Posted on 03/10/2011 12:38:04 PM PST by WesternCulture
Forget about Tokyo.
Anyone having traveled from Paris through Belgium, the Netherlands and the Ruhr District in Germany (like I have) wouldn't be impressed by a small, rural Far-East Asian settlement like that.
However, this part of the World isn't the only candidate to the title.
Some experts would say the largest "cityscape" found on Earth is the Eastern Seaboard Conurbation of the United States of America extending from Maine down to Florida, housing around 110 million inhabitants.
Personally, I've only visited the southern part of it (Fla.) and although there is plenty of farmland between cities like Miami and Orlando, I agree you could actually consider the East Coast of Florida as a more or less coherent urban structure.
A European equivalent of the Eastern Seaboard Conurbation is the so called Blue Banana Corridor of more or less the same number of urban dwellers (110 million) stretching from North West England down to Milan in northern Italy.
For some reason, "The Blue Banana" concept doesn't include Greater Paris/The Île-de-France Region of 11.7 million inhabitants. Maybe because of how some scholars wish to draw bananas..
Personally, I've always loved big cities. While landscapes like that of, for instance, the Tuscan countryside are breathtakingly beautiful, I also feel the bustling city of today's Florence is (Florence, home to the Renaissance, is the largest city in the Italian region of Tuscany. Although Florence/Firenze isn't exactly small, it's not one of the biggest cities throughout Europe). Brunelleschi's magnificent Dome and the medieval quarters nearing it where Dante grew up are extraordinary features of the Tuscan capital all of us ought to experience at least once in our lifetime, but so is also being stuck in endless traffic trying to bring home some bottles of Chianti wine, fresh pane toscano (tuscan bread baked without salt) and pecorino cheese.
One of the most brilliant aspects of human civilization is our ability of creating wonders like Berlin, San Francisco, Madrid, Chicago, Prague, Seoul, Houston, Stockholm and Buenos Aires.
You can bomb a city like beautiful Dresden for decades.
It will rise up and reclaim its identity outliving evil men like Hitler and Stalin.
(For further reading about The Blue Banana, The Eastern Seaboard, Paris and Florence please check out the links I've posted below.)
What?! No lutefisk?
Well pilgrim that seems OK by me.
Have you ever tried the Hondo Crouch ride/glide test ??
If you ever get to Terlingua Texas (on the RG river across from Mexico) you’ll see why it was popular pass time.
Get Jerry Jeff Walker’s Terlingua album - its described in detail. It’s what EVERY TEXAS TEENAGER was near required to attempt when his daddy let him drive the family car.
But in flat Houston it took real skill to pull it off.
Gothenburg, enhuh !!?? Got snow ??
I have 6ft+ here in my front pasture in far north Idaho.
My truck had it up to the hood for about a week - it sucks.
Tally Ho!!
Chirac? What does he have to do with the price of bratwurst in Muenchen?
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