On the move

Probably my all time favourite hobby is walking. Walk, walk, walk. I love to walk. Most days my only motivation to come to work is the nice walk home I can have at the end of it.

This year I have been keeping a tally of how far I have walked. Proper outdoor walks, mind, not just up and down the stairs at home, or around the office. By the time I get home tonight I will have walked 900 miles since the start of the year.

Another thing I really like is Googling. I've been playing with Google Maps, and they have a nice new feature which lets you measure route distances. This got me wondering: where would I have got if I had walked that 900 miles in a straight line, rather than back & forth to work, and round the Peak District on weekends?

My first couple of efforts weren't that successful - a construction site in Poland and somewhere in the Atlantic. Then I headed South East - and look where I ended up!



Faenza! It's rather lovely isn't it? (This photo has been nicked from Wikipedia - I didn't actually walk there and take it myself. Not yet.)

Obviously if I was to walk to Italy I would hit a few obstacles - the English Channel being the first. I also did a bit more research on Google and discovered I would have to climb this:



Which I must admit does look like quite good fun, although I've never tried ice-climbing and my rock-climbing days are well behind me.

I have always wanted to visit the Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche in Faenza so on my arrival that's what I would do. Not immediately; I reckon I'd need a shower and a nice lie-down if I'd just walked 900 miles through seas and over mountains.

They make some lovely things in Faenza.


(Jadranka Bentini)

Ahh. Isn't it nice to plan adventures? Back to work now, sigh - but soon it will be time for me to go for another walk.

Yippee!