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#164391 12/18/06 08:50 PM
Joined: Jul 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Wilmington NC has a lot of those old streets, and Alexandria, VA, has a few left. The people in Wilmington who live on the cobbled streets are inordinately proud of them. When we were last there we took a horse-drawn tour of the old city, and were told that the City fathers want all the streets paved with macadam, while those who live on the cobbled streets resist such modernization.

In fact, according to the tour docent, the city has paved several of the streets only to find the macadam removed in its entirety the next morning. I took this story with a large grain of salt, but it's a good telling tale.

In years past I have bicycled through old-town Alexandria, and can assure you that cobblestones and bikes are not compatible with one another, particularly if the cobbles are damp. I seem to recall somewhat similar problems in Amsterdam, though the old streets there are smoother than those in Alexandria, which are true stones, four to ten inches in diameter, slightly rounded, and set into a substrate with lots of places for your tires to get caught and turned hither and thither. The stones in the streets in Wilmington did not appear to be as hazardous, though still it would not be a good place for anything other than one of those mountain bike abominations.


TEd
#164392 12/18/06 09:20 PM
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 5,295
Ach Helen , please forget about the light fantastic toe (the text lies right next to me)(no misremembered quote). It's just a song that came up as I read the word 'tread'. No big deal.
I'm more interested in your cobble stones . Belgium was and is the last country to have them. And one spot in Rotterdam still has them next to the old trading houses at the dockside.
We used to call them "children's heads" Don't know why. Crazy name.
But yes, they are heavy blocks of stone and hard to go on.
Good to know you know them too.

AnnaStrophic , that is cool. I have no other word for it.
I will have peace with that word from now on.

And TEDRemington Cobblestones and bikes are really a tricky combination. Yet Belgium still has bike-racing parcours that includes some cobble roads.But apparantly you know about and biked in many more places

Last edited by BranShea; 12/18/06 09:40 PM.
#164393 12/18/06 10:01 PM
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
of troy Offline OP
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
some where, sometime i read, cobble stones are dressed (shaped) stones with a rounded crown. the top of the stone is about 6 inches (15cm or so) in diameter, and rounding.

belgium paving blocks are bigger (almost twice the size) and brick shaped.

they are smoother too. they still give horses traction--though not as much as cobble stones.

(they are smoother than cobble stones, but still bone jarring, even in a car with rubber tires and a good suspension system!)

there are still streets (in tribeca--ie, just a few blocks north of the WTC site) that have not been paved over.

Residents like them, because they inhibit speeding.

#164394 12/19/06 09:33 AM
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
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For anyone maybe still wanting to check out the 'light fantastic toe':

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/l'allegro/index.shtml

trip...toe. Here, "trip" means to step or dance full of life and vigor; "fantastic," fancifully imagined.


read down and find the tiny link 'trip' No big deal but just nice.

Nice poetry associated with walk tread step or trip , to memorize while biking or walking on cobblestones.

Last edited by BranShea; 12/19/06 11:29 AM.
#164395 12/19/06 01:16 PM
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Quote:



AnnaStrophic , that is cool. I have no other word for it.
I will have peace with that word from now on.





Yes, it is a cool word. Too bad Gilbert & Sullivan didn't use any Portuguese in their operettas -- this would have fit right in.

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