Monday, February 3, 2003
We decided to walk the two Volksmarches in Tampa to get the full flavor of the city and to see how it compared to St. Petersburg just across the bay. We were pleasantly surprised by Tampa—for being a big city it was remarkably clean, pretty, and pleasant. The walk started at a Holiday Inn and the route for the Tampa City walk passed the convention center and proceeded along Bayshore Drive, which was in fact right alongside the bay. This gave us great views of the city skyline in back of us, and we even saw a pod of dolphins feeding in the bay about 30 yards offshore. Tampa has some street people, but they were far fewer and did not feel as threatening or vaguely hostile as when we did the downtown Atlanta walk. Also in contrast to Atlanta, the streets were clean—we saw several official cleaning people in their distinctive jackets picking up litter and so forth.

We missed the first checkpoint partly because they were still removing the roadside barriers in place from a parade the previous day—Monika found some shiny beads leftover from the festivities. We did find the turnoff into the neighborhoods and zigzagged back thru some very pretty residential neighborhoods with very nice houses. I saw a gazebo made of wrought iron that was a first for me—it might not protect you from the rain but it surely looked elegant.

We also passed Tampa University, which is housed in a very large and fancy hotel with an astonishing number of towers with shiny domes on top—almost Russian in appearance as you walked up to it. The hotel had very fancy and elaborate wood trim around doorways that was painted in contrasting colors and gave an impression of Gilded Age architecture. Historically, the hotel was old enough to have been visited by Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders before the campaign in Cuba, but it currently is partly a museum and the rest Tampa University.

We crossed a river to a round tower of a building housing bank, but were surprised when we walked past to find impressions of seashells in all the sandstone blocks facing the building. These impressions were just all over the surface of the blocks and made it quite interesting to look at close-up. We proceeded down the Riverwalk past the museum of modern art and the performing arts center before returning to the start/finish. I was amused to see a sign at the performing arts center advertising an upcoming performance of “Tim Rice’s Aida”—they might at least have given Verdi some credit! All in all, the Tampa walk shows a very different city from St. Petersburg and one that compares very well to other large, southern cities like Atlanta.

The downtown Tampa Volksmarch can be combined with the Ybor City Volksmarch in one big 20 kilometer loop, but we needed a break so we drove over to Ybor City and had lunch before starting the second walk. Ybor City is quite a contrast to downtown Tampa. It developed as a separate manufacturing city specializing in cigars, so the Cuban influence and Spanish heritage is quite noticeable in some of the old buildings. The walk started in the center of Ybor city and immediately passed thru a renovated mall and boutique section that is clearly aimed at attracting the young yuppie crowd. A theatre specialization in improvisations and several brewpubs added to that impression. The rest of the downtown is also quite interesting but has the original historical buildings largely intact. The Columbia Restaurant, in particular, is quite large and has an exterior that is covered in intricate mosaics. I would like to have dinner there on our next visit.

We also enjoyed watching the trolleys clang along. This new light-rail system has trolleys of the old style and conductors dressed in old-fashioned uniforms, so it was quite picturesque. I was amused that they used bells for warning that still go “clang, clang” as the streetcar begins to move. This trolley system connects Ybor City to downtown Tampa and should facilitate the viability of the renovated commercial area. Sites connected to Jose Martin and the Cuban independence movement are clearly marked, but the little park with his statue was closed on the day we were there.

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From Ybor city we walked along a parkway to Tampa. Along the way, one checkpoint was the renovated Tampa Union station, which was absolutely gorgeous. Somehow it really looked like a train station and I noticed that Amtrak still has passenger service to Tampa that stops here. That would sure beat the long drive down Interstate 95! The leg into stops at the Convention Center, where you could hook up with the downtown Tampa walk if you so desire and returns to Ybor City. We really enjoyed seeing two distinct sides to Tampa that are represented by these two walks.

We were quite tired but did some necessary shopping on the way home. We are running out of some supplies, like pancake mix and syrup, and sometimes like to have fresh milk and eggs for a change of diet. Our preference for re-supply is a Wal Mart Supercenter, which combines a regular Wal Mart with a grocery store and has about any conceivable item a camper might need. At least we have found it so, and one time when I bound aluminum stakes from a “real” camping supply store I paid $12 for 6, whereas later at Wal Mart I bought 8 almost identical stakes for a total of $4. Ouch!