Tagged With "Marvin Braude Bike Trail system"
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Re: Switzerland: First passengers for world's longest tunnel
That sure is a long tunnel, and from a country that likes to make them as much as the prairie dogs I see on the plains. I would think ventilation would be a problem in such a long tunnel. Would you know if the trains need their own oxygen system? Having driven through the Swiss tunnels by car before, which were about 15 km long as I recall, the air was extremely bad in them and made me regret not driving the scenic route over those windy roads across the mountains.
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Re: Qantas eyes more UK-Oz nonstops
After sitting on an airplane seat for 12 hours it's an absolute pleasure to ride an exercise bike in Kuala Lumpur Airport - before my onward journey to Oz. Just for 20 mins so the lower part of my body regains the will to live. I thought a few minutes jogging would help me - until I realised I had presented myself as a moving target to the Airport Police. The thought of a 17 hour direct flight in cattle class is awful. Maybe travelling in business class - with room for my arteries to...
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Re: Canadian snowbirds: Don't clip our wings!
I have a hard time feeling sorry for those snowbirds, generally retirees with the wherewithall to escape the winter. I suspect subsidizing lying on a beach for weeks or months wasn't something meant to be built into the system.
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Re: Boston in the fall - suggestions please!
Glad you're traveling again, Mac. Boston is my home town, and October is THE BEST MONTH. Where are you staying in the city? I'd walk the Freedom Trail if you're feeling up to it. Go down to the waterfront. Boston Common and Charles Street are fun places to hang out. Newbury Street is fancy shopping and also has a few fun bistros and coffee shops. The Science Museum is excellent. Plenty of seafood to be had. New England clam chowder is great if you have sweater-weather. Go whale-watching...
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Re: Wonders of the Modern World
Don't know how practical that giant Chernobyl system is...but if it works, it's a legitimate wonder, no matter what someone else should have done 20 years ago. What happened then was terrible and still worries me that it could happen elsewhere...but how does that detract from the work of someone who's figured out how to fix what remains?
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Re: Wonders of the Modern World
The Soviets have never been completely transparent about Chernobyl, but this is the story as best as I was able to synthesize it: It seems that the alarm system was malfunctioning (going off all the time) so it was turned off by the tech monitoring the system. He had the fuel rods pulled out of their cooling chambers for maintenance work, was distracted (remember, the alarms are off), then by the time he focused back on the task at hand the rods had begun to melt and couldn't be reinserted...
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Re: The Best Things To Do In Boston
From Logan Airport you can take the Metro into the City. When you've seen enough at the first stop - get back on the Underground system and come up to ground level at the next stop. Repeat as often as time will allow. Great way to spend 8 hours between flights. Only the Bostonian's would drink green beer on Paddy's Day.
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Re: August 5, 2017: The Potter and his Wife
An interesting insight garage med by poking around in unexpected places. The caste system is still a blight on Indian society, though breaking down in towns and cities due to the pressures of modern life (sharing transport for example), in rural areas it can be deadly serious when low caste people try to assert democratic rights
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Re: Visiting My Backyard—Riverside Park
It was my backyard, too, for quite a while. We lived at 99th St and West End, a short walk away in the late 40s and early 50s, and my uncles used to take me for walks there. My father tried to teach me to ride a bike there (our family story is that I learned, but he didn't teach...go figure). Later, I went to Columbia for several years; aside from anything else, it's where I escaped from tiny apartments and roommates to spread the Sunday NY Times out on a bench. Glad to see it's alive and...
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Re: Take a road trip in Elvis's 'last Caddy'
The 8 tracks would be part of the ambience of the car. You can still find lots of them on eBay and such, so I'd keep the audio system as it is.
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Re: Whom did you say was flying this plane?
The Air France flight 447 that went down with all souls lost, out of Rio, Brazil in 2009 would have benefitted from a greater system override of the pilots misinterpretation of their flight 'status'. Anything that can reduce pilot error OR system error has to be desirable.
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Re: Whom did you say was flying this plane?
I don't mind autopilot and I don't mind a second opinion from a computer, but I don't like the computer deciding when to "fly" and override the humans, unless with very clear program instructions (eg. If plane is clearly out of control. JFK Jr could have used such a system to prevent his plane crash because he was completely disoriented when he crashed his private plane)
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Re: Should Wi-Fi be free in all hotels?
Actually, privatized toll roads are the coming thing these days! Some states have sold off roads; others have allowed private companies to build from scratch. The road to Dulles Airport near Washington is a prime example. But the comparisons to WiFi here don't really work. No one charged extra for electric light in hotels when it was new; it simply replaced the gas lighting. It took 70 years of broadcasting to create a pay system. As for WiFi, or internet access in hotels generally, it's not...
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Re: Where in the World is Gumbo? 7.5
Originally Posted by PortMoresby: It seems to be "Leopold", a symbolic 1890's photographer, by David Clemons, Higgins Point, Lake Coeur d'Alene in northern Idaho. Well done Port Moresby. However there is a minor point about the location. Higgens Point (yes, this is the correct spelling) is about 0.2 mile southeast of the location of the statue. The statue is actually located on the 34 acre Coeur d'Alene Parkway, a thin strip of park land running along the Centennial Trail for about 1/2 mile...
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Re: How'd We Live Without Travel Apps?
I love Yelp as well, and there is a app called Happy Hours. It shows me restaurants with their own happy hours and happy hour menu. I also like hiking trail apps. Those apps tells me hiking trails in the cities I am traveling in (in the US). I recently tried Wishbeen. It is a web application though. It's a travel planning and sharing web. I like it a lot because it helps me browse travel itineraries made by other travelers, and I can easily modify them for my own trip. It also has a map...
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Re: Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit, Kennedy Space Center
Thanks for the comments, guys! The entire shuttle is actually much longer than I'd thought, maybe 180 ft. What was surprising is how small the living/pilot compartment is where the astronauts spent so much time. It's that space in front of the opened cargo door. The US space program is just a former shadow of itself with the retirement of the Shuttle program and nothing ready to take its place. But I was pleased to hear that NASA is working on the Orion project. It is a rocket based space...
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Re: Frommer's New EasyGuides: A Future for Print
What great news to hear that a publisher recognizes the need for practical budget travel information. I can spend ages on the Internet trying to work out a basic trip scheme. When a location is new to me, I need that overview in hand. It does me no good to read that the Paris' Luxembourg gardens are wonderful when I am trying to work out how long I can afford to be in Paris. It does me no good to know that there are marvelous chambre d'hotes in the Ile de Cite when what I need is a couple of...
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Nov 22, 2013: Moab before the storm
I keep coming back. Makes me want to hop on my (mountain) bike and cruise around! I'm not bold enough for a motorcycle, but do like my mountain bike. Love it, Mac!
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Re: Capital of Culture Series: Liverpool
Here's a good quote Paul PORTRAIT OF AN UNHEALTHY CITY - NEW YORK INTHE 1800'S by David Rosner Columbia University When a horse died, its carcass would be left to rot until it had disintegrated enough for someone to pick up the pieces. Children would play with dead horses lying on the streets. In addition to lacking street cleaning, the city also had no sewage system and no flush toilets. Garbage--which included both human and animal waste--was basically thrown out windows and onto city...
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Re: Buddy, Can You Spare 5.3 Million Dimes?
Yes, some facilities have no space for reassembly. The least they could do is hand people clear plastic bags for all of their little stuff at the beginning. Toss coins, keys, cell phone etc into clear plastic bag. Toss belt and shoes into clear plastic bag. Slam plastic bags into bin with your luggage items. Grab your plastic bags and luggage items out of bin at the exit and run for your gate, shoeless. At least people would not be fumbling around, trying to get their small odds and ends out...
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Re: Whom did you say was flying this plane?
Yes, Bling, but flying is a three dimensional activity, not a two dimensional one, at at gar greater speeds! And Google is not infallible by any stretch of the imagination. Sure, flying is three dimensional but the dimensions do not change. The ground is the ground, however you get to it. The airport runways do not move right and left. The skies are now virtual highways, with planes flying along set paths. That is data for the computer guidance system. Have there been problems with the...
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Re: Whom did you say was flying this plane?
Well, of course Bling is right that a completely automated system wouldn't have resulted in that situation...assuming it was functioning properly (note the Westworld reference above). That's why so many systems (cruise control in your car, autopilot on a plane, driverless transit trains) all have a human override built in.
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Re: WiFi on the way for international flights
Geosynchronous orbit is only close enough to planes flying in that area (ie. around the equator). A plane flying the polar route from North America to Europe won't be able to connect with a geosynchronous satellite. They will be connecting with a series of lower altitude satellites, not unlike global satellite phone system. These satellites are moving quickly, as is the plane.
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Re: Venice's ban on huge cruise ships suspended
A perfectly logical solution if, indeed, logic applied in a system that officially condones adding insult to the injury Venice is already suffering. I predict, not in our lifetimes.
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Re: Paris warned: bigger floods will happen
One flood management project - close to me - was deemed to be unviable as its cost of £26 million was beyond the value of the damage that might be incurred. The local population ( not experts in London ) whose homes were at risk designed a system of releasing pressure points for the flood water at under £1 million. During recent floods the knowledge of locals has been proven to give greater value than University Educated "experts"
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Re: Madrid's Electric Bike Share Tops 50,000 Sign Ups
Very cool! As I contemplate getting my own bike back on the road, hills are one of the issues (aside from traffic) and I've even thought about one of these...great way to get around a city that's bicycle-friendly... I found a picture...they're like regular bikes, it seems, not like a Vespa, so probably easier to park, too.
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Re: ANA Japan flight becomes flight to nowhere
When I worked in a library, checking in returned books to be reshelved sometimes the scanner would beep even though the barcode hadn't actually registered in the computer. So if we didn't watch the screen, but depended on the sound, occasionally a book would still be checked out as far as the system was concerned. A long-winded way of pointing out that may be akin to what happened in the case of the ANA passenger.
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Re: Where in the World is Gumbo? #40
A lovely little trail of clues and misinformation Karl! Excellent stuff and great fun, thanks. Keep 'em coming.
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Re: Is it time to regulate airplane seats? Chris Elliott thinks so!
I'm not sure if "mandating" certain seat sizes would do anything but raise prices, but it might be nice if they introduced a simple grading system. "A" for business/first class, "F" for the sardine can seating in the most cramped airlines. If I was less than 5 ft tall and weighed less than 100 lbs the current seating system would work fine for me. For most folks it's much too crowded, especially on long flights. All the worse if you have to have your bag under the seat in front of you. Let's...
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Re: Gumbo’s Pic of the Day, January 23, 2015: Postcard from Morocco: A long and winding road...
Mac, your photo reminds me a lot of the Hiram Bingham highway which winds its way up to Machu Picchu. We walked in to Machu Picchu on the Inca trail the first day we were there, but the second morning took the bus up from Agua Calientes. It was definitely a ride to remember.
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo (#72)
I'll confirm that it's a city transit system, and some parts are subway, although obviously not this one. Maintenance? That's been an issue...
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Re: Help with mobile phone for Morocco
Mobell and Mobal are one and the same, divided only by a trademark issue. Mobell is a British-owned company, and had to use an alternate name for the U.S. to avoid confusion with the then-unified Bell System, aka AT&T.
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Re: Welcome to the town of Dawson City, Yukon
That's the nature of gold boom towns, PHeymont. I believe another gold vein had been found in Alaska near the mouth of the mighty Yukon River, and most of the Klondike prospectors flowed downriver to it. I've been fascinated by the Klondike gold rush since I was a school boy in Canada, reading the writing of Pierre Burton (famous Canadian author, former resident of Dawson City, whose father was one of those who came here during the Klondike Gold Rush and unlike most stayed in Dawson). On the...
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Re: Italian Competition Authority fines TripAdvisor €500,000
I don't like the ruling either. Travelers by in large do a great job with their reviews and that's why TripAdvisor is so successful. I think it is harder for people to post fake reviews on booking.com because they require a stay before a review, but it's still possible As long as Tripadvisor is not claiming all their reviews are from real travelers or all are honest or trusted I think the blame should go to the few that are conning the system.
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Re: AirBnB vs New York. Update
Everything you say, P, is logical and fair. The problem becomes compliance and enforcement, not a separate issue. A segment of people will always try to game the system and it's impossible to enforce these kinds of regulations in such a complex and populous place. Even here, where I live in a relatively rural place, I suspect I'm the only one in a large county collecting and paying the short-term occupancy tax. I do it, not because I'm honest, but because I don't want to think about possible...
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, June 7, 2014: Parking Lot, Mui Wo, Lantau Island
The wave of the future: commuter bicycle lots. We featured another one last September as Picture of the Day, showing where Copenhagen commuters leave their wheels to enter the mass transit system at Osterport .
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo? (#39)
PHeymont can be such a tease at times... I'll go out on the limb and suggest these are the "truths" 1) It is a model train set -- very nicely done, by the way 2) It is in a formal display somewhere. Mac said " I have seen reports of some fantastic layouts in Germany". A model trail museum in Europe, possibly Germany? Anyone else have any ideas?
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Re: Gallery: Bicycles, Lucca, Italy
I hadn't thought about that but, you're right, even as narrow a view as the width of a bicycle conveys a good sense of place. And my preference for towns and villages, rather than cities. I have picture of a ferry bicycle parking lot on Lantau Island, Hong Kong and, even though it's a rural place, it appears that every person on the island must be represented by a bike in the lot, there are so many. But, though crowded, I remember it as park-like compared to yours above and still gives an...
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Re: Gallery: Bicycles, Lucca, Italy
I also find bicycles a pleasant subject, and enjoyed your collection, PortMoresby! Here are a pic I snapped last year in France. The guy was pushing his uphill towards the market.....
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Re: How loooong does it take to get to your airport?
There's certainly a lot of variation, as I also noted above. And sometimes the planners don't help much either, as is the case with all three of our New York airports, where the whole AirTrain concept is completely botched. At Kennedy, the AirTrain's stations are not in, but sort of near, the terminals. That means you have to drag your stuff outside, across the roadways, and then up stairs or elevator to the train. And then, you have a choice of going to the commuter rail station (about 3...
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Re: Banff National Park: Hiking up Tunnel Mountain
I can see why it's such a popular trail! It really is nice to see people enjoying the outdoors.
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Re: Banff National Park: Hiking to Boom Lake
Beautiful piece of country you have there DrF. As someone who's never seen a bear - what precautions do you take ? Looks like excellent cycling country too. But the thought of a grizzly knocking me off my bike worries me !
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Re: Banff National Park: Hiking to Boom Lake
Thanks, GarryRF. Bear attacks are about as common as lightening hitting folks, but it does happen. I've never encountered a bear while hiking except at a distance (could see them across a valley for instance). Here's what you do to be bear safe 1) Follow the park rules. They're very good about placing warnings (eg. trail closed, bear hovering over a carcass) 2) Hike in tight groups of four or more. Bears have never attacked a group of people this large 3) Avoid baby bears. If you see one,...
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Re: Sick of Your Credit Card Being Declined While Traveling? Visa Offers New Service
Interestingly enough, slow modems and no wireless were the reasons the EMV chip-and-PIN system was invented. The idea is that the terminal compares the hardware-encoded PIN with what you entered, and the transaction is okayed, even if the bank is not available to verify. Higher-value transactions are often deferred until a connection can happen, though.
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Re: Airbnb's plans for business travelers
As an Airbnb user, and also a host, again I have the feeling that the company, while tooting their "community" horn, has again proceeded with changes to the site with no input from users, but rather as conceived by the designers working in their own little world. Particularly as a host, it regularly becomes a case of "you can't get there from here". This interview is an example, telling us that corporate users will be directed only to entire properties, rather than all properties available...
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Re: The world's most expensive flights!
I enjoy first class travel - at budget prices. There's no better feeling than rubbing shoulders with someone who's paid a thousand more than me to travel in style. Getting an upgrade is an achievement - a sense of accomplishment ! Anyone can travel First Class ! It takes a Wiley Coyote to buck the system !
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Re: Calgary Farmers' Market
Thanks for your comments, Lester and Jonathan. There are several Farmers Markets in Calgary because it is a fairly large city (well over a million people). This featured market is the one on Blackfoot Trail, close to 77th. There is a market more on the western end of town which would be closer to Canmore. And both have those great savory pies, which are delicious
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Re: Safety tip: Hold that Instagram!
Another angle to this came to the front of my mind recently. A female friend is doing a solo walk along a long distance trail through very unpopulated areas. She attracted a lot of followers from her Instagram prepping, but soon became aware of a group of supportive women hikers advising her about known unwanted followers. In particular she was advised not to post locations until they were long past so it would be more difficult to track her movements. This could equally apply to any form of...
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Re: Financing Freedom - 8 Tips For Budgeting Your Journey
Financing Freedom #2. Advice to fund a vacation by taking out a 2nd mortgage on your home. That isn't freedom, it's the opposite of freedom. As cigarettes have been termed a nicotine delivery system, this post appears to be a link delivery system.
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Re: February 11, 2019: Souk Madinat Jumeirah
Generally agreed, especially if you're really wanting to buy something. But when the temperatures is over 40C outside, and you're looking for a cool place to escape to, then this is a reasonable option. The canal system did make it more interesting than most malls.