Many of us, I’m sure, have our special things that we like to do on holiday.. part of my enjoyment,and I often enjoy doing it alone when I visit a city particularly, one that I have never visited before, is to walk the city streets early on a Sunday morning before breakfast.
This early walk serves two purposes for me,firstly it keeps me disciplined with my walking . I sometimes have to push myself to get out of bed early when on holiday and motivate myself to ‘walk the streets’.. secondly,you can really take your time to enjoy the true character of a city. Never boring-always different, every city has something to offer even though some parts of the would have a higher pollution level than others, I take the countries major cities on their uniqueness.
I have walked dozens of cities on Sunday mornings and have never once been disappointed, to walk and observe a city in its ‘down time’ is quite different from when it is full of traffic and noise-people rushing and going about their business. I have found myself virtually alone in the City of London walking over Tower Bridge and down Thread-needle Street with hardly a stray dog on the streets, Thread-needle is the financial hub in London and an extremely busy and important part of the City’s functionality much the same as Wall Street is to New York, I love cities in down-time! Like New York? click here
Some of the most delightful of ‘Sunday Streets’ are the Streets of Paris,without doubt Paris stands out amongst the best of the best.. to touch, feel and observe famous landmarks away from the crowds that flock every year is the way I personally like to do it.
During the second World War Paris was the one place the Germans did’nt bomb.. purely because they apparently admired the architectural beauty so much, they did not want to destroy it.. although the sync in me may be urged say ‘why would you want to destroy something that you intended to occupy anyway?’ Oops! To walk across Paris at any time of the year and end up having breakfast in a cafe on the ‘Champs Elysee’ is a most delightful start to a day-there is a certain intimacy to Paris in early morning that is unique to that city the Parisian traders take great pride in their early washed streets.
I was entertaining a couple from Philadelphia about two years ago that were on vacation in Melbourne Australia,knowing these guys are world travellers and had been everywhere I decided to do the ‘Sunday Streets’ gig on them..knowing one of the partners is an architect I gave them an early morning crisp Melbourne morning tour of some city buildings that had their facades preserved and interiors gutted the Americans were extremely impressed and we ended up on the Polly Woodside’ an 1885 tallship permanently ‘parked’ on the Yarra River for a superb early breakfast, next time you are in a city on a weekend give the early morning Sunday breakfast walk a go!
If you would like to share a ‘breakfast’ or city story..we would love to hear it