On the New Jersey side of New York Harbor, the Bayonne peninsula sticks out like a thumb between Newark Bay and Upper New York Bay, with the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline in view to the north-east. It is a working city of around sixty-five thousand people, built on oil refineries, shipyards and the port, and it still feels like a place where things are made and moved.
The views here are the reward for the urban riding. From the waterfront parks, you can see the towers of Lower Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty and the giant container ships moving through the harbour. At Harbor View Park, a huge bronze sculpture, the Teardrop memorial, designed by the Georgian artist Zurab Tsereteli, commemorates the victims of the September 11 attacks; it was a gift from Russia. The Bayonne Bridge, a great steel arch crossing the Kill van Kull to Staten Island, had its roadway raised in the 2010s to let bigger ships pass beneath it, an extraordinary piece of engineering.
The finish of a Litchfield Hills ride comes after a long day. The Litchfield Hills in north-west Connecticut are a land of rolling hills, small towns with white churches, lakes and forests, with winding roads through covered bridges and farms, and the ride there and back is full of good curves. Coming back, though, you must deal with the highways of New York and New Jersey, with heavy traffic, tolls and potholes. The New Jersey Turnpike, the Garden State Parkway and the bridges and tunnels around New York are notorious for congestion, and the last stretch can be slow and tiring.
Bayonne has fuel, food and services, and the surrounding area has every kind of restaurant. Port Newark and Elizabeth, across the bay, form one of the largest container ports in the country, and the sight of cranes and ships at sunset is striking in its own way.
Ride to the waterfront, kill the engine and watch the lights of Manhattan come on across the water. It is a fitting end to a ride from the quiet hills of Connecticut back into the heart of the metropolis.