There’s only thing better than taking a long weekend in New York and that’s taking someone special with you who’s never been there before. And that’s what I was lucky enough to do when my then girlfriend Catherine and I decided one chilly November to visit the Big Apple.

We caught a night flight out of London and arrived at JFK at about 11pm on a Thursday night. We took a taxi straight to our hotel, which to our amazement we discovered was about 20 yards from Times Square. Talk about being on top of the action. Cath and I had only booked it a few weeks before on the Internet but we had no idea it was so close to Broadway. We quickly checked in and took the lift up to our room on the 18th floor.

The city was busier than ever, (we had arrived during the Thanksgiving holidays), and it was bitterly cold. But when we entered our room, it was absolutely baking. The radiator was going full blast and it was just not possible to turn it off. I thought, no problem, I’ll just open a window and let the icy wind blow in. Unfortunately the window was completely inoperable and refused to open. Outside it was Siberia, inside it was tropical Africa. Anyway, as Cath kept reminding me, who wants to spend time in your room when you’re in New York?  Everything was on tap. There was even a little Deli next door where we would pick up snacks at inconvenient hours and Cath could buy her beloved Red Bull.

The next morning we got out and hit the tourist trail big time. I knew my way around a little bit having been to New York a few times before but for Cath it was all brand new. The first thing we did was take an open-top bus tour which despite our brave efforts was just far too cold to sit on the top deck. But we saw all the main sights from Brooklyn Bridge to the Dakota Building. We then took the Staten Island ferry from Battery Park to Staten Island with its perfect views of the Manhattan skyline, Ellis Island and The Statue of Liberty. Later we went up the Empire State building which because of the holidays had the longest queues I’ve seen this side of a Led Zeppelin comeback concert! And when we were right at the top, inside the caged viewing platform, we ran into King Kong! True. It was just when the latest Kong film was being premiered so they had the big ape signing autographs. Typical New York razzmatazz!

We visited Central Park and took one of the romantic horse and carriage rides (see photo) from just outside the Plaza Hotel (I almost expected to see Walter Matthau looking out from the famous seventh floor suite). Naturally we did a load of shopping, Cath and I wisely split up for this expedition. She spent a few hours in Macys and I tried to track down some books nearby. When we met up in Herald Square later we were exhausted but shopped out.

We did the NBC Studios tour and saw where they make the Saturday Night Live show as well as the studios where they used to film the Johnny Carson and David Letterman shows. There were only five of us in our group and the tour guide Shirley-Lou was particularly amused by our accents. She also seemed to think that everyone from London must know James Blunt who was just breaking in the States at the time. “He’s so hot,” she told us. “Do you know if he has a girlfriend?”

On the third day we decided to get ourselves down to Penn Station and take the 90 minute rail trip to see friends in Philadelphia. It was a beautiful crisp sunny day and we had our breakfast on the train. When we got there we did a bit of sightseeing in what has always been my favourite US city.

In the evening six of us went for a drink in a bar off Market Street and at about 10pm Cath and I left to get to 30th Street Station and catch an express train back to New York. Unfortunately this return trip was slightly more eventful than our morning journey...

All went well until somewhere in the middle of New Jersey the train suddenly stopped and all the lights went out. Nothing was said, no explanation given. We just sat there in the dark as the two guards ran up and down the train seemingly doing nothing. After half an hour, the PA system crackled into action and we were told that everybody would have to leave the train, walk along the track for a while and then climb up on to another train. So we did. As we climbed down off our train we could see that we were in the middle of open countryside. We all plodded along in the dark between the tracks as carefully as we could. There was one large lady in front of us who hadn’t taken too kindly to this unwelcome interruption of her evening. “What happens if another train comes racing down the other track and kills us?” she complained.  “Run alongside it and see if you can jump aboard first,” said a man behind us, “at least that way you’ll get to spend the night in Philly.” We eventually boarded the second train and carried on with our journey back to New York. Still no mention of what had happened but that’s Amtrak for you. It’s not the first time I’ve traveled on their trains and broken down. Once, coming out of Washington DC the train broke down and we sat there uninformed of what the reason was for over an hour. The air-con stopped working and we baked. On that occasion the train got towed back into Washington station and there was a stampede to get to the nearest air-conditioned bar.

The rest of our long weekend was spent quietly discovering the joys of the Big Apple. We visited the Rockefeller Center ice rink packed with Lowry style figures all narrowly missing each other. We found a nice “theatrical” restaurant just off Times Square and another one in Greenwich Village.

One little incident sticks out in my mind though. We were just off Times Square returning to our hotel late one night and I was taking a photo of Cath. It was a dark, unlit stretch of sidewalk and a man walking by asked us if we’d like him to take a picture of the two of us. Without waiting for a reply he grabbed my camera and started telling us where to stand. Fearful that we about to be mugged we did as we were told. We half-expected him to run off with the camera like something out of Neil Simon’s The Out of Towners but he just took the photo, returned the camera to us, wished us a pleasant stay in New York and walked on. I’m not sure that would have happened in New York twenty years ago.

When our final day arrived we decided just for the experience to take the subway out to the airport instead of using a taxi. Everyone says that the New York subway is so dangerous but it was no more terrifying than being on our own Northern Line (except that the trains ran regularly).

Finally we touched down at Heathrow and made our way back into London. I had enjoyed revisiting a city I adore and Cath said she loved every minute of being introduced to New York. It was a great break but we were glad to get back to our Docklands home in London.

So next time you’re wondering where to go for a romantic weekend, do what Cath and I did – take a low-cost break to New York. You can’t beat it!