Locations

[apskip]

I have just completed a fairly massive study to determine which end cities are feasible and which are not. My assumptions are that teams started in the late afternoon or evening of Tuesday, July 31 from Anchorage and flew to somewhere in the lower 48. It is critical that final cities be reachable directly or with one connection and that the arrival time be in the 5am to 7am time frame ideally. Here are the choices for the connecting (or maybe final city):

Chicago AS 130 departs ANC 2200 arrives ORD 0655

Minneapolis on Tuesday, Sat. or Sun. has NW844 departs ANC 21445 arrives MSP 0556

Portland AS100 departs ANC 1240 (actually 8/1) arrives PDX 0514

Seattle numerous departures from ANC going all day, through 2055 arriving SEA 2310

That makes Minneapolis and Portland prime candidates for FINAL CITY. Chicago is a possibility, although it has alreadh had that honor so it is less likely.

There are a whole range of connections possible through Seattle. the trick was to figure out which other cities could be ones which met my criteria above(basically a nonstop flight out of Seattle just before or after midnight that lands between 5am and 7am). The ones that did not make that cut include New York-LaGuardia, Philadelphia, Raleigh, Tampa, Jacksonville, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Nashville, Indianapolis, Memphis, New Orleans, St. Louis, Kansas City, San Antonio, Denver, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

The ones that do make the cut and the flights that qualify through Seattle are:

Newark    CO234 2010 0610
JFK          B6 86  2350 0800(note: this is out of range but I left it in anyway)
Boston     B6498 2215 0624  or  AS24 2215 0635
IAD         UA204 2330 0713
CLT       US1548 2215 0607
Atlanta    DL616  2255 0625
Orlando    AS10   2320 0730
Miami       AS11   2222 0655
Detroit    NW208 2200 0505
Dallas     AA1212 1227a0606
Houston CO1543 2345 0553

Only one city can qualify through Portland due to timing of that 504am arrival above. That city is Sacramento. On Aug. 1, WN 1461 departed PDX 0605 arriving SMF 0730 (alightly outside my range, but I'll take it).

Based on past status as a final city, I doubt that New York/Newark, Dallas, or Miami or Chicago up above got chosen for this honor once again. That means that Boston, Washington, Charlotte, Atlanta, Orlando, Detroit,  Houston and Sacramento join Minneapolis and Portland as my prime candidates for FINAL CITY. Be looking for any hints that support or disprove one of these cities.

[gingerman28]

If the trip covers, as first announced, 50,000 miles than there will be a lot of north-south legs in addition to the east-west legs.  You have to account for a lot of miles to cover twice the distance around the globe at the equator.

But, as said in the first promos, the trip is only 30,000 miles than the route will be more direct east to west with just the one north-south leg to Burkina Faso.

[puddin]

We have some interesting location speculation going on in this thread .

Florence, Italy
Bosnia
India
Some new evidence to add to our Africa spoilers, Dourtenga, southeast of Ouagadougou.

[north09]

Ok, I don't know if this is any good, but my parents went to Florence for a day this summer. I wish they would have been there at the time of filming, but they wern't. Anyways, they went to the Domo and were able to tell me about it. It has aound 158 steps you have to climb to get to the top. One you make it all the way up, there is just an amazing view of all of Florence. They said that one part is so skinny that only one person can go by. Sounds like a part of a detour to me. "Climb up" or something else, I guess.

Here are some pictures.





And from the top...



Also, my mom tells me they may cross this bridge





BTW: You don't climb up the tower, you climb up the other part of the domo, more likely the part they will visit.



If you have any questions, just ask. I'll try and see if my parents can answer therm.

[puddin]

Very nice North!!

Oh I recognize this place from my photo source



 

[attachment deleted by admin]

[georgiapeach]

Great pictures, North!!

And the lovely Ponte Vecchio too.

I love Florence! They better go there after teasing us this way...

[apskip]

Wow Puddin, that's a really great discovery.  I think it fits perfectly in the schedule.   

I looked at their blog entry for July 11th and determined that the TAR siting had to have been on the day before:  July 10th in Amsterdam

It is based on the fact that the Tour De France reached Gant on July 9th (click on the flash animation).

Timeline for tourists      
July 9th      Tour De France seen in Gant, Belgium, They got up early that day and arrived by 15 min train ride to Gant.  They waited 5 hours
July 9th      "Jumped a train to Amsterdam. Arrived in town midday and headed directly to the laundry."
July 9th      "We spent about six hours walking around town going to various restaurants and bars to taste the tastes."
July 10th      "Today we took a quick train ride to nearby Haarlem."
July 10th      "We just got done with a walking tour of Amsterdam."
July 10th      "We think we saw some participants from the Amazing Race running through town with a cameraman and sound guy following close behind."
      "Tomorrow we are on our way to the lovely, Denmark."
      Posted July 11th at 11:17 am

This means that Apskip's flight on the 11th may well be the one they use to get to West Africa.

OK, I am going back to the original information provided by Chateau above. Let's walk through it with analysis. The key is on July 9 watching the Tour de France. Those familiar with that race know that the finish of the race is usually at about 5pm local time. If this group was waiting around in Ghent for 5 hours, it would have been to see the finish of the 3rd leg of the Tour de France. It would have made no sense to wait for 5 hours and leave before that. 
That means that the next listing "jumped a train to Amsterdam. Arrived in town midday" must refer to July 10. It takes about 3 hours from Ghent to Amsterdam by normal fast train service, so that means leaving maybe 9am or 10 am from Ghent. That could not be on July 9; it has to be on July 10.
 "6 hours walking around town going to restaurants and bars to taste the tastes" has to be July 10. That takes them up to dinner time on July 10. there's no more time for sightseeing in the sunshine.
 "Today we took a quick train ride to nearby Haarlem (famous for its tulips when in season)" starts July 11.
"We just got done with a walking tour of Amsterdam" is later on July 11.
"We think we saw some participants from the Amazing Race running through town with a camera man and sound guy." is definitely July 11.

My conclusion is that I absolutely agree with CHATEAU's reconsideration of the dates for Amsterdam. The Amazing Race arrived there on July 11, not July 10 as we had previously thought.

This has the following major implications:
1. The Ireland leg can go until the early evening of July 10 before a pitstop is required.
2. There will be no leg between Amsterdam and Ouagadougou.
3. The leg bewteen Ouagadougou is probably Florence.
4. The leg after Dubrovnik is definitely Vilnius Lithuania.
5. There will be only one additional leg to figure out between Vilnius and Osaka.

[puddin]

Far fetched I know but I had posted this in the TAR Asia 2 spoiler thread ..hey you never know? we are looking for a location around the 23rd. Could Thailand work?  -- just thinking out loud.

Jon's Blog of Stuff
blog posted on:Tuesday, July 24, 2007

The best story from the trip was the airport cab ride in Bangkok. Strangely enough, entry into the hotel is guarded and cars undergo a under-the-car mirror inspection prior to pulling up to the entrance. Ordering a cab from the hotel we managed to get the nuttiest guy in Thailand. Mentioning to us that he was told to "Go, Go, Go" by his last passengers (obviously contestants from the Amazing Race) he informed us that he was only going by the speed limit (which was fine by us

link

[georgiapeach]

I can't find our incomplete TARA 2 Timeline now -- but wouldn't TARA 2 fit better? 

Or this could even just be a joke as in ha ha if a fare says Go Go Go they must "obviously be a contestant on TAR"...

[puddin]

Far fetched I know 

[apskip]

Not so far-fetched. The flights are feasible. I'll work them out and demonstrate that. There is plenty of time for it. The big problem is that Bankgkok has been overused by the Amazing Race.

I still believe it is more likely that it was a stop on the way from Europe to Japan for Amazing Race Asia 2.

[apskip]

However, I have done an interesting list of the various locations for each leg and classified them into PREVIOUS and NEW so I can compare them to the statement made by I believe Bertram van Munster (or possible Jonathan Littman) that 65% of the locations for AR12 are new. Here are the lists, assuming that Florence is in NEW and Bangkok is in PREVIOUS:

PREVIOUS:

Los Angeles
Amsterdam
Bangkok
Unknown Final City

NEW:

Ireland
Ougadougou
Florence
Dubrovnik
Vilnius
Osaka
Taipei
Girdwood

That is 67% new or pretty close to that statement. That means that my previous assusmption that the Final City will be a new one appears to be incorrect. It also means that the UNKNOWN CITY should be somewhere the race has already been. That means one of the following will be the UNKOWN CITY:

Moscow
Istanbul
Delhi
Bombay
Calcutta
Chennai
Bankgkok
Chennai
Kuala Lumpur
Singapore
Hong Kong
Ho Chi Minh City(Saigon)
Hanoi
Beijing
Shanghai
Ulan Bator
Cairo
Addis Ababa
Oman
Dubai
Colmbo
Phuket
Chiang Mai

[Kiwi Jay]

If your assumptions are correct apskip then puddin may be right

[Kogs]

for those who are wondering cause of timetables, its 150 miles roundtrip from ankrange alaska to girdwood alaska.

[Kiwi Jay]

150 miles, Yeah but usually they ccut out quite a bit of road-trips though!!. Kogs over in Episode 2 we are just talking about the possibilites of there being TBCs and were exactly they would put them

[apskip]

for those who are wondering cause of timetables, its 150 miles roundtrip from ankrange alaska to girdwood alaska.

Kogs, you may be right. However from Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage to Girdwood it is 38.5 miles each way. That is 77 miles roundtrip. Here is the data from mapquest:

Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC): 907-266-2526
4600 Postmark Dr, Anchorage, AK 99502, US
Revise | New Directions
 
 
Girdwood, AK US
Revise | New Directions
 
Total Est. Time:  47 minutes
Total Est. Distance: 38.50 miles
Online Offers

Maneuvers Distance  Maps   
 There are .45 miles between your starting location and the beginning of your driving directions. Use maps to get from your starting location to the beginning of your route. 
 1: Start out going NORTH on N TUG RD toward DE HAVILLAND AVE. <0.1 miles Map
 
 2: Turn RIGHT onto DE HAVILLAND AVE. 0.2 miles Map
 
 3: Turn RIGHT onto POSTMARK DR. 0.8 miles Map
 
 4: Turn LEFT onto W INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT RD. 1.6 miles Map
 
 5: Take the MINNESOTA DR SOUTH ramp toward SEWARD HWY SOUTH. 0.2 miles Map
 
 6: Merge onto MINNESOTA DR. 3.7 miles Map
 
 7: MINNESOTA DR becomes OMALLEY RD. 0.9 miles Map
 
 8: Take the SEWARD HWY. SOUTH ramp. 0.2 miles Map
 
 9: Merge onto AK-1 S / SEWARD HWY / INTERSTATE A1 S. 30.2 miles Map
 
 10: Turn LEFT onto MAIN ST. <0.1 miles Map
 
 11: Turn RIGHT onto GOLD AVE. <0.1 miles Map
 
 12: Turn LEFT onto OLD DAWSON RD. <0.1 miles Map
 
 13: End at Girdwood, AK US  Map
 
Total Est. Time: 47 minutes     Total Est. Distance: 38.50 miles 
 

[Kiwi Jay]

47 minutes compared to his is doubled basically which means 94 mins big difference

[apskip]

I made an analysis yesterday on another thread that impacts post #151 above on this thread. Specifically, my entire concept on what type of cities will be the FINAL CITY has been turned upside down. My hypothesis used to be that a new city would be selected for this honor. However, analysis of the other stops and projected cities to fill them shows that to meet the 65% number indicated by TPTB (van Munster or Littman), the FINAL CITY will have to be one used in a previous Amazing Race, not necessarily as a FINAL CITY. That means that the FINAL CITY possibilities are now:

New York
Miami
Chicago
Dallas
Salt Lake City
Phoenix
Las Vegas
Seattle
San Francisco
Los Angeles

The cities eliminated if this approach is true are:

Boston
Washington DC
Charlotte
Atlanta
Orlando
Detroit
Minneapolis
Houston
Portland
Sacramento

For those still in the running per this approach, my previous work indiciates that several of them do not get a flight in from Anchorage (including single connection) between 5am and 7am. Those were Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. It is possible to get to those cities after 7am or before midnight, so they are not totally out of the running, but they are much less likely than the other 7. I now believe that the Final City will be New York metro, Miami metro, Chicago metro, Dallas metro, or Seattle metro.

[georgiapeach]

Well--again take it FWIW--(sometimes those film people LIE!)

But kogs and I have been working our way from airport to airport--And Dallas both city and Airport have denied any permits (this one seemed very reliable)--and the Chicago Film Comm also issued no permits although I have not yet spoken to O'Hare.

Airport sleuthing to resume soon!

[puddin]

And fwiw India/ Yogi is looking good  ! check out the intro mish mash 

[apskip]

puddin, I have looked into flight schedules into and out of Kerala. There are two major airports serving the two largest cities, Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi. It should beno surprise that it is difficult to get there from Europe and takes a long time. Best flights from Vilnius go through either Frankfurt or Moscow:

VNO KIEV MOSCOW DELHI TRV depart VNO July 22 1020, depart Moscow 1925, arrive TRV 1200 +1

VNO FRA DOHA(QATAR) TRV depart VNO July 22 1130, depart FRA 1420, arrive TRV 0735 +1

VNO KIEV MOSCOW DELHI COK depart VNO July 22 1020 depart Moscow 1925, arrive COK 1040 +1

VNO FRA DUBAI COK depart VNO July 22 1130, depart FRA 1420 arrive COK 0540 +1

Best flights from Kerala to Osaka go through Singapore and have nice tight connections:

TRV BOM KIX depart TRV July 24 1650 arrive KIX 1235 +1

TRV SIN KIX depart TRV July 24 2240 arrive KIX 1550 +1

COK SIN KIX depart COK July 24 2310 arrive KIX 1550 +1

It should be noted that there isn't much flexibility in these schedules. These aren't the only possible flights, but alternatives come with huge time penalties for longer layovers at connecting cities. The basic problem is that there aren't many flights into or out of Thiruvananthapuram or Kochi.

Kerala is one part of India I have not visited. However, I did get to Tamil Nadu, which is adjacent. The pace of life is totally different than that of the major cities of India's north(although Chennai in Tamil Nadu is an exception), with my expcetation that Kerala would be much more relaxed.

 

[puddin]

Kerala is still up in the air for debate apeskips we still have some work to do on that so somewhere India is as good as guess as any, probably the southern tip. Thats some amazing flight info btw.

[apskip]

puddin, my flight information has had to be redone. I could not find Bekal on any of several maps of India. It is not even a small village. It is just a fort next to Pallikere village. Anyway, its name has changed whenever India changed Bombay to Mumbai. Bekal became Bakel. In spite of all of that, its location (now that I have found it) is 60 km south of Mangalore, a large city which is in the next province to the north. There is a reasonable flight combination in to Mangalore:

Depart Vilnius July 22 TE1138 1805  Helsinki AY29 Bombay arriving 0610 +1  9W433 departs BOM 0930 arrives Mangalore 1045 (July 23)

There is also a reasonable combination of flights to get teams to Osaka:

Depart Mangalore July 24 on any of 5 nonstop flights including 9W472 1505 arrive Bombay 1620 depart Bombay AI314 2025 arrives Osaka 1235 +1

[moox03]

Another pretty popular (and easy) port in south India is Bangalore (also known as Bengaluru) -- it's in Karnataka, and there are regular bus/train connections from Bangalore to all cities south of it.

[puddin]

I no longer think its the fort near Pallikere apskips rather, somewhere India