Erie Canalway – Day 7 – Weedsport to Syracuse

We headed out at 7:45 this morning after breakfast in the motel.

Right off the bat I turned the wrong way, and then when I corrected myself, ran a red light. We were all still tired from yesterday’s long ride in the heat and humidity. It didn’t bode well for another very hot day, but at least the distance was only 43 km.

We weren’t far from the trail – it was only single track for a while, but quite smooth and beautifully shady.

The trail runs along in abandoned section of the canal through this area.

In Jordan, they had a mural and had created a garden in the old canal bed.

We happened upon the two ladies in their 70s that we had met a couple days ago, but with their pedal assisted e-bikes they soon left us behind.

Cindy spotted a turtle laying eggs at the side of the trail. Her shell was covered in algae.

Much of the abandoned canal is dry, but there’s a section 5 miles in length near Camillus that has been refilled. It’s called the Camillus Canal Park, and has a museum, but it wasn’t open today. We did meet one of the volunteers who told us that the organization maintains the 5 miles that has been refilled, and raised $3 million to rebuild an aqueduct.

This is the end of the section that they maintain.

We then encountered one of the longest hills on the trip so far which seemed to last for quite a while. The heat and the humidity were terrible today with the high of 32°, which apparently felt like 35° with the humidity, but felt like more to me.

The trail goes through the New York State fairgrounds and then over two large active transportation bridges over highways. Then it descends to the edge of Lake Onondaga. The trail lighting and the trail look quite new.

It led to an area of old industrial buildings that had been beautifully refurbished, and then under more highways.

We were all completely exhausted when we got to the hotel even though it wasn’t a long day.

The clerk at reception recommended Dinosaur Bar-B-Que for lunch. It’s a small Upper New York state chain. It was delicious.

Cindy and I both like to use Atlas Obscura to find quirky things to visit when we go to new places. One of the places was the Niagara Mohawk building, a beautiful art deco building, built in 1932.

We went into the lobby and asked the security guard if we were able to look around, and he indicated that we could just look around the lobby. They had four beautiful decorative areas.

Just as we finished looking around the security guard received a phone call, and then asked us how we had gotten in. We indicated that the door was unlocked. He said it wasn’t supposed to be, and we needed to leave. He said we shouldn’t have been in there in the first place and shouldn’t have been taking pictures. But at that point, we had seen the lobby and had our pictures so we left.

The old Erie Canal route went right through the centre of Syracuse. There’s now a park called Clinton Square where the canal used to be. There are some beautiful buildings around the square, but the square itself is just a wide open expanse with no shade, which was mostly empty of people or things to do on this hot afternoon.

There was a beautiful fountain and reflecting pool here as an homage to the old canal route. It is still advertised on the official city website, but people were wading in it, which apparently city officials and police didn’t like, and now it’s dry. It was also used as a skating rink in the winter. I don’t know if it still serves that function.

Here’s a picture of what it looked like when the canal was there from the Erie Canal museum.

As we walked to see another item from Atlas Obscura we passed this beautiful building.

This is the 24-second shot clock monument. According to Atlas Obscura: “The 24-second shot clock, used to speed up low-scoring professional basketball games, and was invented in Syracuse, New York, by Syracuse Nationals owner Danny Biasone and general manager Leo Ferris. This monument of a continually running shot clock pays tribute to the city’s contribution to basketball.”

While Syracuse has some beautiful buildings, it also has quite a few abandoned buildings and empty lots.

We then visited the Erie Canal Museum. There were some lovely murals leading to the museum and in the elevator.

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The museum is housed in the historic weightlock building. It was used for “collecting tolls on cargo in order to pay for the construction and maintenance of the canal. In order to assess a toll, the boats were weighed.  Boats entered the lock chamber, water was drained through a culvert under the city into Onondaga Creek, and the boat settled onto a wooden cradle attached by rods to a scale. The unloaded boat weight (from its empty weight certificate) was subtracted from the measured loaded weight to determine the weight of the cargo. The weighmaster then charged a toll based on that weight, what the boat was carrying, and how far it was going.”

There was a full size canal boat in the space which one could go in and see how it was set up.

There was also a map that showed the route of the old canal versus the current one. The new one is still quite well-used, but almost entirely for recreational purposes.

We were all quite tired, and the museum closed at four, so we went back to the rooms to rest for a couple of hours.

There was a highway between our hotel and downtown Syracuse. For the most part, we seem to be on the wrong side of the highway, but we passed a few well-kept historic buildings on our walk to dinner along with a lot of very run down ones.

We decided to go out to a restaurant called Laci’s for tapas for dinner. Upon arrival, we realized we should have made a reservation, as when we walked in, it was completely full. However, they offered us a place on the porch as a consolation prize, and we were happy to sit in the fresh air, out of the noisy chatter indoors, with the air slightly cooler than during the day, surrounded by greenery and this beautiful mural.

The manager, and former executive chef, took our order, apparently his first time ever doing so. He has worked for the restaurant for 10 years and worked his way up from busboy to his current position.

The food was good, and the service was even better. Because of a small delay taking our order for more food after our first four dishes, the manager comped the plate of sliders which we finished up with. We would all absolutely recommend this restaurant if you’re in Syracuse.

We headed back to the hotel, so I could write the blog, and we could have an early night. Our ride is 100 km tomorrow. We’re going to try to set off by 7am, again – the high will be a few degrees cooler, but we might have to contend with rain.

Erie Canalway – Day 6 – Rochester to Weedsport

We met outside the hotel at 6:45 to get an early start before the day got too hot, but it was already 26° and humid. We had about a 6 km ride back to where we left the trail yesterday and fortunately the roads weren’t as busy as when we arrived two days ago.

Here we are at the trail.

The sky was somewhat overcast most of the day which was a relief.

The trail is here is on a little spit of land.

We stopped very briefly in Pittsford, 10 km into the ride, where they have a little shelter, canal boat tours, and also several places to get coffee, ice cream, meals, and groceries. Pittsford has a bike store, but it has been closed the last couple times I’ve been there. There is also ample free parking, so if one wanted to do a day trip, along the very pleasant section of the Erie Canalway, from Pittsford to Fairport or Spencerport, it’s easy to do. Last year Michael and I rode from Pittsford to Fairport.

I’ve seen a number of canal boats with bicycles on them.

This is another one of the guard gates, which are used for flood prevention.

We made much better time today finishing our first 25 km in Fairport before 830. The coffee shop right on the trail wasn’t open yet so we went one block up the street to Clementine Coffee. The population of Fairport is only 5500 but they have quite a few businesses.

This section of the trail was somewhat rough, but was often shaded, as we were often shaded over the entire day while we were on the trail. Some areas were shadier than others.

We stopped for lunch just after 11 in Newark. The restaurant is run by The Arc, an “organization that supports people with and without intellectual and other developmental disabilities and their families”. There were people being supported by the organization working in the kitchen. The food was good. We met a couple cyclists who started in Buffalo yesterday morning and will be finishing the entire 360 mile trail in 3 1/2 days. I would love to be able to ride that much, but I would miss out on all the sightseeing we do.

I love this colourful mosaic named “They called me Sal“ of a mule that used to pull the canal boats.

The trail passes very close to this very unwelcoming message and flashing lights and an alarm went off when I came to a stop to take a picture.

Riding into Clyde, the trail just turned into a bumpy grassy track, which we left a bit early to find this very deserted street. We ended up at the gas station for ice cream, cold drinks, and water bottle refills.

After enjoying the trail with lots of shade, we had to travel 22 km along Highway 31. The temperature climbed to 33° with humidity that made it feel like 38°. We also encountered some of the hardest hills of the trip so far. They weren’t very bad, except for the fact that they came at nearly 100km, during the hottest part of the day. Here we are taking a break partway up one of those hills.

We mostly had a very wide shoulder that allowed us to ride two abreast, somewhat protected from motor vehicle traffic by a rumble strip, but it did narrow in places.

Port Byron had a lovely mural at their main intersection.

Shortly thereafter, we were able to get back on the trail for the last few kilometres and passed this pastoral scene.

As we cycled into Weedsport, where we are are staying at the Red Roof Inn, I noticed a craft brewing company called Lunkenheimer.

We were all very happy to end the ride and check in. Unfortunately, our rooms are on the second floor, and there is no elevator. But there is a room we could lock the bikes in behind the laundry area. Our bikes are incredibly dusty from the trail in a way we’ve never encountered on limestone screening trails at home. It was all I could do to carry my panniers up the stairs, and I left one at the bottom and carried one partway up. An employee came and took one from me and when I came up with a second, tried to take that one as well. It was very much appreciated.

Our friend Yvon, formerly of Brampton, is in Auburn on business, which is only a short distance south of Weedsport, so he drove up to join us for dinner. He said he would drive us anywhere in his car, but I suggested we just go to the craft brewery because it was close by. The menu was limited to pizza and craft beer. We had a fun dinner with Yvon, but didn’t linger.

Tomorrow will be another hot day, but we only have to ride 43 km to Syracuse. We hope to get out early to beat the forecasted thunderstorms, and do a little touring by foot when we get there.

Erie Canalway – Day 5 – Rochester Rest Day

David and Dayle are very early risers so David got to work on Dayle‘s bike, and discovered that the derailleur hanger wasn’t broken so he was able to repair the issues himself.

Cindy and I had a swim and then breakfast and there was still plenty of time before we had agreed to meet in the lobby at 9:45 so I asked David if he could take a look at my bike, which had an annoying squeak which we thought he had a addressed a couple days ago, but was back in earnest yesterday. We thought it was the brakes, which he adjusted, but he had trouble getting the cable re-secured, and after many attempts, over about half an hour, we decided it needed to go into the bike shop. We needed to go to the bike shop anyway because David’s cleats were not playing nicely with his clipless pedals and he wanted to replace them.

Yesterday we identified a bike shop only 2.3 km from the hotel so we headed there.

Bert’s Bikes and Fitness were absolutely amazing. The mechanic put my bike up on the rack right away and got to work while others on staff visited with us, asking us about our trip, and telling us about their experiences in Canada. New front brake pads and cable were installed, with no labour charge, only a parts charge, because we are touring. I was flabbergasted and so appreciative. If you’re ever in South Rochester I highly recommend this shop.

We hadn’t yet decided whether we were going to ride a 40 km sightseeing loop that I had planned for Rochester, or take an Uber and do a walking tour. Some of us had dressed for biking for the day and some not, so when we were done at the bike shop, we rode back to the hotel. We decided to give ourselves the rest of the day off the bikes, and ordered an Uber to take us to the George Eastman Museum.

I visited Rochester and the museum in 2014 with Patti. We brought our bikes and did some short rides in the city and out to Pittsford. It was a few months before I started blogging so I only have my Strava and photos to look back on.

Last year I visited with Michael and there was a nice reception area and café addition to the museum since I had last been here. The café serves absolutely delicious food, and since this is such an active trip, we decided to start with lunch. It didn’t disappoint.

Because I was here just last year, and I didn’t mind just sitting and resting and catching up with online stuff, I took a little walk around the gardens looking for a place to sit. But it’s already so hot and humid here that I came back inside to the café and got a coffee and an early start on the blog.

When they were finished, we took a walk through some of the leafy neighbourhoods of beautiful old homes around the Eastman Museum. It was very hot and humid so we were happy to have the shade and took our time.

I saw this on the ground at the children’s Museum.

This could be the slogan for our trip.

We didn’t see a lot of murals in the parts of Rochester we walked, but this one caught my eye.

We hadn’t walked far before we needed a cold drink, and we popped into Burger King. They had no ice in their self-serve drink machine, nor lemonade nor sweetened iced tea. We still found something to drink, and they replenished the ice while we were there, so we were able to take some wth us when we continued walking. I was amused by the sign on the bathroom door.

This area of town has a few cute benches around.

Then I showed the group the Strong Museum of Play and Union Avenue – a complete street – where a highway in a ditch, called the Inner Loop, used to be, before the city decided to remove it. The inner loop east transformation project filled in a 1.1 km long section of highway creating 6 acres for redevelopment. The Strong was able to expand the museum, and a mixed use rental neighbourhood, with some affordable housing, and complete streets with cycling and pedestrian infrastructure at grade, was created on the reclaimed land.

When I was here 11 years ago with Patti I took this picture standing on a bridge over the inner loop.

Standing there today it was very hard to imagine what it used to look like. I used Google Streetview to look at how the streetscape changed since I was last there. Pay attention to the white parking garage on the right to orient yourself as the scene changes.

We walked past this lovely old church, and these buildings connected over the road, which reminded Dayle of Venice and me of New York City, and this lovely old apartment building.

This is Rochester’s liberty pole. There was a long-standing American tradition of political protest and celebration at liberty poles. The first one on this spot was built in 1846. The current one was completed in 1965 and is 190 feet tall and made of stainless steel. Previous ones had been destroyed by storms.

Parcel 5 used to have a department store on it, which went out of business, and was demolished, leaving the land, unused and unattractive for years, but now it is a park.

These pictures are from the old Xerox campus, which, when Xerox no longer needed the space, was turned into residences for tertiary education students and an innovation center.

I turned the wrong direction when looking for Martin Luther King Memorial Park, and we came across this sculpture, which was an homage to the world‘s first photographic film, which was manufactured on this site. It was patented by George Eastman and introduced in August 1889 for Kodak cameras. The top of the building also makes me think of a film strip. I’m not sure if that’s deliberate.

This is Martin Luther King Memorial Park. I love this quotation.

We had been planning to walk across the part of the Inner Loop that hasn’t been removed yet, and over to high Falls to the Genesee Brewhouse for dinner, but David got a blister from his new cycling sandals, so we went to a nearby restaurant which I had also tried last year, and had very good food. Unfortunately, today with the heat and humidity, they had the doors closed.

We ordered Uber to get back to the hotel and had an early night.

Tomorrow is another 30+ degree day with, unfortunately, winds from the east. It will be a 112 km ride. We will be heading off early to try to get some distance in before the day gets too hot.

Click here if you would like to read more about Rochester when Michael and I visited for four days last July.

Erie Canalway – Day 4 – Lockport to Rochester

The forecast high today was predicted to reach 31 so we decided to be on the road by 7 AM.

We were staying just outside of Lockport with only a short ride from the hotel on roads to get to the trail.

We passed the lovely county office building, and shortly thereafter came to the Flight of Five Locks, located in Lockport. It’s a staircase lock constructed to lift or lower a canal boat over the Niagara escarpment in five stages.

This monument called the Lock Tenders Tribute Monument is a statue of Ira McCoy, a tender, who lived in Lockport from 1859 to 1943. The statues are based on a photo of tenders in 1897. The artist is Susan Geissler, from Youngstown.

The canal has 36 locks. It also has many road bridges that can be lifted and lowered to allow canal boats to move underneath. They are all in very good shape. The paint scheme on some of them is quite interesting.

This bridge is in the raised position.

Most of the day was spent on limestone screening paths, most of which in good shape, but some sections had been repaired with larger gravel and were a bit jarring.

We encounted another closure today, which was not documented on the map or gpx file, and which did not have very good signage, but we did manage to figure it out and it added a little distance.

This is a guard gate and is used to control the flow of water into the canal and to prevent flooding.

There was an extremely rough section of the path in Medina which caused a small piece of Dayle‘s derailler hanger to break off. She can now only use the middle three gears on her cassette so we will be going to a bike store tomorrow morning.

Near Medina, the canal actually goes over the road. I wrote about it here when I was in Rochester last summer. David walked down to look in the tunnel.

There isn’t a lot of agriculture visible from the canal so this field was notable.

We had lunch in Albion at the Village House restaurant as recommended by someone we met on Bank Street, who also gave us bottles of cold water. It was quick and the food was reasonably good.

There wasn’t a lot of shade on the path this morning or afternoon, and the heat continued to increase. At one point, we stopped and put our feet in the water, but it was so warm that it was only moderately cooling.

We met a couple of women from California, who started a ride in Wisconsin and are heading for the Atlantic. They have ridden 900 miles in the last four weeks and are in their early seventies. They are on pedal assist e-bikes.

We were in search of ice cream for quite a while, but there aren’t a lot of amenities visible from the canal path in this area, and there are few to no wayfinding signs. They also don’t post signs telling you the distance you’ve travelled or how far it is to the next place. It’s a bit frustrating. The signage was much better on the P’Tit Train du Nord that Cindy and I rode over two trips to Quebec in 2022 and 2023. I did find VICS (Village Ice Cream Shop in Spencerport) on google maps just a couple hundred metres off the trail. They serve the most generous amount of ice cream for the most reasonable price. It might have been the cheapest food we purchased the whole trip, and was delicious. A local, Don, invited us to sit with him, and told us about riding the trail in years past, and working at Kodak.

I made a couple errors reading the route as we came into Rochester because I was so hot and so tired, but one of them allowed us to see something we otherwise probably would’ve missed which is the Genesee State Park, with a series of matching bridges, which was designed by Richard Olmstead, whose parks and Parkways we saw in Buffalo.

With 6 km remaining, we had to get out onto the roads. Fortunately, on the busiest one, there was a wide urban shoulder. It was very hot and noisy riding at rush-hour through a tangle of wide city streets and interstate highways, but we eventually made it to the Comfort Inn and suites. It was a 118 km day. We were all quite wrecked and were very appreciative that the hotel has a pool which we availed ourselves of almost immediately.

There was only one restaurant within a walk of the hotel, the Cracker Barrel. Cindy was reluctant to go, but given that there were no other options other than ordering Uber eats we did. It turned out we all found something reasonably good on the menu. And David and Dayle and Cindy were carded when they ordered alcohol!

It was Cindy’s birthday and she brought her own candle and lighter for the cake!

Tomorrow we try to find the right derailleur hanger for Dayle’s bike and have it installed, and do some sightseeing around Rochester.

Erie Canalway – Day 3 – Buffalo to Lockport

As I began to upload pictures to my website after writing the text for day three, my website crashed. My son does all the technical stuff for me so I contacted him, but it ended up taking weeks to sort out the issue and get it back online. So I continued to choose the pictures each day of the trip, and write the text to go with them, but I was unable to put the blogs together and publish them. It does take me a lot of time each evening to do the blogs as I travel, so not having to fully complete the work did save me time and reduce the rush in the evening, but it left a lot of people, who enjoy following me on my trips, in the dark as to how the trip was going. Some could follow along in Strava, but I don’t write extensive descriptions there. So, a couple weeks after the trip has finished, I’m finishing the blogs, and releasing them one a day.


I woke with a headache and was a bit frazzled getting ready this morning. It didn’t help that I dropped my left contact lens, trying to put it in, and couldn’t find it, so had to use my one left replacement. Then the right one didn’t seem correct, so I had to open the right replacement. My vision still didn’t seem quite correct, but I was tired, and rushing, and it was good enough. So, I started the day hoping that I don’t screw up with my contact lenses again for the rest of the trip, because I don’t have glasses for distance with me.

I was also too too tired to finish the blog last night, so felt under pressure to try to get it done this morning, which I was able to do before leaving the house, and during breakfast, but somehow thought it was Day 3, until Cindy and David and Dayle pointed out that it was only Day 2.

We rode down one of Olmstead‘s shady Parkways to breakfast.

We had breakfast at Tipico Café, which was recommended by the AirBnB host. The food was good and the atmosphere very relaxing. It was in Elmwood Village. The whole area is very pleasant.

After leaving there, we rode down another one of Olmstead’s Street that has a massive boulevard in the centre and beautiful homes lining both sides.

On our way to Mile 0 of the Erie Canalway, which is 360 miles (580km) in total, we stopped briefly at a 911 memorial Park and had a quick look at the LRT, which runs above ground through the downtown area, and is a free fare zone, and underground and paid fare, in the suburbs. I wrote about it here.

We also rode past the old City Hall, which probably would have remained big enough had the leaders at the time realized how depopulated the city would become.

Buffalo has been revitalizing its waterfront and has named it Canalside. It’s located at the 1825 terminus of the Erie Canal. There are public events hosted there throughout the year and many activities, including boat tours, kayak rentals, and a nice rink in the winter. There is also an old US Navy ship, the USS Little Rock, and a bike ferry, that takes you across the canal.

Once we had looked around there, we begin to follow the route which I had downloaded from the official website for the canal. Yesterday, when we were at the Darwin Martin house, a woman came up to us when she noticed our bicycles, and she told us that she was riding the Erie Canalway starting today, as well. About 500m in we met Jeanie, from the Darwin Martin House, and she pointed out that the route was detoured. So we turned and followed her. It was quite a long detour and not shown on the website where I grabbed a gpx file of the whole route last night! When I did Google it this evening, I found this page that shows all the trail closures.

The detour route was well signed.

Once we got on the actual trail, one of the first things we saw was Frank Lloyd Wright Fontana Boathouse. It was one of his unbuilt designs until 2007 when it was built for the West Side Rowing Club in Buffalo.

Yesterday when we were crossing the Peace Bridge I noticed cyclists on a smaller bridge below us. Today we crossed that bridge.

Yesterday we didn’t realize that the bi-directional protected cycle track on Niagara Parkway is part of Erie Canalway. We rode the entire length of the cycle track today rather than turning off to go to our Airbnb.

Once we left the cycle track, we were riding along the canal, but also next to a highway, which was quite noisy for several kilometers.

Finally, we left the highway and had an idyllic ride much of the rest of the day. There were occasional sections that were on the road, which generally had shoulders, or were protected by curbs or crash barriers.

We met some local cyclists travelling the other way, and asked them about where we would find food between Buffalo and Lockport. They suggested a place called Uncle G‘s just outside of Lockport, or a restaurant just a couple of kilometres away. One was too early, and the other was going to be quite late. He did mention Tonawanda in a questioning voice, and neither of the other cyclists said anything. Shortly before we got to Tonawanda we stopped for the bathroom and to eat a snack. We were surprised when we got there how many restaurants there were right at the trail. Had we known, we would’ve stopped there for lunch.

We did stop at Uncle G’s, which was right beside the trail and had good meals, as well as apparently good ice cream, judging by the large lines, but we were quite full after we ate our lunch. We are finding food quite expensive here, possibly even more than restaurant food at home when the exchange is figured in.

I’ve been having squeaking disc brakes. David was able to help me fix the front ones yesterday, but a fix of the back one today didn’t last so but it’s going to need some more tweaking tomorrow.

We regularly saw recreational watercraft on the canal.

We got into the hotel about 5 PM. The clerk visits friends regularly in Brampton, and was quite entertaining, and suggested that we could use the pool at the hotel next door when we expressed disappointment at the lack of one here. David and Dayle decided to go, but Cindy and I relaxed in the room.

When I took out my contacts to shower, I discovered that the missing right contact was in my left eye along with the left. No wonder my near vision was slightly magnified today, I realized in retrospect. I’m shocked that the double lenses didn’t irritate me all day long. The missing left one was still in the case. Oops. This morning was a reminder how hard it is to see the small clear contacts when tired, in low light – I was putting them in the bedroom rather than the bathroom – and when not wearing corrective glasses. So now I still have two sets, but unfortunately, both open.

We went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner just a few minutes walk down the road. The food was delicious and plentiful.

Tomorrow we are off to Rochester.

Erie Canalway- Day 2 – Niagara Falls to Buffalo

The hotel offered a breakfast of refined carbs which we took advantage of, but isn’t my preference, and I was hungry again by mid-morning.

Before setting off, we headed to the R. Nathaniel Dett Chapel, which, according to the historic plaque is  “an important community icon (which)… bears witness to the early black settlement of the Niagara region and marks the role of the church in assisting newly arrived Underground Railroad refugees. It was constructed on Murray Street in 1836 and was later rolled on logs to this site. In 1983, the chapel, part of the British Methodist Episcopal Church of Canada, was named for Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943), a parishioner who became an internationally renowned musician and composer of North American sacred music.” 

We then had a lovely descent down Murray Street to the Fallsview Trail.

We rode on the trail for a while after we headed to Fort Erie, but there was very little traffic on the road, other than recreational motorcycle and sports car drivers, and the road was smoother, so we left the trail. 

Dayle felt like her tire was a little soft so we stopped at a shop in Fort Erie, but they were unenthusiastic about helping, and said it would be a while, so we left.

We then saw a restaurant that we had enjoyed on our trip here two years ago, but the kitchen wasn’t open yet, so we headed for the Peace Bridge.

The route I had planned on Ride with GPS indicated we should cross here, but clearly that was not going to happen.

I scanned the QR code, and it brought up a map indicating where we should go and also a Google Maps link. I decided it would be easier to follow the Google Maps instruction and didn’t pay much attention to the map.

Unfortunately, the way it had been set up in Google Maps with three pins meant that it stopped giving us instruction after we reached the second one. We weren’t sure where to go, so we made a left turn where the cars were going and ended up riding across the bridge with the cars. Everyone gave us lots of room, but it was frustrating because we could see, just beyond the 1 m high fence with no gaps, that there was an excellent separated path.

Cindy went up to the border guard first, and I proceeded as she rode away. But she didn’t ride far enough from the booth for his liking and he barked at her to move and when she continued to try to put away her passport, he yelled, “I’m not asking”.  David and Dayle rode up to the booth together, and he wasn’t happy with that either. 

Then, as we paused to get our bearings to figure out how to leave the border plaza, another guard approached us, and asked how we were planning to leave because the only exits were highway exits. He also seemed quite frustrated with us, but in the end, let us through a couple gates so that we could get onto city streets.

Hopefully, anyone else crossing by bike reading this can avoid the mistakes we did.

We passed a large Tim Hortons but didn’t stop. Niagara Parkway has beautiful bi-directional separated bike lanes. Apparently, it’s the first such high-quality bike infrastructure in the city. There are a lot of painted bike lanes here. They have built floating bus stops, and at the pedestrian crossings the median dips down to keep them level. The Giant bike store had this great mural on the side. We stopped, and they happily filled Dayle’s tire.

Buffalo’s population peaked about 1950 at 580k. It is now about 260k. There are many lovely, large homes, but also many rundown areas and abandoned homes, as well.

We dropped our panniers off at the Airbnb and then went for a bike tour of the city.

They now have a bike share, which I didn’t notice when I was here a couple years ago.

A couple years ago, we stayed at the old psychiatric hospital, which has been partially converted into a hotel and conference centre. It’s a beautiful building.

The Airbnb host recommended the restaurant in the Albright Knox Gallery, which was one of the places we were riding past and considering visiting, so we decided to have lunch there.There were multi-use paths from the Richardson Hotel to the Galley.

We saw some bike racks by the street, but preferred something closer to the building. When we couldn’t find anything closer to the building, an employee outside told us there were some racks in the underground parking garageB, but when we got down there, we were told we weren’t allowed to use them because they were for employees. So we thoroughly locked the bikes up the street and went for an excellent lunch.

When I was here a couple years ago, the gallery was undergoing a major renovation. Both the old and new sections of the building are quite beautiful from the outside, and the new reception area is stunning.

There was a huge sculpture made of canoes outside.

We lingered a long time over lunch and decided to continue without going into the gallery. The weather was so beautiful we didn’t want to be inside.

We briefly stopped at Hoyt Lake, where they had boat rentals, including these cute flamingos.

Next, our  route took us up spiral ramps over the highway and into one of Frederick Law Olmstead’s Parks. He also designed Central Park in Manhattan. The parks are connected by parkways, some of which were destroyed by building highways mid last century, but many of which are intact and a pleasure to ride along with their large homes, and trees meeting in the middle of the street.

We rode through Delaware Park, which had very little traffic, and to the Darwin Martin house, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. I wrote about it here.

I spotted this mural on Google Maps when I was creating our route for today, so made sure it was on our route.

After that, we rode down of one of Olmstead‘s Parkways. This one has both ways for bikes, but is one way for cars.

Then we rode downtown to see City Hall, which is the second-largest City Hall in the United States. I wrote about it here.

This parking garage was enlivened with murals.

It was after six by the time we got back to the Airbnb. We relaxed for a while and then went out for a dinner on a patio of burgers.

Tomorrow we will do a little more exploring and head to Mile 0 of the Erie Canalway before heading off to Lockport.

Erie Canalway- Day 1 – Brampton to Niagara Falls

David and Dayle, Cindy and I started planning this trip back in February. Because we have cycled much of Waterfront Trail between Toronto and Niagara Falls we decided to shorten the trip by a day by taking the GO train between Port Credit and Niagara Falls. Originally we had planned to leave tomorrow, but on Tuesday this week, we learned that track repairs would mean we would have to bus part of the route, so we scrambled and found a hotel for tonight, while the train was still running. It made for an easier time getting going because our departure was early afternoon for a train at 5:33 PM, rather than 7:00 AM in the morning to get to a 9:30 AM train in Port Credit.

This will be my longest self-supported bike trip. My previous longest one was four days. I’ve never travelled for such a long period of time with so few clothes. Handwashing will definitely be required many evenings. 

Here I am setting out.

I left a little early so I could stop by Decathlon to pick up a packable rain jacket as it seems likely that in 13 days away we will probably have a rainy one. Cindy was itching to get going so she met me with her husband, Mark, who rode with us along Brampton’s new protected east-west cycling corridor, to our meet up with  David and Dayle to see us off.

We rode down McLaughlin, which was quite busy with the cars slowing us down in sections. We had a lovely tailwind. I love the views of Mississauga’s downtown as you cross the 403.

South of the Queensway, we saw this permeable filter which allows pedestrians and cyclist through, but not cars, on this lovely tree lined street.

Hurontario is a mess with the LRT construction around the GO station.

Here we are on the platform waiting for the train to come in. We had to ride just one stop to Clarkson, and then transfer onto the Niagara bound train for the rest of the trip. There were no bike coaches, but not many cyclists, so getting a spot wasn’t a problem at either station.

Fortunately, both the train station and our hotel were up on the hill in Niagara Falls.

About half of the distance from the station was on a nice trail called the Olympic Torch Run Legacy Trail.

It felt cool when we got off the train so I put on my new rain jacket, but I was shortly too warm.

We are staying at the Falls Lodge and suites – unassuming, but clean room with fridge and microwave, and comfortable beds.

Tomorrow we ride to Fort Erie  to cross The Peace Bridge. The Erie Canalway starts in Buffalo. 

Here’s our ride. The straight line is when the ride was paused while we were on the GO train.

Bratislava 2 – Day 14

I decided to go to Danubiana Art Museum, 20 km south of downtown Bratislava, very near the border of Slovakia, Hungary, and Austria. It opened in 2000, and was founded by Gerard Meulensteen of Eindhoven, a Dutch collector and art patron, and Vincent Polakovič, a Slovak gallerist. It’s a 22 km ride from the hotel, all of which I have done before, so I decided to take the my bike on the bus to the gallery, look around, then ride south for a bit, which would be new to me, and then ride back to the hotel.

The transit portion of the trip entailed taking two buses, transferring about 5 km into the journey. The second bus only runs once an hour, so I set an alarm for 7 AM to make sure that I was at the bus stop by 9:06. The other complication was the hotel is at a transit hub, and I didn’t know the location of Platform J, where the bus would stop.

The dining room terrace was covered in ice, and I encountered icy puddles all day long. I saw man slip and fall on the slope to a pedestrian bridge in Petržalká.

I usually only take a couple minutes from leaving the hotel to being on the tram, and they come frequently enough that you don’t need to know the schedule. This morning I gave myself 15 minutes since I didn’t know which platform to use. I got a workout by the time I got on the bus! I went down into the pedestrian subway and couldn’t find signage for platform J at any of the exits. So I tried each one in turn, carrying my bike up and down. The last place I looked, which was the last possible place for it to be, and was where I needed to be, was also the easiest platform to get to directly from the hotel. Oh well, I’ll know for next time. The appointed time arrived, and passed. No bus. But I wasn’t the only one at the stop. It eventually arrived, but it was later than the amount of time allotted at the transfer point. I got on, but I knew unless the next bus waited, that I would miss the second bus, and then have to wait almost an hour.

When I got to the transfer point, I could see on the electronic board that the bus I needed was no longer listed. Then, I couldn’t get the bike out from the tight space. At the beginning of the ride I held onto the bike, then I noticed the red bar that could be put around it to keep it from falling over. I managed to put it around it, but I couldn’t figure out how to get the bike back out. Someone helped me, but by then we were two stops down the road.

I got off, and found some sunny steps to sit on, and checked where I was in relation to the route I had planned for returning this afternoon. I was about a kilometre away from the route. So I went into Ride with GPS in my browser, and reversed, and re-saved the route, something that wasn’t available in the app. Then I watched my position on the phone screen as I rode towards the route.

I was in Petržalká. It is the largest borough of Bratislava and shares a land border with Austria. It is home to about 100,000 people. It was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938. In April 1945 it was freed from the Nazis and taken by the communists. It was returned to Czechoslovakia after World War II. Construction of housing blocks began in 1977. The tower blocks are known as  Panelák. It is the most densely populated residential district in Central Europe.I quite like the area. The housing is very dense, but the green space is extensive, and it has good Active Transportation infrastructure.

I saw this bridge design several times as I travelled south. This seems to be a tributary of the Danube.

One of the street car lines is being extended 3.9 km further into Petržalká with a 2024 opening date. From what I saw today that looks ambitious. This is the current terminus.

There are some modern midrise buildings in Petržalká, but the Panelák dominate.

The construction of the streetcar extension caused me to have to detour from the path here. Unusually, detour signs were not provided. I managed a roundabout way back to the path.

Veľký Draždiak is a natural gravel swimming area.

The churches in the former Communist built areas are quite utilitarian, and of a similar design from place to place.

I have now joined the Danube Cyclepath, and here is another one of those wonderful way finding signs. I cycled this section in the spring. The cyclepath is on a berm, on this side of the river. The black and white stick in the lower part of the picture, to the right of the way finding sign, is a flood gauge. I assume that the cyclepath is on a berm so that it is still useable when the river floods.

When I was here in the spring, I had a goal of riding across all seven Bratislava bridges. They all have excellent cycling infrastructure. This is the Floodplain Bridge. It is 2.9 km long and 35 m wide. There are cycling paths on both sides. Unlike some of the other bridges it doesn’t have stairs as well as ramps.

Every few kilometres there are small restaurants. The cyclepath runs on both sides of the river and there are frequent bridges across it. For about a kilometre this section had a variety of exercise equipment every hundred metres or so.

I saw quite a few swans as I rode along. This is where I turned off the Danube path to go to the gallery.The bus that I would’ve been on had I waited an hour, was returning from the terminus at the gallery. It didn’t beat me by much, even though I stopped a lot to take pictures.

There is a large dam here, the Cunovo Water Power Plant, but very few of the spillways were operational today. 

A surf and kayak school have been set up with artificial rapids part way across the dam. There are two different courses. It looks fabulous. And once you get to the bottom, you can paddle around to the left to take out and carry your boat up to the top and come down again. There are stands for viewing. There was a sign advertising European youth championships this summer. There is a hotel and campground, restaurant, outdoor dining, pool, and playground. I would have loved to have tried this back when I was kayaking regularly. 

I was puzzled back in the spring when I saw a bike crossing on Ride with GPS at this point. I wasn’t able to see a bridge when I was there. I discovered last night when I was planning the route today that it is actually a bike ferry. During the warm months when you use it on its regular schedule it is €4 per per person. This time of year it has to be booked and is €20.

I was absolutely delighted by Danubiana. It was much more extensive than I had realized with an outdoor sculpture park, a rooftop park with excellent views of Bratislava, the Small Carpathians, and the Danube River – I was able to see the Kamžik TV Tower – and an extensive indoor gallery on two floors, with four special exhibits, as well as the permanent collection.

This made me think of a deconstructed coffee mug. It was called Contemplation, which, come to think of it, one can be prone to do over a cup of coffee.

This was my favourite outdoor sculpture. It is called Smiling Faces by Bilio Nic.

I also really like this one called Infinity Lady by Ján Ťapák.

This one is called Danube Wings by Peter  Pollág.

This figure is called Pičus by Victor Freso, the same artist who created Octahedral Body, the colourful sculpture outside Eurovea shopping center. He says of Pičus: he is “man both ridiculous and foxy, an insidious son of a bitch, full of complexes; a self-important, arrogant bastard, the type that people find annoying in real life”. The gallery had a whole room full of these figures and mirrors to make it look like they were even more.

Here are some of the exhibits which drew my attention.

There is a funny story, told about these Brillo boxes, with respect to exhibiting them in Toronto. “In 1965 thirty Brillo Soap Pads Boxes intended for a Toronto exhibition were held at Canadian customs, as officials questioned their status as art. The officials contacted Charles Comfort, then-director of the National Gallery of Canada who, on examining a photograph, determined the works were not art, but merchandise. Two years later, Brydon Smith, curator at the NGC, together with Jean Sutherland Boggs, the Gallery’s new director, purchased eight Brillo Boxes. For them, the works were indeed art and, more than that, art worthy of the national collection. Purchased 1967”.

One of the special exhibits was by Michae Mraz which I found quite interesting.

Another was by Martin Stranka, who seems to be quite prolific. I also enjoyed his work.

This piece by Katarína Galović Gâspâr is called Brandage. I thought it apt in the  highly branded, consumer driven society we live in.

The Art Café was very inviting and I had a latte.

I had about half an hour before the bus arrived when I finished so I rode south and picked up one new tile and saw a little bit of the Danube Cyclepath that I hadn’t seen before.

I wasn’t allowed to board the bus until it pulled up to the stop. I was the only passenger for the first 10 minutes or so, but then, as we went through small towns more and more people started to board.

I had two transfers to make on the way back, but the second bus driver came out of his booth and down to the middle of the bus where I was standing with my bike and told me I wasn’t allowed to bring my bike on the bus at this time of day. I thought I was allowed to bring it on until 3pm, but it turns out it’s not allowed after 1pm. And, apparently it’s always at the discretion of the driver. So I got off and planned a route back to the hotel, which was only 6 km. This picture is entitled, “Left Behind”.

When I saw this giant sundial, I knew where I was. I had seen it in the spring.

My route took me under the Harbour Bridge, which has cycling infrastructure on both sides, and streetcar tracks. And, under the Apollo Bridge, which has been attractively designed even underneath.

Today I noticed there’s a bike counter on the Old Bridge. I was the 133rd cyclist across it today.

This is the north end of a major transit stop and university.

I realize it was still early enough to have another coffee, and I was quite hungry, so I stopped at Hentam, and had a delicious meal.

It felt quite bitterly cold from the café to the hotel, which was only about a kilometer. We decided to eat dinner at Komin, near the hotel, rather than going to the Christmas market tonight. But first we went up to the 13th floor to the Outlook bar for a drink.

I have two days left on my own, and two days left with Michael, and then I return home on Monday.

Hamilton- Day 7

We decided to walk to Steve’s Open Kitchen for breakfast. It took us past Hamilton City Hall, where there is a topiary Tiger-Cats mascot, mini football field, and football. There is also the now ubiquitous large public art sculpture of the name of the city.

Adjacent to City Hall is Whitehern, a well preserved, stately stone mansion, built no later than 1850, for the city clerk. It was bequeathed to the city in 1968 for use as a public museum.

St. James Baptist Church was a designated property that a developer was allowed to demolish two thirds of because the city process allowed the demolition to be considered a minor alteration. That developer planned to build a 30 storey building, but went bankrupt. The site was then sold to a group of developers, who came forward with a new plan for developing the site that included maintaining the facade. Those developers have now sold the site again. So almost a decade after two thirds of the building was demolished, the site still remains undeveloped.

Steve’s Open Kitchen has been an institution in Hamilton for almost 50 years. The staff is friendly and the portions are generous. The waitress told us that two of her regulars are going to be married there.

This building, the oldest remaining bank building in Hamilton, was finished in 1908. It was inspired by one in New York City.

Gore Park is a wedge of land that did not fit into the square survey grid. Land like this is referred to as a gore, thus the park name. The ornamental fountain was erected in 1860 and in 1873 the land was laid out as a park. The current fountain is a replica installed in 1970. The park also has a monument commemorating those who served in the First World War.

We planned a short bike ride to the waterfront for the afternoon, but returned to the apartment to relax for a few hours first.

We rode towards Bayfront Park. These homes on Bay Street North have a beautiful view of the bay. They are a kilometre as the crow flies from the planned development on Pier 8, which proposes a 45 storey building which would be the tallest in Hamilton. Their distance hasn’t stopped them from opposing the new development despite the fact that housing is so desperately needed right now.

These 40 foot high panels of glass beads created by a local indigenous artist, and Hamilton‘s largest public art piece, were unveiled at the West Harbour for the National Truth and Reconciliation day.

This is known as filtered permeability. It is an urban planning concept that filters out through car traffic but allows walking and cycling.

The new park at Pier 8 has three raised areas that look like ships. One has tables and chairs, another a playground.

Across the bay, you can see the QEW bridge in the distance.

Two years ago I went on a bike tour given by Jason Thorne, who leads the Department of Planning & Economic Development in Hamilton. The parks on Pier 8 we’re still under construction then. It was good to see them open and I look forward to seeing it developed further with residential, commercial, and institutional spaces.

This imposing structure is part of a new amphitheater.

Lafarge Canada operates on Pier 11. There was a ship in today.

This is the HMCS Haida, a national historic site. It served in the navy from 1943 to 1963.

Collective Arts Brewery has some amazing street art. It also has a patio and a bar. We stopped for a drink.

This is another spot on Cannon Street where they bi-directional cycle track becomes uni- directional on the other side of the street. The transition feels a bit odd when one isn’t used to it.

We stopped at Relay Coffee in a building, called The Staircase, which is also a performance space.

We made dinner back at the apartment, and then tidied up, and loaded our van with the two bikes and all the stuff I had brought down with me. It was not a surprise to me, how much more we were able to fit in our van than in Patti’s SUV. What perplexes me is the popularity of SUVs given many owners claim they’re doing it for the interior space that provides.

It was a fun week exploring Hamilton, and I look forward to looking after Ralph and doing more exploring sometime in the future.

Hamilton- Day 6 – Dundas

We planned a short ride today, riding along the Hamilton Brantford Rail Trail to Dundas Valley Conservation Area, then leaving the trail and descending into Dundas for lunch and coffee, before riding back up, Cootes Drive, and through McMaster, and back to the apartment, for a ride of about 25 km.

We started the morning, the same way as the previous two, picking up coffee across the street, and then cooking our breakfast. I stripped the bed and put the sheets into the washer, then the dryer before we left.

We took a few residential streets and then onto Locke Street, a nice neighbourhood.

Brampton has started putting speed cushions on some of our collector roads. They’re putting four separate cushions across the width of the road. On roads where they previously put only two in the centre drivers were swerving onto the urban shoulder, or into the bike lane to avoid the speed cushion. I suggested using flex posts to prevent this, which I saw being done here in Hamilton this morning.

Here’s another one of Hamilton‘s water fountains, decorated in a monarch butterfly pattern.

We’re riding along the rail corridor here just before crossing above the 403.

This lovely section was beautifully shaded with trees meeting in the middle. My kids lived on the street backing onto the trail on the right hand side for a few years while at McMaster.

The trail continues through the parking lot at the Fortinos grocery store running for a short while through an industrial area, and then into a residential area.

The trail climbs steadily from just west of McMaster to the Dundas Valley Conservation Area.

This is a reproduction, Victorian railway station, and is a combination railway museum, natural history site, and visitors centre for the conservation area.

We relaxed for a while from our climb, then left the conservation area through that the main driveway onto Governors Road. The weather was perfect.

There was a very steep climb on the driveway that defeated us, and we walked our bikes.

We had a nice descent into Dundas. I like the way Hamilton has started putting bike lanes next to the curb with parking on the left when they want to maintain street parking.

I thought this was a cute slogan for a cheese store.

We had lunch at the Burnt Tongue. It was good.

There are some lovely buildings on the main street in Dundas.

We had lunch at Detour Coffee, which has a nice patio with quite a lot of bike parking where you hang your bike up, which we didn’t notice on our way in which is why our bikes, or just leave it against the wall.

There is a very wide multi path beside Cootes Drive on the climb from Dundas, up to McMaster, which is fairly gentle.

McMaster was once again a very busy place while cycled through.

The city, built a nice transition on King Street at Paradise where the bike lanes through Westdale transition from one on each side of the road, to a bi-directional cycle track on one side.

There is a nice protected crossing over the 403.

It’s a bit challenging to cross the traffic going onto the 403 at this point, but there is a protected place to wait to cross.

Unfortunately, the bi- directional cycle track ends at Breadalbane Street and the route for the eastbound bike traffic is convoluted, and longer than continuing along King Street, but King Street is only one way westbound here. It’s five lanes wide, though, so I’m not really sure why they didn’t continue with the bi directional bike lane. Westbound bikes can follow the yellow line I’ve drawn. Our route is the red one.

We did see this colourful mural which we otherwise would not have. And a sign for Relay Coffee, which we will try tomorrow.

When we got back to the apartment, I went up to get Patti‘s car keys and we took the bikes over to the car to load them before bringing down the rest of our things. I had forgotten that she didn’t have a bike rack for her car, and it quickly became obvious that we wouldn’t be able to fit everything in , with the two bikes on the inside, and I was also concerned that the two bikes might get damaged if they were on top of each other. So we just loaded her bike and took mine back up to the apartment. I phoned Michael and asked him if he wanted to come back down to spend the night again, and bring his bike, and we could continue exploring Hamilton tomorrow. He thought it was a good idea, finished up his work, packed and message that he was on his way down.

Shortly thereafter, I realized that I had forgotten to collect the parking pass from Patti, so I messaged her, and she was also home, so I phoned him, and he hadn’t gone past her home yet, so he went to her house to pick up the parking pass.

It worked out well because Megan and John are not back until Sunday and John’s brother was going to have to come and feed Ralph after we left.

Ralph has warmed up enough that I got kisses when I went back up after seeing Patti off and started writing the blog. He has not gone back into hiding with Michael’s reappearance.

We went to Amigos for dinner where we ate on the patio, then back to the apartment to watch an episode of Slow Horses, which we just discovered last week, but love it enough we are already in Season 2 (there are only 6 episodes per season).

Tomorrow we will ride to the waterfront after breakfast at Steve’s Kitchen which was closed on Monday and Tuesday, to Michael’s disappointment. So staying an extra day has worked out well.