Christmas in the city that never sleeps...

New York gave us a rather frosty reception. Our flight from Panama via Miami had been delayed by five hours so rather than arriving in the early evening, it was gone midnight by the time we left the airport. Walking from the subway to the hotel at that time in the morning, woefully under-dressed without the necessary knitwear, we discovered that the city's cold snap had bite.

Despite being frozen to the core, we were still excited to be booking into Morgan's, the posh boutique hotel we had reserved before leaving England. It didn't disappoint. After staying in hostels and a budget hotel in Panama City before we left, with well-worn sheets dating back to the early Eighties, sinking into the large bed with its soft white linen and ultra-comfortable feather duvet was bliss.

"the city's cold snap had bite!"

The hotel was just a few minutes walk from Grand Central Station and not far from Times Square. So, after a delicious buffet breakfast at the hotel (bagels and cream cheese – yum!) we spent the next day shopping for a woolly hat and scarf for Duncan, and a soft new fleece for me as an early Christmas pressie from Gap. Then, after hot chocolates in Times Square, we took a walk in snowy Central Park, which was beautiful with its white covering. We stopped awhile to watch the ice-skaters sliding around the winter rink.

Other window shopping during our trip to New York included a trip to the famous Schwarz toy shop (where I loved the customised DIY muppets!), a look inside the white wonderland of the Apple store, and of course, a wander around Tiffany's. More serious browsing took place during many hours spent in electronics shops however, where Duncan debated the various merits of netbook computers. (Of course, none had the model he eventually settled on, so more wandering through the streets of New York to branches of different chains followed...)

By Christmas Day we were both more warmly dressed, and Duncan was the proud new owner of a teeny Lenovo computer. By this time, I had developed a full blown cold but a double dose of Sudafed perked me up no end. So, we headed out and spent a few hours queuing for and a few hours up the magnificent Empire State Building, taking in the views and listening to a New Yoyk (sic) cabbie on the audio guide tell us all about the city and its vast skyscrapers.

We had scoured the internet for places to eat our Christmas dinner. None seemed to offer the turkey and trimmings-fest we would usually enjoy but as we weren't exactly having our traditional Christmas (and I don't eat turkey anyway) it didn't really matter. Instead, we had a delicious meal with bubbly wine in an upmarket restaurant. It set us back the price of around two weeks accommodation in most parts of Asia, but it was really enjoyable and hey – this was Christmas, and our little escape from backpacking for awhile.