for participating. It was very helpful to me and makes me want to learn manual blending when I get the time.
