The day after our wedding on the late May bank holiday weekend in 1994 we headed to New York City filled with excitement and some trepidation.

A period of zero tolerance policing had made the City a bit safer from it’s peak crime period in the late 80s and early 90s when a crack epidemic sent criminality soaring.

Friends and relatives were still of the opinion that we would be shot the moment we emerged from our hotel, such was the negative worldwide perception of the largest city in the US at that time.

Suffice it to say we had a fantastic time from beginning to end and certainly fell in love with The Big Apple.

We returned to NYC a year later en route to Australia to get the wintertime Xmas experience and fell even deeper in love with the place.

Around the turn of the century I visited New Jersey on business as the US Telecoms company I was working for had many big offices around the state and on one occasion I drove into Manhattan to give a UK colleague a flavour of the City.

I was still working for the US company when the 9/11 tragedy befell the country and particularly NYC. Some of my US colleagues were directly affected by the horrendous terrorist attack, a couple being on the planes that hit the World Trade Center, and others knowing people who had died.

Lucent – the company I was working for – was heavily involved in the aftermath of the attacks, setting up emergency cell systems in the immediate area of ground zero devastation.

We had enjoyed those iconic buildings in the skyline and had visited them too so I think it was the immense sadness that they no longer existed and had been destroyed in such a horrific way that meant we didn’t reconsider revisiting NYC again for many more years. Even our 20th and 25th wedding anniversaries seemed too soon to return.

30 years seemed right and also an excellent opportunity to help rekindle our relationship after a rough time of my making.

I am writing this post while relaxing on the bed in our hotel room – the same hotel we stayed in back in the 1990s – The Empire Hotel in Lincoln Square.

This part of NYC has barely changed at all in 30 years but the hotel has had a bit of a chequered history since our last visit – not unlike our relationship at times.🥴

20 years ago it closed and it was believed that it would be converted to luxury apartments, a fate that has befallen many New York hotels in recent decades.

However, it was extensively renovated instead and expanded with a rooftop bar, outdoor dining areas and swimming pool.

It also featured in a hit US TV series called Gossip Girl that ran for six seasons from 2007 to 2012.

For us it was as much about the location as anything else. Looking out on Lincoln Square and across the street from the superb Lincoln Center, the home of New York’s Metropolitan Orchestra and Opera, the hotel has never felt hemmed in by skyscrapers and is a very short walk from Central Park.

To keep travel costs lower we opted to fly via Boston rather than direct. It’s an approach we have taken before flying into the US. Not only can it reduce airfares it also means you can enter the US immigration process at a quieter location than a main hub like JFK.