When I opened the curtains this morning I could only see a few blocks due to thick fog. Last night when I went to sleep rain was forecast for the day today, but by the time I finished breakfast the fog was clearing and there was no longer rain in the forecast. We took our raincoats and umbrellas with us, just in case, and headed to St. John the Divine, the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, north of Central Park near Columbia University.

We needed to put additional funds on our Metro cards before we could use the subway. I learned that the act of putting your credit card into the machine and withdrawing it quickly is called dipping. The machine asked us to enter our ZIP Code to complete the credit card transaction. Inciting, we don’t have a ZIP Code.

Michael and I encountered this difficulty when we were in Chicago. We flew into Chicago and went straight from the airport terminal to the subway to ride downtown to our hotel. However when we tried to purchase farecards and were asked for our ZIP Code we were stymied. We tried putting in the ZIP Code of the hotel we were staying at, but there must be a check of the ZIP Code against the credit card address and the transaction was denied. In the end a kind transit employee allowed us to go through the gate without paying and told us to purchase the cards another time. The next day we tried again at a subway station in downtown Chicago, and were again denie, but fortunately there was an employee there who told us just enter five zeros instead of a ZIP Code, and it will work. It did.

Fortunately, Michael remembered this, and we were each just entered 00000 as the ZIP Code and the transaction was approved.

Many of the stations have three sets of tracks so that express trains can skip stations by running down the middle.

We booked a timed ticket for the Cathedral for 1030 and arrived in time to get a coffee. It’s not uncommon to see doors like this in the sidewalk as you walk through commercial areas. This is the first one that I saw open.

Michael pointed to a very ifamilar looking diner as we cross the street on our way to the cathedral after our coffee, but I couldn’t quite place it. He just told me now that it was the diner used in Seinfeld, and it clicked for me. I’ve taken a screen cap of it from Google to include here. I wish I had realized it this morning and gotten a selfie in front of it.

St. John is the largest cathedral in the world, and one of the five largest church buildings in the world. It is still under construction. Construction began in 1892. It will continue to be constructed over many centuries. Currently though their funding is directed to prioritize serving the community and maintaining the architectural integrity of the cathedral as it is currently constructed.

It doesn’t feel as big as some of the European ones we have been in, however, that might be due to the fact that we were unable to access much of it due to the unfinished nature.

Every April there is a blessing of the bikes at the Cathedral to kick off the riding season. Clearly they haven’t met me as I ride year round. I can tell that many people in New York also cycle year around, especially the food delivery cyclists.

There are a number of cute sculptures by Tom Otterness installed in the unfinished support columns of the cathedral.

There was a very odd fountain in the church gardens called the Peace Fountain. It is meant to represent the conflict between good and evil.

Someone at the Cathedral has a sense of humour and we found these signs on the grounds.

We also spotted this white peacock who apparently resides here.

There was very little traffic on the streets in this area of Manhattan.

We had lunch at a Jewish deli/Vietnamese noodle fusion restaurant called Wu + Nussbaum. The food was good.

On our walk to a bike share station at the north end of Central Park we passed this lovely fire station, the outside of one of the unfinished bits of the cathedral, which didn’t really match the rest of the cathedral, and the back of the cathedral.

The parks runs from 5th to 8th Avenue, and 59th – 110th Street. It is 4km long by 800m wide. We borrowed bikes and rode around 1/4 of the outside of the park before running out of time. It allowed us to peek into the park.

We got to the Guggenheim Museum a little bit faster than walking. It wasn’t a lot faster, though because there was no bike lane here so we rode on the very wide interlock brick sidewalk and had to keep our speed down. We only looked at it from the outside.

We returned the bikes near the MET. Fortunately we hadn’t planned to go in because it was it was very crowded with a long lineup to get in.

We walked through Central Park heading for the Gapstow Bridge – which has very famous views of the New York skyline reflected in a small lake. On the way we passed under another lovely bridge – there are over 30 bridges in Central Park – and an Alice in wonderland statue and some lovely park buildings.

The Gapstow bridge was a bit obscured by vegetation, but the views from the bridge did not disappoint.

We saw many of these rickshaws in the park along with horse drawn carriages.

When Patti and I were in New York City in high school we decided to visit the Russian tea room. We were seated in their opulent dining room and when we told the waitress all we wanted to order was a cup of tea we were told that there was a minimum order for the table and that wouldn’t make it and they sent us upstairs to the cheap seats.

Patti encouraged me to have tea at the Russian tea room while I was here this time. I looked it up on the website and afternoon tea is $80 per person, or $105 if it includes champagne. I decided to just have Michael take a picture of me outside the tea room.

Michael decided a few years ago that he would start wearing business dress on the one or two days a month when he went into work, rather than business casual that had become acceptable over the years. He has acquired a few nice suits, a handsome topcoat, a trench coat, and a number of elegant hats. He looks very handsome dressed for work. As we strolled through Central Park he told me the next thing he was going to need to acquire is a walking stick. Hilariously, as we entered Columbus Circle in search of coffee, we saw a store selling walking sticks. I guess he didn’t see the right one, because he didn’t buy one.

Columbus Circle is a large traffic circle at the Southwest corner of Central Park. Broadway is one of the streets that runs into it. We sat on the corner at Central Park and watched the crowds of people and constant traffic go by.

From there we got the subway back to Times Square. It was quite busy. Then from Times Square we followed the signs for the shuttle to Grand Central. As we walked we realized that we had walked underground in the subway station over to the next stop between Times Square and Grand Central which is Bryant Park. It’s an absolutely enormous underground space.

The day was much warmer than we expected and we carried around our extra clothing all day. I was very happy to get back to the hotel and have a shower before we went out to get dinner. We enjoyed our fish tacos so much last night that we went there again. It was another fine day in New York City. The forecast for tomorrow is also excellent and we plan to head back down to the financial district to see the sites that we missed yesterday.

The day dawned bright and sunny with the promise of a warm spring afternoon despite the fact that it’s still winter. I had breakfast in the room, but today Michael took the day off work, so I got to play tour guide with my newfound New York knowledge.

We took the subway to The 34th St. – Hudson Yards subway station. It was just one train and only three stops. We had to go deep down into the Grand Central subway station. The Hudson Yards station is one of New York’s newer stations. It was the 469th station built, and the first new one in over 25 years, when it opened in 2015. It features the system’s longest escalator and first inclined elevator. It took eight years and $2.42 billion to build. This beautiful mosaic covered the ceiling over the escalator.

Just outside the station we found The Big Apple.

We visited The Vessel and then started exploring the High Line.

I was happy to be there again, as I enjoyed it so much the first time, and I saw things that I had missed.

One of the things I had missed was The Edge Observation Deck at Hudson‘s Yards. Michael pointed out the triangular part of the building sticking out as we looked back at Hudson’s Yards. It was hard to make it out so I pulled out the point-and-shoot with the long telephoto and was able to zoom in and see the people on the deck. We had lots to do so didn’t visit, but when I got back to the hotel I looked it up and the cheapest admission is $34US.

I couldn’t resist taking a few more pictures of the High Line’as we strolled along.

And I was able to pose with this creature and get Michael to take my picture. I sat with another creature by this artist and included it in my blog a couple days ago.

I saw this bike storage locker in the Meatpacking District on our way to Chelsea market for lunch and bathrooms.

My lunch was delicious once again. New York brisket. I’ve heard of it many times including on the show The Marvellous Mrs Maisel, I don’t think I’ve ever had it before.

As we were eating lunch we saw this odd car go by. I took a picture and when we got back to the hotel I looked up “Jaguar with Spinny things” and discovered that it’s a Waymo self driving car. The black thing on the top plus four additional ones at each corner of the car were spinning and are apparently LIDAR.

After lunch we walked around The Meatpacking District and then headed for Little Island Park.

It was a beautiful afternoon and still early when we finished there, so we used bike share to borrow two bikes and ride to the financial district on the Hudson River Greenway. Michael found the bike quite comfortable and the ride not overly taxing. We went about 5 km. The cycling facility is impressive. Separated from both cars and pedestrians it was very comfortable to use. It runs the entire length of the island and is the same path that I was riding on when I went to the Cloisters a few days ago. It is part of New York’s at Empire Trail.

The first docking station we arrived at was full so we carried on to find a second which turned out to be directly in front of the National Museum of the American Indian which Michael visited 47 years ago when he came to New York City with his parents.

On our way to have a look around Battery Park we saw this old entrance to Bowling Green subway station.

Battery Park seemed to be a very large park, and my feet were getting quite tired, so then we went in search of a coffee.

Once again we use Google live view to navigate us to our chosen coffee shop and I noticed this fun reflection when we paused to check the directions.

After coffee we took the subway to Union Square. It has a very large subway station with many lines intersecting. There are 36 lines in total.

Union Square is a large park which was very busy with a market today, many people just enjoying the weather, and a large playground.

There are so many different kinds of food you can buy from trucks here on Manhattan. And a few days ago we saw a truck that sold marijuan. Today we saw the Mitzvah Tank. I thought it was funny that he puts on it that he’s available 24/6.

We had initially planned to get back on the subway, but the weather was so nice, and there’s so much to see which can’t be seen in the subway, so we decided to continue walking.

We passed the Harry Potter store which had a line around two sides of the building to get in just before the Flatiron building, which unfortunately is under scaffolding.

The New York Edition, a building with massive clock faces and a gold dome began life as the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company’s headquarters, but is now a luxury boutique hotel. It was built in 1909.

We sat for a while in Madison Square Park. It was another very busy park. Manhattan Island has the highest population density on the planet. Very few people have their own outdoor spaces, but with all the incredible outdoor spaces in the city, I don’t think one would miss having a backyard too much.

This is one of the plazas that was created from road space a few years ago, even though Madison Square Park is right across the road. Both spaces were very well used.

We caught glimpses of the Empire State building after leaving Madison Square Park.

As we were getting close to our hotel I saw this reflection.

We noticed this restaurant Summer Salt.

Shortly before we got back to our hotel. We checked the menu when we got back and it looked good, so after resting for a while, we went back out and got excellent fish tacos and guacamole and chips for dinner.

It was another great day in New York City and was really nice having company today.

I had hoped that the weather forecast would prove to be wrong, but when I opened the curtains this morning I couldn’t see the river. It was overcast and the street was wet. I couldn’t tell from the 31st floor whether or not it was raining.

I spent some time trying to motivate myself to go out, and deciding what to do. I looked at a number of museums, but also looked at the list of things that I wanted to do outdoors, and even though I’m here a generous eight days, I realized that half of them are already in the past.

In the end I decided to go to DUMBO – Downtown Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, in Brooklyn across the East River. I decided to take the subway to avoid cycling in the rain, and to have a new experience. I dressed in layers with my yellow rain slicker on top, and my items that I wanted to take with me in my backpack, wrapped in plastic bags in case I got rained on.

I am able to get to the subway from the hotel without going outside. I stopped at a fare machine and was able to determine that the second card Cindy gave me also had funds on it and was able to have them transferred to a card with a new future expiry date.

Google told me to take a train, leave the train and station and walk a block to get to another subway line which doesn’t connect inside, and then transfer to the line that goes across the river to DUMBO.

My plan was to cross the river on the subway using the Manhattan Bridge for the views as represented on this map with the green arrow. But I made a mistake when I transferred and ended up following the red arrow to Williamsburg. The subway also crosses the river on the bridge going on this route so it took me a while to realize I was in the wrong place. Then it took a while to figure out what to do about it. I ended up going back to the station marked DeLancey street and following the blue arrow over to the island which was through a tunnel.

Consequently, a trip which should have been about 30 minutes by subway and would have taken about an hour on bike took an hour and a half. However, I got there in the end, and it’s all part of the adventure. I’ll do better tomorrow when I have Michael along and we use the subway again. I did end up seeing this interesting station which I would not have seen had I not taken the wrong train.

I find it much easier to navigate on the surface. Even when you don’t know the area you can use cues such as where the sun and shadows are and whether or not you can see the water. And in a place like Manhattan, where the streets are numbered, it’s very easy to quickly figure out when you’re going in the wrong direction.

As I emerged from the subway I saw a red flag on a lamp post saying DUMBO and shortly there after the distinctive industrial buildings and glimpses of the bridges and knew I was in the right place.

I’m going to blame the whole situation on the fact that I forgot to get a coffee this morning. I left the room with my mask on and headed straight down to the subway expecting to get a coffee 30 minutes later. Little did I know it would be more than 90 by the time I had one in hand.

DUMBO is a very noisy place with the subway regularly coming over the Manhattan Bridge. There’s also a lot of construction going on in the area.

Many of you will probably recognize this scene which is a very popular one on social media. I asked somebody to take my picture because a selfie just wasn’t working. Michael always thinks when I do this that the person is going to run away with my phone, but I chose someone that looked less fit than I am, and they didn’t try to run, anyway.

The waterfront is beautiful with views of the Manhattan Bridge, Manhattan, and the Brooklyn Bridge.

There are many beautiful and nicely restored industrial buildings.

There is an old carrousel that’s had a glass box built around it to protect it. It is still operable. It’s called Jane’s carousel and was built in 1922.

Empire Stores has been built inside an old industrial building. It’s partly open all the way up to the top with great views of the river and the bridges.

Just as I was finishing up looking at the carrousel it started to rain and was getting quite heavy so, as it was also time for lunch, I headed into Empire Stores to find something to eat.

Unfortunately there wasn’t any outdoor covered area to eat so I did eat indoors, but it wasn’t overly crowded, and I didn’t dawdle. My black Angus cheesesteak was absolutely delicious.

New York’s transportation system offers so many choices. I could have taken the subway back, gone to a bike share to get a bike to ride back, taken a ferry back, or my choice, walk back across the Brooklyn Bridge.

I always seem to spend an enormous amount of time finding food when I travel. It’s compounded when Michael and I are both trying to find food at once because we have different ideas of what we want to eat. I thought this QR code was a good idea. Just hold up your camera to it and will open up a webpage with the local restaurants.

It was a bit convoluted to get there, and quite sketchy in places due to construction, and lacking in signage.

Once I got to the stairs to get onto the bridge it was a 2 km walk to get to the City Hall area on Manhattan. But it was worth it with incredible views. Apparently the bridge can get so busy on nice days that one can only shuffle across, but it was comfortably empty in the misty weather today.

You could see the people in the apartments and their stuff as you walked past this building. It has incredible views, but with the potential lack of privacy on the one side, and the noise from the subway train on the Manhattan bridge on the other, I don’t think I would like to live there.

I’m not sure that it would have been much faster to drive as the cars were often at a standstill underneath the pedestrian area.

There were places that were so broad it felt more like a large pier than a bridge walkway.

There are some beautiful buildings around City Hall including the Woolworth building which was the tallest building in the world from 1913 to 1930. It is still one of the hundred tallest buildings in the US.

After walking around City Hall Park I grabbed a coffee and cookie to have in the park, and then got on the subway to go back uptown.

A lot of the subway stations, including the one under City Hall, are quite rundown.

This was a very useful board on one of the subways and was constantly updated so that the next stop was on the left-hand side and you could see how many stops there were until the one you were travelling to.

I had to transfer at Times Square to the Grand Central shuttle which was a very modern subway car that had no seating.

Michael and I met back at the hotel and then went to Café Hestia to get takeout, again. Our choices weren’t as good tonight, as they were last night, so we will try somewhere different tomorrow.

Despite the mistakes made this morning it was still another wonderful day visiting places familiar to me from social media. It was so wonderful to be able to experience them in person.

I had breakfast in the room again today, and then grabbed my coffee in the hotel market, and took it over to Pershing Square where I could see Grand Central Station while I drank it.

I then walked to the bike share station and borrowed a bike to ride to the High Line. I was still within my 24 hour period that I paid for yesterday, but needed to keep the ride under 30 minutes so as not to incur additional charges.

I use Google maps to give me the directions to follow to get to my destination, but I started down 2nd Avenue it started giving me incorrect directions. GPS works very poorly in the area where we’re staying because the buildings are so tall. Take a look at one of the walks that I recorded on Strava. So I had to turn off the Google directions because they were constant but incorrect. When I rode back later in the day from an area where the buildings weren’t as tall it worked just fine.

There was a nice bike lane on 2nd Avenue with lots of cyclists using it. At the traffic lights for the first eight or 10 blocks there were traffic cops ensuring that the traffic flowed smoothly. When the light was red for me, but there was no cross traffic, and I slowed down the cop waved me to continue on through. I also saw a lot of traffic cops out in the afternoon the last couple days when school was getting out. Traffic moves rather sedately here but doesn’t seem to become overly congested. It’s easy to keep pace or even go faster on a bike.

The bike lane ended, but the street became quite quiet, and I didn’t mind sharing with the small amount of traffic there was.

I passed the familiar name and architecture of Gramercy Park and rode around the block to have a look and take some pictures.

I came across this street that is physically closed off during school hours to motor vehicles. I learned from this website that it is not uncommon here.

At that point I realized I was getting close to 30 minutes so I went to a docking station to find it entirely full. I use the app to find another docking station, which was also full. At this point I had almost run out of time. I thought I recalled that the app had a button where you can get 15 more minutes if the dock is full, but I couldn’t find it. I tried to do a live chat but no one came on to respond right away so I found a third station and docked there. I was charged $4.36, but I received a refund tonight based on the comment I made when I submitted feedback at the end of the ride.

From there I took the bike out again and finished the ride to the High Line. This was my first sight of the High Line, along with another one of those stacked car parking lots.

The High Line was even better than I had imagined. I spent most of the day there. It is accessed by staircases or elevators.

There was street level rail on the west side of Manhattan from the 1840s. But it meant there were 105 street level crossings, and many pedestrian deaths, so in 1929 after decades of debate the a massive infrastructure project to eliminate the street level rail was begun. It became known as the High Line. It opened in 1934 and was elevated 9 m above the street. It was designed to connect directly to the upper floor loading docks of factories and warehouses. It was known as the “lifeline of New York”. But in the 1960s industrial use began to decline on Manhattan’s west side. The southernmost nine blocks of the High Line were demolished. Another five blocks were demolished in the 1990s.

1980 was the last year that a train used it. Over time nature reclaimed it and it was only visible to the few inhabitants of adjacent buildings. In 1980 two locals met at a community planning meeting where plans to demolish the High Line were discussed. They formed a nonprofit group called Friends of the High Line to advocate for its preservation. In 2002 they formed a partnership with the city and the plans to demolish the High Line were reversed. In 2005 the transportation company that owned it donated the remaining section under the federal Rails to Trails program. From 2009 to 2019 the nonprofit group began opening the High Line one section at a time.

The High Line connects the Meatpacking District, Chelsea, and Hudson Yards. Next Spring it will connect to Penn Station to the East, and Hudson River Park to the West sometime in the future.

Volunteers look after the gardens. Bikes are not allowed on the High Line, but I did see these tricycles being used to aid in the gardening.

It’s much quieter up on the High Lines than it is at street level. New York is a very noisy place. There is a constant background hum with the staccato of car horns.

I was excited to visit The Vessel by Heatherwick Studio at Hudson Yards. It is an interactive artwork comprised of 154 interconnecting flights of stairs and almost 2500 individual steps and 80 landings. Unfortunately, four people have committed suicide here and it is currently closed. It was still stunning to see even though I couldn’t climb up.

There were hundreds places to sit in the big open area around it and the subway station entrance, and I had lunch there.

I headed back to the High Line to walk south to the other end.

There is so much to see. The High Line itself has some narrow sections, some wide sections, many places to sit and enjoy the sun. Places to look at the streets below. The High Line has spurred an enormous amount of new development adjacent to the line.

The Whitney Museum is at the south end. When I got there I was ready for a coffee and as I stood on a corner in the Meatpacking District a man in a red hat and shoes approached me and started talking to me. After a couple minutes he asked me if I knew who he was. I said I did not. He said I am the Mayor of the Meatpacking District. Google it. I did and he has quite an interesting story. I asked him for advice on where to get coffee and we parted ways.

I did have my heart set on a cookie and the place he suggested just had pastries so I carried on to the Chelsea market. It’s a fascinating old building and I found coffee and cookies there.

There are a lot of eating areas set up on the streets that are public and the one outside Chelsea market intrigued me. I sat there for a few minutes but then the allure of the Highline caused me to pack up and head back up. I found a place to lounge to finish my coffee and cookies.

Having finished exploring the Highline I headed to Little Island just a couple minutes away on the river. It is 2.4 acre park in the Hudson River with entrances at West 13th and 14th St. It is built on the remains of Pier 54 where in 1912 the survivors of the Titanic arrived to safety.

The remains of the pier were damaged during hurricane Sandy and it has been reimagined as an “immersive experience with nature and art”.

It was a very busy place today and I can see why it would require timed tickets to visit in the warmer months.

I noticed an excellent protected bike lane on my way there so I decided to ride back along the Hudson. Google wanted to send me up through the city almost right away but I stayed on the waterfront until 48th St.

This is the intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.

Then I turned and rode east towards where Michael was working to meet him.

I have had several people ask me about the rearview mirror i wear on my glasses when I ride including one driver today.

The first place I tried to dock the bike was closed for some reason and I ended up running overtime by the time I got to the next docking station. When you are not on a pass it cost $3.99 to unlock the bike and as long as you return it within the 30 minutes there are no further charges. But the overage is only charged at $.23 a minute so I didn’t bother complaining this time.

Michael met me at a bench near the dock and we walked back through Union Station.

I’m feeling pretty tired this evening. I’m up to two blisters on my toes. We rested for a while and I had a shower before we went out to pick up dinner and bring it back to the room.

It was another fabulous day. I haven’t yet decided what to do tomorrow as rain is forecast for the day. But it is the St. Patrick’s Day parade which apparently has been happening here since 1762 so I might go and check that out. I did bring an umbrella and my rain slicker. I’ll decide in the morning when I see what the day looks like.

I started the day with breakfast in the room consisting of the raspberries that I bought on the street yesterday, oatmeal from the hotel shop, and tea made with the kettle and tea bags provided by the front desk.

I decided that I would walk down 42nd St. past Bryant Park, to Broadway, explore Times Square, continue walking through Hell’s Kitchen to the Hudson River to ride on the Hudson river Greenway to the Cloisters at the north end of the island.

I passed this wonderful building just before I got to Broadway.

Then I started seeing signs that Times Square was near. It can be such a busy place that they have a sign telling pedestrians to keep moving.

The last time I was in Times Square most of the space was taken up by roadway and parked cars. A few years ago under Michael Bloomsburg the city transformed a lot of the car oriented space into bike lanes, wider sidewalks, and patios.

The Transportation Commissioner Jennette Sadek Kahn, who worked for Bloomberg, knew that there would be a lot of backlash generated by removing space for cars. People tend to try to protect the status quo. Times Square was the first space they tackled. They decided that the key would be to transform the place quickly and cheaply, on a temporary basis, so that people could see what the new space actually looked like and felt like, and didn’t have to imagine it. They started on a Friday evening and used cheap plastic tables and chairs and straw bales to mark out the patios. It was well enough received that they were able to invest more in the space, and when a mayoral candidate a few years later suggested that he would turn the space back over to cars, people protected the new status quo, and he lost the election.

Times Square is an almost overwhelming space. Massive screens constantly changing. Music, Disney characters, crowds, people taking pictures, shopping, eating, drinking, resting, people watching.

After exploring Times Square I continued walking through Hell‘s kitchen. Some of the Marvel movies and shows are set in Hell’s Kitchen, but I didn’t see any superheroes. It did have a very different feel from Times Square with lots of rundown scenes, but also bike lanes, a bike share station, a Porsche dealership, and the cruise ship docks.

Real estate was obviously expensive enough to make it worthwhile to have some of these stacked car parking lots.

Today I decided to purchase a 24 hour bike share pass for $15. It provided me with unlimited included 30 minute rides. As there are extra charges for going over 30 minutes I had to keep an eye on the clock and regularly dock the bike to end the ride, and then immediately take it out again to start the clock over.

The Hudson River Greenway was a completely separated multiuse path that mostly followed the river and was often under 12th Avenue and the Henry Hudson Parkway. The highway was generally high enough that the space underneath was still light and airy, and it would actually be beneficial when it was raining.

I saw a couple things that I was familiar with from peoples’ pictures on social media and had that I had hoped to see.

I had expected to find bike share stations along the Greenway but they were actually located on the other side of the highway and generally required a climb up from the river’s edge over a bridge above the highway each time I needed to dock and then take the bike out again.

I had needed an bathroom since Times Square and the first one I came across on the Greenway was locked, but I finally came to one that was open, but had no bike share station so I took the bike right into the bathroom with me asi was not willing to risk having it stolen and having to pay $1200 to replace it.

Unlike in Toronto, they seem to be able to have heated indoor park bathrooms that stay open year round.

The process of undocking and docking a bike was very simple. I opened the app on my phone pressed the scan button, which opened my camera, scanned the QR code on the top of the stem, and the dock would unlock. When returning it one rolls it into that stand quite hard – it helps to pick up the seat of the bike as you roll it and drop it. As soon as it relocked the bike I would get a notification on my phone that it had been returned. Once when I didn’t push it in hard enough I got a notification that it might not be locked properly.

The third time I docked the bike I was getting quite hungry and hot so I took off a layer and ate some of the pistachios I had with me. At that point I determined it was only about 10 minutes further to the Cloisters.

As I was cycling downhill next to the highway I saw a highway exit sign for the Cloisters on the other side of a jersey barrier. I stopped and pulled out Google maps to see how I would get to the Cloisters, which I could see at that point at the top of the hill, to find out it was a very convoluted route, up a very steep hill.

At the same time I noted a restaurant and a bike station just ahead so I docked the bike and walked over to the restaurant, which unfortunately, turned out to be closed.

I grabbed the bike again, rode a few minutes further on, and found an area – Dyckman – with a lot of restaurants and a bike share station, right next to a subway station. I docked the bike and got lunch.

I decided to walk up to the cloisters which entailed climbing about 150 stairs, rather than riding. It was already mid afternoon so I just walked around the building and didn’t pay the $24 admission to go in.

Just before heading back down I spoke to a cyclist that was resting, who was riding a road bike, and asked for advice about riding back south towards Central Park. I wanted to take a different, less isolated route. I followed his advice and it was a good.

I started riding on Dyckman, the first busy street riding for me in New York City, which had had no bike lane for the first few blocks. Just before I got to the bike lane, as I started up from the light, the car behind me honked long and close passed me. It was the only slightly bad experience I had on the road.

I rode along the Bronx River path, and found a docking station where I could restart my ride at the corner where I needed to turn off the path.

After that I was on the road again. There was a bike lane, but there were a lot of cars parked on it. But the traffic wasn’t moving too quickly, and it wasn’t too heavy, and so I felt comfortable riding and passing the cars in the bike lane.

I passed a classic New York brownstone just before I got to Central Park.

Most of the roads in Central Park are closed to cars. There’s a lane for pedestrians, the centre lane for slow cyclist, and the right side for fast cyclists.

After going about halfway through the park I left to get coffee.

From there the quickest way back to the hotel with straight up Park Avenue. I expect a bike lane, but when I got there found there was none. The road is four lanes in each direction with a Centre Boulevard. The curb lane is used for parking. There were often cars double parked in the second lane from the right, usually a black Lincoln navigator. But traffic was heavy, and cars weren’t moving quickly. The streets cross very regularly. I had to ride about 40 blocks, and was generally moving faster than the cars. They’re often back up at the lights, with no cars crossing from the side streets so I would filter to the front of the cars and jump the red light to stay in front of them. It was fun riding like a boss, or a New York City food delivery cyclist. I felt completely confident and safe and had a blast. I rode right by where Michael is working, but he wasn’t quite ready so I continued on to the docking station close to the hotel, and then walked the rest of the way back. I ride 32km in total. With the docking every 30 minutes, picture taking, and heavy three speed bike, as well as more hills than I expected, it took a long time.

Once Michael returned we decided on Vietnamese for dinner and walked to get it and brought it back to the hotel to eat.

It was another wonderful day and I’m looking forward to using the last few hours of the 24 hour pass to get to the High Line in the morning and then walking that, and visiting New York’s newest park, Little Park, and the Vessel at Hudson Yards.