San Francisco – An Alternative Touristy Ride (Experimental Migration)

There are at least a half dozen bike rental and bike tour outlets along the Embarcadero to Fisherman’s Wharf.  All of them offer guided and/or self-guided trips along the bay, across the Golden Gate Bridge and down into Sausalito, with a ferry ride back to the city.  If you’ve never been to San Francisco, it’s not a bad choice.  Except that Sausalito is pretty touristy.

Maritime Park

I was in San Francisco recently, primarily to check out the East Bay Punk History Rock Bike Tour.  I’ve always wanted to bike over the Golden Gate Bridge.  But, having been to Sausalito ONCE, I didn’t really want to do that again,  Plus, there are other ways to ferry around the bay (tip, check out downtown Oakland or Alameda).

So, do ride the touristy San Francisco side (especially if it’s your first time in the city).  And do ride across the Golden Gate bridge. But, then, come back and take in another side of San Francisco.

Fort Mason

Here’s how this ride breaks down:

• Embarcadero to the Golden Gate Bridge, passing through all of the most touristed areas, including  the Exploratorium, Pier 39 (don’t miss the sea lions!), Fisherman’s Wharf, the USS Pampanito and SS Jeremiah O’Brien, the Maritime National Historic Park,  views of Alcatraz, Fort Mason, and Crissy Fields.  Finally climb up to and on the Golden Gate Bridge.  Approx. 6.5 miles.  Consider which side of the bridge to ride.

West Sidewalk – Golden Gate Bridge

• The Presidio to the Wiggle, including an amazing bay view at Vista Point, a steep downhill reminiscent of the Streets of San Francisco, a short taste of Golden Gate Park and Haight-Asbury.  Approx. 7 miles.
  

The Presidio

• SOMA back to the Ferry Building.  The mapped route is pretty direct back to the Ferry Building, but this area is dead flat and pretty bike friendly.  If you’re interested in craft beer, there are several brewpubs noted on the map.  Approx. 3.5 to 5 miles depending on detours.

Need a bike?  You can’t walk 50 feet along the bay without running into bike rentals.  But consider treating yourself to an upgrade from Golden Gate Rides, Bike Hut, or Dandyhorse.  Tell ’em BeenThereBikeTours sent you.

Have fun!

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Bicycle Tours of Atlanta – Fall in Love with Atlanta Tour

While visiting family in Atlanta, an extended BTBT team rode the Fall in Love with Atlanta tour from Bicycle Tours of Atlanta along with a few other guests.  When we arrived, all eight bikes were ready to go, identified with name tags for each rider.  BTofA’s website asks for height and age info when booking to provide an appropriate bike for each rider.  That’s not only helpful to find your bike, but doubly nice since it makes it easy for the guide and riders to learn one another’s names.

After a brief test ride and a few fit adjustments in the parking lot, we rolled out toward the historic shotgun houses near the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site.  From there we began a rambling clockwise route roughly encircling the Little Five Points, Inman Park, and Cabbagetown neighborhoods.

After stopping for an iconic downtown Atlanta photo, we paused again to explore street art along a short section of the Atlanta Beltline (including one of three “tiny doors” that we encountered).  From there, we rode the Freedom Park Trail passing by The Carter Center.  A few shady streets later, we arrived at Little Five Points, Atlanta’s “answer to Haight-Ashbury”.  Little Five Points is proud to have exactly three non-local establishments:  The post office, a Starbucks, and an American Apparel.

After more shady residential streets and another short stint on the Freedom Park Trail, we entered Inman Park proper. Sadly, we rolled PAST the King of Pops HQ & Walk Up Window. (“Mmmm, popsicles…”)  Several blocks later, we stopped for a story about a pair of iconic houses, and their connections to the Coca-Cola company.  A bit further on, we discovered the butterfly flags marking the first neighborhood in Altanta to gentrify.

Next up, a fast, dark ride through the heavily graffitied Krog Street Tunnel followed by a photo taking break at the Cabbagetown terminus.  Heading west along Wylie Street, we encountered more murals along the concrete railroad embankment.  We then circled back to Sweet Cheats for a brief cupcake and bio-break.

Following the break, we pedaled a short distance to the site of the Fullton Bag and Cotton Mills.  A portion of the historic mill was converted to loft apartments in the late 90s.  Hundred year old walls overlook the inviting modern pool.  Just around the corner, we rode through a residence of a different sort, the Historic Oakland Cemetery.  The cemetery predates the Civil War and serves as both a final resting place and peaceful city park.

The final leg of the tour took us past the Ebenezer Baptist Church and the King Center, once again, before returning to the bike shop.

What We Liked

• Just about everything.  The location of the shop and tour route are nearly ideal to experience a cross-section of Atlanta.
• The bikes were in very good condition (a couple were brand new) and set up for us in advance.  The name tags were a nice touch.
• Walt was an enthusiastic, knowledgeable guide.  Sara was learning the ropes and having a second guide to help with intersections in busy Atlanta added to our safety.
• Plenty of water provided before and after the ride.

What Could be Better

• One of our riders had requested an e-bike.  She wasn’t able to use the throttle, but the pedal assist worked fine.  Kudos to Walt for emailing us after the ride to explain the quirks of how that bike usually works.
• I sure could have gone for that King of Pops popsicle  🙂

Should You Go?

Absolutely, highly recommended!  

Of note, Bicycle Tours of Atlanta also runs “Street Art” and “Twilight” tours.

Austin Brewery Map

Austin currently has 32 breweries (um, plus or minus, what time is it?) within the city limits.  Reaching beyond the city limits, there are well over a dozen more.  Even though cities like Portland have far more, “beer tourism” has become a thing.  And, because bikes and beers are also a thing, touring breweries by bike is a natural result.

In Austin, there are three commercial bike tour companies offering brewery tours.  Austin Bike Tours and Rentals has a “Texas Craft Beer Tour” focusing on the central city.  Mike’s Bikes offers a “Brews Cruise Sunset Tour“.  And, Bike and Brew ATX focuses solely on brewery tours with four different tours around town and the Hill Country.

Taking a city bike tour is always a good idea, beer or not.  And, if you like finding your own way, BeenThereBikeTours has a self-guided tour of the Eastside beer scene.

If you’d like to plot your own course, here’s our current map of breweries, including all breweries in the city limits along with some select locations further out:

If you’d like a rundown on each brewery, check out Eater Austin’s Guide

350 and 11 Or So Miles – Houston Mural Ride

Mural Rides are a thing now.  This past Sunday, I hopped in the car and drove 175 miles to Houston to ride in Bayou City Outdoors’ Graffiti Ride (we’ll let Columbia University sort out the difference between murals and graffiti for us 😎 ).

BCO is “Houston’s event, adventure, and social club”.  They sponsor a number of cycling oriented events in and around H-town.  This was the second Graffiti Ride, with more likely in the future.

Sixty or so riders started at Market Square Park and focused on East Downtown (“EaDo“) and the 2nd Ward/East End districts.  The first mural stop at the Houston Graffiti Building featured a dozen or so murals on several buildings (near the intersection of St. Emanuel and Bell):

We rode east from here and made use of two excellent bits of cycling infrastructure, the Columbia Tap and Harrisburg Hike & Bike Trail.  This part of town provided some great cycling conditions (especially on a Sunday) and offered a handful more mural sightings:

DCIM100MEDIA

We eventually looped back toward the start, but not before a brief stop for refreshments at the 8th Wonder Brewery.  The ride took right at three hours and was 11 miles or so.  As you can see the weather was nothing short of ideal.  Especially for Houston.

And, another three hours and 175 mile drive later and my day was done.

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If you visit Houston and want to see some murals, please check out this amazing guide by Ashley Cardoza, Carrie Colbert, and Maritere Ricee.  Best of all, they included this interactive Google map:

Happy Muraling!

Selfie Sites – WordPress

I think the more correct term is Vanity Site but Selfie Site seems like an amusing title.  I was expecting that a quick google of “vanity site trends” would turn up some obvious downtrends as social media continues to take hold of the interwebs.  Amusingly, I learned instead that “Sinks Are Impacting Countertop Choices” which seems reasonably intuitive to me.

The main reason I registered backamp.com back in 2007 was due to a dull education session with a work buddy.  “Dude, you have to get as short of a domain as possible“.  He was right of course, so perhaps some day I can sell backamp.com for enough to pay for a few decades of domain registration and hosting.

Anyhow, once you own a domain name, you may as well do something with it.  If you know just enough to be dangerous (me), you cobble up some HTML and load some photos to your host.  I had fun for a few years writing an annual web Christmas card, with photos and stories (way more work than writing/mailing Christmas cards), but it felt less laborious, plus I still have all the old files which don’t tend to yellow or need postage.  Email and increasingly ubiquitous broadband were a big deal in the early/mid 2000s.

Then, three things happened:

1. CSS
2. Facebook
3. Mobile

HTML is pretty approachable for many people.  CSS introduces some abstraction and complexity that makes hand coding a bit less fun and more complicated.  Facebook (and other social media) made reaching an audience simple.  And mobile added platform complexity (hey, wait, CSS is here for that!)

The point is, publishing “stuff” on the web became (and continues to become) both harder and easier.  Harder to roll one’s own but easier than ever to use a platform (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, Tumblr et al).

And to me, this is where WordPress comes in.  A WordPress.com account and a likable theme can take you to Web 3.0 (whatever that means) without being an actual software developer.  And for those (like me) with the inclination to fiddle with some bits but not REALLY develop anything, one can build a website/blog/e-commerce/channel/social whatever with a not unreasonable amount of effort.

So, why am I talking about this?  Because I’ve nearly cancelled my hosting four or five times.  WordPress.com provides a LOT of what someone might need to build whatever.

But I keep on keeping Backamp.  Because domain names are pretty cheap and I still have hosting needs for BeenThereBikeTours.  (Which also runs hosted WordPress)

“The chief cause of problems is solutions” — Eric Sevareid

On A Mission

San Antonio has recently completed major upgrades and extensions to the original downtown Riverwalk which is very much focused on food and fun.  The Eagleland segment extends the pedestrian portion of the Riverwalk to the Blue Star Complex.  The Mission Reach Trail starts here and provides cyclists and walkers access to four historic missions, recreational facilities, picnic tables, and views of river wildlife in a semi-urban setting.  North of downtown, the Museum Reach Trail is nearing completion for access to several museums and the zoo.

I rode from the Blue Star Complex to the southern end of the Mission Trail and back on a perfect February afternoon in Texas.  In addition to visiting all of the well cared for missions, I spotted a pair of golden eagles, numerous turtles, ducks and other water fowl as well as a large snake.

 

Blue Star Bicycling

Although I brought my bike from Austin, there are B-Cycle stations located at all of the missions as well as many of the road intersections.  B-Cycle would be ideal for short rides between two or three missions.  But the bikes are fairly heavy and the trail was hillier than expected.  If you intend on riding the full length, consider renting a bike from Blue Star Bicycling Company located in the Blue Star Complex at the north end of the trail.  From there, if you visit all four missions, plan on riding about 22 miles.

Of course, you don’t have to ride the entire length.  The trail is well marked and has frequent picnic tables, shelters, and water fountains, as well as easy access to local businesses.  Lingering at the missions and parks, you could easily make a day of it or just spend a couple of hours riding out and back.  Or just ride a few miles and enjoy this treasure that San Antonio has provided us.

Finally, after your ride, you might like to enjoy one of San Antonio’s oldest brewpubs, Blue Star Brewing Company:

The Blue Star Brewing Company was one of the first brewpubs in San Antonio that has been serving their uniquely brewed beer and food since 1996. Shortly after opening The Blue Star Brewing Company, owner Joey Villarreal and his wife Magdalena opened the Blue Star Bike Shop within the walls of the amazing brewery, and later moved to its very own location right next door. The Blue Star Brewing Company offers organic brew and a selection of locally sourced food, The Blue Star Brewing Company is the place to relax and enjoy a well crafted meal before or after an adventurous bike ride on the trails.

Tell them Been There Bike Tours sent you!

e place to relax and enjoy a well crafted meal before or after an adventures bike ride on the trails.

Munich Solo Ride

Who would have guessed that I’d return to Munich for Oktoberfest for the second year in a row?  Last year, we took and enjoyed Mike’s Bike Tour (review).  Lenny’s was a possible option for this year but the route looked pretty similar to Mikes.  My one free day was forecast for showers and rain all day.  After being turned away from Mike’s new rental office (the weather forecast was not good, happily it was also wrong), I quickly rented a bike from the original location and set off on my own tour.  Munich has an emerging craft beer scene that could warrant a tour of its own and I wanted to visit at least a couple of small breweries.

Riding south out of the Altstadt, the first stop was to be Brauerei im Eiswerk. It was easy to find but sadly not open until 17:00.  Next up was Giesinger Bräu.  Armed with both a printed map and GPS, the brewery was tough to find.  A friendly Frau sensed my uncertainty.  After a mishmash of English, German, finger pointing, and head nodding, I set off up the only hill for miles around.  And found Giesinger at the top, next to the all important “kirche” (church) landmark.

Following a couple of beers and a very tasty smoked fish salad, I headed back downhill and rode  towards the Oktoberfest “Wiesen” grounds.   The map showed the most direct route was via the busy Humboldtstraße.  As I looked for a suitable side street to avoid traffic, I crossed Humboldtstraße and discovered generous bike lanes and no need for taking the back roads.  Munich’s reputation as a bike friendly city is well deserved.

I rode around the exterior of the Oktoberfest grounds to get a better sense for the scope of the festival and took some photos from the Bavariapark hill on the west side.  I continued a short distance west through Bavariapark, the mostly empty Wirtshaus am Bavariapark beer garden, and the Deutsches Museum Verkehrszentrum  and stopped at at the Endless Staircase in front of the KPMG building to get a shot of this stairway to nowhere….or is it art?

Endless Staircase

From here, I rode north and east to the main pedestrian entrance to Oktoberfest.  Many visitors, including my group, arrive via the U-Bahn and miss the photo opportunity at the walking entrance.

Continuing east, I rode past the

Hauptbahnhof, numerous Trachten (Germanwear) shops, and a constant flow of Lederhosen and Dirndl clad revelers headed to the festival.

Finally, I rode into the Altstadt, stopped for an obligatory selfie with the wild boar in front of the German Hunting and Fishing Museum and worked my way back to Mikes.

Here’s the map:

The route is about 10 miles; it took me about four hours, with frequent stops for photos and lunch.

A couple of notes if you decide to take a similar ride:

• The Thereisenwiese grounds are home to Oktoberfest as well as a few other festivals.  Depending on the time of your visit, there may be nothing there to see.
• If I rode this again, I’d continue up the hill past Brauerei im Eiswerk and look for the bike paths that appear to connect more directly to the Giesinger area.  But do ride down using the route shown through the woods.
• Another fun alternative would be to ride from Mike’s across either the Maxilimilian or Ludwigsbrücke bridge and visit one of the beer gardens shown on the east bank of the Isar River.  Or go the other way around and end your ride there.
• There’s nothing magic about the route I took through the Altstadt and there are places on the pedestrian malls where bikes must be walked.
• Finally…..if you haven’t taken one of other Munich bike tours…do that BEFORE you venture out on your own.
• Have fun!