There is one final day to soak up the atmosphere, take in the sights and to do some last minute shopping. This is an amazing city full of energy, iconic places and creativity. It's been great to build some wonderful memories with Livy of New York at Christmas time 2014.

This was a fabulous day spent with Toby and his lovely partner Karen in upstate New York. Westchester County has some of the highest property taxes anywhere in America and living in this area are Bill and Hillary Clinton, Ralph Lauren and Martha Stewart. It was wonderful to see places I had visited nearly four decades ago although the 9/11 attacks have increased security measures around a number of facilities including the huge water dam. A very special day was r...

It was great to be able to visit my nephew Alastair, his wife Amber and their three month old daughter Isla in Brooklyn. My brother Phil and his wife Jayne were also visiting and so it was good quality family time. After heading back into Manhatten late at night, Livy and I visited the Rockerfeller Center including the breathtaking New York skyline from the 'Top of the Rock' viewing platform at the highest part of the GE building.

Today Livy and I set off to explore the sights of New York. Our trip took us on the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty which as a free service must rank as one of the most spectacular free tourist attractions anywhere in the world! We were accompanied by an armed coastguard boat on both of our journeys which added a little more excitement to the morning. After looking around Wall Street and the Stock Exchange area in downtown, we made our way to the...

Back in 1978, during my university vacation, I travelled to the USA with my great pal Nick Mudge and we spent several weeks touring the States on Greyhound buses. We met an American in the queue for Skytrain tickets at Gatwick and he kindly put us up at his house in New York. His name is Toby Gilchrist and we have stayed in touch for 36 years. Today I got to meet up again in his city - truly memorable. He is a great guide and showed us places we might not otherwi...