A beautiful weekend in August

Saturday morning began with a great trip down the entire length of New York's 'Summer Streets' program, where an 100-block stretch of New York's streets are closed to vehicle traffic on three Saturdays in August.
From Park Avenue down Lafayette Street and further south to the Brooklyn Bridge, the streets were filled with public art, aerobics & yoga classes, a bike decorating party, street painting, cyclists, runners, rollerbladers, and those just taking a leisurely stroll--- everything but cars!

We had access to areas now seldom seen (outside of a windshield) in New York City, like this bridge in front of the Grand Central Terminal. With no pedestrian access to much of the area that surrounds this now obscured beauty it is rare that anyone gets to stop and gaze at this magnificent structure.

From my experiences of riding on busy bike paths, I'd say rollerbladers can be considered the SUV's of human powered vehicles (because of the sometimes dangerous way they flail their arms and legs on narrow paths--- no offense to rollerbladers!), but this pack of what seemed like over one hundred rollerbladers was a welcome sight to see on Lafayette Street and I'd take these guys over an SUV any day!
After getting downtown, we made a quick stop to check out David Byrne's exhibit, 'Playing the Building,' at the Battery Maritime Building. Each key on this organ creates a different sound made by the building, the building's pipes, and all sorts of other odd noise makers throughout this old terminal. We had the whole place to ourselves and this group from Canada really took the opportunity to 'play the building!'

The last entirely unique moment of the weekend came on Sunday afternoon as our group on Tour C pedaled across Madison Avenue. This plastic casing for electrical and cable wires stretched for over 10 blocks and made the street completely impassible. In all my biking in New York, Ive never seen such a thing. Ive seen them lay similar things a block or two at a time, but never something so big all at once. The plastic casing seemed to come alive as it snaked up Madison Avenue from Midtown to the Upper East Side!

Lots of riding!

I worked three consecutive custom tours last Saturday, Sunday, and Monday and, just by coincidence, these customers from all over the world decided to pick some of our longest, hilliest rides. I love hills but by Monday evening, I felt like an old man!

On Saturday morning, two families and I explored Upper Manhattan and encountered the recent progress at 'Hamilton Grange.' This 200+ year old country estate was recently moved a few blocks down a hill into St. Nicholas Park. Todd Jones, a customer from California, who has had some experience moving houses, explained to us how this was done and how they are currently setting the foundation.Above is a picture I took back in June of the founding father's home about to moved. Below is a picture I took that same day of the foundation being prepared!

The following day, repeat customers from the Netherlands decided to try the Dutch Roots tour. One of our first stops was at the Dykman House, a replication of an old Dutch farmhouse built in 1784 by Dutch descendants way up in Upper Manhattan!

Later in the day, we visited Van Cortlandt Manor. Here, we toured this beautiful mansion and the Dutch taught me all about the countries storied customs, traditions, styles, and much more as we poked around what seemed to be an endless series of nooks and hidden passageways throughout the house.

The icing on the cake to this wonderful three days was my ride on Monday with the Ronsvalle's. This family, who is now living throughout the US, met up in NYC for a great ride with George, Brian, and I in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. Six of the 16 riders decided to do the ride on tandems setting a Big the Big Apple record--- most tandems (3) in one ride!

Shakin off the blog dust

Over the past couple months we've had lots of great stories to share here at Bike the Big Apple. Here are just a few.

In early May, bunch of rowdy Europeans and I stumbled upon a street fair in Williamsburg. They didn't make much progress with the unicycle but they were certainly eager to tell the television cameras how much they loved biking New York.

The following weekend, my sister, her girlfriend, and my cousin all joined us for a great ride over the Williamsburg Bridge. The beautiful weather in May made it perfect for weekend festivals in neighborhoods all over Brooklyn.

On this day, we found the Kite Festival in McCarren Park! Kite enthusiasts of all ages came to show off their tricks.

Lastly, an update on a previous posting. In late May, we made our last visit to the East 6th Street Community Garden. As you can see here, the Toy Tower is no longer. It does look like they are making some nice progress with the garden but this stop wont be the spectacular stop it once was.

Hooray for flight delays!

A family of five from Florida (originally from Queens and the Lower East Side- LES) missed Sunday's Tour C because of a flight delay but we were able to hook up for a great ride in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn on Tuesday! Early in the day we marveled at how much history has been maintained in the West Village. Sadly, Chumley's does not fall into this category. This is the first glimpse I've gotten inside since the interior chimney collapsed just over a year ago and it was very cool. The hope is that this bar will eventually be restored and, as you can see, the workers seemed excited about the progress.Towards the end of the ride, I relinquished my tour guide role and these former New York natives led me through the LES. At one point we happened upon a TV filming starring Adam Goldberg, who they fondly referred to as the Hebrew Hammer. I like Adam Goldberg as much as the next man, but I'm not so sure Ill see the movie.
After being nudged away by the TV crew, my new tour guides made the LES's Jewish history come alive. The mural you see below was painted in 1973 by the mother of this family (pictured here-- the only one wearing a helmet!) and other members of the Jewish community at the time. The mural is a collage of Jewish-American history containing the faces of people in the neighborhood. My group even made me guess which one was her! As the neighborhood changes, we hope that such valuable pieces of this rich culture can be preserved.

Mayor Bloomberg Recommends

Hi, my name is Levi. I am a Bike The Big Apple tour guide who will also be sharing experiences from my bike tours. This is my first posting......
For the first time in Bike The Big Apple's history...... a customer got a totally candid photo of Mayor Bloomberg. And the best part was that he was in a tree of all places. Our tour stopped at City Hall to talk about the mayor's workplace when we were pleasently surprised to see our city's mayor posing in a tree in the backyard of City Hall. He was being photographed for a piece in Time Magazine by professional photographers. He was also photographed by Jeroen Smits from our tour (above left photo). After several minutes of trying to look as mayoral as possible, Bloomberg carefully stepped out of the tree onto a ladder and decended back to the earth. There was a young couple that had just married across the street at the Municipal Building whom were watching the mayor just as we were. The newlywed bride said to Bloomberg, "Mr. Mayor, we just got married! Could you take a photo with us?" He smiled and came over to pose for a picture with the couple. Bloomberg asked them where they were going on their honeymoon and the woman told the mayor that they were going to Milan (photo below). Mayor Bloomberg told them that he was recently in Milan and then proceeded to recommend various restaurants to eat at in Milan. Just the idea of being recommended to go to a restaurant by a billionaire mayor is hilarious and we were fortunate enough to witness this exchange actually occur. Great photos Jeroen!

Eccentric Eddie Lives On

Our day began with what could be our last stop ever at the 'Toy Tower' in the East Village. Sadly, this local landmark is due to be torn down any day now. Although, knowing the way the city moves, I wouldn't be surprised if it hung around for a bit. Here, our groups sheds a tear for Eddie, its creator, who's mischievous ways seemed to permeate the city on this spring Tuesday.Eddie's eccentric spirit stuck with us the rest of the day as we encountered one odd thing after another. In DUMBO we met a woman walking her piglets!? I'm not sure why they squirmed away from me, but after one sniff they acted like I was the one who smelled and headed in the other direction.
In Red Hook, I intended to take the group to one of my favorite stops--- a huge warehouse full of cars used for movie shoots. Last week, this warehouse had police cars and buses from every decade; pimped out cars and burnt out cars; taxi cabs and Cadillacs; and it was home to Thomas the Train. This week it was all gone. It was amazing. Just one big empty warehouse about 1 km in length. I have a hard time imagining how they removed all those cars in one week and I wonder where they are now. After snooping around a bit, a van pulled in the entrance and suspiciously approached. Upon realizing that we meant no harm, he explained that the "City Office of Redevelopment" was evicting them and then he tried to sell us their old office furniture.
After leaving the warehouse, we looped around the back of the building only to stumble upon something else I'd never seen before. Moored to this normally empty Red Hook shore line was looked to be a massive Naval submarine. My guess is that it also had something to do with movie shoots although I really have no idea.I have looked into these things (the disappearance of the cars and the random appearance of the 'submarine') but found nothing so far. If anyone hears anything, let me know. I look forward to the new changes that are sure to await us next time we're down in Red Hook.

More bikes on Mothers Day!

Thirteen riders from Holland, Belgium, Denmark, and Germany joined Wendy and I for Mothers Day in Harlem. Although Mothers Day falls on different dates in each of these countries they had no problem getting into the spirit of the day. The energy in Harlem seems to have this effect on the even the biggest 'Mothers Day scrooges' (if there is such a thing). I did not have my camera today but I hope that pictures will soon be provided by other riders because if there is ever an occasion for your Sunday best, it certainly Mothers Day in Harlem! Last Saturday, 46 Dutch fietsers (aka cyclists) joined Levi and I on a great Brooklyn ride. We all met for lunch on Bedford Avenue. If you've ever been on Bedford Avenue you'd know that there's hardly space to lock one bike, let alone 50. However, Levi, Mark, Craig, and I were up to the task and found a great empty wall along a Brooklyn Industries mural (see above).

In order to fit 50 bikes on this heavily trafficed sidewalk, our bikes on May 3rd needed to be a lot more organized than the bike chaos you see in the bike painting above. I know my loyal readers come to this blog to read about the bike tours, but I have to digress for a minute and share the newest addition to my apartment. Thanks, Mom, for the great birthday gift and happy Mothers Day!

Back to our great ride last Saturday: These fietsers were definately my kind of people-- they were in town to ride for several days in a row AND they had no qualms about bringing their lunch leftovers along with them while riding! A few hours after lunch, we all enjoyed second lunch on the beautiful Pratt campus. Ride. Eat. Ride. Eat. Ride. Who could ask for more?