Twinned Cities

Cartwheels in Ballinasloe: three very short stories from Kati

david-le-mud — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 11:58:36 -0500

Kati sends us this lovely card about her family in Ballinasloe; a lovely card with stories that must be shown as well.

It says: "My mom used to pause for ages before crossing beneath the arches to reach her home because, when the wind blew, the arches echoed the sound and it was like a high-pitched wailing. My mom was sure it was the Banshees that her gran was always warning her about.

Ten years previously, her father's courtship of her mother had required him to cycle three hours to the North, and back again, in his Sunday suit. One night he saw in the unlit path two huge flashing eyes. A moment later he'd gone flying over his handlebars. Turned out he'd cycled straight into a donkey. He'd ripped his suit and had to work overtime all next week to pay for a new jacket.

One summer, three generations of our family converged at Ballinasloe, on the green (pictured top left). We did lots of cartwheels and handstands and were very happy."

We'll have more of this, please! And perhaps a few very special maps as well.

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Water Parade

david-le-mud — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 16:41:43 -0500

Pokidi sends us a card from Amsterdam this time, because she wants us to see the fantastic aquatic parade with two beauty queens in a boat that looks like a car - or is it a car that thinks it's a boat? This is such a fantastic idea for dressing up in silly boats and having a festival for four!

You will also notice a houseboat, a lot of red paint, and a stone bridge. We know Durham has lovely stone bridges, but what colour paint is most often seen about town? And what about houseboats? The Wear is not always deep enough to float a barge, but maybe there are mystery houseboats somewhere else!

Thank you Pokidi for sending such a splendid card and making us laugh!

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Astounding Estonia

david-le-mud — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 16:21:16 -0500

Yanna sends this card from Kuressaare, on the island of Saaremaa. The big surprise is that this island also has a crater made by a meteor. The crater is full of water, so the island is a ring of land with water in the middle and water all around. Well, not exactly a ring, because the island is much bigger than the crater. As you can see on the map. But isn't it great?

There's also a decorated windmill. It would go well with a giant wooden horse some of us have seen in Turkey, at Truva (Troy). But what about Durham? Any craters out there? How about giant windmills? Maybe someone should build something.

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Dutch Countryside

david-le-mud — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 08:35:26 -0500

Pokidi sends us an image of water, trees and sunset from the Netherlands, shown 'just the way a 17th century painter like Ruysdael or Vermeer would have enjoyed!'

This scene is a bit like Brasside Ponds with the broad expanse of water, reeds and trees.

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The Other Way

david-le-mud — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 16:52:28 -0500

Here's a lovely card from 'funny, smart and i'm deffinitly crazy' Queeeny that isn't about a city, but about going somewhere. She translates it for us:

less hesitance and more risk, more often pause, instead of hurry, live today, instead of postpone, live our dreams, instead of dreaming our lives.

It could be about walking through the trees along the river, taking some time to enjoy what's there, taking some other way into town or back out again.

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The Durham Coast of Australia!

david-le-mud — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 16:36:19 -0500

Traumateddy has a great idea for a comparative postcard. This is a place called the Twelve Apostles, at Port Campbell National Park, Victoria. This scene looks a bit like places along the Durham coast. And look at that cute Wombat on the stamp!

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Splendid Architecture, Plus Cows!

david-le-mud — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 16:09:07 -0500

BigPikaChica sends us this cool little postcard of the courthouse and a mural of a cattle drive on the Chisholm Trail. Cows! Texas Longhorn, no doubt. I wonder if there's a mural of cattle anywhere in Durham. Perhaps that's a possible mapping adventure!

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Warm and Dry in Portugal

david-le-mud — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 15:53:13 -0500

mjbcosta says hello from sunny and historic Leiria, Portugal!

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Worth The Trouble!

david-le-mud — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 15:43:59 -0500

Gemielicious went to some trouble to get us this postcard of Lake Havasu City in Arizona, USA. We want to know just what kind of trouble it was! We also think it is quite entertaining to see the London Bridge next to palm trees in the sun! We also think it would be fab if Durham's Belmont Viaduct got a double row of palm trees along it! No speedboats though. :(

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View From A Snow Cave

david-le-mud — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 09:07:21 -0500

Iloinenpiru tells us of her night camping in a snow cave, which sounds like a splendid outdoor adventure!

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Finnish Seasons

david-le-mud — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 08:44:28 -0500

Xpaula's card shows rural Finland through the seasons, and teaches us the name of each season in Finnish. We can see some familiar flowers and trees, and a lot of sunny skies!

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Minnesota Stories

david-le-mud — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 08:37:04 -0500

Lucky12324 sends us a lovely and informative card about the 10,000 lakes of Minnesota, which are said to have been made by the hoofprints of Babe the Blue Ox.

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Citadel, Soroca, Moldova

david-le-mud — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 18:47:09 -0500

From Katherin in Chisinau/Kishinev

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Durban... Durham?

david-le-mud — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 17:51:26 -0500

from magependragon

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Heidelberg: water, trees, castle

david-le-mud — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 17:30:39 -0500

Lifrhasil says Heidelberg sometimes has more visitors than residents.

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Lappeenranta, Finland

david-le-mud — Tue, 08 May 2007 10:44:31 -0500

From piperita at Postcrossing. Are there any moose in Durham? What's the biggest animal around? What about the winter: can you tell us a story about the snow?

Gallery Here.

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Forssa,Finland

david-le-mud — Tue, 08 May 2007 10:42:00 -0500

From Nebel at Postcrossing. This is a lovely and historic former cotton mill now used as a library and museum.

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Town Hall, Copenhagen

david-le-mud — Tue, 08 May 2007 10:39:59 -0500

Copenhagen, Denmark, has many fine old buildings, so it is like Durham in the respect. The Town Hall is probably not quite so old as Durham's Market Hall, but it has a busy town square at the front, and is one of Copenhagen's busiest places. From ElsePels at Postcrossing.

Postcard Gallery Here.

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Eye Liners

david-le-mud — Tue, 08 May 2007 05:09:31 -0500

This is the text side of Little Mouse's handmade postcard. The 'eyeside' is here.

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The Eyes Have It

david-le-mud — Tue, 08 May 2007 04:56:09 -0500

Little Mouse has sent us a handmade postcard with some thoughts about being an eye - or a pair of eyes - and releasing an opportunity for serial puns on similar-sounding (homophonic) words. Aye to that, I say.

Postcard Gallery Here.

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Postcards arriving

david-le-mud — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 16:16:19 -0500

Postcards have been arriving via our PostCrossing connection. Four of them have been scanned and uploaded to a gallery. Others will be scanned as they arrive.

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stampost

david-le-mud — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 16:07:09 -0500

Postcard Gallery Here.

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KatariinaP

david-le-mud — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 16:05:57 -0500

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TessaH

david-le-mud — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 15:57:36 -0500

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merivirta

david-le-mud — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 15:56:46 -0500

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Twinned Cities/Necklace Park Postcard Project

david-le-mud — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 06:27:38 -0500

Have you sent us a postcard? Have you been sent a Necklace Park postcard? Would you like to comment on a card you've seen, or sent? Look here to see the cards we've received, and here for further blogposts on the topic.

The Necklace Park Postcard Project is part of the Twinned Cities strand, where people from other places tell us something about where they live, especially if it has something to do with outdoor activities (fishing! dens! skateboards!), water, bridges, trees, wildlife, livestock (cows! pigeons! critters!), old buildings (churches! ruins!), towns and countryside. That covers just about everywhere, me thinks.

We want your postcards and descriptions of where you live, the kinds of things you enjoy doing outdoors, your favourite building or tree, things you like doing on or in the water, what you do in the countryside or town. We also like fanciful stories, so if you know one about the cow that slept in the church, or the magical talking broccoli that lives under a tree by day and runs a jazz club in the vennels at night, please do tell!

Send us a card, and we'll put it on display. Visitors can leave comments here, so you may find a new postcard pal in addition to having your card seen and appreciated by people in Durham! You can send us a card directly, or via PostCrossing, the world-famous postcard-sharing website.

We will scan some of the cards and post them online for you to see. We will also organise a display or album for visitors to look at and leave comments. We will post some of the comments online with the scanned images.

To send us a card, address it to Durham Necklace Park Postcard Project, c/o Durham County Council, County Hall, Durham, DH1 5UQ United Kingdom. You may put it to my attention, but it should arrive if the above address is entered in full. If it's been more than 3 weeks since you sent a card, leave us a note here and we'll try to track it. (Or sign up and leave a comment below.) If you have a PostCrossing postcard ID for any card you've sent, please tell us the number to make it easier for us to locate and register.

To leave a comment, create a new account here or over on the right, then come back here and add a comment. (Comments are reviewed by web administrators before they're made public, so there may be some delay before you see it on the site.)

Twinned Cities

Exploring Santiago in Durham

david-le-mud — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 01:20:47 -0500

This tour explores Santiago de Chile and Durham at the same time, and takes in several interesting features of both places. The tour makes nine stops along six connected segments, starting and ending at Plaza de Armas in the city centre. There's a lot of ground to cover, and loads of stuff to stop and enjoy, so the tour could be spread over two or more days.

This post lists each of the stops briefly, and will continue the explorations over the next few days.

1. As mentioned, the starting point is Plaza De Armas, the original city plaza.

2. From there we walk to Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Parque Forestal, the Museum of Fine Arts in Forest Park. We will explore the park further at some point because it has many special trees.

3. The next part of the walk takes us across the Rio Mapocho toward Cerro San Cristóbal, the tallest hill in the city. The Metropolitan Zoo and a Japanese style garden are at the base of the hill, but for those prepared to make a steep climb, there will be a fine view south across the city.

4. Coming back down and crossing the river again, we will explore part of the Providencia neighbourhood on foot, by bus and tram.

5. Somewhere in this neighbourhood is a famous ice cream parlour called Sweden Freezer. Finding it will be our reward for exploring the side streets of Santiago!

6. After lunch, we will take the tram along Avenida Francisco Bilbao

7. Our tram journey will take us to the San Carlos canal, which we will follow back to its junction with the Mapocho.

8. But before we get to the end of the canal we will stop at the Tobalaba Metro station to look at the diorama of 1920s tramline electrification. The diorama is one of a dozen around the city, and is part of an extensive arts and culture programme run by the the Metro.

9. Continuing on to the last leg of our tour, we will walk along the river back to the city centre. The river is crossed by 12 bridges between Tobalaba and the Bellas Artes, so we might zig and zag our way back by crossing the river a few times, particularly in this first stretch where there are 6 bridges in less than a mile.

That's all for now. Feel free to add detours and extensions to this journey, and to suggest more places to stop along the way!

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Using the Rwong Map!

david-le-mud — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 18:00:17 -0600

What happens if you use the wrong map to find your way around?

Where do you live? Would you like to use the wrong map to navigate your town? Would you be able to send us photos of what you found?

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Wording the Park

david-le-mud — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 21:22:27 -0600

Earlier today I was given a secret message.

Bits of it are hidden throughout the park, and are constantly on the move. Come of them occasionally come together to make a new message, but don't let that fool you! The true secret message concerns a mystery that has been discussed in some of the other blogposts. To solve that mystery you may have to search the landscape for clues, then fit them to what you have learned online.

Twinned Cities

Twinned Cities

david-le-mud — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 12:58:17 -0600

Twinning is the name for cities that share similarities. They are sometimes called Sister Cities. Durham is twinned with Tübingen (both are medieval university cities, for example). Someone in Tübingen with a camera and some time could work with someone in Durham to photograph and share the things they have in common. Photographs of the Wear could be put next to photographs of the Ammer, Neckar or Steinlach rivers in Tübingen.

Is it Durham or Tübingen? Or both? Are they twins? Sisters?

Better yet, a photograph of a Tübingen building could be superimposed over a map of Durham. A hybrid map that had features of both places would create a new, imaginary city that you could actually explore, if only to see what was real and what wasn't. What would happen if you tried to walk around Durham using a map from another city? Would you find the marketplace? Would you find a river where there should be a church?

What other cities are twinned with Durham? What city are you in? Would you like to twin your favourite places with similar places in the Necklace Park? Could you make some photos of your city and match them with places in Durham? Would you be willing to share ideas with someone in Durham, and make a map that can be used in both cities? Do you have a favourite spot along a river, or a market, or a garden that you could twin with a river, market or garden in the Necklace Park?

Did you know that County Durham is twinned with a Navy ship (the HMS Bulwark)? Do you have a ship, or a boat? Would you be interested in swapping photos of boat trips, fishing expeditions, races, or anything else to do with being on the water? Let us know in the comments below, or by creating an account and making your own suggestions.

Technorati : Durham, Necklace Park, mapping the necklace, sister cities, twinning

Twinned Cities