Day four. Shopping?

Friday. Time for shopping or at least window shopping.

First, we chose the Macy’s department store.

“Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co., Stylized as Macy's) is an American department store chain founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. (…)

The flagship store covers almost an entire New York City block. (…)

Macy's conducts the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City since 1924 and sponsors the city's annual Fourth of July fireworks display since 1976. (…)

(That year I was in the USA for the first time and I watched those fireworks from The Battery Park on the southern tip of Manhattan.)

Macy’s was disappointing because it didn’t look classy. The interior looked ugly, you could see great "material outwearing", and the level of service did not differ from that in an ordinary grocery store!

Undeterred, we went further on to the next icon: Bloomingdale’s department store.

“Bloomingdale's Inc. is an American luxury department store chain; it was founded by Joseph B. and Lyman G. Bloomingdale in 1861. ts headquarters and flagship store are located at 59th Street and Lexington Avenue in the New York City borough of Manhattan.”

True, this department store can be called luxurious although the years of great splendour are also behind it. Luxury prices remained - so there wasn't much to see and buy.

At this, we finished our "shopping". A rest in the Lincoln Center park, right next to the Metropolitan Opera building, was much needed.

Tickets to the Met. one buys well in advance, so we couldn't regret that today's performance of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess opera was out of reach.

The Broadway walk down to Times Square always impresses with the organization of the traffic and creating space for pedestrians and tourists.

In Times Square one can sit for hours and look at "the whole world." ... or some of its parts!