Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone had a good Halloween and NYC Marathon weekend. Our busy marathon rush continues this coming week here at Bike the Big Apple, but all has gone great so far. On Friday, Levi and I led 48 Dutch marathon runners and their family members through Central Park, Harlem, and Morningside Heights. I led the tour as Colonel Mustard from Clue, complete with the monocle to inspect the official New York City Bike Map as I showed the riders the route. Levi went as Moe from The Simpsons. His Duff beer mug was perfect for collecting tips at the end of the ride. The only missing accessory was Moe's pickled eggs, which came after the tour!
I'm not quite sure the customers fully appreciated our outfits but we made them smile and that's all that counts. The ride was only 3 hours and with a group this big, first impressions are everything; the first impression they got of us was a couple of oddly dressed, young, New York bike riders who seemed very foreign to them! We explained that it was Halloween and they asked a few questions here and there, but for the most part, I'm pretty sure they walked away thinking that this was essentially our standard look (I'm only half kidding here). Either way, they called me Colonel throughout the day and the beautiful fall afternoon made it hard not to enjoy the ride.On a side note, this week, Levi premiered the model he recently built of the Freedom Tower that is due to be finished in 2012. This impressive piece of construction (his model, not the Freedom Tower, whose foundation has only just appeared) is over 2 feet tall and is almost perfectly to scale. Levi will be carrying this model in a tube on his back during all future Lower Manhattan rides!

One Wet Friday

Last Friday began dry enough with a great visit to Socrates Sculpture Park. Several new sculptures have been installed and as you can see here, they've got one more on the way!

And, after noticing Bike the Big Apple's repeated Friday visits, a local artist introduced herself and offered to show people around this wonderful sculpture park on future rides.

As we made our way from Queens into Brooklyn, I got a call from Levi, the other guide doing Tour A that day. While listening through my plastic cell phone baggy (the rain had begun!) I could hear him saying something about seeing Beyonce on Bedford Avenue. Could this be a repeat of last summer's 'Beyonce wet in VIBE' contraversy? But, alas, we arrived too late (Levi and his group did get to watch her shoot a music video on North 7th Street just before we got there) . Below is what remained of the lingering crazed (and I mean Beatlemania-style crazed) teenagers.

This crowd waited tirelessly in the rain our entire lunch stop but she never made an appearance again while we were there. Fittingly, we parked our bikes near one of David Byrne's new bike racks nearby. He did several of these to promote a public contest to create new bike racks throughout the city. Here's a link to one of the finalists-- I hope to be seeing more of this around the city soon!

We all got back to shop completely soaked and despite concluding the day (hours after the tour was over) by sitting in the rain in Shea Stadium (a game that was ultimately cancelled), this wet day ended for me with another great Bike the Big Apple moment...

An Italian couple who spoke very little English had been trying to reach me all day to sign up for the tour the following day. We communicated a few times by phone but due to the rain and language barrier we were never able to hash out the details for their tour. They called again as we sat through the rain delay at Shea. The noise on their end made communication difficult. I couldn't make out much of their broken English, but all of a sudden I heard something I could understand, 'Sorry about the noise, we are at the Mets game.' I responded that I was at the Mets game too! And, it just so happened, I had a friend with me that spoke Italian!

I went and found the Italians at their seats and brought them back down to introduce them to their 'Italian translator' (who would be joining them on the ride the following day) and to Levi, their guide for the Tour B. They ended up having a great ride the following day and we all went to the rescheduled Mets game on Saturday night!

I've since considered opening a second Bike the Big Apple office in Shea stadium. Unfortunately, I will only be going to one, maybe two, more games and the stadium will be gone next year. Go Mets!

A beautiful weekend in August

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

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

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

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

Lots of riding!

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

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

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

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

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

Shakin off the blog dust

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

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

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

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

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

Hooray for flight delays!

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

Mayor Bloomberg Recommends

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