Melbourne - World's Most Liveable City

So how important are these things to you?

STABILITY

(houses in Fitzroy and Clifton Hill)

HEALTHCARE

(Federation Square and the "CBD")

CULTURE

AND

ENVIRONMENT

(Federation Square with New Year's barriers)

INFRASTRUCTURE

("CBD" - Central Business District from the Eureka Sky Deck)

(Flinders Street Station)

 AND

 

 (St. Kilda Botanical Garden)

EDUCATION

If all these qualities in a city are important to you.

Then you might have to LOVE Melbourne.

In last August 2016's Economist Magazine's Intelligence Unit's Liveability Ranking, Melbourne retained it's top ranking among major cities in the world for overall liveability.  For the sixth time.  

Its score of 97.5 is based on the five broad categories cited above.  Melbourne earned a score of 95 for stability, 100 for healthcare, 95.1 for culture and environment, 100 for education and 100 for infrastructure.  So you don't have to believe me, Mlle. Paradis, that it's a very enjoyable place to visit and probably, an even nicer place to live.  Take it from "Experts".

The Economist does not rate it for food but I think I've said it before....the food is FABULOUS!  And I will claim just a little expertise in that department.  More of that coming in another post soon.  

until then, HAPPY WEEKEND!

Evening Streets, San Sebastian

And after your swimming afternoon.....

the Parte Vieja (old town) awaits.

and enfolds you

in a gentle, gilt edged

embrace.

This is the Basque version

of the big easy, to my mind.

There is quiet.  But it is companionable.

Water laps at the Parte Vieja on two sides.

It's solemn power is both soothing and moving.

The patina'ed streets suspend you in an eternal late afternoon reverie.

Between hunger and satiety.

And when you have dined.

The evening persists.  And persists.  There is no hurry for night.

Just an extended moment for sifting through the remains of the day.

The gold turns to silver and pink.  And you realize that you have lost your heart to Donostia.

Like so many before you.  (No wonder the Basques want to keep it for themselves!)

The second weekend in December already.  How can it be?  Hope it's good for you!

Two Travelling Birds - I Want to Be Them When I Grow Up

How do you make romance last a little bit longer

and love a lot larger?

Find something that you and your special one can both be passionate about

 AND GO DO IT!

together.

Like these two do.

Discovering TOGETHER.

Indulging in some kind of play - 

like this large-scale kind that is called travel.....

Is, according to science, a wonderful way

to prolong your own life and that of your loved ones.

Engaging in new explorations - (and what's old, as if it's the first time you've ever seen it)

is a healthy, happy way to be in the world.  If only we ALL could ALWAYS be

TWO TRAVELLING BIRDS

minus the carbon footprint, of course!

How was your Thanksgiving?

The Rain in Spain......Gives It a Somber Beauty

Even Ernest Hemingway in "The Sun Also Rises", describing events and places

of 90 years ago in precisely this area of the world

said that France seemed more "suburban" than Spain.  I've seen pictures of the Costa de Sol and I know that "suburban" definitely applies there.

But here in this part of Navarre widespread commercial development has still not hit.

There are a few extremely new shops on the border selling goods that the French

come to purchase at cheaper prices than in their own country.

But you will not find the big-box stores, the hyper-marches, billboards, music blaring

out of speakers everywhere, vast parking lots, CCTV cameras, generic Chinese-made goods.

Instead, life is lived closer to the earth, as it has been for centuries.

Things are still made by hand, or very nearly so.

Roads are not straight, but they meander - according to the contours of the mountains or following the turnings of a stream.

Everything is still mostly made "for the ages".

The structures seem to be deeply rooted in the earth and immoveable.

Indifferent to change's buffeting winds.

 This is a good thing for any visitor who craves tranquility, a sense of life lived in common

with others, and continuity....the sense of knowing where you've been - and the reassurance that 

where you're going might look quite similar to what you've left behind.

It's a place to move gently and quietly through.  Almost reverentially.

To sit often and look around oneself.

A place to seek comfort or simply, rest.

To be fed generously - as Hemingway describes, the Spanish dine copiously compared to

the French.

To breathe in lots of clean air.  And plan a long walk.  For when the rain stops.  There will be calories to walk off.