Dingopups: T'was the night before Christmas

We flew into New York City at 12 noon and having scored a window seat each on the left side of the plane, we both got a great view of the island of Manhattan as we flew in.

It is quite cold in NYC (2 degrees at 6pm last night) but the skies are clear so far and we couldn’t ask for better weather really.

Our hotel in a step from Time Square and we are on the 35^th floor with a terrific view of Broadway heading north.

OMG its New York City!

First impressions are of concrete canyons in brown and grey, pavements smothered in people. On closer inspection and with the Christmas lights flickering, you quickly pick up the great atmosphere in this city.

Our first task was to take the Hop on, Hop off bus and we quickly established where to buy the tickets. The first stop for the tour bus is quite near to our hotel and it only takes us 2 minutes to walk there.

Okay perhaps we hadn’t quite understood how cold it was going to get and after two hours on the open top bus and a rapidly advancing night sky, we made a hasty retreat back to our hotel room to warm up. Ron was visibly shivering as he had not taken a scarf and gloves.

Having taken our core body temperatures back to reasonable in our hotel room, we dressed appropriately and made our way out to explore the city by foot. First stop the Rockefeller Centre with its beautiful Christmas tree and ice skating rink; second on the list the light show and display windows at Saks Department Store. We then wondered slowly for several blocks as we were drawn by the green and red lights of the Empire State Building (ESB).

Rockefeller Centre

Rockefeller Centre Ice Rink

Empire State Building in the distance.

For my birthday I received two New York City Passes. This entitled Ron and I to travel to the 86th floor of the ESB for a magnificent 180 view of NYC. It was breath taking. It was also below zero on the observation deck!