The Charles River Bike Path: the car-free key from suburb to city

 I fixed up my Dad's bicycle yesterday (it needed a new tube and tire, as well as cobweb removal!), and decided to take it for a ride today; after all, today's weather was predicted to break records.

After a six mile ride from my house in the suburbs, I found myself in Watertown near the Charles River Bike Path, which stretches all the way to Downtown Boston. If one wanted, he or she could hop on the bike path in the suburbs and check out Harvard University, the Museum of Science, Beacon Hill, the Bunker Hill Monument, Boston Harbor, and many more incredible sites, all in one day!

I have taken this path in the past, though not as far as I took it today. One fantastic thing I learned today is that a huge section of road (Memorial Drive, if you must know) and green space along the river in Cambridge near Harvard gets closed off to vehicles every Sunday. Though my pictures do not show it, so many people came out this afternoon to enjoy the peace; there were students using their laptops, families enjoying take-out, parents and kids learning to bike, couples, singles, the whole gamut. 

Boston is quite the sporty city: today was the B.A.A. Half-Marathon (put on by the Marathon folks) and tomorrow will be the Tufts Health Plan 10k for Women.

One can drop in a kayak in Newton and paddle all the way out to the "Haabuh" (aka the Harbor)

One of Boston's characteristics that most resonates with me is the mix of modern and antique; notice the old-school bridge with the new cable-stayed suspension bridge in the background. The Zakim is the widest of its kind in the world.

The colors of the plants are so warm.

This is where Boston University keeps its sailboats. I love the graffiti-covered structure in the mid-ground, but I cannot discern its purpose (it's not a bridge-perhaps it was in the past).

If this post incites anyone out there to visit Boston, please let me know!


(see info about the features of the Charles River Reservation here)