(Please bid farewell to the lovely Shell road map, of 1936. I’ll have to find another one for the next stage…)

I awoke to the sight of leafy branches waving in the breeze (I slept with the top down again, loving it), birds chirruping, and thought, NEW YORK! I have a feeling that today’s posting is going to be a really long one, so why not do what I do? Grab a mug of coffee and settle down somewhere comfortable for this installment of Crossing the USA, top-to-bottom.

• Today’s Distance (miles): 47 (with all the stopping today it felt twice as far!)
• Time in saddle: 4h 52
• Max/min temp – in full sun (°c): 34°/20°
• Climbing (feet) : 895
• Calories used: 2,732
• Today’s 2nd Breakfast: Scramble, home fries, bacon and buttered rye toast at the Majestic Diner, Westbury, Long Island (sound familiar?)
• Cafe time: 5h 50

Packed and on the road by 7.30am, I stopped for the second day in a row at a classic steel diner, The Majestic, and had the works! My plan was get well-fuelled for the day and to sit out the main rush hour into New York in comfort, and with coffee.

Susie has suggested a theme tune for the whole day today, amidst a fantastic collection of musical suggestions from all of you, thank you! I’m loving listening to the ones I don’t already know. Anyway, it’s from, in my humble opinion, the best, the wisest (certainly the funniest!) film about New Yorkers that I know, The Odd Couple (from the play by Neil Simon). Please do chip in with movie thoughts of your own, there must be thousands of options.

I got such a big reaction to posting the ‘Relive’ video of crossing over to Long Islnad, I thought I’d another from yesterday. I’ll try to get one done for today as well at some point, so you can follow me into the heart of the city.

https://www.relive.cc/view/v26M7DdzpEv

THE RIDE INTO NEW YORK CITY: After leaving the diner I quickly got into a long, pleasant stretch of cycling along quiet (empty) residential streets, wide and smooth, and kind of following the Long Island Railway track towards Brooklyn.

The section cycling through East Brooklyn was a little, er, interesting, but no-one bothered me and before I knew it I was outside the Brooklyn Museum (with a short rain stop when I phoned Susie from Dunkin Donuts. Because she can track my progress, she already knew i was there. Freaky)

I navigated the leafy streets of Brooklyn towards my crossing over to Manhattan today, the Brooklyn Bridge. I’ve crossed this a few times over the years, but never like this!

Crossing the bridge itself was fantastic, due to the smooth bike lane that keeps everything away from the bikes, and vice versa.

Then a few minutes later I’d arrived on Manhattan

After a detour to explore Battery Park, where I made a new friend:

…I cycled into Greenwhich Village to stop and get a slice of pizza and a root beer at Joe’s famous pizza place.

Followed by an alfresco $8 ice cream – hazelnut and (guess what, Susie?) vanilla.

Then it was straight up 6th Avenue, Avenue of the Americas, to Central Park.

The park was such fun on a bike. Again, it’s the first time that I’ve ever done this. I kept recognising bits I’d been to before, but just flew past them.

I called out to chap riding a Brompton, to say, well, ‘Nice Brompton!’, and he turned out to be an astrophysicist who worked at the Max Planck Institute in Heidlberg until recently. We rode along together for the whole of the northern half of the park, talking about his work, and folding bikes (of course). Then he peeled off with a nod of the head and was gone. His parting words were, ‘My father was a poet and composer!’, so now I’m left wondering who the hell that was I just met…any ideas, all of you clever astrophysicists, poets and composers out there?

Since Seinfeld has been cropping up a bit on the blog lately – I think it must have been the proximity to New York – I just had to make a short diversion, before arriving at my host’s for the night (and tomorrow), Susie’s relative Jacob Brown. I swung over to Broadway for an iced coffee and muffin at the one and only Tom’s Diner, fictional home to every one of those fabulous booth-conversations between Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer in the TV series, where it was called Monk’s Cafe. Only the exterior was used, so it looks nothing like it inside.

But the piece of music I’m going to post here isn’t the Seinfeld theme tune, with its weird popping effects and slap-bass guitar. Here’s something else that this place is famous for, and that I believe I once posted on this blog in connection with something else. Can anyone remember?:

Then it was a short ride over to Harlem, near Morningside Park, where I met Jacob at his apartment, hung my bike from the wall in his building’s garage (minus those excellent panniers – thank you, Ortliebs), and went up to the great apartment he shares with Chris. They both work in the finance sector in New York. Then after a shower we headed out for dinner nearby – udon chicken noodles and sapporo beers, then we returned to raid Jacob’s extensive ice cream collection. It’s been an incredible day, unforgettable and worth every ounce of effort its taken to get here. To make things even sweeter, tomorrow, due to the specialness of being here in the city, has been designated by the management as a FREE DAY!

THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC: Another great suggestion from John Mills from yesterday, Times Square Ballet from Bernstein’s On The Town. John and I used to play this often with the John Wilson Orchestra a few years back.

SIGNS THAT ARE FUNNY: Just one today, due to extreme navigating!