A trip to Cycle Heaven

Isn’t it great when the journey is as much fun as getting where you want to be? With helpful signs pointing us in the right direction, we didn’t have much trouble finding our destination – the new café at Cycle Heaven.

Cycle Heaven is one of York’s best-known bike shops which started out in Bishopthorpe Road (blog post here in case you don’t know this gem of a street) where it still has a shop for repairs and accessories, as well as one at York Station for repairs and cycle hire.

It recently expanded by opening a third shop with a café in bigger premises in Hospital Fields Road.

You can get there from York centre via Rowntree Park in Terry Avenue.

Park up in the car park here and walk, cycle or scoot which is what the boys did.

It’s great cycling and scooting territory, especially for kids – the paths are actually part of the York Orbital Cycle Route which circles the city and begins and ends at the Millennium Bridge.

Rowntree Park itself is a lovely green space with a play area, skatepark and its own café, The Rowntree Park Reading Room & Café which is well worth a visit.

You cross The Millennium Bridge.

Check out the padlocks adorning the metal grids. If you’ve been to Paris you’ll know that the Pont de L’Archeveche is, or rather was covered in these love locks.

Last year the love tokens were removed from the bridge by Parisian officials because they they were causing damage to the bridge. This doesn’t seem to be an issue at the moment in York unless more people decide to declare their love here.

I wonder if Dave and Vicky are still an item? Tradition is that you throw away the key so I hope it all worked out.

The new Cycle Heaven building is on the site of an old military hospital. The café is run by the people at Café 68 (they already have a café in Gillygate and run the café at the Castle Museum). It’s a great space – with room for families, buggies, prams, dogs, bikes, scooters, you name it – you’ll all squeeze in.

The menu has a good range of salads, soups, sandwiches and cakes. The staff were very accommodating with the boys whose cosmopolitan taste in food is still under construction so it was sausage sandwiches all round for them.

The café is at one end of the bike showroom so I found myself eyeing up some lovely bicycles over my lunch…..

with some eye-catching floral accessories….

Just not sure they would get me to the finish line of the Tour de Yorkshire 2016 – what do you reckon?