West Side-Brooklyn Loop (about 40 miles)

This ride begins on the upper west side, follows the Hudson River Greenway downtown, then takes you over the bridge for a nice tour of Brooklyn. The Brooklyn bridge has a fairly wide pedestrian/bike lane; the ped side was packed with tourists, but there were just a few cyclists sharing the bikelane with us. Once over the bridge, the route leads through some lovely residential areas of Brooklyn, through Prospect Park, and then down Ocean Parkway to Coney Island. The main amusement park at Coney Island was closed... semi-permanently it seems. Apparently there's a controversial plan to develop the site of the Astroland park and build god knows what. Happily Nathan's is open year round, so we stopped and had dogs and fries, which really hit the spot.

After lunch we continued along the lower New York bay and picked up another waterfront multi-use path that offered up some nice views of the bay and Staten Island. Beware the headwinds!


Winding our way back to the Brooklyn Bridge, we headed up Clinton St.. a beautiful tree-lined residential street full of brownstones and amazing historic churches. Heading back over the bridge in the late afternoon, the light illuminated the city skyline and the nearby Manhattan bridge.



Animules: some dead rats that I somehow missed
Total Distance: 39 miles
Elevation Gain: 1440 feet
Route (on bikely.com): West Side-Brooklyn loop

Dining Notes

For dinner we headed over to the Neptune Room, a nice little seafood bistro not far from R and J's place. I had a nice salad with arugula, roasted red peppers, and fried artichoke leaves, and an entree of lobster risotto that was rich and comforting without being heavy. For dessert we shared a devine vanilla panna cotta. Yum!