This must be, ummm, my fifth time visiting New York and somehow I’m still as enchanted by it as I was on my first visit way back in early 2003. I thought I would have run out of things to do/see/smell/eat etc. by now but the more you scratch under the surface of New York, or Manhattan in particular, the more you find underneath.

After the disaster that was my flight out of Heathrow the rest of my holiday turned out pretty well. I was hoping for a white Christmas but wasn’t expecting too much considering that winter has been very late coming to England and in fact I wouldn’t even say it has arrived yet! This could only translate to a relatively mild week of weather in New York which is exactly what we got. For the most part I was able to walk around in just a jumper with there being really only one day when a coat was needed and even then that was only because we were up 70 floors (or something like that), outside and it was after dusk!

My first couple of days was spent catching up with the family and doing a bit of shopping to replace my temporarily missing luggage. On Christmas Eve everyone kept saying how my grandma was so happy to see all the grand kids, except one, together. She really couldn’t stop smiling. So we had a nice night and if I couldn’t be with my dad, mum and Stephen it was definitely the next best thing. Oh and the spread of food … incredible.

The rest of the time Pat and I took in some sights around Manhattan. To our surprise we were able to find new things to do like:

• The newly opened Top of the Rock. A new alternative to the Empire State Building which gives you sweeping views from the top of the Rockefeller Center (see how that works). It was fabulous and we timed it so we could see the sun setting through to night. Breathtaking both for the temperature (bloody cold!) and the views (just beautiful.)

• From the top to the bottom we ventured down to the Rock Center Cafe to try what is touted as the best French Toast in Manhattan. It was in effect a wine soaked brioche and whilst tasty after the first slice it was almost a bit too much to finish. You definitely need a side of bacon to temper the sweetness of the dish. The cafe is also one of the more comfortable spots to view the annual winter ice skating rink.

• For the first time ever we braved the TKTS booth which is where the tourists flock to get discount tickets to Broadway shows. The line actually does move relatively quickly and the man that constantly berates you to move up is vastly entertaining. Unfortunately tickets to good shows are very rare and I ended up getting Pat and I tickets to Slava’s Snow Show. What a mistake. I don’t think I could even give this a rating and if I did it would be something like negative infinity. It was that bad. Have I mentioned I dislike clowns? Well, imagine a show full of clowns just doing stupid meaningless things on stage. The best bit was the end when these balls, gigantic balls, were flung into the audience to bat back and forth. Even that was fairly pointless.

• We also indulged in some mega-touristy things like eating at Bubba Gumps with their literal popcorn shrimp, visiting M&M world at Times Square, and dropping into the new Nintendo Shop at Rockefeller Center.

Finally there was the shopping. If you think pre-Christmas shopping then post-Christmas shopping is a whole new world. Macy’s was utter madness to but surprisingly the old favourite for discount clothing, 21st Century, was very quiet at 8am on Boxing Day. Thank goodness.

So many many more photos here.