For the last few years, I have run in the annual Bloomsday race in Spokane, Washington. It is a 12 kilometre (7.5 mile) event that starts and finishes downtown. The course includes several stretches of running alongside the river, some sections through suburbia and one of the toughest hills in the world for a run. Spokane has made this event, in my mind, one of the best foot races I have done on the planet. It is very well organised and the people of the My results this year were a Finish Time: 1:09:09 and an overall place out of 47,841…
Place Reviews (Thursday)
Category Archives for Place Reviews (Thursday).
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Buenos Aires, Argentina is the 170th city of 100 000 people I have visited! Argentina is the 54th country I have visited! Bit more trivia: Buenos Aries EZE airport is the 2o0th airport I have been to! I rated it 84.3% on my ranking. Our plane touched down 23 minutes early into a grey 9 degrees celsius (48F) day. The curse of landing early and getting through means that my car was not of course waiting for me, so I got to watch the airport activity for a while with people greeting each other with hugs,…
Japan- One Year On from Tōhoku Earthquake
Thoughts with the people of Japan, one year after the horrific disasters inflicted on their country: March 11, 2011. More than 19,000 people died or went missing in the natural disasters, which also destroyed more than 370,000 houses. “The devastating disaster has had an enormous impact on Japan’s inbound tourism. While many areas in Japan remained unaffected by the disaster, they are also suffering from the sudden decrease in international visitors,” Tadatoshi Mamiya, President of the Japan National Tourism Organisation The number of tourists visiting Japan in 2011 was down by 27.8 percent on 2010 , the…
Marathoning in Hobart
I have just run a half marathon in Hobart, Tasmania. One of my 2012 steps toward my fitness goal is 12 major runs of 12km (7miles) or more. Of those I aim to do six half marathons. A half marathon is 21km (almost 13 miles). I am aiming to do a half marathon in Paris in March. Maybe one on the Gold Coast of Australia in July. Anyone want to join me? Or for any of them? Open to suggestions of interesting places to run. Today’s race: The Cadbury Marathon was relatively well organised. There were very…
My Favourite Cities at end of 2011
In 2011 I visited eleven new cities with a population of 100 000 people plus. This brought the number of cities I have been to with that size population to 167. The new cities were (in order of how highly I rated them) Seoul, S Korea…I was blown away by this amazing vibrant capital city. I ve decided it is the best city in Asia and my 11th favourite in the world! Here I am pictured in down town Seoul Exeter, UK….a cute small English city with amazing Roman ruins and a very old and grand Cathedral Dubai, UAE…as fun, spectacular…
My Top Twenty List for England
Today, I am going to try and nominate my Twenty Favourite Spots in England. What do you think? Lakes District National Park- Steamer trips on the lakes, steam train, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge Beatrix Potter and days of hiking in all weathers! The Yorkshire Dales -wild and stunning Stonehenge- if you get a chance get onto one of the few tours that actually lets you walk around the stones – it is mesmerising Little Venice and the Canal Path to Camden Markets, London– stroll through the countryside in the middle of London. Have walked this many times…
Seven hours in Eden
In the middle of Cornwall, England near the town of St Austell, England is a piece of Eden. The Eden Project, was built the Eden Project in Cornwall in a disused clay mine, opening ten years ago. The project is about regenerating the environment and introducing it to the public. For example, when the Eden Project started, the site was so bad it had been used as the scene of a ruined alien plante in a BBC TV series. Getting there Train to St Austell station. From there were two choices of bus. Tip: When buying the train ticket, add a St Austell Bus plus onto the fare. It…
San Francisco in 24 hours
I started the day with a run along the waterfront near the Embaracdero with the city on one side and the Bay on the other: -outstanding! I ran 5miles (8 kilometres). This got me ready for breakfast at the Ferry Plaza Farmers market. Held three times a week, it has an amazing range of local, fresh and often organic fruit and vegetables. I bought the most delicious peach I have had for years, As the juice rolled down my fingers, I marvelled at the difference to the supermarket ones I buy from time to time. No comparison.…
Way out Wadi Ramm (Wadi Rum)
Wadi Ramm or Wadi Rum as it is more commonly known, is a long valley cut into sandstone and granite rock in southern Jordan about km from Amman (see my post about that amazing city). It is one of the longest inhabited places on the planet with people living there since prehistory (at least 4500BC). The Nabateans who built Petra (see my Report on that amazing place) lived in Wadi Ramm.T. E. Lawrence known as Lawrence of Arabia based his operations here during the period of the Arab Revolt from the Turkish Empire at the…
Economists’s Top Ten Liveable cities
Melbourne, Australia is very excited that it scored 97.5 out of 100 in the Economist’s annual most liveable cites survey knocking Vancouver out of top place. The Economist designs the rankings for employers to use when assigning hardship allowances as part of job relocation but they have developed a life of their own with the rankings capturing the attention of people in the street and politicians. The indexes also ignore other issues like the cost of living in those cities, sustainability, and equity and other factors. For example housing costs in Melbourne are now some…
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