When I resigned and knew we would be in the UK for a period of time, I wanted to travel with Eleanor. New York was an obvious choice as somewhere in her future she would like to live there! I had been to New York twice before. Once with uni friends, Gillian and Tina when we lived in Utrecht, The Netherlands and the second time as a co-leader with 8 guides from South West England on our way back from a camp on Vancouver Island. I remember more about the trip in 2002 than I do the trip in 2006!

Flights were booked from Dublin since we would do immigration in Dublin and when landing in JFK we would just need to get our luggage and leave. None of the immense queues for US immigration that we have done previously. A hostel was booked too, but I panicked and decided that maybe a hostel with a 14 year old was not the way to go. We have youth hosteled in New Zealand and in London and have enjoyed it, but I just had this feeling that maybe I wasn’t so brave with a 14 year old. The first time I went, our youth hostel had a burnt out car by the entrance and had grills on the window. I was NYC had changed, but I wasn’t going to risk it. A couple of weeks before leaving I made the decision to substantially upgrade our accommodation to the W hotel just off Times Square.

When I booked NYC, the chances of China opening up looked as remote as ever. I also hadn’t factored in my mother- in-law’s significant birthday. When it became apparent that Martin could leave China we hatched a plan. 3 flights in 3 days. The fly in the ointment was that we were leaving from Dublin to New York. So we drove to Dublin on the Friday, flew from Dublin to Birmingham on the first flight out on the Saturday. Hung around the airport for 4 hours for a long awaited reunion with Martin, hired a car and made it to Stoke for 3pm. We surprised his mum – thankfully she has a strong heart(!) – Eleanor and I walked in first which was a surprise because she thought we were on our way to New York and then Martin walked in. She was delighted and amazed. On the Sunday we had a family meal and then back in the car to Birmingham for the last flight back to Dublin. Which was delayed. We got into the airport about midnight, back to the airport hotel and had a lovely sleep with late check in. Our reunion with Martin was short, but it marked the half way point. He then went on another geeky maths conference (and given that a geeky maths conference got us to China in the first place – I really can’t complain) and then had a palaver getting back to China as he tested positive for Covid. But that is his story!

There were a few things that I had pre-booked. One was a walking tour around New York, not all of NYC as that would have been an insane amount of walking. I had booked it as an AirBnB experience with Erin. She had been one of the few to allow Eleanor on the tour. Many others said minimum age of 21 and when prompted organisers said that this was because the tour would end in a bar. Some said that it wasn’t necessary and lowered their age to 12, but Erin our guide lowered her minimum age first, so we booked. A theatre major, now nanny and NYC guide she had hoped to do NYC guiding full time but something happened to the tourist industry a couple of years ago and while tourist numbers are increasing once more, business has been slow. We started at the library and got to see the Constitution (previously we had seen one of the surviving copies in Washington DC) before meandering around the backstreets, seeing the street on which diamonds are famously sold – the street lights were even shaped like diamonds to denote exactly where we were.

One of the last times we were in America, we landed into Washington DC the day after Trump’s inauguration. The day of the tour in NYC was the day of Trump’s appearance in court downtown. We were mostly blissfully unaware of proceedings except for this monstrosity of a vehicle driving up and down.

While the tour ended outside one of the cheapest bars in NYC, it also ended up close to Coco – a bubble tea franchise – one teen was happy. She was even happier when I let her loose in Times Square in the afternoon to go shopping for I had other things planned that Eleanor wasn’t interested in!

Many of my ex-students have gone to various universities in and around New York. When I left school in December, I had told the Alumni Co-ordinator of my plan to go to NYC and that I would love to connect with some of the students and an ex member of staff who now teaches at the UN school in New York. The school agreed and we had about 15 ex students come and see me and the other member of staff. I was incredibly touched because one guy flew in from Washington State and another drove down from Toronto. It was lovely to reconnect and while walking down the street a couple of days later, 3 of them saw me and we had another impromptu meeting.

Annie, my ex colleague, and I decided to meet up the following day. I had booked through AirBnb a thrifting experience (second hand clothes shopping) for Eleanor. While Eleanor shopped I went to Chelsea Markets with Annie and her son Noah and then walked the High Line. The High Line didn’t exist in my previous visits as it was opened in 2009, but people who had been have raved about it. Essentially a disused railway line, it is now an elevated public park built on a 1.45-mile-long elevated rail structure running from Gansevoort St. to 34th St. on Manhattan’s West Side. Wildflowers and sculptures are photographic points.

In Chelsea you can take the girls out of China but not the culture or the love of food… I opted for dumplings for lunch. Expensive dumplings but we aren’t in China anymore!!! We then bought mini doughnuts at the Doughnuttery in Chelsea markets. We were restrained enough to bring some to Eleanor when we collected her from her shopping. We said goodbye to Annie and Noah as they dropped us off at The Strand bookstore on 828 Broadway. I had braced myself for hours in this bookstore since it is famed for having 18 miles of books, but thankfully Eleanor had been all shopped out and we left with a magnet and one book.

Broadway is a long street/avenue, and I was about to attempt to walk back up the hotel when Eleanor suggested the subway. The New York subway doesn’t have a great reputation with tourists commenting on forums that they walked everywhere in New York. That really isn’t practical and the subway system is quite an easy map to get your head around, so we got the metro back to have dinner and see our first Broadway show – Hadestown.

Eleanor loves her musical theatre. Staying just off Broadway was a good choice as the hotel was centrally located for our Broadway shows, the subway and the skyscrapers.

Hadestown wasn’t on our radar at all, but a friend had recommended it to us, and she had been recommended it by her friend and both had been impressed with it. I have since passed the recommendation forward and it was received well by another theatre aficionado. Hadestown is coming to London in February 2024, or if you are going to New York see it at the Walter Kerr Theatre. It is one of the best things that we have seen. A small musical ensemble accompany Hades, Orpheus, Eurydice and Persephone and the narrator. Based on the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, the musical has won 8 Grammys including best musical. Honestly – GO AND SEE IT!

We surprised Eleanor at Christmas with tickets to see Hamilton, the musical written by Lin Manuel-Miranda based on Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of America who didn’t live to see old age, he was shot in a duel by his mentor, friend and foe, Aaron Burr. Eleanor loves the musical and while three hours long – it actually doesn’t feel that long, and my America history got better for seeing it, I suspect that all people who aren’t au fait with the American independence story feel the same way.

I had booked these two musicals before going. Hamilton was booked months in advance and actually I panic bought Hamilton tickets in London before I was able to get Hamilton in NYC. I sold the London tickets thankfully and bought SIX tickets for London (a great show based on Henry VIII’s wives.) With one night free, I decided to book another musical, this time Chicago. This is the longest running musical on Broadway, and was actually the one I was least impressed with. Yes it is well known, but very little diversity and I didn’t enjoy it as much.

In the mornings I let Eleanor sleep and regenerate. I was up early and with blackout blinds I never really knew what the weather was like. However, on one morning I was following a chat on a forum for New York tourists and someone had posted that the sky was blue. I had already talked to Eleanor about doing other touristy stuff but Empire State Building or Top of the Rock didn’t interest her. Possibly because we have done a lot of tall buildings, but it is the city that that makes it, so on the day that someone posted there was was blue sky, within 45 mins I was at The Rockefeller Centre and Top of the Rock. In 2002 we ascended the Empire State, so it was time to see the skyline from a different perspective. Indeed a different perspective from the day before too… because I went up and saw nothing…

I have already touched on food at the Chelsea Markets, but we also ate $1 pizza on at least 2 occasions, pasta in Little Italy, bubble tea in Chinatown, but our best meal without a doubt was Gallaghers Steak House. Surrounded by horse racing memorabilia, this establishment was a speakeasy from 1927 and from 1933 a steakhouse. Our waiter was not from that era, but had worked there since the 1970’s. He had seen a lot of things and and people, though was a true professional – he disclosed nothing.

(pictures not suitable for non meat eaters!)

Other things done, a run in Central Park, shopping, meeting my cousin once removed wife, Rise NY and a trip to the Museum of Ice Cream. Graham and I met in New Zealand and Japan, and more lately Belfast, so it was true to our form that we should meet in New York. The Museum of Ice Cream was so-so at best. They have opened in Shanghai but we never got to go, so we decided on the New York one. Apart from some photos and all the ice cream you could eat, which wasn’t that good, we were left feeling that we could have gone without. RiseNY is also a top tip – a trip through the history of New York – the bad times and the good.

Our final day we went to DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), we walked back from DUMBO over the Brooklyn Bridge, but got the iconic picture of the Manhatten Bridge ( as well as everyone else!)

Well, if you made it to the end of the blog, well done! This was a trip that was chilled, we didn’t see everything, and I had to factor in a teen needing sleep and her own time but both of us had an amazing trip, we have created many memories and I have shared a few here. We are fortunate. The jacket featured in all of the photos and worn pretty much all the time – $20 from the thrifting trip!

Times Square at night blew us both away. I went out at midnight for Moments at Midnight when all the Times Square screens go to one image. And of course Central Park was lovely with the blossom. NYC I will be back for my fourth trip with my husband!