Urban Walks

I have walked in London, Paris, Rome, Geneva, Lausanne Florence and other cities for many hours at a time. I would often walk in London until I got too tired to continue, and then I would catch the tube back to somewhere I knew, and then I’d walk some more.

I did the same in Rome and Paris. When you take the tube, or the Metro in Paris or Rome then it’s easy not to know how close places are. If you walk though. you do. That’s because you generate a mental map of the places you walk to and from. You don’t get that on the tube.

What is far, on the tube, is a five minute walk above ground.

Today I went for a morning walk, rather than an afternoon walk. I walked down to Nyon and the lake. The lake was flat as a pancake, so less interesting than at other times. It was also lower, in anticipation of snow melt.

I am walking into Nyon, at the moment, rather than the countryside for a simple reason. The roads that I like to walk are either too dangerous, due to drivers not respecting cyclists or pedestrians or ripped up for road works. I could walk alongside the road works but that would involve walking in long grass, which I do not want to do. I used to, but recently that hasn’t appealed to me.

By walking into Nyon I got to notice changes. I noticed for example that Place Des Marrioniers is now green, rather than covered in small stones. I noticed that the lake is low, ahead of the spring melt, and to allow for cleaning. I also saw the new buildings behind L’Usine à Gaz and more.

In the end the loop I walked was around 8.8 kms long over two hours. It took two hours because I stopped to take a few pictures. This walk, illustrates once again that we don’t need to get into a car to go for a walk. We can go for a walk from the comfort of home.

And Finally

I went for a morning walk, rather than an afternoon walk because I saw that Galaxus are not using the Swiss post as they usually do so a delivery that would arrive by 0950 normally might arrive at the last possible moment. Other carriers than the Swiss post load packages into their trucks at 07:35, but don’t deliver them until 16:35. That’s why I hate when carriers other than the Swiss post are used.

In 2024, with all of the tech at hand, delivery companies are still awful at allowing people to know when something will be delivered. There was a day and age, where half a day’s precision was fine, but in 2024, with the way that everything is scheduled, and GPS works, we could get an estimate to within half an hour or less.

There is also the matter of carbon footprint. The Swiss post uses trains and electric scooters, whereas all of the other carriers use fossil fuels and trucks. The carbon footprint becomes huge, as a result of not using the swiss post.

I went for a morning walk because I knew the carrier company would keep me hostage for the entire afternoon. I walked an urban route, because the rural routes I loved are now either too dangerous, because of cars, or unpassable because of road works. In a week or so I will revert to my normal walks, once again.