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6 Cities, 10 Days: Best Planning-esque Things to See?

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ru_geo

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I'm taking a 10-day, 6 city (Toronto, London, Dublin, Paris, Munich) trip this spring and was wondering what things I should see/visit/do as an urban planner. What's the one cool planning thing I should see or do in each city? Even if you just tell me fun facts about the cities (all the more better to help navigate them!) I can observe while I'm there, that'd be great.

Any other advice you have about traveling Europe is welcome too!
 
Toronto: The PATH connects much of downtown in with an underground city walkway. Toronto Islands. Admire the ethnic patchwork that sews this city's people into a cross between being very cosmopolitan, yet still very tied to their own traditions and values.

In terms of architecture, BCE Place is phenomenal.

Dublin: Take the double decker tour bus. Do the Guiiness tour, Clifton Street and St. Stephen's Green. Walk the haf penny bridge.
 
Toronto:
- If you want to see some ethnic neighbourhood, then aim for Chinatown at Spadina and College and the nearby Kensington Market to see evidence of how it was a Jewish area that was taken over by the Portguese immigrants and and now taken over by the expansion of the nearby Chinatown. It also has a beatnik twist to it.
- take a streetcar ride.
- the BCE place has a "Richtree" which is a good, interesting glorified cafeteria restaurant. I'm not sure if there is an American version of this restaurant chain as I'm not familiar with all of the American franchises.
- riding on the streetcar to Cabbagetown that is neighbourhood one of the poorest postal codes in Canada, called Regent Town, which is under redevelopment. Cabbagetown was a poor neighbourhood that was gentrified in the 1980s. It has an outdoor zoo there. Take the Gerrard St streetcar to get there.
- The Beach may be interesting as it has a real beach-centred atmosphere to the neighbourhood. It's a bit farther out of the downtown area of Toronto, but it's totally reachable by the Queen Street East streetcar.
- Parkdale is another gentrifying neighbourhood and is easily reached by the Queen Street West streetcar.

London:
- do a walking tour. Visit the "City", the Trafalgar Nelson square, the Piccadilly Square/Circle, the Hungerford Bridge (a pedestrian bridge).
- visit a market or two. Spitalfield, Portbello, Notting Hill, Camden Town (which recently went up in fire so I'm not sure what is the extent of the damage and what is the status of this awesome market), Greenwich are all good.
- ride the double decker bus.
- are you interested in knowing about some of the implementation of postmodernism in the urban space in some areas of London? Let me know if you are.

Paris:
- The two islands in the middle of the Seine river would be interesting from a planning perspective.
- the Latin Quarter and the Marais are quite un-Paris as they were not modernized in the famous triangulation manner that is so pervasive in the city of Paris.

Dublin:
- Grafton Street is a real shopping street. It's a pedestrianized street.
- another pedestrianized area is the Temple Bar.
- walking along the Liffey River shows you a real range of what the city has.
- the DART (Dublin Area Regional Transit) is good and has improved in terms of connectivity since I was there in 2004.
- Howth (rhymes with both), Dun Laoghsire (pronounced as Dun Leary), and Dalkey (sp?) are all distinctive villages that became part of the metropolitan of Dublin

(If you want to see a bay that looks like the Bay of Naples, then let me know. I'll give you the details of how to get there.)
 
Six cities in ten days? Multiple countries?

You will spend far more time getting from one place to another than in the actual cities, so I hope you enjoy transportation planning. Toronto has a wonderful modern airport, the chunnel tunnel train is rapid but not very interesting.

My suggestion is to focus on only 2-3 cities. As international cities, London and Paris offer many wonderful sights for planners (historic and modern architecture, large scale planning projects dating as far back as the 16th century, wonderful urban fabric, and multiple transportation systems ranging from top notch subways to rapid bus lines and trains). Dublin is historic and has good pubs but not much beyond that unless you also plan on taking in the Irish countryside.

I could spend ten days alone in either London or Paris and never get bored.

ru_geo said:
I'm taking a 10-day, 6 city (Toronto, London, Dublin, Paris, Munich) trip this spring and was wondering what things I should see/visit/do as an urban planner. What's the one cool planning thing I should see or do in each city? Even if you just tell me fun facts about the cities (all the more better to help navigate them!) I can observe while I'm there, that'd be great.

Any other advice you have about traveling Europe is welcome too!
Click to expand...
 
First off, your insane.

Dublin. Hmm, for a planning geek I'd recommend starting in the far east, around the the new docklands area, take a tram ride to the museum, (don't go in it not very good really), travel back east and cross at Mathew Bridge, walk around the Viking Area. Go through Temple Bar, (a pint here will force you to re-mortgage), go to the lovely old market on Great George Street, go east and take in the regeneration along the way, Grafton Street, and down to Nassau St, east to Merrion Sq, get the DART at Pearse Station north to Connely station which is where you started. That's a days worth easily. It is compulsorily to go out and drink in the evening.

London. Jeez where to start! Erm, wow… okay whistle stop tour. Goto to Canary Warf station and look around, tallest buildings in the UK are there. Take the DLR under the thames to Greenwich and walk up to the observatory for the views. Go to Greenwich market. Take the DLR back to tower Gateway and go ooh ahh at the last bit of the original roman city wall followed by looking at the tower of London and the Bridge. Erm, go west into the city and gaze in wonder at the Barbican. Goto St Pauls and cross the wobbly bridge to the Tate modern gallery (its mostly free). Walk along the South Bank to Borough Market(London Bridge Station). Or don't bother and go west along the southbank to Westminster bridge via the London Eye. Cross the river to Westminster and see Big Ben. Walk through the city via Piccadilly and Covent Garden… erm… yeah anyway, plan it well and get a map, and you might get away with it.Go see St Pancras as the gateway to Europe using rail.Around Aldgate and Brick Lane is interesting as its the boundary between the semi-autonomous 'City of London' and the nieghbouring London Borough, so on one side of street is glass skyscrapers and the other typical english terrace housing.

Paris. Pretty much ditto … A lot of the Paris Metro is above ground (the orange line and the dark blue one I think) good views. Go up to Sacré Couer as the views are great:

France3.jpg

Get to La Defense, go and see the catacombs. Montpannesse… West Bank, latin quarter. Further out St Denis is a suburb worth going to as it's the bastion of the French communist party, has a massive TGV station and the Stade du france is there.

Munich is much more walkable and compact. I only went there as a proper tourist, its very nice. I've writen too much and must go do some work.
 
ru_geo said:
I'm taking a 10-day, 6 city (Toronto, London, Dublin, Paris, Munich) trip this spring and was wondering what things I should see/visit/do as an urban planner. What's the one cool planning thing I should see or do in each city? Even if you just tell me fun facts about the cities (all the more better to help navigate them!) I can observe while I'm there, that'd be great.

Any other advice you have about traveling Europe is welcome too!
Click to expand...

I'd like to reiterate this point:

b3nr said:
First off, you're insane.
Click to expand...

How are you proposing to travel between the European cities? Obviously London to Dublin will be a flight, and also out of Dublin. You're going to be seeing a lot of airports, train stations and roads and not a lot of the cities themselves I suspect.
 
Yeah good point. Recommend the Eurostar train between London and Paris, I dont even think their any flights anymore between them... plus at least you get a lovely ride with great views whislt your traveling. Maybe theres a night train between Paris and Munich. That will be fun, cheaper than a hotel and is a good experience.

You in luck. Theres a daily overnight train from Paris to Munich.
http://www.nachtzugreise.com/nachtz...B43020-brosch_re_cnl_fahrplan_(ab_09_12_).pdf
 
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I was in London in December and loved Borough Market. The London Transport Museum was cool, but I would skip it if only in London for a day. You could spend the whole day walking around central London and really enjoy yourself.
 
Toronto:
Cheap breakfast in Kensington Market, and then grab a transit Day Pass and hop on the 501 steetcar westbound. You'll hit multiple neighbourhoods (Trinity-Bellewood Park, Parkdale) in varying stages in gentrification. With the day pass you can hop on and off the streetcar as well.

London:
I really recommend the Camden Lock Market and (if the weather is nice) a walk along the Regent's Canal to Regent's Park. I also really enjoyed walking in the vicinity of the City. Not a destination per se, but the contrast between old and new architecture is really interesting and the place has a really futuristic/energetic vibe to it.
 
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