NYC Highlights, Post 2: Madame Tussaud's, NY Public Library, Rockefeller Centre

On Wednesday (Christmas Eve), we went to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in Times Square. We had all purchased 7-day New York Passes, which included entry to about 50 attractions plus various discounts - definitely recommend getting these if you're ever sightseeing in NYC!

Well, Madame Tussaud's was very interesting! The wax figures were very realistic (although they look a bit shiny when photographed with a flash), and they were scattered throughout the galleries in various poses, with people wandering amongst them and posing for pictures... so you'd sort of go around staring at people to see if they moved! And trying not to stand still for too long as otherwise people might start trying to work out which famous person you were... :)



Here are some photos of us with the various famous people we met...



The same day, Ben and I happened across the New York Public Library while the girls were shopping nearby. As far as libraries go, this one would be pretty hard to beat - very very impressive! It was the setting of "The Day After Tomorrow". The front entrance is guarded by two lion statues (one of which Ben went "lion surfing" on later that night after Susie suggested it would make a good photo...). The third photo below is of the entrance foyer!

The bottom floor or two have a lot of important/ valuable/ old documents on display. We didn't look at most of them, but one prominently featured item (behind glass) was book 5 of JK Rowling's original 7 handwritten and illustrated copies of "The Tales of Beedle The Bard"! The third floor housed reading rooms lined with two levels of reference books and filled with computer desks. And we later realised that this library wasn't even for fiction books/ novels - they were in a separate building down the street!!



That evening, as well as going to some cute markets and seeing some amazing department store Christmas window displays (more to come about these), we went to Rockefeller Centre. This is a commercial centre consisting of landmarks including the 70-storey GE Building, Radio City Music Hall, and the famous Rockefeller Centre ice skating rink. You can see part of the rink in the fifth photo below. The other photos show some of the beautiful Christmas decorations in the area. It was gorgeous but extremely crowded! We even heard a cheer go up from the crowd and found out that a guy had just proposed to his girlfriend (and been accepted) under the tree. :)



Anyway, that's enough for now - all of this (plus more I've yet to write about) happened on our first full day in New York, so there is a lot more to come!! Goodnight!