late winter in the Bronx & Upper Manhattan

Hamburg is one of the great fahrrad (a.k.a.- bike) cities of the world. One reason for this is because, like most of Holland, its neighbor to the west, Hamburg is very flat. Well, last week six 'Hamburgers' wanted to experience something different. They wanted to see why some Native Americans called the area 'MANNAHATTA,' (likely translation= island of rolling hills) and they certainly did!

After 400 years of development, you'll find most of the hills today in Upper Manhattan & the Bronx. Following a great Italian lunch on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, we had our toughest climb of the day up to the original 'Hall of Fame,' but the views and architecture up there made it well worth it. There seemed to be one more space for a new inductee into the Hall of Fame, and as you can see one German thought he should be next, right beside FDR.

After warming up in a beautiful library designed by Stanford White, we made our way down into the Harlem River Valley and back into Manhattan. Here, Ft. Tryon Park offers wonderful views of Upper Manhattan and the Bronx (you can actually see the 'Hall of Fame' where we just came from in the distance!).

Fortunately for the Germans, we didn't have to climb a hill to get great views this time. If you know where to go, you can actually find a tunnel that's cut into the rock (Manhattan Schist to be exact) on side of the cliff. At the end of the tunnel, you will find the A train AND you will also find an elevator that takes you right to the top of the park!

Towards the end of our ride, we stumbled upon an exciting game of high school softball at the base of the magnificent St. John the Divine. To me, baseball was a sign of the warm spring that is soon to come. To the Germans, this alien pastime needed more explaining. This can be a tough one! As a tour guide, I find myself explaining all sort of topics, and I've found that explaining baseball to Europeans is, by far, one of the biggest challenges. I'm not sure if these Germans came away from this tour knowing anything more about this uniquely American sport but they enjoyed the game nonetheless.