Wildrover's roving

wildrover · Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2011 12:30 pm Post subject:

Scientist was Max Planck. Today's rove started at 7 a.m. courtesy of Ryanair and takes me to a very pretty city on the coast with a population of around 600,000. I just had a quick walk through the centre and was surprised to notice that the city's flag is identical to an England flag as St. George is the patron saint of the city. At one point this port was the largest in mainland Europe and it is still the largest in its country today and the city itself is believed to be over 3,000 years old.

England's first Â£1 million footballer plied his trade here for 4 years and it is the birthplace of one of history's most famous explorers whose house I visited today. Biggest bonus is that at the supermarket cigarettes are still under Â£4 a packet so I got 10 cartons in my personal effort to help the pensions crisis. Google tells me that at various times the city has been under the control of the Etruscans, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Spanish, Austro-Hungarians and the French which must be some kind of record. So where am I?

tonto · Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2011 9:01 pm Post subject:

Sampdoria?
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IAN B · Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2011 7:28 am Post subject:

Right football club Tonto, but they're based in GENOA.

wildrover · Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2011 10:14 pm Post subject:

Yep - in Genoa today, home of Sampdoria and it was Columbus's house I visited.

wildrover · Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2011 10:10 am Post subject:

I'm at the European Microwave show today which is the biggest tradeshow of the year for my company. The location is quite easy to guess - 500,000 people, home to two large football teams and the largest university campus in its country and the climate is wet, wet and more wet. The exhibition centre used to be a railway station and I'm staying in a hotel opposite. When going out for a cigarette I noticed a plaque and an odd statue which turned out to commemorate one of the most famous industrial meetings in history in 1904 at this hotel resulting in a major company being born which turned over Â£11 billion last year and has 40,000 employees although ironically the one thing it doesn't make is what its founders set it up to make. So which city and what is the company?

JUS · Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2011 12:24 pm Post subject:

Manchester
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Savage Hamster · Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2011 4:51 pm Post subject:

The company is Rolls Royce
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wildrover · Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2011 11:00 pm Post subject:

Correct and correct - I'm staying at the Midland Hotel and very nice it is too...

wildrover · Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 4:59 pm Post subject:

Sitting in the lounge waiting for my plane home after a two day trip. The city in which I landed is the capital of its country with a population around 2 million and one of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited. A significant clue to its identity is that it was actually two cities separated by a large river until 1873 when the two cities merged to form the modern capital. With cigarettes at Â£2 a packet and a pint at under Â£1 I would be quite happy to live here if it wasn't for the fiendishly difficult local language. another notable feature is that it was the second city in the world after London to have an underground system.

I had a 4 hour drive last night to a different country (the city would be too obscure to ask) which has a population of around 2 million living in an area about the same size as Wales. The country itself has only existed since 1991 and has the (so far) unique distinction that when I looked at the list of famous people from this country I hadn't heard of a single one!.

City and country?

Tallscot · Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 5:16 pm Post subject:

Budapest and Slovenia?
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wildrover · Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 10:57 am Post subject:

...is spot on and my, what a beautiful part of the world it is.

wildrover · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 8:36 pm Post subject:

Just got back from a rove and had a fabulous week. I haven't been to this city for 10 years and it has changed substantially (last time I was here our rep insisted I was accompanied by an armed guard if I left the hotel) and it has some banging clubs. It has a busier subway network than London and more billionaire residents than New York. You need to be a billionaire to live here - 2 cups of coffee and a small bottle of water at our hotel was Â£15 and they wanted Â£30 if you had breakfast. Our office in the city is located just across the road from a stadium that hosted an Olympic Games. Any guesses?

Buzzie · Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2012 8:07 am Post subject:

Beijing?
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wildrover · Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2012 12:25 pm Post subject:

Not quite as far as Beijing but a good guess.

Buzzie · Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2012 12:30 pm Post subject:

Going to go with my 1st thought then of Moscow?
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