A Tour of Detroit with the Tour de Troit
by Rebecca on October 7, 2010
On Saturday, September 25, Dave and I rode in our first Tour De Troit. The Tour De Troit is “a bike ride that explores some of the city’s historic areas, takes in many of its most breathtaking sights, and provides bicyclists a unique opportunity to legally “take over” the streets of the Motor City.” This year’s ride, now in its ninth year, had over 3,000 riders!
We started in Roosevelt Park in the shadow of the Michigan Central Station, right across the street from Slow’s Bar B Q, and rode through Corktown, Detroit’s oldest neighborhood. From there we passed by the old site of Tigers Stadium, the Westin Book Cadillac (home of Roast), Campus Martius, and the Eastern Market. From there we crossed over the MacArthur Bridge to Belle Isle. Bell Isle is a beautiful park designed by famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead and is nearly 1000 acres. It includes a forest, beach, fishing piers, picnic shelters, zoo, conservatory, lighthouse, boat and yacht clubs, and the now defunct Belle Isle Aquarium. After leaving Belle Isle, everyone stopped for a rest break at Gabriel Richard Park.
After our rest break, we moved on passing Water Works Park and Pewabic Pottery. Then we rode through Indian Village and West Village, full of beautiful homes that were built between 1895 and the late 1920′s, Mt. Elliot Cemetery, St. Bonaventure Monastery, the DMC, Wayne State University, and the main branch of the Detroit Public Library. After passing through Mexciantown, we finished back at Roosevelt Park. Overall it was a great ride!
Afterwards, we enjoyed fabulous food provided by local eateries. There was pulled pork from Slow’s Bar B Q, pizza from Paul’s Pizza, salad from Amicci’s Pizza, Italian subs from The Original Gonella’s, burritos from Organaman, vegetarian noodles from Moo Moo’s Vegetarian Cuisine, and tamales with rice and beans from Honey Bee Market. We went for the pulled pork and tamales, both were delicious!
We are planning on riding in the Tour de Troit again next year.
October 14th, 2010 at 6:58 pm
My husband and I did that ride too! We live in Chelsea and NEVER go to Detroit, so it was really cool to see a place I would never drive to at a slow pace. (A very slow pace)
October 14th, 2010 at 6:59 pm
Jilly, you should definitely make it to Detroit more often. There’s a lot to do and more importantly lots of great restaurants to eat at!