Bike Day in New York City

If ever there was a day to fall in love with New York City, yesterday was that day. I, along with five other people from the Woodbury area, took our bikes and trained down to New York and spent the entire day riding through the city. The weather was absolutely glorious, with temperatures in the low 60's and a crystal blue sky all day. Here are some highlights from our ride.
We got off the train at the Harlem Station which is at 125th and Harlem. After riding through Harlem and seeing a few sights, we entered Central Park from the north and rode along the bike path that runs through the park. It was filled with people running, walking, riding, roller blading, etc. Here I am with one of the other riders, Kathy, on our way out of the park.

After we left Central Park, we stopped to pick up provisions at H&H Bagels and Zabar's Deli, which are across the street from each other at 80th and Broadway. Then we rode our bikes west to the Hudson River Park, and rode the bike path that follows the river all the way to Battery Park at the tip of Manhattan. Along the way we made detours to visit the High Line, which is an old elevated train line that was transformed into a lovely elevated park. We also visited the Irish Hunger Memorial, which was unique and interesting. And we rode by the Intrepid, which is an aircraft carrier that has been docked and turned into a museum (it even has a Concorde SST parked out in front). This is a photo of our group (minus our leader, Ben, who was the photographer) near Battery Park, with the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island in the background.

I don't know what these buildings are; I just thought the skyline was so pretty against the blue sky. In the foreground is a sculpture called The Sphere. We learned that it was damaged on 9/11 and reconstructed in this new location. After Battery Park, we parked our bikes near the Trinity Church and its cemetery so that we could walk over to Ground Zero and spend a few quiet moments there.

Battery Park is the tip of Manhattan, so we followed the bike path around the tip and over to the east side of the island along the East River. This is the Brooklyn Bridge, which spans the East River. It has a walking and biking path across it. Never in my life did I ever expect to cross the Brooklyn Bridge, let along ride my bike over it, but that's exactly what we did!

This is our entire group on the Brooklyn Bridge, thanks to a kind tourist who took the photo for us. After biking the bridge, we rode north of City Hall and into Chinatown. There is a wonderful little eatery called Bahn Mi on Mott Street that Ben took us to. We all enjoyed the most delicious Vietnamese baguette sandwiches - it sounds like an oxymoron but it's worth a visit! (And here's a little history and a recipe too.) From there we continued north through Little Italy, SoHo, NoHo, and rode for aways on The Bowery until we took a turn to see McSorley's, which is the oldest bar (oops, sorry, saloon) in New York. Okay, we didn't just look at it, but we went in and had time for a few quick sips of ale, then it was off to Grand Central Station and our ride home. And that was it - a perfect day! I was absolutely amazed at how easy it was to bike in New York. There are a lot of bike pathways that we used, but we also rode on city streets a lot and that was much easier than I would have imagined (and it being a Sunday helped too). For anyone else who's interested, here is a website about biking in New York. Finally, this is the coolest photo website if you've ever wondered what Manhattan looked like before it became New York City.