Pretoria’s jacaranda blossoms clinch top international award
While the city is known for its springtime purple jacarandas, Herbert Baker also has some of the more unusual white jacarandas.
The list features streets around the world famed for their unusual shapes, colors, architecture, uses, or simply the profusion of springtime blooms.
Known for its cherry blossoms are The Philosopher’s Walk, Kyoto, Japan, and Heerstrasse, Bonn, Germany – with its imported cherry trees.
The Dark Hedges, Bregagh Road, County Antrim, Northern Ireland (used as the Kingsroad in Game of Thrones.)
Pretoria’s Herbert Baker Street has been listed on CNN Travel’s “most beautiful streets of the world”.
For ancient charm there is Jinli Street, Chengdu, one of the oldest shopping streets in China’s Sichuan province with wooden houses and shops, and red lanterns; and Nevsky Prospekt, St Petersburg, Russia, with its wonderfully preserved buildings.
In the US Convent Avenue, Harlem, New York City (especially between West 140th and 145th streets) makes the list.
In Europe, Via dei Coronari, Rome, with buildings dating to the Renaissance; Square de Montsouris, Paris, and Cogels-Osylei, Zurenborg, Antwerp, with their beautiful homes, Flask Walk, Hampstead, London, The Royal Crescent, Bath, with a dramatic sweep of terraced houses dating to the 18th century and Cockburn Street, Edinburgh, Scotland, are among the streets lined with beautiful buildings.
Blue City, Jodhpur, India, a warren of alleyways beneath Mehrangarh Fort with blue buildings, and Chefchaouen, Morocco, with its blue-washed alleyways and Mykonos Old Town, Greece, with its alleyways lined with whitewashed shops and homes, with red, blue, and yellow shutters and doors, are on the list
Lombard Street, San Francisco, with its twisty hairpin bends; the colorful streets of Caminito, La Boca, Buenos Aires, Argentina; a colorful street which showcases local art; Hosier Lane, Melbourne, Australia with its graffiti walls; Brouwersgracht, (Brewer’s Canal), Amsterdam, showcases the Dutch capital’s past as one of the world’s key trading hubs; and, the Umbrella Sky project of the streets of Agueda, wrap up the list.