Albuquerque, NM

OK, you know quite a bit about ALBUQUERQUE NM by now, if not scroll down through my old blogs. There’s the ZOO, the botanical Park, the museums, the casinos, Old Town, big outdoor parks, the librairies, OUTPOST, TIKI’s, the big HOTEL lounges. See 10 ideas without looking anything up.

Now I’ll do the google jig and conjure up 10 more places for fun and perhaps, education.

The metro area of Albuquerque, with a population of about 793,000, contains about 1/3 the population of New Mexico. The two greatest strengths of the city are its diversity and its proximity to the great outdoors. Albuquerque is ethnically, culturally and economically diverse and the cost of living is low enough to support a surprisingly large population of artists and writers. The city has a certain funkiness and authenticity that you won’t find in most other cities of its size.

Albuquerque also borders the Sandia Mountain Wilderness, the Rio Grande (which has a 20 mile bike path through the forest of cottonwood trees that borders it), and the Petroglyph National Monument. All of these areas are within a 20 minute drive of UNM. In fact, The Trust for Public Lands picked Albuquerque as the #1 city with the largest amount of park space (as a percentage of city size) in the entire country, with a whopping 28.7 percent (PDF) dedicated to parks and Open Space.

General Links
DukeCityFix - Albuquerque’s placeblog.
City Search guide to Albuquerque
The Weekly Alibi, is Albuquerque’s alternative paper. Check out the “Burque Survival Guide” and “Best of Burque Guide” on this site.
The City of Albuquerque’s Official Web Site
More Attractions in Albuquerque Maintained by the Department of Radiology
albuquerque.com
The Culture section of this web page contains many links to cultural events in Albuquerque …

Transportation
Bike Map of the city. The city of Albuquerque has started spending 1 million dollars a year to build and maintain bike trails and bike lanes. If we use these new trails for transit and advocate for more spending, this amount will increase. Call 768-BIKE for a free laminated bike map.
Here is info on bus route maps, schedules and transit planning info. All busses are equipped with bike racks.
Motorcycling is also a popular, fun, alternative way to travel in the southwest. Southwest bike is a popular magazine.
Amtrak has a train station in downtown Albuquerque. There is a sightseer lounge and Native American tour guide for the trip between Albuquerque and Gallup. Service extends to all major east and west coast cities.
NM Railrunner - New commuter rail system. Currently goes to Los Lunas and Belen to the south of Albuquerque, and north up to Bernalillo. There are plans to connect it to Santa Fe by late 2008. Both UNM and UNMH offer a shuttle to the Albuquerque station.
Trivia note: Attentive fans of the TV show Mythbusters may have noticed that the train used to test the myth that you could get sucked behind a train was a Railrunner train.
Albuquerque Airport
Real Time Flight Info for Albuquerque Airport
ABQ Ride. Bus system. Especially interesting are the Rapid Ride busses featuring free WiFi. Albuquerque’s bus system has improved recently, although routes still lack late evening/night-time coverage (the notable exception being the Rapid After Dark program, which during the summer offers rides on Central Friday and …

OK this must be continued….I found this information, and let me tell you there is a LOT MORE by clicking on a Computer Dept calendar site from UNM! Read on for more! (In another blog.)