Doreen had visited Mexico City a couple of months ago for a Park Conference. While there, the city had arranged for them to use the local bike rentals (Eco Bici, I think it is called) to ride up and down Reforma Avenue (sort of like main street) which gets shut down every Sunday.
We wanted to do the same thing, but it turns out that EcoBici is only available to residents of Mexico City. But we read that sometimes hotels offer guests a card to access the kiosks.
Well, you know how our hotel was so far.
We asked, and they said (predictably) that they don't have such cards, but some people set up a stand across the street and rent bikes - they get their at 9:30.
So at 9:45 we head down to the street to find this stand.
The bell boy told us that, well, it's a Sunday, so they usually don't show up until after 10:00. Then a policeman standing nearby said that there may be another stand over by the cathedral (a long block away)
We walked down to the cathedral, and sure enough, there was a guy renting (actually loaning) bikes! He said we needed our passports, but I convinced him to take our drivers licenses.
He took our license and our name, and said that they would need to take our photos when we returned. I asked why, and he said that was in case we stole the bikes. I pointed out that it would make more sense to take the photos before we left, but he said that the system was down.
OK!
We signed the paperwork, and he said that we could used the bikes for free for three hours! Very cool.
The bikes were a little small:
It was a lot of fun
and worth every penny of the rental.
The park was quite crowded.
Doreen said that this park was recently renovated as well. It is something like 740 hectares (1,829 acres) and used to have all sorts of undergrowth making it dark and unwelcoming. But you can see this it no longer the case.
This is the Alter to Patriotism
and it has a lake with pedal boats and row boats as well
and lots of vendors
Then on the way back we saw some interesting buildings.
and for lunch, we ate in the House of Tiles!
I might write more about that later.
We wanted to do the same thing, but it turns out that EcoBici is only available to residents of Mexico City. But we read that sometimes hotels offer guests a card to access the kiosks.
Well, you know how our hotel was so far.
We asked, and they said (predictably) that they don't have such cards, but some people set up a stand across the street and rent bikes - they get their at 9:30.
So at 9:45 we head down to the street to find this stand.
The bell boy told us that, well, it's a Sunday, so they usually don't show up until after 10:00. Then a policeman standing nearby said that there may be another stand over by the cathedral (a long block away)
We walked down to the cathedral, and sure enough, there was a guy renting (actually loaning) bikes! He said we needed our passports, but I convinced him to take our drivers licenses.
He took our license and our name, and said that they would need to take our photos when we returned. I asked why, and he said that was in case we stole the bikes. I pointed out that it would make more sense to take the photos before we left, but he said that the system was down.
OK!
We signed the paperwork, and he said that we could used the bikes for free for three hours! Very cool.
The bikes were a little small:
But that didn't really bother us.
Doreen looked real cute in her biking outfit:
We rode down Reforma all the way to Chapultapec park, stopping at the Angel for a couple of photos
You can see how small the bike was for me
But the Angel did want to stand on my head.
It was a great ride. We were part of hundreds and hundreds of people riding along on a beautiful day.
We got to the park, and were thinking about going into the Anthropological Museum, but we were a little worried about the bikes. So we mostly just rode around the park
It was a lot of fun
Doreen said that this park was recently renovated as well. It is something like 740 hectares (1,829 acres) and used to have all sorts of undergrowth making it dark and unwelcoming. But you can see this it no longer the case.
This is the Alter to Patriotism
and it has a lake with pedal boats and row boats as well
and lots of vendors
I might write more about that later.
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