(Jon on the West Side Highway path - with Jersey in the background!)One of the items on our list of things to do in NYC was to bike around the entire island of Manhattan. Now we didn't quiet accomplish that on Sunday, April 26th when we headed up to the Upper East Side to rent bikes & helmets, but we still had fun. We rented our bikes from Bike Heaven on East 62nd between 2nd and 1st. It didn't take that long and we were off on our way.
I'm not an incredibly strong biker, I probably bike once a year, and it's always a challenging experience for me, yet I continue to suggest these crazy bike riding ideas and end up doing them. Last year when we biked Valley Forge (another one of my crazy ideas that almost got us killed when our bus driver dropped us off in the wrong spot on the side of an almost highway that we had to cross...but that's another story for another time) I broke the bike (chain fell off) and didn't learn how to use the gears until we were almost done (and let me tell you those hills at Valley Forge without bike gears - really tough!)
So needless to say, you can imagine how nervous I was about biking in NYC. I informed Jon that I was going to walk my bike to the path about 3 blocks away along the river because I wasn't comfortable riding next to the taxis on 2nd Avenue. He met me there opting to ride.
(Me at the top of the stairs on the East Side River after we carried our bikes up - Roosevelt Island is behind me - I think!) We biked up the east river to about 116th street where the path ended. We opted to just go straight across the island as opposed to going North and going all the way around. I made it across the island biking in the road with the cars although it wasn't nearly as congested up at 116th street. When we got to the West Side Highway or River Side Park we biked down to about 67th street.
At that time we decided to be adventurous because Jon really wanted to bike in Central Park. We biked part way across Manhattan in a pretty congested area to Central Park and entered at 72nd Street (and yes, we survived and it wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be but I was also feeling more comfortable on the bike having been on it for about 2 hours). We biked down Central Park and exited on the Southeast corner and then rode in the streets again heading back to the bike shop.
It was definitely an adventure. It was such a great way to see NYC in a different way. It was calming, relaxing, there were a ton of other people out on the paths enjoying the perfect NY day, and we just really loved every minute of it.
Next time I think we're going to rent bikes down by the Seaport and bike along the path towards the Southern part of the island! I'll make sure to blog and let you know how it goes....:)
1 comment:
Wow, you two are brave for biking in NYC! Biking is definitely one of those things that I never think about doing, but it sounds like you had a great time!
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