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Day 10: A warm day in a warm city

It’s no coincidence that Denver not only has the highest educated per-capita ratio, but it’s also the thinnest and healthiest city in the USA. And what a lovely city it is. 5280 feet above sea-level, it’s known as the mile-high-city, even though it stands at the foot of those amazing mountain ranges we’d driven through before. Sweet smelling streets, more sunshine than any other place (300 days/year). Every corner was a cosmopolitan coffee-shop or bar. The centre of the city is semi-pedestrianised, and they have a rather enlightened public transport system – a free bus serves every single block of the main high street, the 16th Street Mall. Later in the afternoon we went to see ‘Gladiator’ at the cinema. Without spoiling the plot, all I’ll say is that while it’s a good bit of work, it’s like the first 20 minutes of ‘Saving Private Ryan’ most of the way through. In the evening, we went for a small drink, and slept soundly for the last night in a city to which I would love to return.

Day 11: Flying back

We arrived at Denver airport, the largest airport in the world a little early, but at least this got us some good seats (hint for the tall traveller…exit row). The airport covers 155 square miles, and is built far enough from the city to allow it and the city to expand all it wants without problem. Although it’s huge, there is little to do apart from eat. Fortunately, they had some free Internet Terminals. I checked my mail to find about 101 warnings about the “love-bug” virus which I never even got sent! At last we boarded the plane and as we rose into the sky the incredible agricultural landscape opened up below us. Last time round when we flew from Minneapolis, fields were perfect squares. This time, they seemed to farm in circles. Looking like some sort of pie chart, some fields had as many as six distinct colours; I couldn’t tell whether they were soil or crop. But this went on for as far as we could see, until we bumped our way into the clouds. An uneventful change at Chicago for our final destination, Gatwick. You know, although I always enjoy going away, one of the best parts about going away is coming back to a country which knows what I mean what I ask for a cup of tea.

Costings

5 days rental Buick: £129 all in
2 days rental Plymouth: £79
Airfares: £180 (included travel voucher of £378 from last year)
Fuel: £50
Daily Expenses (motels, food, fun): £40×11 = £440
Insurance: £56
Total, all in: £884 (and that’s a generous estimate!) / 2 = £442
So that’s an 11 day trip, covering 6 states, 7 major cities, two continents, two countries and 2170 miles for £442 each. At the time of going, that’s the same as a would have been paid by a Brit to sit and eat chips by a pool on an “all-in” package to Spain. Not bad, methinks! Oh, and I haven’t finished with the place yet……

Further links and reading

Before flying out, and in compiling this, I referred to many guides and sites. One of the most descriptive was the Rough Guide site. Anyone familiar with the Rough Guide books will find the complete text of many cities here, plus photos and more. For some top links, excellent maps, and stats about cities, travel.yahoo.com is a good bet.