Doing New York

Walk! Keep walking! Walk until you bleed!

As soon as my kids had finished school at lunchtime on December 16th, we ran away to New York for a week. We immersed ourselves in New York Christmas spangliness from morning till night, until our blood ran with melted candy canes.

We arrived in the city at about midnight on that Friday night, and our first sight of the great, twinkling mass of the city blocks rising up before us was completely magical.

I've been to New York twice before, both times about 15-20 years ago, when I still worked in London publishing. Both trips were for work, alone, and I was so concerned with getting to my next appointment and with not being mugged (I don't know whether this was a realistic fear, back then -- the city seemed very safe this time around), that I never let my guard down and was constantly on the move, but without looking around me, or, vitally, up above. I came back, both times, thinking that NYC was overrated, but now, after this trip, I've completely changed my mind. Going just for fun, with plenty of time to do what we wanted to do, was wonderful and New York made us all very happy.

The Flatiron Building, a favourite

We got back late on Dec 23rd, Christmas was quickly upon us, and since then I've been toiling at the computer, trying to sort out my photos. This blog is in lieu of a diary, so bear with me if I lay out all that we did in wearysome detail. I want to remember everything. I had the best pizza I've ever eaten, the best ever doughnut, the best popcorn, saw the best Christmas lights. I watched the final of American X Factor (awful!). It was an American dream come true.

The tree at Rockefeller Plaza

I think I'll leave it at that for now and will come back with a day-by-day account starting tomorrow.