Brussels-Niedermorschwihr-Colmar-Strasbourg

That's right, folks, I've been walking in Europe. Here, my ratings for the four walks I've done so far:

Brussels: starting at Brussels Welcome Hotel (23 Quai au bois à Brûler, on the Place Ste. Catherine), went to the left of the church, made another left, walked along for a bit, and a left again onto a long street along the train tracks
+ fairly straightforward and easy not to get lost, so long as you remember a landmark (in my case, a construction crane) from the corner you turned at
- lots of people, which meant more people looking at me funny for moving my arms à la marathon-walker
- not the prettiest, visually speaking
- uptight police officer who made me step back onto the sidewalk when I started to cross a street before I saw him coming. I backed up, but he actually made me get back on the sidewalk. So not New York!

Niedermorschwihr: drive into the town (this is considerably easier with GPS), park in the first lot on your right, and head out, following the green hiker signs until you get up into the hills
+ lovely scenery: green and flowery at the beginning, with a stream running alongside, and the hills overlook sweet little towns
+ almost nobody around, and so no one makes fun of how I walk
+/- parts of this walk are quite hilly. As someone who has been training on mostly flat surfaces for a marathon that is going to be mostly flat, I consider this a minus, but you might not.
- if you decide to go a ways and then turn around and come back, it is easy to accidentally take a different route on your return...bring breadcrumbs.

Colmar: starting at Hôtel Colombier (7 rue de Turenne), crossed the street, wound around past Caveau St. Pierre, then up the stairs and to the right, made a left at some pretty purple flowers, followed by some more left turns, including one onto a car-free footpath...ah, forget it--you probably won't be following my exact route.
+ great little path back along a stream in a residential area at the end...which is actually only for residents, but I didn't know that until I looked up the word "riverains" ("residents") after I got back
- somewhat circuitous, and so you have to pay close attention to where you're turning so that you can find your way back

Strasbourg: took stairs down to the banks of the Ill River at Quai Koch, followed the path until it ended at Pont St-Martin (I think?), then wound around twists and turns, trying to follow the river, but not always finding a place to walk alongside
+ the parts along the river were perfectly delightful: right next to nature, not too many people
- difficult to figure out where to go--I wish there were a connected network of riverside walks
- sometimes cobblestoney

.8496 Marathon

I did do the 22 miles...I just didn't write about it. I'm actually writing this on April 1, although the date stamp will probably say it's from sometime in March, because that's when I found and posted the picture. Anyway...here are a couple conclusions I've drawn after walking 20 and 22 miles in successive weeks:

• If you're walking 20 miles, it's a good idea to know where you're going ahead of time. Not planning your route, and instead tooling around the park for a few miles, then starting down toward Coney Island...not the greatest idea.
• Bedford Avenue is one loooong street. I knew it was supposedly the longest one that's entirely in Brooklyn (only possibly rivaled by Flatbush Ave), but man...that puppy doesn't end. Actually, it does end--at McCarren Park. I was there.
• That said, I recommend that if you're plotting a lengthy walk, you either avoid being on the same street for six miles or choose a pretty six-mile stretch for that portion of your journey.
• Rain is a pain in the butt.

However, I did it. And I never would have thought I could. In fact, thinking about it, I still don't think I could. And yet I did. The next walk I do that's that long will be the marathon.

Here Goes Sumpin'

Alrighty, folks, I have mapped out a route among routes, which you can check out here. Think of me on Wednesday in the forecasted rain and wind as I tour Brooklyn on my *22*-mile walk, Tom Wolfe's mega-novel, I Am Charlotte Simmons, providing a veritable literary hootenanny for the ears.

Wonders, Having Frequently Ceased in the Past, Recommence in Earnest

My, I am behind in my posting. Here, then, are some highlights:

- I walked 18 miles about a week-and-a-half ago, down to Coney Island, along the boardwalk, and back home. The walk down was a little boring, but the walk back was an improvement--not only because I was more than halfway through the walk, but also because the houses on the east side of Ocean Parkway are much prettier than the houses and buildings on the west side.

- South Beach has a lovely boardwalk, perfect for a five-mile walk, unless...

- My nano flat-out stopped working when we were in South beach a couple weeks ago. I would start listening, and after about 30 seconds, it would reboot itself. This then happened over and over, whether or not I was listening to it.

- This began happening at the very beginning of a five-miler, and the walk just seemed endless without a soundtrack, so...I started running. Never thought I'd be saying that. It was just for a few minutes, but I was interested to notice that I didn't keel over or anything like that. Maybe running's not so bad after all. But maybe it is.

- Finally, we reloaded the iPod software from iTunes onto the nano. And since then, you won't believe it, but...my Nike+ sensor has been working perfectly. Absolutely flawless (knocking on my wooden bedside table). Was that the trouble all along?

- Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides, is a terrific listen. I still have a few hours to go, but I'd better find something good to follow it, because it's going to be a letdown to get to the end. Plus...

- I'm doing 20 miles for my next long walk. Wow! Trying to map out an interesting route for that one, and have been consulting write-ups of Brooklyn neighborhood house tours to see where I could see some pretty stuff as I go. I thought of doing a walking tour of all the major private schools in Brooklyn, but I don't know if I'll go with that.

- For some reason, this week's scheduled "long" walk was only eight miles. Odd.