Exploring NY on a bike

Meet the stairs of potential doom. Don't let looks deceive you, these steps lead down to a nice, "spacious" apartment that we are staying in while in New York. These steps are the scariest part of my rides here. I am a clutz, and every time go up or down these stairs carrying my bike wearing shoes with metal cleats I pray that I make it. So far, so good. After this achievement, navigating NYC is a cinch. I haven't explored as much as I would have liked since you know, I have family here and we are supposed to do things together while we are on vacation. Nevertheless, I have had fun riding through Central Park, which depending on the time of day can be great. The roads are closed during certain times of day, which is a great way to ride through the park. It definitely can get very busy at times, and I have to admit that I almost ran over a pair of runners after I got squeezed in by traffic and rollerbladers in the bike lane. Just doing what I can to give cyclists a good rep while I am here! 

A section of the greenway

I have ridden the subways, driven, walked miles and miles, and rode my bike around while here and my vote definitely goes to biking for the best way to get around and see NY. The other day I was riding along Central Park West, admiring the buildings and architecture and such and realized that I rode 10 blocks past where I needed to go. Would that ever happen walking or driving? Not likely. 

The bike paths are great here too. Russ and I went out today on the Greenway- a bike/pedestrian path that runs along the outside edge of Manhattan. It even splits up at times and allows bikes and pedestrians to go their separate ways and each enjoy their own space. How brilliant is that? Helps me avoid running over any more runners, anyway. Before we knew it we were down by the World Trade Center site, a place that we had seemingly slogged to on subways and walking the day before. We didn't ride the whole perimeter since we had family to get back to, but I would like to do that still before we leave. We are getting through our list of must see's and I feel very lucky to be able to spend so much time here!