Difficulty Rating:
1 out of 5
The ride starts at the Queensborough Bridge and we head over the Kosciuszko Bridge bike path into Greenpoint. Williamsburg and the distinctive historic sections of Bedford-Stuyvesant are next, then a pit stop in Canarsie Park before catching the Shore Parkway Greenway westbound. On the way to Bay Ridge we pass through Sheepshead Bay and Dyker Heights. Our lunch stop is in Bay Ridge on a street where the storefront signs are in Arabic and where you sometimes see women in burkas. The Yemen Café (yemencafe.com) at 5th Avenue & Ovington has a tasty, reasonably priced menu of Middle Eastern dishes. There is cyclist friendly parking in front in full view of dining tables.
Next door is Balady Halal Foods, a Middle Eastern market for those who may want to do some shopping to pick up some items harder-to-find in their local grocery. (baladymarket.com)
For those who want to bail after lunch there are NYC Ferry stops nearby at Bay Ridge and Brooklyn Army Terminal.
After lunch we cruise home through residential streets of Bensonhurst and Borough Park neighborhoods, and then Prospect Park, before heading back to Queens where the ride ends at the Queensborough Bridge.
cw 4/2020
