Another day on the city...

Last Sunday (Sept 19th), I got to ride with my cycling pals in a "disorganized" ride they have dubbed the "Triple Bypass".  It is a follow up to their "Quadruple Bypass" from last August 1st which I missed out on because I was already booked, and somewhere along the northern shore of Lake Superior. The "Bypass" ride is named for the number of different bridges that we ride to get on and off Manhattan - the "disorganized" aspect of the ride is because we had a general view of places we wanted to visit, but no particular route in mind - we just followed our noses, and for the most part the very well marked bike lanes in NYC...

The Hudson River at 7:00 A.M.

The ride starts in Fort Lee NJ with a crossing of the Hudson River over the GWB (that is the George Washington Bridge).  At that point the Hudson is about a mile wide, and it reminds me a lot of crossing the Saint Lawrence River in Montreal.  For me, the ride started off somewhat ominously as I got a tire puncture before I made it across the bridge (in the first mile!!!) luckily the sealant in my tire stopped the leak and I didn't have to do anything other than add air.

The GWB from the Manhattan Bike Path

Our group... and my shoulder...

We then ride down the West Side Bike path, along the Hudson.  Two neat parts about riding early on a Sunday morning are the general lack of bike traffic (everyone was probably still in bed after a late night of partying in the city), and the cruise ships docking at the port to drop off passengers (there were two massive ships docking when we rode by - it was quite the impressive sight!).

Glad I don't have to park this!!!

Through lower Manhattan...

Once downtown, we headed east through the canyons of Manhattan.  The traffic was light so we made our way through Chinatown and Little Italy.  The streets of Little Italy were blocked off, with street vendors and carnival rides on either side in celebration of the Festival of San Gennaro which made for some rather interesting riding.


Our route into Brooklyn was the Williamsburg Bridge, which we learned from our NYC Century ride last weekend, was great for cyclists.  The bridge has elevated pedestrian/bike paths on either side, above the traffic.  It seems that the graffiti artists have been very busy, with each beam on the bridge "tatted" with different art.

The bike path, above the traffic, on the Williamsburg Bridge.

Bridges from Brooklyn...

Our destination in Brooklyn was a little bakery, Almondine's,  offering great flaky croissants and "pain au chocolat" - basically a croissant with a chocolate fillimg - MMMmmmmmmm! 

The bakery is tucked on a narrow street in the "DUMBO" (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) section of Brooklyn, a funky neighborhood affording great views of both the Brooklyn and Williamsburg Bridges,with the East River, and Manhattan as a backdrop.



Heading back.



Our ride back into the city, in my mind, ranks in the top ten as one of the most interesting "miles of riding" I have done - the wooden plank bike path along the center of the Brooklyn Bridge.  Always a pleasure, and you can't ride over it without imagining what Washington Roebling (and his father)  must have been thinking, and what it must have been like to design, plan and build the bridge to Manhattan some 127 years ago.



Ed, Dave, Paul, Me, Pascal, Peter and Marty on our way up to the High Line Park



Back up the west side, we stopped for a "photo op" of the group in the High Line Park, a newly converted section of the eleveted railway which once carried supplies and cargo from the ships in the harbor, downtown to the factories and businesses in Manhattan.  It is amazing the extent of the urban renewal, and reuse going on in the city.  Let's hear it for a very progressive city government, and great cycling advocates.

We ended the day with a couple of laps of Central Park, and a stop at the Levain Bakery on 74th and Amsterdam for one of the most mouth watering chocolate chip cookies I have ever had (click on the link to see a calorie free version of the cookie). By the time we rolled back to our cars in New Jersey, we had logged just a tad over 60 miles.

Many thanks to Ed for pulling this ride together, and suggesting the sights, and to Tim (couldn't make the ride) for germinating the "Bypass" concept and pulling off the Quadruple Bypass in August.