New York; getting there.

Went down to stay with Milan for a few of days in Manhattan... With me, Jowi and Sarah, two bikes, a pickup truck, and a trailer. Jowi and Sarah let me know about Pete Seeger's 90th birthday celebration (what a line up!!!) and were going down for that, as well as the NYC weekend experience. I was going for that, and a little bit more... Here are some pics!









Got to Milan's apartment at Clinton and Houston around 8:30pm, just in time for a cold, waiting beer and to get ready for the Central Park night ride...





btw, I'll be posting these in chronological order just to make it a bit easier to read.

Central Park Moonlight Ride

I ended up taking over 200 pictures as I knew most wouldn't turn out. A surprising number did, and on top of that it was a great experience! Meeting at Columbus Circle (SW corner of Central Park), Hanna(h) led the ride through the park starting at 10:15pm and ending around 11:45pm, with a short break in there as the group waited out a quick tire change. The ride has been going on now for about 14 years(!) and goes down on the first Friday of every month all year around. Definitely worth it. More pics:





































Riding back down to Clinton and Houston from the park was an incredible experience as well. I felt like I was running with the bulls... the way the lights are staggered you can catch a bunch, always racing and pushing for road space with cabs zipping behind, in front and by... Fantastic city to ride in.

New York; Saturday morning.

Went for a short walk and bike exchange while Milan slept in. Here are some of the things I saw over a coffee.








Reminded me of Chris' suggestion to get a polarizing filter.


... hot new montreal band...


Green lanes outside of Milan's.

Saturday afternoon.

Milo and I went for a walk across the Williamsburg bridge to Brooklyn, and Williamsburg. Was supposed to rain, but turned out to be a beautiful day.






























After doing a few warm-up punches, Milan introduced me to Mass beers and pretzels, and regaled me with stories of flying over to Munich for the weekend to enjoy Oktoberfest.

5 Boro Bike Tour!

The centrepiece of the weekend, it ended up raining the entire ride.



Click on pic to enlarge.

So yeah, absolutely wonderful ride, but really, really wet. I was planning to start at 6:30am, but didn't get up until 8, which turned out perfect. I didn't receive my tour jersey in the mail (must have gone to the other house) so I had to bike down to Battery park and the start of the ride to register properly. Getting down there at 8:30am had the unfortunate result of having approximately 30,000 people riding in front of me. And yeah, not really ride, but more standing around on Broadway, all jammed up. After about 5 minutes, I realized that what I was doing was stupid (it sometimes takes a while to click in) and jumped on my bike to ride up East Broadway. After some good fast riding I caught up to the tour around 3rd or 4th street where the traffic was finally flowing.

You can see the route in the map above and the pictures below.


































The highway in Brooklyn was the worst part; nothing to see for a few miles and poor roads. Also, very exposed to the weather.




mmmm... so wet.







After a hot shower back at Milan's, we met up with Amy-Claire for some dinner at Caracas, an arepas / tapas restaurant. We had some kick ass pulled pork, avocado chicken, chorizo, and micheladas. We then proceeded to down a Mass of Aventinus on the covered patio outside Zum Schneider, where they were celebrating something or other with a roast pig. After a short walk through a few parks (the weather did clear for a bit), I left Darko and AC to go to the Seeger 90 concert at MSG (where I collected a souvenir glass), which was fantastic and worth the trip in its own right. Baez, Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger, among a mountain of others, all on one stage at several points. Concert ended around 10:30, and met up again with the crew at Great Jones for some live music, excellent chili, jambalaya and gumbo... all sampled and really delicious!

Yeah, and then we went home and I passed out.