I took my bike out with no particular destination today. I didn’t want to retrace my footsteps, but I did visit some of the same destinations as before.
About a month ago, I followed a walking tour in the financial district from the “Essential New York” book. Following are some pictures. I had lots of fun with panoramas. I also built on my lesson from last time; when taking pictures for a panorama, you have to make sure to fill up the corners or the visible rectangular part will be very small. On the other hand, once you do that you get greedy and want the corners to be very full, and, well, before you know it you wish you had taken a full 360 degree picture and a full 90 degrees up. 
Note: Most of these pictures can be found in a better format on my new blog, NYC Facade.
On my hunch from last time, I went up Riverside park to 125th street, then rode across 125th street and made a left to go up Convent Avenue. (Recall from my previous ride, that I came down Convent Avenue, which is a fun hill.) I noticed a pretty church there (on perhaps 130th street), but didn’t take a picture.
Continuing up, I went past the wreckage of a car crash: the wheels on one car had come off!
I reached City College at the top of the hill. Since this wasn’t my return trip, I was eager to have more of a look around than I did last time. I went around the east side of the college on St. Nicolas Terrace. This had some great vantage points of both Harlem below (far down the hill) and of the school’s buildings.
I also went up the middle of the campus to get some shots of the lovely quad. (Sory the picture is so darn big! It’s a panorama!)
I had noticed the Hamilton Grange National Memorial from St. Nicolas Terrace, and went down to have a look. (Click that link for a picture). I imagine it will be a little more attractive when it’s fully moved in.
I scanned around the adjacent blocks a little, and found some beautiful homes on 144th Street.
These grand buildings confirm, in my mind, that the Northern part of Manhattan — just as I had seen in Park Slope this summer — is the best place to find the attractive old buildings. And I have no doubt that they can be had much cheaper than the rest of Manhattan.
After City College and neighborhood, I didn’t really have a destination. I ended up riding down 145th Street, and then North on Bradhurst Avenue and then Fredrick Douglass Blvd. — an experience I am not eager to repeat. It is not a very nice area there, and it got worse and worse as I went north, ultimately terminating in the Polo Grounds (now housing projects). (I actually misjudged my location at the time, and thought I was riding next to Highbridge Park, not Jackie Robinson Park.) However, looking at the map after the fact, where I thought I was, on the leeward side of Highbridge Park, would have been a worse situation, as that is actually just a highway offramp.
I then turned around and went down 155th Street (actually underneath 155th Street, since I was underneath the ramp that runs to the higher ground, and I had to carry my bike up a flight of stairs), and over the Macombs Dam Bridge. I then went around Yankee stadium, both new and old.
Funny enough, Google Maps doesn’t have the new Yankee Stadium on it yet; there is just a track and parked cars
I then rode around to Grand Concourse, past the Bronx County State Supreme Court (a lovely building across from a large park, featured in this blog post). I rode south on Grand Concourse from there. I was going to ride back to Manhattan when I saw a pedestrian bridge with the words “Hostos Community College.” Recalling (probably incorrectly) that this was supposed to be a lovely campus, I continued down Grand Concourse, but saw no trace of beauty, so I turned around and went across the 145th street Bridge.
There was very little else to see on the way home: I went south on Lenox Avenue and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard (who are these people, I wonder? Wikipedia has an article on Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., but doesn’t say why it’s named after him, although I conjecture it may be self-aggrandizement; Lenox Avenue is named for a 19th Century Philanthropist.). I then went down Central Park West, and noticed the most lovely mansion on 106th Street (featured in a 1970s horror movie with a vulture?).
Also on 106th street was Jazz on the Park, one of several “Jazz” hostels in New York (who knew?). It appears to be related to the Jazz on the City hostel right near my house.
