Saturday, September 19, 2009

derive


'derive': situationist french for, 'wandering' especially around a city with the hopes of getting lost in order to find something you haven't seen before...


we've had lovely weather for the past few days! so, i went trekking around norwich [which is easy to do being that the medieval roads run in circles]...speaking of which, i was using a book called [falsely] '50 walks in norfolk', to guide me...i have to agree with this amazon review:

2.0 out of 5 stars 50 walks in norfolk, 15 Feb 2009
By
Ms. Kate E. Percival "lighthouse dreamer" (Norfolk, UK) - See all my reviews(REAL NAME) I am a fairly experienced walker and this book is dreadful. We have tried out 6 walks now in this book and every time we ended up making our own walk up. The directions are very unclear and I don't know if the walks have changed (although I have only just bought it!) but the directions do not correspond to the walk. The only thing positive thing I would say is that the book gives you a good idea of places to walk, especially as a newcomer to the area.

eventually i found my way with the help of some confused locals, an a-to-z map and a head full of steam...i was happiest, just like the above reviewer, when going my own way, which i've done twice now: in norwich and right outside the city...




this photo doesn't reflect the sentiment of most of the people i've met, strangers and otherwise---probably just some teens trying to be 'shocking'...i remember what it was like...

in contrast, a bus driver, once he found out where i was from, spent the entire 25 min. trip recounting all the thousnds of miles of touring he'd done around america----way more than 99% of all americans [including myself] have! pacific coast hwy, bryce canyon, grand canyon, yellowstone, colorado river...


so...ambling around norwich...having lost faith in the 'walk' book, i happened upon the medieval city wall peacefully coexisting with more modern construction:




pondering our own current creations from a longer view, how many modern building efforts will leave even this much of a trace 800 yrs hence? how potent a belief in eternity is [was]! free access to peasant labor surely didn't hurt either...



speaking of eternity and peasant labor, nothing weds them so well as a cathedral! here's a shot of norwich cathedral:






i started getting happy walking on the edenic grounds of the cathedral...towards the river wensum which runs around the city and was probably one of the main reasons for its existence...as james says, 'you could canoe to france on it if you wished...'

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