This blog is moving

This blog has now been moved to a different site where you can continue to follow my travels. In a few months I will start a more than a year long trip together with my Swiss boyfriend Andy. If you click on the link below you can read more about it and sign up to follow me which means you will get an email when I post something new. You can also read all old posts from this blog which will eventually be deleted.

http://globitrotter.com/

Travel magazines

Every time I travel I buy travel magazines. Often I fall for the glossy ones with luxurious spa resorts on the front page. It looks so wonderful I can not help but buying one or two and dream away for a little while. But because they only write about resorts where it would cost a small fortune to spend only a weekend I end up rather depressed instead of anxious to go on my next holiday. Every time. I know that the length of my holidays does not go together with these hotels and when I think about it normally not what I like to do on my holidays either.

Recently, during a long lay over at LAX, it was time for a new purchase. This time I think I found something better. A not so glossy front page with a rick shaw bike driver from Cuba caught my eye. This magazine, Afar, focused more on activities like surfing and rock climbing rather than spa and picture perfect beach resorts. I felt much better. All of a sudden I had an urge to find that little island in the Caribbean that was so hard to get to or go climbing in Cuba. It was refreshing that they focused more on what to do and experience than where to sleep, shop or drink exclusive drinks. These things usually fall into place anyway once you know where you want to go and what to do. I am more looking for inspiration and not a list of hotels and shops when I read about travel and this suited me just perfectly.

The vision that became reality

This winter the Phoenix Art Museum has an exhibition about Frank Lloyd Wright, the well known architect who lived and worked partly in Phoenix. He was active in the beginning of the century and made some very famous buildings and homes, the most famous probably Falling Water and the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

The most fascinating thing about this exhibition was that I understood more about Phoenix and where the inspiration for the city structure had come from. A lot of Frank Lloyd Wright's work has an art deco style which I am very fond of. It is somehow both old and futuristic. I can not help thinking about Fritz Lang's Metropolis when I see art deco architecture. But the interesting thing I learned at this exhibition was that Lloyd Wright also created a plan for the perfect city, Broadacre City. It was the beginning of the century, cars were not very common but there was a dream of wealth and technically advanced future. Naturally his plan evolved around cars and the idea that everyone should have an acre of land. To make this work the city became very spread out and in order to get around quickly a network of roads were a central part of the planning. Looking at his sketches makes you realize that this is exactly what Phoenix looks like today. This futuristic city that has become reality is as functional and lifeless as the drawings show.

East Phoenix Metro Area from Superstition Ridge

The thought of giving everyone a fair piece of property close to everything they need is of course very nice. But therefore it also lacks the atmosphere that so many other cities do have and make them worth visiting. There is no city center where people spontaneously meet and where you can go shopping, catch a movie, a theater, visit markets, have coffee or dinner with friends and stroll around and do some people watching, all in the same place. Honestly, I have a very hard time to say why anyone should visit Phoenix as a tourist. It is a comfortable city to live in but does not offer a lot to the visitor. Unless the city structure itself makes you want to come and see it with your own eyes. The thing many people visit Phoenix for is the weather, to play golf or other sports when it is too cold in other places. Many baseball teams for example has their spring training in Phoenix which attracts a lot of tourists. Fair enough, the winters here are very comfortable and also my favorite thing about Phoenix.

Coming from a place where public transport is the best way of getting around and having a car is actually more of a hassle than useful, it is difficult to get used to Phoenix. People who grew up here seem to love it though. Many would just get nervous in a city where I feel very comfortable. I guess this is a good thing though, everyone is not the same and there is a place for everybody. 

Phoenix downtown escape

A couple of months ago now we decided to give Phoenix Downtown another chance and treat ourselves to a stay at a nice hotel. I could already see it in front of me; after strolling around town we would come back to the hotel in the afternoon with tired feet and legs. The champagne would be already chilled and Andy would run a hot bath were we would enjoy the bubbles. I spent some time looking for a hotel and finally chose the Westin on Van Buren and 1^st Street. 

View from the Westin pool area.

The location was perfect since it is just a couple of blocks from our favourite restaurant, Sens. It is a quite small Japanese tapas style restaurant and definately worth a visit. The reason I picked the Westin was that they have a small suite with a bathroom in the corner of the building with floor to ceiling windows where you can look out over the city while having a bath. The fact that they had a bar where we felt just at home was a bonus. It was quite empty but still boosted some interesting people watching.

Just what I needed. :-)

Downtown Phoenix is really not too bad except for the fact that there are no people there. To be a multi million city it feels deserted. If you look closely there are some nice cafés, bars and restaurants but the atmosphere is missing. Sadly.

Nice café behind the Phoenix Art Museum. But where are the guests?

But we did have a good time and got what we expected.

Phoenix - a first impression

Believe it or not, Phoenix is the sixth largest city (population) in the USA. It does look big as you fly in to Sky Harbor which is located more or less in the center of the city and it takes about an hour to drive from one side to the other on the freeway with speed limit 65 miles/h (about 105 km/h). So there is no doubt about it, this is a big city. The city fills up an entire valley which is surrounded by mountains, the Phoenix Metro Area is often called The Valley. There is a network of freeways that ensures easy travel from one area to another and in between the freeways there are major roads with three lanes in each direction. What you learn though is to take the freeway as far as you can since the traffic lights are frequent on the major roads and can slow down you trip considerably.

The very city center has some high rise buildings but otherwise it is quite flat and spread out.

Historic Phoenix downtown.

One thing that surprises me is that there are many empty lots even in the very city center. I guess there is so much land to build on that it is not necessary to build everything in the same place and since everyone is driving everywhere there has been no need to.

This image is taken from Dobbins Lookout on South Mountain. If you click on the image you will see downtown on the left and the airport to the right. 

Phoenix seems to have strict rules as to how buildings are allowed to be built. More or less all buildings and houses are beige and flat. Not many buildings have more than two or three stories. The result of this is that it looks the same everywhere all over the city. You can find yourself anywhere and if you drive 5-10 min in either direction you will find a place that looks almost the same. You will find the same stores and the same restaurants. Almost all restaurants here are part of a chain. So you don't really have to leave your neighborhood because there is nothing new to find on the other side of the fence.

Typical strip mall. You have to drive only a couple of streets to find the next one.

 This is what most residential areas look like. 

The neighborhoods are often surrounded by walls and the name of the place are written as you drive into the street. The fancy places are also gated.

It seems also that no one does leave their neighborhood very often. There is no city center that is a natural place for people to go, like we (at least Europeans) are used to. Downtown Phoenix does have some tall buildings, museums, shops and restaurants. But people does not seem to go here to hang out. This part of town always feels empty, almost abandoned. Not even after a big baseball game at Chase Field, which is situated in the very center of the city and takes almost 50 000 spectators, do you find more people walking around. The way to do it here is to take your car, go to the place you want to visit, if a museum, restaurant or shop, park as close as you can and when satisfied with your visit go directly with your car to the next place or home. 

The only places that seem to attract the masses are the shopping malls. I guess the weather can be partly to blame for this because in the summer you do not want to wander around outdoors. You need to find a place that is air conditioned. But the really hot months are not that many, about as many as the very cold ones in Sweden. The rest of the year is very comfortable to be outside during the day. 

One part of town that does have potential is downtown Scottsdale. Here you will find many restaurants and shops. Unfortunately they are mostly souvenir shops or art galleries. So if you are not in the market for presents or particularly interested in art you will still end up at the Scottsdale Fashion Center, the huge mall just a few block away. Also in downtown Scottsdale many of the restaurants are chain restaurants that you will find all over town.

I miss just going downtown, walking around a bit, maybe pop into my favorite shop, have a coffee with friends and just enjoy the atmosphere. The atmosphere in Phoenix though is missing, I am sorry to say. Just the other day though we learned more about Phoenix after a visit to the Phoenix Art Museum. I am now much more intrigued and it all seems to make more sense. But this deserves a separate post. Stay tuned.

2011

This year I believe all posts are about the USA. This is no wonder since we have lived this year in Phoenix. Last year we were not living together and spent a lot of time travelling just to see each other. This year we have been together and in a completly different environment than we are used to, the desert. 

It has been interesting. We have experienced higher temperatures than ever before and for the first time I have chosen to have dinner indoors because it is too hot outside. I have realized that too hot weather is just as limiting as too cold weather. Lucky for us we got to escape during August to find some cooler air in the Colorado Rockies and now during the winter it is much more comfortable.

Although we live in Phoenix I have actually not written anything about the city. It is time that changed. We will stay here until end of March so I still have some time to make up for lost Phoenix posts.

First though we will enjoy Christmas. The afternoon of Christmas Eve was spent by the pool with freshly baked "mjuk pepparkaka" and lots of glögg (Swedish mulled wine). The sun was warm in the afternoon but when it goes down the temperature here is not much higher than in Stockholm. 

In the evening we had reservations at the Melting Pot which is a Fondue restaurant. Fondue is a Christmas tradition for both our families which made it the perfect choice. The American Fondue is somewhat different from what we are used to. There were no sides like potatoes, rice or chips (weird Swiss side... :-) ), the mix of meats was larger and there were more vegetables to dip. Although I missed the sides a bit it was a good call because we would never had made it through the meats if we had sides to eat while waiting for the meat to be cooked. We still got way too full since the Christmas dinner special was four courses featuring cheese fondue, salad, meat fondue and chocolate fondue... It is now noon the day after and I still don't feel like eating anything. But that how it is supposed to be on Christmas, or?

Favourite spots

Usually my favourite spot anywhere is an elevated point where I can get a good view. In Stockholm it is the top of Västerbron, a bridge where you have a great view of the city center and the surrounding waters. This is unfortunately a very busy place with lots of traffic so I don't linger there for very long but I do make sure that passing this bridge is part of walks and runs in the area. As it happens, in Phoenix, one of my favourite spots is similar.

Phoenix is a very big and flat city. Usually you do not see anything further than the next block. As I drive to work I have to drive over the I-10 along Chandler Blwd where the bridge is just a few meters higher than the surrounding area. But because the city is so flat you can see all the way to Superstition Mountains at the other end of town at this place. The sunrise and sunset are usually very nice from here and you can easily see sandstorms rolling in from the south. 

Luckily there are two traffic lights on the bridge itself and in this case I do not mind that these particular ones are always red when I come along.