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The Alps. I went there once and I still dream about those mountain peaks. There's no way to describe how awe inspiring they are.
The Vasa Museum in Stockholm, for those that don't know it houses a 17th century ship that sank in 1628 and was recovered and preserved. Pictures don't do it justice, it's massive and legitimately the coolest thing I've ever seen in my life.
The Redwoods and Sequoias in California. I remember visiting Muir Woods for the first time in the early, foggy morning and it was almost like stepping back into another time.
The city of Edinburgh. There's just something about it, it's spectacular, and has everything you could want around it.
Machu Picchu.
Yosemite National Park
The garden of the gods in Colorado is pretty great.
42 comments:
Vegas.
I hope people keep going to support them.
Yosemite. Just like in the movies ... because it is!
Vegas, too.
I was very impressed with that 17th century ship.
Colorado is pretty great. If you tell anyone - I keel you.
ok - death jokes not funny. **
The Swiss Alps are beyond incredible. Switzerland is one of the most expensive places to travel in all of Europe, so seeing them is tricky. I was lucky to get to go with a group in the 1990's. Unforgettable.
Vegas will rebound in short order. There might be a lag, but people will return. The good deals that are sure to follow this horrible tragedy will help.
Pearl Harbor.
The Vietnam Wall memorial.
Chichen Itza.
Sandals.
And Medusa's right about Pearl, especially the Arizona Memorial. The Punchbowl is spectacular.
The Grand Canyon really is.
Couldn't agree more with the Edinburgh Scotland mention.
We went to this whiskey bar on Royal Mile and I could not figure out what to order (there could have been 100 bottles of whiskey on display). So I just pointed and said I'll have what he is having. She poured a shot of whatever and I hated it. A fellow came up and said no wonder, I must be a fucking lowland unionist. Peaty. So I asked for something highland and it was great, and so was the next and the next. And more fitting to my station, after all.
Next day I almost had the opportunity of playing 9 holes of golf at St Andrews. There was a tournament that day, however. Stood near where Sean Connery and Gert Frobe stood. Wow.
Plus Greyfriers bobby, all the coffee shops that JK Rowling wrote her first Harry Potter novel in, AC Doyles house, the Black Watch marching to Hollyrood.
Will go back.
Never made it to Chichen Itza, but Uxmal lived up to Chichen Itza's hype. Missed Edinburgh, but I was in Aberdeen for the Olympic torch relay, and that was incredible. Anchorage, including south to Whittier and north to Talketna and Denali but go in summer. I was pretty impressed by 17 mile drive as well, mostly because I thought it was nothing by hype, which it is, but it has its moments.
Not a tourist spot but once was a tourist thing to do; night launch of a Space Shuttle. One moment it is pitch black, and the next moment blue skies that slowly fade back to black.
All the southern Utah canyon parks and just the canyons outside the parks. Yellowstone. Grand Canyon. Redwood forests NoCal. Alaska. Little Big Horn, Gettysburg, Smithsonian[most of the DC stops actually]. Carlsbad Caverns. Rockies from Colorado to Canada. Rome. Amalfi Coast. Tuscany. NYC. Boston. SF. Chicago. LA. San Diego. Vegas. Lake Tahoe. Vermont. NH. New Orleans.
Places I could have passed on. Mount Rushmore. Ozarks. Everglades. Philly. Maine. StL Arch.
The Lake District in Wales. It's beautiful and moody. The scenery isn't intimidating. You get the sense that God doesn't have it in for you.
New Orleans? Really? I guess it is fine if you have no sense of smell, but step onto Bourbon St, and the stench of urine is all you will remember of the place.
I did have no idea you could go up into the StL Arch. As a structure, it didn't live up to the hype, but that part of the hype I had never heard, so it was surprising. Agree with Philly and Everglades, and everyone I know that has seen Mount Rushmore would agree.
William have you seen the detective show Hinterland. It's pretty good. Filmed in Wales, formulaic, with a brooding detective, good acting, and panoramic sweeps of the landscape. It's on Netflix sometimes.
I have been to everywhere on that list, but the museum in Sweden. Since I concur with the list, I will check out the museum.
Muir Woods is great, but the better groves are up north (or the Sequoia groves in the Sierras) Still, you get a taste of it with Muir Woods.
The Alps are awesome. So are the Canadian Rockies.
Oh yeah, Denali is pretty cool too.
And Palau.
Musee de Orsay in Paris.
Meteora in Greece.
Leland said...
New Orleans? Really? I guess it is fine if you have no sense of smell, but step onto Bourbon St, and the stench of urine is all you will remember of the place.
You must have been there after Katrina. I had a chance to wander around the French Quarter for several days (The Blonde was at a conference) and I had no problems.
PS Brennan's if you're into steak.
PPS Philadelphia has a lot to do with when you were there, who was mayor. A lot of nice places, but (dare I say it?) black mayors have a way of turning the place inside out.
Nope, I went long before Katrina. I figured the storm might have cleaned it up, but I was told otherwise by friends. Unfortunately, Katrina took out Ray's Bullpen in Slidell.
Philadelphia was fine and all, but not exactly a place that lives up to hype.
The Louvre. Le Tour Eifel. The Uffizi. The Pitti Palace. All the rest of Florence. Rome, especially the Vatican, San Pietro in Vincoli, the Apian Way, any location where there is a sculpture by Bernini, The Forum, the Spanish Steps, and so on.
The Smithsonian, the British Museum, the Art Institute in Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art - especially their collection of American furniture - look out!
Canyonlands, the Four Corners region, Death Valley, the Salt Flats, the Cascades and so on.
There were a couple of places that did disappoint - The Grand Canyon of Australia - it was good, not grand, I found Yellowstone disappointing because I was used to Yosemite - the latter is much more dramatic, more concentrated and awe inspiring.
The parts of the west coast that I have seen - from Vancouver Island, BC, down to the tip of Baja California has some wonderful scenery - much of it is along the PCH.
Leland said...
Philadelphia was fine and all, but not exactly a place that lives up to hype.
Depends on where you go.
There was a news item last week about a death on Scafell Pike, and I thought, now that's sad. England's highest peak at 3,000 feet and then I thought, now that's REALLY sad. That's 2,000 feet lower than Denver. The peaky-peaks here are over 14,000 feet. And that's all well and good but this mountain range is even more dramatic in Canada. A train from Calgary, Alberta to Vancouver, B.C. is awe inspiring. Looking out the train window approaching the mountain range, a lawyer in our group leaned over said to me, "You expect a Wagner leitmotif."
And I asked, "what does leet motif mean?"
And Banff is really fun too.
The Canadian peaks reach 16,000 feet.
The highest Alps, Mont Blanc is 15,700 feet.
Now, these elevations are nothing to sneeze at. In fact, sneezing can cause nosebleed. True fact, that I just now made up.
And it's very hard to breath at extreme elevation even if you are used to it like I am. We can go hiking right up to the continental divide which isn't that high, as we have, and not even be strained of breathing. That's how awesome we are just naturally. Olympic athletes come here just to ride bikes and run around because there's nothing like high altitude exercise to improve your blood's ability to deliver oxygen, and that translates to great competitive advantage at sea level. It makes you even more awesome down there.
Nobody mentioned sunrise on Haleakala Maui. Where everyone was out of breath even though they drove up there.
Nobody mentioned Mt. Fuji and I bet I know why. It's a volcano mountain to admire from afar for its beautiful shape as a whole, while it's not all that once you're on it. Elevation over 12,000 feet.
Nobody mentioned Cave of the Winds. Nor Red Rocks natural amphitheater.
Reconstructed boats were mentioned but nobody mentioned the reconstructed solar barque of Khufu, old as any such thing, old as the actual pyramids, dug out of a pit, and reconstructed. Turns out one of several such boats in pits around the pyramids, like the Scandinavian boat a museum built to house it.
But what hype? Nobody cares about this.
Did anyone mention the Rembrandt House Museum?
Did anyone mention the Royal Gorge bridge? Go there and walk across it. I wanna see you piss your pants. While there you can have a smart lunch at a fashionable diner, pet deer, and take a cog train ride up a very steep mountain side. And you can raft the Arkansas River below it. How's that for fun? You can experience this awesome canon top to bottom. Truly, real thrills of a lifetime, if you're not so old and worn out and jaded to experience genuine breathtaking thrill. GO THERE! I said. It's right here in your own backyard.
Ah travel. It's so mind expanding innit. Especially when you look around your immediate place.
Immediate place. I just now triggered myself. I have sourdough sponge fermenting three extra days, cause I've been very busy laying around inactive. I'm going to have to dilute it by 100%. That's the thrill of sourdough bread from my location and it's the best sourdough that I've ever tasted.
Pololu Valley -- Big Island, Hawai'i. South Point is pretty cool, as well.
Imperial War Museum in London.
Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Southern California weather.
Wisconsin beer.
Trooper York said...
Vegas.
I hope people keep going to support them.
My first thought was how the machine gun shooting ranges would fare. I shot a Tommy gun there several years ago. It now takes on a whole new meaning.
Hopefully, what happened in Vegas will stay in Vegas.
Venice, Italy is fascinating if you just step a few meters off the well trod Grand Canal pathway.
I lived in Zurich, Switzerland for 2 years but I was more impressed with the Austrian Alps.
Buckingham and Windsor did live up to hype. London Tower, the actual Keep and Castle, way exceeded my expectations. A near 1000 year structure near Roman walls older than 1000 years, and the rich history over those years, and you go inside.
New Orleans has good history and superb food.
Wengen, Switzerland
Lauterbrunnen Valley, Switzerland
St Paul's cathedral in London
back to more famous places...
Riding up the St Louis Arch in the barrels to see the river, read about the 18 inch sway, and feel slight movement was epic, memorable enough as a teenager to recommend it 40+ years later to SonM and friend who also found it worth seeing.
Chichen Itza didn't do it, and neither did Sandals (controlled opulence in the midst of abject poverty), but walking up the Dunn's River stone waterfall near Ocho Rios was one-of-a-kind experience worth doing, for the freedom and lack of restrictions present, at least during the 80's.
Tivoli Garden's roller coaster in the dark, experienced as an 11 year old was the only and scariest coaster ride I've been on in the dark. (Fun fact: Opened in Copenhagen, Denmark on 15 August 1843. Tivoli is the second-oldest operating amusement park in the world)
Also awesome from an 11 year old's perspective, was Venice and vaporettos, feeding pigeons in SanMarco square, riding a red double decker in London and seeing Madama Tussand's chamber of Horrors along with the Tower of London.
Yes to the Art Institute in Chicago and the Grand Canyon. Also to the Royal Gorge as piss- in-the-pants-worthy sight without even contemplating a walk across.
Niagara Falls doesn't disappoint either, touristy as it is, the power and proximity of the water is awesome to behold and be near.
Treetops Resort in Kenya
The Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo. At least it was in the early 1980's and sounds like it still might be memorable now.
http://content.time.com/time/travel/cityguide/article/0,31489,1897812_1897772_1897703,00.html
The peace and sweet beauty of Bermuda as well as crawling through the lava tubes on Tiercera in the Azores (a bomber/refueling stop in the 70's during the Vietnam years), still today referred to as the "the other Eden"
Haven't made it to the Vietnam Memorial but hope to, visiting only through books and film so far.
The Arabia Steamboat Museum in Kansas City also makes US history come alive. The Arabia is a side wheeler steamboat which hit a snag and sank in the Missouri River near what today is Kansas City, Missouri, on September 5, 1856. It was rediscovered in 1988 by a team of researchers. Today, the artifacts recovered from the site are housed in the Arabia Steamboat Museum.,
The Smokey Mountains are also uniquely beautiful, with Cade's Cove worth a visit, along with a drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway in the spring or fall although the Pigeon Forge is almost too much. A cabin rental nearby allowed us to experience the beauty without the overwhelm.
What have I enjoyed recently that was touristy but beautiful? A visit to Amish country in Holmes county Ohio, where I felt as though I was driving through the Shire.
The reconstructed boat at the pyramids is cool. Been there. It was impressive.
The pyramids are best enjoyed after quite a few Stella beers, up on top. At night. Actually it is fairly scary to climb those things at night. I climbed Khufu. Khafre would be a tough climb with the casing still at the top and not for one drunk and at night to attempt.
Door County cherries are awesome.
Door County cherries are awesome.
Door County cherry ice cream at the Merrimac Ferry is pretty awesome, too. I had some just last year.
The Arabia Steamboat Museum in Kansas City also makes US history come alive. The Arabia is a side wheeler steamboat which hit a snag and sank in the Missouri River near what today is Kansas City, Missouri, on September 5, 1856. It was rediscovered in 1988 by a team of researchers. Today, the artifacts recovered from the site are housed in the Arabia Steamboat Museum.
That is something I'd very much like to see one day.
Someone mentioned the Vasa museum. I recall reading about that in National Geographic in the 1960's. Sounds cool. I'd like to see the Hunley wreck in Charleston. The one and only time I was there, it hadn't been found yet. I especially appreciate the story of Dixon's gold coin: Legend became fact!
Oh, chickelit. I had a collection of National Geographics going back to the 1930's, but sent them away during a much needed purge several years ago. I was so sad to do that, SonM gave me the gift of Nat Geo on DVD, which I haven't opened to this day. Truth be told, I probably wouldn't have opened the previously stored magazines much either. I let my subscription lapse around 2005.
@MamaM: The issue I recall was from: 1962. I don't recall anything from 1962, but we had those back issues lying around the house, much like the Althouse family had Playboy.
National Geographic was titillating in its own way -- especially those issues covering African tribes.
I preferred the Sears Catalogue bra and panties section.
Waffle House.
I need to get out more.
They're WAY too chatty @ Waffle house for this introvert.
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