Staten Island

Last weekend I wanted to see the S.I. I had been before, once or twice, just around the ferry terminal at the North Tip. This time I wanted to ride down to the Verrazzano Bridge, and a litle further to South Shore Boardwalk.
S.I. doesn't feel much like NYC. It is much more open, hillier, blander... In fact, it feels like your run-off-the-mill industrious, lower-middle-class basic American port town. Some nice buildings, plenty of gas-stations, basic one-family houses. Not quite ugly, not pretty...
But the bridge is impressive, and one can see it well from the old military base right under the bridge. Some of the old harbour defence network was here, but is no longer in use. The bridge has no pedestrian/bikepath, otherwise it would've been nice to ride over into B'lyn. Seems the only chance to cross it is to run the marathon, and dang, I just missed my chance last week!

The bridge and the fort


Some of the 35 000 marathoners in Fort Greene, B'lyn




These patterns in a "Everything must go! Final blow-out Sale!!" china warehouse just struck me as funny/beautiful.

To conlude, visit S.I. y'all! >;)
And happy thanksgiving or something.
pax
mb