NEW YORK NY – During the winter holiday, no matter how un-winter-like the outside temperature may be, ice skating is a tradition at New York City’s Rockefeller Center, Fifth Avenue and West 50th Street. It can be costly, though: adults will pay up to $15 for 90 minutes of rink time, and another $9 if they need to rent skates for the session.
Ice skaters filled the rink Saturday night at New York City's Bryant Park, despite temperatures in the 50s. Admission is free.
The cheaper and, some visitors might add, more entertaining option is skating at Pond NY, the free ice rink in well-lit and cozy Bryant Park at Sixth Avenue and West 41st Street, just nine city blocks southwest of “30 Rock.”
A group of 36 travelers from the Pottstown and Reading areas made the Big Apple their destination Saturday (Nov. 21, 2009) for shopping and theater-going, and in the early evening they milled around the green jewel that is Bryant Park, where temperatures were still in the comparatively balmy low-50s after a day filled with bright sunshine and few clouds. Skaters were out in force, spinning ’round the park’s 170-foot-by-100-foot rink.
A similar group of visitors is scheduled to depart Limerick PA for a Dec. 5 (2009; Saturday) day trip to New York, sponsored by the Limerick (PA) Township Parks and Recreation Department. They, too, may want to spend time in Bryant Park, because there’s much more there than ice.
A market of upscale, European-style shops lines the perimeter of the park, selling everything imaginable ... for the right price.
More than 120 booths have been set up around the park’s perimeter, with the rink at its center. They form an upscale, and correspondingly expensive, European-style market of boutiques, artisans, designers, and food merchants called The Holiday Shops At Bryant Park. Consumers there can find and buy everything from furs to feathers, from diamonds to chocolate-dusted pralines, and almost anything in-between.
The Holiday Shops are open daily until Jan. 3, Mondays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Among decorative attractions at Bryant Park is a huge fountain.
Editor’s Note: When The Post takes a road trip, its readers go too. “Travels With The Post” is a series that reports on places and activities beyond our usual coverage area, but most often within a drive of three hours or less.
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