Antigua

Folks say that Antigua is a very European looking city and Agnes and I would have to agree. The central part of the city lays out in a grid and all the streets are cobblestone. There are also a bunch of old municipal and church buildings dating back to colonial times. The Central Park in the middle of the city was once the focal point of social, religious and municipal activity in the city. The park is flanked on three sides by large colonial buildings, a cathedral, city hall, and the former residence of some Spanish captain or something. Restaurants and bars catering to tourists face the Park on the remaining side. The orientation of the buildings reminds me somewhat of civic center in San Francisco, where City Hall, the Federal Building, the Bill Graham, and Asian Art Museum surround the central plaza. However, several features conspire to make Antigua's Central Park more inviting than it's SF counterpart. In a nutshell, this area has been designed to invite people to stroll and linger. The buildings are shorter, which helps, but the design of the park, with it's generous tree canopies, benches and fountains draw folks inward and invite them to linger. What I've never understood about San Francisco is why the branches of the olive trees are trimmed in the Plaza (The ones by City Hall are trimmed so that the building's gold leaf show through). One thing you can say about San Francisco's civic center is that people (when they're present) almost look out of place, whereas Antigua's central Park would seem odd without them.

Antigua is a very quaint, walkable city. While the sidewalks are very narrow, forcing groups to stroll single file down the street, the auto traffic moves slowly enough so that you never feel like someone's going to crash into you. All the streets are cobblestone and it seems like the rocks have been deliberately cobbled together in a fashion to make vehicular traffic bumpy and uncomfortable. In addition, the streets are very narrow, sometimes no more than around 13 or 14 feet in width. As a result, everyone drives very slowly. Traffic control consists of stop signs plastered to building walls and these large cement structures that jut out of the street. If you're driving fast at night on one of Antugua's darkened streets, you may well wrap yourself around one of these things if you're not careful.