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New York 2006

As part of my wife Christas'40th birthday celebration I decided to treat her to a long weekend in New York. We both hadn't been before and when I mentioned it to her she jumped at the opportunity.

We all realised at the start that it would take a lot of arranging so 6 months in advance planning started. With the kind co-operation of Christa's sister and family agreeing to take on the kids for the duration. I had checked the interweb to see what the best package deal I could get and plumped with Expedia. Mainly because of our location up north and the specific hotel we planned to stay at.

The plan was to travel from our home to Manchester airport, fly to JFK airport in New York, shuttle bus to the hotel, The Soho Grand and chill out for 4 days. The children would be packed up and shipped out for a bit of a holiday.

Due to the fact we had a early start on travel day we decided to stay in a local hotel in Manchester. Using Expedia again we decided on The Manchester Thistle Hotel for an over nighter.

Travel was a bit of a non-event. Drove to Manchester Airport, parked up the car and checked in. The flight, around 8 hours, went smoothly with no delays. Arriving in sunny New York we needed to sort out out shuttle bus to the hotel and flake out after the being jetlagged due to the 5 hours time difference. First job check out the hotel room....nice. LCD TV with BBC Usa on it. Luxury items in the bath room for taking home. Warm friendly service and a glass of Champagne at reception. Overall not too bad service...given the chance we'll come again.

Our first night out was spent at a local restaurant called The Harrison. A local restaurant picked from the Lonely Planet travel guide to New York. The food was great and the service fine. The only issue was which had been mentioned in the guide was the mandatory tipping policy. We went with the flow and gave a well deserved tip. After the back to the hotel for an early night to catch up the 5 hours lost in travel.

The next day the plan was to have breakfast delivered to our room, which was a welcomed change, then to go to midtown and check out the district. New York is renowned for High Fashion as well as smaller local independent outlets. We were prepared to try them all. First stop of many was Bloomingdale's which I personally found a bit boring. It's just like any other department store. Lots of high price stuff but Christa found a lot of previously unavailable cosmetics that made the visit worthwhile.

One of our next stops was Tiffany's where Christa proceeded to spend the kids inheritance of shiny trinkets and borbles. Just visiting Tiffany's and see the famed Tiffany Diamond was cool. Another stop that was a personal preference of mine was NikeTown. Similar to the one I had visited in London, but the New York version just seemed to have a lot more product. Split over 5 Floors this sportswear store appears more like a Sports Art gallery than a Sport shop. I ended up only purchasing a single pair of trainers but could have bought a lot more...After getting some to eat and walking around a lot more we ended up at the Empire State Building. Unfortunately because of long queues (over two hours) we decided to regroup at the hotel and formulate a plan.

That night we ended up in a trendy eatery in Soho a short walk from the hotel called Mercer's Kitchen, a restaurant situated below the Mercer Hotel. Fabled to be frequented by lots of celebrity types of which we saw zero. The food was good although the atmosphere was a bit oppressive and dark.

The next morning was our re-planned expedition to the Empire State Building. Up at 8am in a cab and down there by 9am for the opening. I very much recommend this course of action. There was no queing to speak of and we were in the first group of tourists that went up that day. We got the audio tour guide and saw the whole of New York from up there. It is an outstanding structure with an awesome view....well worth the wait and planning.

After the Empire State Building and lunch at McDonalds we decided to take an open top bus tour around the city, taking us mainly to midtown and downtown. You realise as you travel around that you know New York! Mainly from the fact that every movie filmed there seems to pick out the familiar landmarks. As part of the tour we ended up at the site of 9/11 with plaques and memorials plastered all around. Now it looks like an important building site but still seems to spark a lot of interest.

The tour finished up back at the Empire State where the shopping continued for gifts to bring back home including "I Love NYC" t-shirt for myself. Once complete we headed back to the hotel to get ready for and early evening meal. As part of the tour we went through Little Italy and China Town. So we we decided to got to a restaurant in that district. We ended up in a place called Sweet 'N' Tart noted in the Lonely Planet Guide. Once inside we could see that it was populated by locals which is always a good sign. We weren't disappointed with a good chinese meal and plenty of it. This was our last night in NYC so we made the most of it with a romantic if not exhausting walk back to the hotel.

Our lat day in NYC involved get packed and ready for the shuttle bus back to the airport and the 8 hour flight home. As is the custom on holiday we ended up purchasing an extra bag for all the extra stuff we'd purchased. The only event of note on the way back was the fact that they played the remake of King Kong as the in-flight movie on the way back....Something to remember it by I suppose. A good trip and well worth doing.....!

I have put a selection of my photos taken in New York in the Photo section of the website....

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