I have to agree, the parks here are beautiful. Our High Park in Toronto is more like a forest than a park. I love it. And there are trees everywhere. In Prague I can walk for hours without seeing a single tree.

Doug, speaking of wide boulevards, you don’t think Paseo Del Prado in Madrid is pretty?

George - 30 March 2012 11:17 AM

I have to agree, the parks here are beautiful. Our High Park in Toronto is more like a forest than a park. I love it. And there are trees everywhere. In Prague I can walk for hours without seeing a single tree.

Doug, speaking of wide boulevards, you don’t think Paseo Del Prado in Madrid is pretty?

Honestly, I don’t love it. (“Chacun à son goût”). I like the trees, they are very pretty, but I prefer narrower streets, like those you find in the Barrio de Salamanca, or the Eixample in Barcelona.

I should add—because it shows I am abnormal in this regard—that I don’t like the Champs Elysées in Paris either, for the same reason. Much too wide.

Interesting. I always find it very strange when people don’t like the same things as me. 

George - 30 March 2012 11:30 AM

Interesting. I always find it very strange when people don’t like the same things as me. 

No accounting for taste ...

I should add that some of my favorite walking cities in Spain are jewels like Toledo, Sevilla, parts of Córdoba and Granada, because they preserve so much of the medieval character of the streets. It can be tough sometimes to maneuver between cars, but there’s always a lot to involve the eye, down at human level.

Re. the Paseo in Madrid, I’m not saying it’s ugly, but given a choice, I’d prefer to walk on a street where I can look in windows, shops, cafés, etc. rather than a large plaza with x lanes of traffic.

I see. I like little cafés too, but I also enjoy sitting on a bench on el Paseo Del Prado, smoke cigarettes and stare at people walking. And FWIW, my favourite place in Spain is probably Cuenca. I have always preferred smaller towns to big cities or touristy places.

George - 30 March 2012 07:06 AM

What I don’t like about the big north American cities (both in the U.S. and Canada) is the lack of open space. There are virtually no plazas and in Toronto, for example, we have only one wide avenue (the University Avenue). I remember how surprised I was the first time I saw the Time Squares, as I expected it to be much bigger.

I have always imagined Washington to have a lot of open space. Does it?

Like Traveler says, the Mall is an open space; it’s a flat crappy field in front of the capitol building.  There’s also Rock Creek park - which is where the National Zoo is.  Much of the rest of the city is snobby hipster neighborhoods, and run down projects. You’re not missing anything special.