Walking is a great way to exercise. You can walk just about anywhere, even in your house if the weather is bad and you can’t go outside to do it. Walking is a natural way to lose weight, and it has many other health benefits as well.
While on a virtual walk through UK’s national parks, I came across something rather interesting. First, you might be wondering what virtual walking is. You walk, and your steps are counted as walking through a part of the world you want to see. You can find out more by watching this video at World Walking.
I started walking through UK’s national parks in northeast Scotland in Cairngorms National Park. I have run across many interesting things along the way, including The Flying Stag pub & bar, part of The Fife Arms Hotel in Braemar, Scotland. Now I have walked all the way down through Scotland, and I’m in England. One of the reasons I chose this particular walk is that many years ago I lived in England and visited Scotland, and I wanted to see it all again.
I like to see the scenery of where I’ve walked, so I always check out the “street view” of where I am, and most of the time, I can follow it for quite a distance. The street signs are always of great interest, and one morning I zoomed in on one that raised my curiosity. It said: Sedburgh & the Howgill Fells, England’s Book Town, Twinned with Zrece, Slovenia. If you enlarge the below picture, you can read it for yourself. Now the twinned towns weren’t what caught my interest; rather the words “book town” did. Just what is a book town? Sounds like my kind of town. And how many of these are there?
A book town can’t be too big—not a city, but a genuine town, usually in a rural setting. It has to have bookshops—not one or two, but a real concentration, where a bibliophile might spend hours, even days, browsing. Usually a book town begins with a couple of secondhand bookstores and later grows to offer new books, too. In other words, it is simply a small town, usually rural and scenic, full of bookshops and book-related industries. How many of you book lovers have ever dreamed of living in such a town? Maybe it isn’t possible for you to live in one, but on your next vacation, you could visit one. Below is a list—a partial one—of book towns around the world.
Book Towns
Hay-on-Wye, Wales – the original “book town”
Saint-Pierre-de-Clages, Switzerland
Sedburgh, England – England’s official Book Town since 2006
The virtual walking tour of UK’s National Parks is 3,145, 500 steps long. And I couldn’t be happy just doing one walk at a time, so I’ve also started walking through the Cotswolds, which is in south central England. It is 174,436 steps long and full of historical towns and picturesque villages. That is a lot of walking, and since the last week in July as of this morning (10/5/23), I’ve taken 1,063,317 steps or 453.12 miles. It will take a while and lot more walking to finish these two tours.
Taking care of my feet while doing all of that walking is important, so I’m wearing Prio Neo shoes by Xero. I decided to try barefoot shoes to see if that would get rid of the plantar fasciitis I had, but not wanting to spend much very much on them, I decided to try some cheaper barefoot shoes ($30 to $40 a pair) to begin with. That was a mistake. The cheaper ones helped to begin with, but they wore out quickly and the pain returned. Then I decided that for the sake of my feet, I would get the Prio Neo shoes ($99.99) by Xero. The pair I bought is pictured to the right. Their 5,000-mile sole warranty made the decision easy for me since I do a lot of walking.
Did they help? Yes, they most definitely did. The plantar fasciitis is now barely there, my weak ankles are getting stronger, and my feet no longer hurt unless I happen to make them and my legs sore from too much walking. But soreness is so much different than pain. And I walk at least 10,000 steps a day, usually more. As of now, the most I have walked in one day is 21,003 steps. Yep, I overdid it just a bit. But the day was so pretty that I hated to not take advantage of it.
Writing Prompts:
Now that you’ve seen what a book town is like, write about a book town that you design.
What if you woke up in the book town of your dreams? How would you spend your first day there?
If you decide to take a virtual walk with World Walking, please let me know which one(s) you take. It is free, and it’s a lot of fun.
