Friday 29 December
We caught the 4pm Virgin Atlantic flight from London Heathrow to Newark airport, which arrived into New York slightly early at 6.40pm. The queues through immigration were really short and our luggage was waiting for us when we got through. I think this is the first time ever that we've not had horrendous queues to get though immigration in the US.
We booked our transfers with Virgin Holidays and we were at the hotel by 8pm. As we were on a budget, we stayed at the Salisbury Hotel on 57th Street, just opposite Carnegie Hall. Even though the hotel has seen better days, it's in a great location, it's clean and the rooms are huge.
After unpacking, our first port of call was the Christmas tree at the Rockerfeller Centre. I've been a few times in November before (it's my fifth visit to New York and my husband's third) but we've never seen the tree lit up. It was a magical and emotional moment when we walked around the corner to see the tree for the first time. Wow, wow and wow! Not suprisingly, we didn't get our 'Home Alone moment' of viewing the tree by ourselves - we shared the special moment with thousands of other people. The authorities had set up an one way walking route around the area to control the crowds - it was that busy!
That night, we ate pizza at Angelos Italian restaurant, which is two doors away from hotel. We shared a large pizza, which was really good. We managed to stay up until 12 midnight (5am back home), which we've never manage to do before. We tried a few anti-jet lag products this time, which may have helped - 'No jet lag' homeopathic tablets and 'No more jet lag' by Dr Krebs, which uses acupressure to eliminate jet lag. Even cynical hubbie seemed impressed with the results!
Saturday 30 December
Today was our official shopping day. We woke early and ate breakfast in the hotel ($3 each - what a bargain, and it turned out to be included in our room rate). We then headed to the subway across the road (57th Street - NRQW line) to buy a '7-day Unlimited Ride Metrocard' for $24 each. Another bargain! As we were up so early, we decided to venture up to the 'Top of the Rock' before it got too busy. After a $2 discount each (we were handed a voucher the night before outside the entrance), it cost about $38 for the two of us. The views from the top were amazing and because we were there just after it opened, we pretty much had the place to ourselves.
Okay - now to the serious stuff, shopping! We walked back up 5th Avenue - we went into the Disney Store; my husband's favourite store - GAP (it felt like we visited every GAP store in New York during our trip!!!!!) and then Tiffany's. Hubbie bought me a silver braclet for my birthday - I was so excited carrying the little green bag! We were expecting the staff to be quite snooty, but they were lovely and friendly. We then ventured into FAO Schwarz, and walked up to Bloomingdales (I forgot to register at Visitor's Desk for 11% discount card - dur!). I bought stacks of 'Little Brown Bags' for presents and raided the Benefit, Clinique and Philosophy counters. We were told that Benefit cosmetics are 40% cheaper in the US; though don't forget that you have to add 8% sales tax onto the prices you see in shops (except for clothes costing under $110). Next we caught the subway to 6th Ave at 18th Street and went to Filene's and TJ Maxx, and then walked to 7th Avenue at 16th Street (two blocks away from T J Maxx) to go to Loehmans. We got some great bargains in these shops - my bargain of the holiday was a Calvin Klein black suit for just $100.
That evening we had reservations for 7.30pm at the River Cafe. (By the way, virtually all our dinner reservations were booked through http://www.opentable.com and we had no problems whatsoever.) It took us about an hour to get the River Cafe from our hotel - we followed the directions given on http://www.tripadvisor.com:
"Take the #2 or #3 train downtown towards Brooklyn. At Clark Street, take the elevator to the street. The walk from Clark Street should take about ten or fifteen minutes, and is rather pleasant. The most interesting and least confusing route is to turn right on Clark Street and walk three blocks (past Hicks, past Willow) to Columbia Heights. Turn right on Columbia Heights. You will pass the three 'fruit streets' (Pineapple, Orange, and Cranberry) and then Middagh. At the corner of Middagh the street suddenly pitches steeply downhill. Walk to the bottom of that hill -- you will be at the old Brooklyn Ferry landing, and the River Cafe will be across Old Fulton Street."
The views over Manhattan island were amazing - it's worth taking the subway over there just to see the view.
The food and service at the River Cafe were as amazing as everyone says. Yes, it's very expensive if you're not used to fine dining (we're not) - $260 for the two of us - BUT it was worth every single penny. We had shrimp / rabbit ravioli for starters and lamb / lobster for mains, and we both had the yummy Chocoate Brooklyn Bridge for afters. Every dish was delicious and we left the restaurant (nearly stepping on the cat!) feeling stuffed. We decided to walk off our dinner by walking back over the Brooklyn Bridge - the views were amazing but it's a long walk. It seemed to take ages to get onto it/off it - I had a short dress and heels on, so it probably wasn't the most sensible thing to do! I was VERY glad to see the subway station on the other side - Brooklyn Bridge - City Hall. We caught the subway back to the hotel.
New Year's Eve!
We left the hotel at 8am and the authorities were already preparing for tonight's NYE celebrations. As our hotel was eight blocks north of Times Square, we hadn't expected to be affected but they were diverting traffic and putting up the barriers right the way up to Central Park (59th Street).
After enjoying a Breakfast Burrito (yummy) in the Green Cafe - a few doors down from our hotel - we got the subway to South Ferry and walked across to Battery State Park to catch the ferry to Ellis Island. We arrived at 9am, and waited in line before eventually getting on the 10.15am ferry. The ferry goes to the Statue of Liberty first (tip - sit on the right hand side of the ferry), and then onto Ellis Island (sit on the left hand side of the ferry for this part). We had a quick look around and watched a 45 minute documentary, which was interesting. We arrived back into Battery State Park at 12.30pm and by then the queues were all around the park - I'd bet people were queuing for two to three hours.
We walked up to the World Trade Centre site and visited the 9/11 exhibit inside St. Paul's Chapel across the street, which was VERY emotional. It's amazing that the chapel was next to the WTC and it didn't suffer any damage in the attack - not even a broken window.
Next stop was Century 21 but it was far too busy to enjoy shopping there and we left with only a few small purchases. We caught the subway up to Soho to see the cast iron buildings and walked up to Greenwich Village. It was our first visit to these area and we felt as though we were in a different city entirely!
We were absolutely exhausted at this point, so we headed back to the hotel to celebrate NYE UK time (7pm New York time) with a bottle of bubbly whilst we got ready to go out. It was great celebrating two NYE's!
We had 9.30pm reservations at Carmine's Upper West Side (booked over the phone in March), so we got the subway up there. It was great to see everyone walking down to Times Square - there was a great atmosphere in the streets. Because of all the road diversions we left plenty of time to get to the restaurant, but in the end it only took 20 minutes to get there, so we had a drink in the bar before our meal. The restaurant was buzzing - it seemed to be full of local familities and there wasn't an English accent to be heard. The portions were MASSIVE, so we ordered a starter and main course between us. We'd starved ourselves all day but still couldn't manage to finish either of them! The bill was only $44 (excluding the drinks we had in the bar) - what a bargain!
At about 11pm we strolled down to Central Park to see the fireworks - it took about half an hour from the restaurant. There was a really nice, family atmosphere there - lots of midnight runners milling about, as well as live music and dancing. The fireworks started at midnight and lasted for 15 minutes - there was something quite magical about watching the fireworks whilst listening to 'New York, New York'! We walked back through the park towards the hotel, passing the Tavern on the Green. We toyed with the idea of walking down to Times Square to see the ball / left overs of the celebrations, but we were just too exhausted so we headed straight back to the hotel.
New Year's Day
We had a much needed lie in before heading over to Norma's in the Le Parker Meridian hotel for breakfast. Again, we booked this through http://www.opentable.com. I've read a few reviews about the service being 'snooty' here - we didn't experience this. The food was fantastic and the staff were very friendly. I had the Scambled Eggs and Bacon Breakfast Quesidilla - it was delicious, but far too big a portion for one person! Hubbie had an omelette, which he said was very good. I can highly recommend this restaurant if you want to start off your day in style!
The weather today was miserable - it was rainy/misty and you couldn't see the tops of the skyscrapers. The weather for the rest of our holiday was great - unusually mild for the time of year and clear blue skies for most of the time.
We got the subway to Macy's and spent a few hours there. This time I remembered to go to the Visitor's Desk to get a 11% discount card. There were lots of bargains to be had and we spent a small fortune - husband bought the whole Ralph Lauren department (well, it felt like it!). Most people in there seemed to be European.
After walking up to Times Square (far too busy and miserable in the rain) and popping into M&M World, we caught the shuttle up to Grand Central Station, where we watched the fantastic Kaleidoscope Light Show and enjoyed a (huge) slice of cheesecake from Juniors. The station is amazing - I wish we had the time to take one of the tours around it.
Tonight we had dinner reservations at Rosa Mexicano on First Avenue (1063 First Avenue at 58th Street) - as the subway didn't go there, we walked from the hotel, which was a good stretch of the legs. We enjoyed our evening here - but the food here but it was very different to the 'Mexican' food we're used to in the UK and the atmosphere wasn't as fun as the website led us to believe. Although we didn't order it, they prepare the guacamole at your table and it looked great!
After dinner we walked up to viewpoint on Sutton Place and had great views of the Queensboro Bridge and over Roosevelt Island. There are some beautiful houses down there - it felt like being back in London! We wanted to have one last look at the Christmas tree at the Rockerfeller Centre, so we wandered back down there. I was very weary by the time we got back to the hotel - I'd love to know how much walking we've done during our trip!
Tuesday 2 January
It was our last day, so after having breakfast in the hotel, we walked up to Abercrombie and Fitch on 5th Avenue to get a few gifts for hubbie's brother. What an odd shop - you can't see anything cos it's so dark, the music's far too loud and the clothes are all tatty/dirty - perhaps I'm getting old!!!!! Anyway, we got in and out as quickly as we could!
We wandered into Central Park to see the Wollman ice rink - it was lovely and quiet. Next stop was the Dakota Building (we were surprised that there's no commemoration plaque for John Lennon here) and Strawberry Fields. We had a nosey around the Time Warner Building at Columbus Circle - there's a great Borders shop here, before refuelling in J D O'Connors Irish Bar on 57th Street. It was then time for us to head back to the hotel for our transfer to JFK airport. We were supposed to take off at 6.15pm, but we eventually took off 1 hour late because we were in a queue behind 30 other planes! Fortunately strong tailwinds meant that the flight was under 6 hours and we still landed in Heathrow on time.
So, to sum up, it was a busy, but utterly fantastic and memorable holiday. Spending NYE in New York was a dream come true!
I wanna go back 
