Fordham is the Bronx at its most characteristic, a dense, cheerful neighbourhood of apartment buildings, shops and street life around Fordham Road and the Grand Concourse. Fordham University was founded here in 1841, when the area was still countryside, and has been run by Jesuits since 1846, and the campus, with its Gothic stone halls and tree-lined lawns, is a surprising pocket of calm in a very busy borough. Edgar Allan Poe lived in a small cottage nearby in the late 1840s and wrote some of his last poems there, and the cottage still stands in a little park.
The Bronx Zoo and the New York Botanical Garden are a short distance away, and Arthur Avenue, the old Italian market, sells bread, cheese and cured meats that Bronx families have bought for generations. A proper sandwich here is as good a reason to stop as any. The ride that this point serves is a day on the Poconos River Road, about a hundred miles to the west and north, so the Bronx is the place where you come back at the end, tired and wanting to refuel before the final stretch to wherever you are staying.
Riding in the Bronx needs patience and sharp eyes. The streets are crowded, delivery vans double-park, buses pull out without warning and the potholes can be serious. The Major Deegan Expressway and the Cross Bronx are the routes to the north and west, and both are often jammed. The Bronx River Parkway, built in the 1920s, runs north through parkland and is a more pleasant exit, with gentle bends and low stone bridges, but commercial vehicles are banned and the police are watchful.
Fuel is available all around, though stations in dense neighbourhoods can be cramped and prices are high, so a sensible rider fills up on the outskirts and not in the middle. Food is the strength of the place, with Dominican, Italian, Puerto Rican and Albanian kitchens within a few minutes' walk. Park in a lit, busy street and secure the bike with a lock and chain, because theft is a real concern. A damp, cold evening in the Bronx may not be romantic, but a hot plate of food and a short walk will repay the effort.