Day 2: Radio City, and sightseeting

Our first official day in New York!

I’ve always wanted to see the Rockettes at the Radio City Music Hall, and I found a deal on TravelZoo. We started our day with breakfast at Comfort Diner, a vintage coffee shop located a few blocks from our hotel, before heading to the show.

The show is a 90 minute program, no intermission. Our seats were in the center orchestra, but a bit far in row “L”. If I were to do it again, I’d get closer seats than row “L”. Santa starts off the program with a 3D show, and the famous Rockettes dazzle the audience with their synchronized routines.

Inside

View from the seats

After the show, we went down the street to the Rockefeller Center, with the iconic ice rink and Christmas tree and took a few touristy pictures.

By this time, we were searching for lunch and decided on pizza. Angelo’s was rated pretty well on Yelp, and it was about an 8 minute walk, located next to David Letterman’s studio. Literally, next door! After fully rested, and tummies filled with delicious pizza, we made our way to another New York iconic spot: Times Square!

After this, we slowly started back to the hotel. We discovered Bryant Park, which was converted into an ice rink, with also a bunch of small shops just for the holidays. The shops were temporary and sold things from hot cider, drinks, snacks, to arts and craft items, even soap! I really liked how the buildings encompassed the park.

After leaving Bryant Park, we kept making detours and ended up at Lord and Taylor and decided to admire the magnificent holiday window dressing. It had a very Harry Potteresque look with animation. And then we finally made it to Macy’s, which was a zoo! I’m not a fan of crowds, so we didn’t look at their window dressings, as it was 4 rows deep. We did attempt to go to the Santaland, located on the 8th floor, but the wait was over an hour, and we passed on that as well.

We ended up stopping on the 6th floor at their McDonalds for a cold drink. While Stephen was impressed it was the largest Macy’s in the world (8 floors plus a basement), I do not like feeling like a herd of cattle, especially inside a stuffy department store.