Downtown Denver

From the park I went on one of my wanders. I'm heading back towards downtown and Union station.

Property was certainly cheaper than in London.

Now this I liked, a simple way of recycling old style parking meters.

That's Union Station. I had no reason to walk to it other than it being a landmark from where I could get my bearings back to the hotel.

I'm on top of some walkway North of the station and all the suspension is coming from one support, a little unusual.

Denver's main shopping area is called the 16th St. Mall. There's no Mall as such but all the shops are on the one street. These trams are free and allow you to travel the length of the street, very useful for a tourist. Not so useful for a tourist who likes to walk stupid distances.

The map shows the 16th Street.

Union St was built in the late 1800s and was obviously the hub for the transportation into Denver. It still is today serving Amtrak and a ton of other trains and buses.

A lot of the older factory buildings now house fancy restaurants and clubs.


Another nice touch that shows the city looks after its pedestrians, the street corners have the names of the roads you're about to cross so you can locate exactly where you are. No prizes for guessing where I took this.

Some kind of protest, I didn't fully understand what for though. When I got back home I did a little digging around and I think it may have to do with The Spire a huge construction project that will see some of the older buildings in the area knocked down.

That's the Coors Field Baseball ground.

I know that because the cab driver brought me past here the night before. It is the home to the Colorado Rockies team. I don't know if they're any good but I'm sure the residents of Denver will tell you they're Frosties great.

Continuing my amble and now I'm headed for Sakura Square, a few blocks away.

Woohoo, steam coming up through the road. I'd only ever seen this in movies....and in New York but Denver has it too!




This is Sakura Square, a little tranquil piece of Japan near the centre of Downtown. The statues represent key people in Japan integrating with Denver. The American dude was a politician who gave up any chance of being voted to the Senate by apologising to the Japanese Americans for their internment by the Americans during WW2.




Random shots of downtown

Once you're on the mall street its very easy to get your bearings.

I've seen the cow parade in various cities before but this was the only one I saw in Denver so I don't know for sure that its actually here.

The city's cinema complex where I took the chance to see The Happening. It was dire, M Night Shyamalamdingdong or whatever his name is was too far up his own arse making this piece of crap. I also saw The Hulk and that was actually quite good but the ending will only make sense if you've seen Iron Man first.

Continuing down the mall.

This is the State Capital building found at the Southern end of the 16th St. Mall at the East end of the open space known as the Civic Center Park. Built in the 1890s it is the official residence of the Colorado State Governor.

I tried to think of a bell end joke for this pic but couldn't come up with one so instead here's my favourite 2 part bell joke. Be sure you're sitting down comfortably, its a long 'un.

A Vicar is looking for a new bell ringer after his current one retires and puts an advert in the paper. The only person who applies is a man with no arms. Confused the vicar asks how he'll ring the bell and the man demonstrates by grabbing the rope between his teeth and pulling down hard ringing the bell. Not having any more applicants the guy gets the job.

A week into the job something goes wrong and the guy is pulled up into the air and falls to his death breaking his neck. The police come around and ask the Vicar if he knew the name of the bell ringer. "um, no" he replies "but his face rings a bell"

Needing a new bell ringer he puts out another ad and the only applicant this time is the twin brother of the previous bell ringer and he too has no arms. Desperate to have a bell ringer the vicar gives him the job and a similar accident happens a few days later and he too dies. The police come around again and asks the Vicar if he knew the name of this guy. "Um, no" he replies "but he's a dead ringer for his brother".

Here's a small pano of one part of the Civic Center Park.

Here's a circular pano of the centre of the Civic Center Park.



Random statues in the Civic Center Park




To the South of the park are a couple of museums with some pieces out in the open for people to get their heads around.

The Denver Art Museum is arguably the most well known of the museums in the city. In typing that I realise using the word "arguably" makes the statement empty but it pads out my report :D


A large cow statue hiding around the back of the museum, the arguably most popular one.

It's arguably the most angular though.

A little political comment written on a Denver wall.

Heading back towards the museum.

A long shot of the State Capitol Building

Pop quiz, whose quote is this? It was Shakespeare written in Coriolanus. This was found on the side of one the government buildings near the capitol.

A strange piece of art. Prior to me taking this a family were having their pic taken I think having just become US citizens. I guess the building that this sits outside of has something to do with that process.

The city's convention centre a block away from my hotel.

and there it is, it's not a bad hotel although my room was one of those broom cupboard rooms squeezed into the end of each floor, not that I spent much time in there anyway.

Denver is a nice city, well any American city where you aren't dependent on driving gets a tick in my book. I like the idea of the 16th St Mall and it works really well especially with the free tram service running down it.

I also recommend the Hard Rock here, I had some great cocktails which went down way too easily :D

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