If you missed our End of 2021 quiz, you can still test your brains by answering the questions below.
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- Which classical composer walked 250 miles to Lubeck?
A: J. S Bach – In the winter of 1705, aged 20, Bach set out to travel over 250 miles on foot from Arnstadt, in Thuringia, the heart of Germany, to Lübeck, near the Baltic coast, in order to study the art and craft of Lübeck’s famous organist, Dietrich Buxtehude.
2. Which of these initiatives has nothing to do with walking?
A: Cool ways – Slow ways is an UK initiative to link villages, towns and cities with pedestrian routes (using existing rights of way); Lost ways is an initiative by Ramblers in England & ales to re-instate rights of way that have become lost over time; Foot ways are pavements beside streets and roads for pedestrian use, however, London Living Streets have used the phrase for a campaign to create pedestrian priority routes across London.
3. Jaywalking or crossing the street not at an intersection is a criminal act in Ontario. True or false?
A. False – back in the 70s, walklistencreate founder Andrew Stuck was arrested and fined for jaywalking in Toronto…these days however, he would have got off scot-free!
4. It is not against UK law to take part in a naked bike ride, but Stephen Gough was arrested for walking naked from where to where?
A. Land’s End to John O’Groats is the correct answer, although as Stephen Gough has been arrested more than once for public indecency he might well have been walking from John O’Groats to Land’s End…thanks to Geoff Nicholson’s Lost Art of Walking as the source for this question!
5. Walking backwards helps improve your balance and it releases happy hormones that keep your senses calm?
A. Surprisingly, it’s true! According to a study published in the Journal of Physical Therapy Science, backward walking helps in improving balance and it releases happy hormones that keep your senses calm.
6. What phrase describes walking that’s more “subtle and graceful than that of the average oaf”?
A. Cat-foot – Cats aren’t known for clomping around like Clydesdales; they’re stealthy. That’s why cat-footing refers to walking that’s more subtle and graceful than that of the average oaf. In Harry L. Wilson’s 1916 book Somewhere in Red Gap, this word appears in characteristic fashion: “…I didn’t yell any more. I cat-footed. And in a minute I was up close.” Cat-footing is a requirement for a career as a cat burglar. Credits to Mark Peters for these words mentioned in his article, see this.
7. Who walked “on a wire between the Twin Towers” and what was the title of the movie made about them?
A. Philippe Petit (see below) and The Walk – see this news item from the New York Daily News
8. What’s an E-path and how many of them are there?
A. They are Pan-Europe walking routes and there are 12 of them – let’s get walking them!
9. This author followed in the footsteps of composer J S Bach, created a radio programme and wrote a book called “Something of his Art” about the walk – then spoke about it at a Walk Listen Cafe – who is the author?
Was it Peter Fiennes @pfiennes or Robert Macfarlane @RobGMacfarlane or Julian Hoffman @Julianhoffman or Horatio Clare @HoratioClare ?
A: It was Horatio Clare
10. Which of these artworks was NOT created by Hamish Fulton?
NO TALKING FOR SEVEN DAYS / A MIDNIGHT SOLSTICE WALK / SEVEN DAYS CAMPING AND SEVEN DAYS WALKING / FRANCE ON THE HORIZON
A. A MIDNIGHT SOLSTICE WALK – we made that one up! You can discover artworks by Hamish Fulton in the Tate Archive, and you can listen to Hamish talking walking from here.
