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At
the westernmost fringe of the Great 'Are We There Yet' Plains,
Colorado's 'Mile High City' beckons like an urban avatar of
welcome relief. On par with much larger cities, Denver is
Middle America's de facto hub of culture and commerce, offering
all the perks (and few of the pangs) of any modern American
metropolis, with a surrounding landscape that lends the city
its illustrious 'grounded' identity. Nestled up against the
magnificent Rocky Mountains, Denver is the perfect destination
for anyone who has trouble choosing between big-city and backwoods
attractions or thinks a hard day's hell raising is best finished
off with high tea at a 19th-century society hotel. After all,
where else can you enjoy a buffalo tenderloin before a night
at the symphony and top the evening with a nightcap at an
art deco bar modeled on that of the Queen Mary?
Population:
500,000
Area: 110 sq miles (275 sq km)
Elevation: 5280ft (1585m)
State: Colorado
Time Zone: Mountain Time (GMT/UTC minus 7 hours)
Telephone area code: 303 & 720
Denver
lies on the flat plains abutting the eastern slope of the
Rocky Mountains, 660 miles (1060km) northwest of Dallas, 900
miles (1450km) west of Chicago and 960 miles (1550km) east
of San Francisco. The city's streets and avenues follow a
compass-oriented grid pattern outside the diagonal swath of
downtown. The State Capitol is on the southeastern edge of
downtown. West of the capitol are the Civic Center and the
Denver Art Museum. Lower Downtown ('LoDo' to the locals),
home to many of Denver's most historic buildings, sits between
Larimer Square and Union Station at the northwestern corner
of the downtown grid.
The
non-navigable South Platte River flows just north of downtown
and is lined by trails and roads that snake into the mountains
to the southwest. Colfax Ave (Hwy 40), one of the longest
streets in the USA, bisects the city on its 40 mile (65km)
journey from Strasburg to Golden.
Denver
International Airport (DIA) is located 24 miles (40km) northeast
of downtown. The downtown Denver Bus Terminal is immediately
north of the capitol; trains converge on neoclassical Union
Station at the northwestern edge of the downtown grid.
Denver
Flight from UK
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