The Three Challenges Community have a new challenge hosted by @mipiano, and this time it's about streets. It could be streets nearby where you live, or that you've visited, anywhere as long as you think they're special enough to be shared on Hive. Here are my selections.
The steep streets in Porto, Portugal
The first isn't a single street but a cluster of streets in Porto in Portugal. During my recent trip there, I found that Porto is a very hilly city. I seem to be constantly walking up steep streets only to come back down the next one and go back up another. There seem to be no ends to these steep streets, there was one every where I walked.
We walked down many small alley ways. Residential buildings lined both sides and some had some very interesting architectural features. It was quite difficult to see though, because they were so close. Then suddenly, a car came rambling down the very narrow alleyway and we all had to jump onto the buildings front door. It was quite crazy!
The ancient streets in Tsumago, Japan
The second street I want to show you is strictly speaking an ancient post town with one street running through it. The town is called Tsumago, and is on one of the two main routes connecting Edo (today's Tokyo) to Kyoto in the Edo period (1603 - 1868). Both Edo and Kyoto were important cities back in those days and many often had to make the 500km trip. Imagine walking that distance back in those days, you'll need somewhere to rest. These post towns provided that function, and there were 69 of them en route. Tsumago is the 42nd. I came to Tsumago a few years ago during one of my many trips to Japan.
In the 1970s, the locals started to restore the houses to what they looked like in the Edo era. They've done a very good job because you really feel like you're in the old days like you see in the movies. Cars aren't allowed here, there are no overhanging cables, and any modern-day utilities like electricity boxes are carefully concealed.
Anybody want to travel back in time should definitely come here.
The lights on Regent Street, London
Saving the best to the last, a street from my favorite city London. This is Regent Street, one end connects to Oxford Street the famous shopping area in London and the other end is Picadilly Circus. You'll often see Piccadilly Circus in photos of London, with the big neon light screens and busy traffic around it. Regent Street is lined with beautiful buildings on both sides, but I couldn't tell you what architectural style they are.
I find Regent Street the most beautiful at Christmas, when they have the Christmas lights up. The first image below was from last Christmas, I was there at late afternoon so you can't really see the full impact of the lights.
This was taken in 2021, isn't it just glorious with angels floating in mid air. I remember some years ago, the local authorities got stupidly politically sensitive, and put up some stupid non Christmas related lights. They said angels would offend non-Christians who didn't believe in Christmas. I'm not religious, but there's a limit to how much you should do to please people, and I think that was stepping over the mark. Good to know common sense has prevailed since.
You'll notice the decorations are the same in both years, I don't blame them for reusing the lights as I'm sure they are very expensive and it would be a waste to use them once.
And going back even further to 2016. I attended a light festival that year in central London, and they had these giant objects in Regent Street. They were floating mid air, bobbing up and down with the gentle breeze like giantic monsters. It was so lovely.
Have you ever visited any special or interesting streets? Come and share with us in the Three Challenges Community https://peakd.com/c/hive-100848/created. Details of this challenge can be found here https://peakd.com/hive-100848/@mipiano/the-three-most--streets
