I have no doubt that riding a bike is one of the best, if not the best, ways to explore a city. It covers more than walking, you can easily stop anywhere and you can reach the hidden places that you could not reach by car or public transport. I have decided that this summer I am going to spend a lot of time exploring Toronto, sitting on the padded seat of my bike.

So after last week’s official Toronto bike tour with Sights on Bikes, today I hit the road just to see the city. On a beautiful Saturday morning, I left the east end of Toronto and cycled into the Taylor Park Creek system, which is a beautiful, serene valley that surrounds a creek, completely devoid of vehicular traffic. I returned to Stan Wadlow Park near Woodbine Avenue, cycled west on one of Toronto’s designated bike lanes on Cosburn Avenue, turned south on Logan Avenue, and made my first stop at Withrow Park, where several merchants They sold a wide variety of homegrown produce and organic food products. The playground action was in full swing (literally) and locals from East York and Riverdale had come to enjoy and sample the bounty on offer.

Riding west on Hogarth Avenue, I decided to do an experiment: ride my bike while the camera was rolling to give my viewers a real sense of what this neighborhood is like. The Riverdale area, located south of Danforth Avenue, Toronto’s eastern main thoroughfare, is a quaint residential area with Victorian homes and tall, leafy trees. In recent years, many homes in the Riverdale area have been upgraded and renovated, and the resulting gentrification and central location have made it a very popular neighborhood.

I came to Broadview Avenue, a north-south connection between Danforth and Eastern avenues. Broadview Avenue overlooks the Don River Valley and offers several excellent vantage points of the downtown skyline. I stopped for the incredible panoramic view of downtown Toronto’s skyscrapers and watched the hustle and bustle on the Don Valley Parkway as the football players worked out on the fields below the embankment.

Just a few minutes south of here, I stopped at the intersection of Toronto’s East Chinatown at Broadway and Gerrard Streets. The city of Toronto boasts the second largest Chinese population in Canada after Vancouver and has three Chinatowns within the city limits. Chinese and Vietnamese stores on Broadview and Gerrard stretch from Broadview to Carlaw Avenue along Gerrard Street and sell low-cost produce, meats, seafood, and other general merchandise.

Nearby is a historic landmark: Don’s Jail was built between 1862 and 1865 and is one of Toronto’s most important intact Victorian-era structures. The jail was expanded in the 1950s to increase capacity. The facilities in the old section of the prison are very outdated and one judge in particular credited one person with three days for every day they spent serving in the prison, just to account for the harsh circumstances. The Don Jail was also the site of Canada’s last hangings: two convicted murderers were hanged here in 1962.

I then crossed the bridge over Don Valley and cycled north on Sumach Road to head into the Cabbagetown neighborhood for a quick visit to Riverdale Park, a public park that features sports fields and is anchored around Riverdale Farm, a public access farm. which is operated by the city. Starting in 1888, Riverdale Farm was actually the Toronto Zoo, but after the opening of the much larger Toronto Zoo on the eastern edge of Scarborough in 1974, this site became a farm to which can be accessed for free from April to October.

Riverdale Farm is extremely popular with young families, as it features farm animals such as horses, donkeys, cows, goats, sheep, pigs, and poultry. Groups of young children gathered around the horse paddock and checked out the various stables with different animals. I had to laugh when I saw one of the city workers walking two goats and several kids on a leash; he had never before seen a goat on a leash. Riverdale Farm features a central farmhouse, a tea room that sells snacks and refreshments, as well as restrooms. The grounds around the farmhouse are beautifully manicured and landscaped with a wide variety of flowers that are in full bloom.

Riverdale Farm’s north entrance is directly across from another historic Toronto landmark: the Necropolis Cemetery is Toronto’s oldest cemetery with many graves dating back to the early 19th century. Many of Toronto’s early famous personalities are buried here, including George Brown, the founder of the newspaper that became the Globe and Mail, as well as William Lyon Mackenzie, Toronto’s first mayor. Beautiful headstones tell stories of times past and of the cemetery’s 50,000 residents, each of whom left a mark on this city.

The area surrounding Riverdale Farm and Necropolis Cemetery is called Cabbagetown, a residential area started in the 1840s by Irish immigrants. The neighborhood’s name originated because the relatively poor residents turned to growing cabbage in their front yards. Cabbagetown has undergone substantial gentrification since the 1970s and today is one of the city’s most desirable and picturesque residential neighborhoods. Many successful urban professionals, teachers, artists, and politicians call this Heritage Conservation District home.

From Cabbagetown I cycled west on Wellesley Avenue, a major east-west connection in downtown Toronto. I crossed the intersection of Church and Wellesley, the heart of Toronto’s gay community. The Church Wellesley Village is one of Canada’s most vibrant communities and home to several special events such as Pride Week and the Church Street Fetish Fair. Dozens of shops, restaurants, bars, and outdoor patios make this a popular entertainment district.

I continued past Yonge Street, Toronto’s main north-south artery that was previously listed as the world’s longest street in the Guinness Book of Records, continuing to Queen’s Park, home of the Ontario Legislature. The park surrounding the Legislative Assembly of Ontario was opened by Edward, Prince of Wales in 1860 and is named after Queen Victoria.

One of Toronto’s architectural crown jewels, the Ontario Legislative Building was designed by Buffalo-based architect Richard A. Waite and completed in a Richardsonian Romanesque style in 1893. The northwest corner also features the apartment of the lieutenant governor of Ontario, the Queen’s representative in this province, since 1937. Several statues of famous politicians adorn the grounds, and the area on the south side of the building facing University Avenue is often used for ceremonial occasions.

Today, the park area on the north side of the Legislature was packed with vendors, preparing for Afrofest. Several Caribbean and African businessmen were getting ready to sell all kinds of food, clothing, music, jewelry and other ethnic products. I would have loved to try some of the treats but when I arrived around noon the food stalls were still setting up and none of the food was ready yet.

Heading west from Queens Park, I entered the campus of the University of Toronto, with some 60,000 students, Canada’s largest university, which was founded as King’s College in 1827. According to a 2006 Newsweek international ranking, the U of T is the first ranked university in Canada, coming in as #18 globally and #5 outside the United States. Researchers at the University of Toronto have been responsible for such discoveries and achievements as the extraction of insulin, the first practical electron microscope, and the world’s first electronic cardiac pacemaker.

The central part of the U of T downtown campus features some impressive architectural heritage buildings in Romanesque and Gothic Revival styles, particularly in King’s College Circle. Hart House, a multi-purpose student center was funded by donations from the Massey Foundation and is named for Hart Massey (1823-1896), the Canadian industrialist who founded a successful farm equipment empire.

My appetite had worked up and I was ready for a hearty lunch, so I cycled south down McCaul Street to Baldwin Street, which features two blocks of eclectic and diverse restaurants, most of which have outdoor patios. free on the street side. Indian, Chinese, Japanese, French, Italian and Thai restaurants are represented on this quaint neighborhood street, offering a wide range of eclectic tastes. I dropped into the Kuni Sushi Ya restaurant and satiated my hunger with a very satisfying miso soup and vegetable tempura while contemplating the rest of my route. Good thing Baldwin Street is a pretty laid-back bohemian street, so even with my biker outfit and messy hair I didn’t attract any unwelcome attention.

After building up my strength, I continued my journey south through Beverley to the Rogers Centre, the former Skydome, Toronto’s multi-purpose stadium with the unique retractable roof and home of the Toronto Blue Jays (Major League Baseball) and the Toronto Argonauts ( CanadianFootball). I was particularly fascinated by the outdoor sculptures on the northwest side of the stadium: “The Audience” portrays a variety of sports fans celebrating the accomplishments of their favorite team.

A couple of minutes west on Blue Jays Way, I stopped at a monument to Chinese railway workers, who helped build Canada’s railways in the second half of the 19th century. Many of these Chinese workers made up the main workforce in the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway in British Columbia. 5,000 railroad workers were recruited from China, and an additional 7,000 Chinese workers were brought in from California. Many of these workers became ill during construction or died while setting explosives or perished in various construction-related accidents. Living conditions were precarious and the workers generally lived in tents. The Chinese Railway Workers Monument pays a moving tribute to the contribution and fate of Chinese railway workers.

Curving around the south façade of Rogers Center I came to Roundhouse Park, a large public space immediately south of the CN Tower, named for the John Street Roundhouse, a locomotive inspection, service and repair facility built in 1929. The facility, today a designated national historic site, has long since closed and is now home to Toronto’s Steam Whistle Brewery Company, which produces a popular premium pilsner beer.

I continued to bike under the Gardiner Expressway, an elevated highway that connects downtown Toronto with the western suburbs, eventually reaching the Toronto waterfront in an area called Harbourfront. Surrounded by a multitude of high-rise condominiums, Harbourfront is one of Toronto’s premier entertainment districts, featuring restaurants, a high-end retail mall, galleries and a theater. An international market offers goods and food from all over the world. A multitude of tour boats of all kinds dock at the foot of the Harbourfront and free concerts delight the crowds.

From here, I took the bike trail at Queens Quay to continue into Toronto’s East End, finally arriving home after a full four or five hours of biking and discovering some of Toronto’s exciting neighborhoods.