Problem
Which cities are capitals? The word capital is confusing. It evokes an emotive reaction. We use the word capital to mean excellent. Capital also means the head. Often the capital city is the administrative head, the seat of government.
That leaves opportunities for other cities to be better known. Sometimes one city is older, more historic.
The former capital has the history, but stays smaller, such as Cracow in Poland, has the photogenic old, historic square. Warsaw, the big city, has a delightful old quarter, rebuilt, nice and clean, like a theme park.
When the government spends its money on its favoured city, the city expands and has museums added. Sometimes the small former capital has the character. The new big city is too big.
For a long time as a tourist, as well as a resident, in America, I preferred San Francisco to Los Angeles. Yes, Los Angeles has: a great theme park, and a great ship. Plus Avenue of the stars. But San Francisco has the bay and the bridge and the prison tour and the trams and the crooked street.
Driving across the border to Canada, or visiting as a tourist, I preferred Montreal to Toronto. Yet later, Toronto grew and the museums and attractions grew and Montreal became smaller, a relative backwater. In the 1960s, Montreal was the place.
In the next century, the French speaking only Montreal was not such an attraction for those who spoke English. The Chinese restaurant owners and workers struggled with French and moved to Toronto. So did the tourists.
I speak fluent French, although Parisian style French. I pronounce yes in French as 'wee', Parisian style, instead of 'way' which is Canadian style. French speaking Montreal seemed to have shrunk. Without English street signs and English speaking people it's harder to get around.
Whilst Toronto had grown. Montreal was now a one day or one weekend city, second on the list, instead of the big city, the big attraction. The place I flew into and out of was still Toronto, but now I planned to stay there at the start, not head straight off to Montreal.
But what is the capital of Canada? Not Montreal, not Toronto. The administrative capital is Ottawa. When I went there I visited some interesting museums. Everybody in government and public buildings had to be bilingual, to keep everybody happy and comply with their laws. When I was living outside Canada I had hardly heard of Ottawa and could not have said it was the capital.
Russia has had its capital moved. Moscow and Petersburg or Stalingrad.
Cambodia is another place where you have your attention drawn to two cities. The capital is Pnom Penh. But the major tourist destination is Siem Reap, for Ankor Wat and other ancient temples.
Answer
Let's make a list.
Story 1
I first discovered this problem, that the capital is not the big city with all the tourist attractions, in the USA when I went to live there. New York is the big city and probably the one most British people would fly into. But the capital is Washington DC. Not to be confused with Washington state over on the West.
Washington DC was chosen as being not he borders or the north and south, so as to avoid flak from the side not chosen if one side was chosen to have the capital. The result was the building of a new city.
Washington DC has lots of tourist attractions. The huge Smithsonian Museum complex. The monuments to the presidents.
Australia is much the same, a new city became the capital. Canberra. It has a fine museum to the war. And another museum. A Parliament building. I visited them on a day trip by coach from Sydney. But that's the problem, I sort of remember, but that's all. They were worth visiting.
However, all the history is in other places, notably Sydney. You see far more attractions and character in Sydney, photographic, identifiable, memorable landmarks: the bridge, the opera house.
New Zealand presents another problem.
In my previous post I listed the countries of the world and asked you to list as many cities as you could. How did you do.
(If you haven't tried that, do it and come back.)
You are not competing against me or anybody else. You are competing against yourself, trying to increase your knowledge and your score.
Here's what I guessed:
I looked at the list of countries, then went to bed and tried to remember countries whose capitals I knew well.
I wrote the letters of the alphabet vertically. I folded the paper vertically to make two columns, and wrote the countries on the left and the capitals on the right. I filled in these:
Afghanistan - ?
Algeria - Algiers? Not currently a major tourist destination.
Australia - Canberra
Austria - Vienna
Bangladesh - ?
Belgium - Brussels
Belarus - Minsk
Bolivia - ?
Brazil - Brasilia (not Buenos Aires)
Bulgaria - ? Plovdiv?
Cambodia Pnom Penh
Chile - ?
China - Beijing (but my favourite city is Shanghai)
Czech Republic - Prague
Denmark - Copenhagen
Egypt - Alexandria
England - London
Estonia ?
France - Paris
Germany - Bonn (But Berlin, former capital of East Germany? is now a great attraction.)
Greece - (My first thought was Athens. But I remember going to Thessaloniki? I'll go for Thessaloniki. (But I'll guess that Athens is the bigger city and the main tourist stop.)
Hungary - Budapest
Isle of Man - Manx?
Israel - Jerusalem. But tourists fly into Bauhaus (art deco) Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv is new, founded in 1909.
Italy - Rome
Japan - Tokyo (Not Osaka?)
Jordan - Amman
Latvia - Riga?
Lebanon - ?
Lithuania - ?
Mexico - Mexico City
Morocco -
Nepal - Kathmandu
Netherlands - Amsterdam is the main tourist area. Is the capital Rotterdam?
New Zealand - Wellington?
Norway - Oslo
Pakistan - (Lahore, pretty city on the coast in the south?)
Peru - Lima
Philippines - pass. I've been there. The capital escapes my mind. I've been to the capital of the south island too. Maybe that is the admin capital.
Poland - Warsaw. (Previously Cracow)
Portugal - Lisbon. (Previously Porto?)
Romania - Bucharest
Russia - Moscow. (Previously St Petersburg; Stalingrad.) Scotland - Edinburgh.
Saudi Arabia - (Mecca and Medina are both religious tourism attractions.)
Scotland - Edinburgh (both the capital and the historic city). Edinburgh has the castle, the Tattoo, literary trails. Industrial Glasgow is larger with good art museums.
Serbia -
Slovakia - (Dubrovnik? Mostar?)
Slovenia -
Singapore - Singapore (city state)
Spain - Madrid (certainly a major city, but is the admin capital Barcelona?)
Sweden -
Switzerland - is it Bern? Not Geneva nor Zurich?
Syria ?
Taiwan - Taipei
Tunisia - Tunis
Turkey - Ankara. (Istanbul is the main city with the Blue Mosque?)
Ukraine - Kiev. (Another main tourist city is Lvov on west the border, a third, south, is Odessa.)
Venezuela - Caracas?
Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh city and Saigon?
Wales - Cardiff
I have not included: P a r a g u a y; U r a g u a y; Uzbekistan; Turkmenistan, Caribbean islands; Pacific islands, Mongolia.
See previous posts for lists of capitals and countries.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
Which cities are capitals? The word capital is confusing. It evokes an emotive reaction. We use the word capital to mean excellent. Capital also means the head. Often the capital city is the administrative head, the seat of government.
That leaves opportunities for other cities to be better known. Sometimes one city is older, more historic.
The former capital has the history, but stays smaller, such as Cracow in Poland, has the photogenic old, historic square. Warsaw, the big city, has a delightful old quarter, rebuilt, nice and clean, like a theme park.
When the government spends its money on its favoured city, the city expands and has museums added. Sometimes the small former capital has the character. The new big city is too big.
For a long time as a tourist, as well as a resident, in America, I preferred San Francisco to Los Angeles. Yes, Los Angeles has: a great theme park, and a great ship. Plus Avenue of the stars. But San Francisco has the bay and the bridge and the prison tour and the trams and the crooked street.
Driving across the border to Canada, or visiting as a tourist, I preferred Montreal to Toronto. Yet later, Toronto grew and the museums and attractions grew and Montreal became smaller, a relative backwater. In the 1960s, Montreal was the place.
In the next century, the French speaking only Montreal was not such an attraction for those who spoke English. The Chinese restaurant owners and workers struggled with French and moved to Toronto. So did the tourists.
I speak fluent French, although Parisian style French. I pronounce yes in French as 'wee', Parisian style, instead of 'way' which is Canadian style. French speaking Montreal seemed to have shrunk. Without English street signs and English speaking people it's harder to get around.
Whilst Toronto had grown. Montreal was now a one day or one weekend city, second on the list, instead of the big city, the big attraction. The place I flew into and out of was still Toronto, but now I planned to stay there at the start, not head straight off to Montreal.
But what is the capital of Canada? Not Montreal, not Toronto. The administrative capital is Ottawa. When I went there I visited some interesting museums. Everybody in government and public buildings had to be bilingual, to keep everybody happy and comply with their laws. When I was living outside Canada I had hardly heard of Ottawa and could not have said it was the capital.
Russia has had its capital moved. Moscow and Petersburg or Stalingrad.
Cambodia is another place where you have your attention drawn to two cities. The capital is Pnom Penh. But the major tourist destination is Siem Reap, for Ankor Wat and other ancient temples.
Answer
Let's make a list.
Story 1
I first discovered this problem, that the capital is not the big city with all the tourist attractions, in the USA when I went to live there. New York is the big city and probably the one most British people would fly into. But the capital is Washington DC. Not to be confused with Washington state over on the West.
Washington DC was chosen as being not he borders or the north and south, so as to avoid flak from the side not chosen if one side was chosen to have the capital. The result was the building of a new city.
Washington DC has lots of tourist attractions. The huge Smithsonian Museum complex. The monuments to the presidents.
Australia is much the same, a new city became the capital. Canberra. It has a fine museum to the war. And another museum. A Parliament building. I visited them on a day trip by coach from Sydney. But that's the problem, I sort of remember, but that's all. They were worth visiting.
However, all the history is in other places, notably Sydney. You see far more attractions and character in Sydney, photographic, identifiable, memorable landmarks: the bridge, the opera house.
New Zealand presents another problem.
In my previous post I listed the countries of the world and asked you to list as many cities as you could. How did you do.
(If you haven't tried that, do it and come back.)
You are not competing against me or anybody else. You are competing against yourself, trying to increase your knowledge and your score.
Here's what I guessed:
I looked at the list of countries, then went to bed and tried to remember countries whose capitals I knew well.
I wrote the letters of the alphabet vertically. I folded the paper vertically to make two columns, and wrote the countries on the left and the capitals on the right. I filled in these:
Afghanistan - ?
Algeria - Algiers? Not currently a major tourist destination.
Australia - Canberra
Austria - Vienna
Bangladesh - ?
Belgium - Brussels
Belarus - Minsk
Bolivia - ?
Brazil - Brasilia (not Buenos Aires)
Bulgaria - ? Plovdiv?
Cambodia Pnom Penh
Chile - ?
China - Beijing (but my favourite city is Shanghai)
Czech Republic - Prague
Denmark - Copenhagen
Egypt - Alexandria
England - London
Estonia ?
France - Paris
Germany - Bonn (But Berlin, former capital of East Germany? is now a great attraction.)
Greece - (My first thought was Athens. But I remember going to Thessaloniki? I'll go for Thessaloniki. (But I'll guess that Athens is the bigger city and the main tourist stop.)
Hungary - Budapest
Isle of Man - Manx?
Israel - Jerusalem. But tourists fly into Bauhaus (art deco) Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv is new, founded in 1909.
Italy - Rome
Japan - Tokyo (Not Osaka?)
Jordan - Amman
Latvia - Riga?
Lebanon - ?
Lithuania - ?
Mexico - Mexico City
Morocco -
Nepal - Kathmandu
Netherlands - Amsterdam is the main tourist area. Is the capital Rotterdam?
New Zealand - Wellington?
Norway - Oslo
Pakistan - (Lahore, pretty city on the coast in the south?)
Peru - Lima
Philippines - pass. I've been there. The capital escapes my mind. I've been to the capital of the south island too. Maybe that is the admin capital.
Poland - Warsaw. (Previously Cracow)
Portugal - Lisbon. (Previously Porto?)
Romania - Bucharest
Russia - Moscow. (Previously St Petersburg; Stalingrad.) Scotland - Edinburgh.
Saudi Arabia - (Mecca and Medina are both religious tourism attractions.)
Scotland - Edinburgh (both the capital and the historic city). Edinburgh has the castle, the Tattoo, literary trails. Industrial Glasgow is larger with good art museums.
Serbia -
Slovakia - (Dubrovnik? Mostar?)
Slovenia -
Singapore - Singapore (city state)
Spain - Madrid (certainly a major city, but is the admin capital Barcelona?)
Sweden -
Switzerland - is it Bern? Not Geneva nor Zurich?
Syria ?
Taiwan - Taipei
Tunisia - Tunis
Turkey - Ankara. (Istanbul is the main city with the Blue Mosque?)
Ukraine - Kiev. (Another main tourist city is Lvov on west the border, a third, south, is Odessa.)
Venezuela - Caracas?
Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh city and Saigon?
Wales - Cardiff
I have not included: P a r a g u a y; U r a g u a y; Uzbekistan; Turkmenistan, Caribbean islands; Pacific islands, Mongolia.
See previous posts for lists of capitals and countries.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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