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ALBUQUERQUE |
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Sprawling at the heart of New Mexico, where the main east-west road and rail routes cross both the Rio Grande and the old road south to Mexico,
ALBUQUERQUE
is, with half a million people, the state's only major metropolis. Though many tourists dash straight from the airport up to Santa Fe, without a thought for Albuquerque, the "
Duke City
" has a good deal going for it. Like Phoenix, it's grown a bit too fast for comfort in the last fifty years, but the original Hispanic settlement is still discernible at its core, and its diverse, cosmopolitan population gives it a rare cultural vibrancy. Even if its architecture is often uninspired, the setting is magnificent, sandwiched between the Rio Grande - lined by stately cottonwoods - and the dramatic, glowing
Sandia Mountains
. Specific highlights for visitors include the intact
Spanish plaza
, the neon-lit
Route 66
frontage of Central Avenue and the excellent
Indian Pueblo Cultural Center
; while every October Albuquerque hosts the nation's largest
hot-air balloon
rally, attracting upward of 100,000 people to its mass ascensions.
Old Town
Once you've cruised up and down
Central Avenue
, looking at the flashing neon and 1940s architecture of this twenty-mile stretch of Route 66 (Sun Tran buses do it all day for 75¢), most of what's interesting about Albuquerque is concentrated in...
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