And not even a very big one at that. Before it was protected people would come and chip pieces off of it to take home. Now you just look down into this hole and there it is. The End. It was still pretty cool though if you like going to historical places, which I do. And I love the town of Plymoth!! It is so freakin adorable! Little seafood places, ice cream shops, and lots of families. We also went on the most amazing whale watching tour. I could totally live there…in the summer.
The Liberty Bell was really dissapointing. A REALLY long line outside. Nothing to look at while waiting. Then you look at the bell. Again, the end.
I completely disagree with the previous posters about San Fransisco. I loved my time there. I think it is a beautiful city. We rode a streetcar, went to the Ghiradelli Chocolate factory, went to Fisherman’s Wharf, walked along the beach, went to different places to look at the bridge. Of course we only stayed a day or two, I don’t know if we would have continued to be entertained if we stayed longer. We went there as part of a trip to Sequoia and Monteray Bay. Loved that whole trip.
Me too. That’s like coming to Thailand and staying on Khao San Road. On Bali, we’ve spent several days in Ubud, a delightful little town in the middle of the island, and gone dolphin watching off the north coast at Lovina Beach. A really nice time.
I had the exact opposite experience with the Rock of Gibraltar. I expected a rock, maybe even a large rock, but was amazed to see that the “Rock” is a huge, fantastic, ape-covered mountain! What’s the total opposite of “disappointing”?
Puno in Peru. I visited the floating islands expecting more of a National Geographic experience. I should’ve known. After being invited in to see one of their homes made of the reeds, getting inside I saw that it was a standard frame construction with 2 by 4s and plywood. The kids were huddled up watching cartoons on the TV.
The Sistine Chapel was also a letdown for me as well. But that had more to do with my ignorance of it than anything. I had always pictured that the Creation of Adam filled up the whole ceiling and was rather enormous. So when I finally got in there and was amongst the hundreds of people in there constantly needing to be shushed, I was surprised to see it just be a small part of a very busy ceiling.
Negril, Jamaica. I’d never been to Jamaica before and the previous year was in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The hotel was on a beautiful piece of beach and the water was clear and warm. However, there were no waves. It just stayed flacid and boring. (Compared to Puerto Vallarta where there was a day where there were warnings to stay out of the water because of the waves). That and Jamaica is pretty much a shithole. I’ve travelled to some very iffy places in the world and I’ve never felt more unsafe constantly than when I was there.
Lastly, the Centraal part of Amsterdam has changed for the worse in the last couple years. I was just there a couple of months ago and I don’t remember it being so much of an after hours frat party. The city just felt exhausted from partying.
(bumping old thread as it was linked to by a current thread)
YMMV but I found the Alamo interesting. Actually, all the missions in San Antonio are interesting, but the Alamo more so from a historical/military perspective and the other missions more so from a “this is how they lived back then” perspective.
However, if you’re ever in San Antonio and get the chance, I highly recommend you get one of the riverwalk-area boat tours. I can’t say what it’s like at day but it’s really spectacular at night, and if you get a guide who’s anything like the one I got, you’ll be amazed how much you learn.
I mentioned Mission Control when this thread was new but I have a new one - the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen. When you walk out of customs they pretty much tell you “the Little Mermaid statue? You will visit it, and you will be disappointed.”
I wasn’t much impressed by the Parthenon either. It is totally wired together now. I went before the museum opened, and it was cold and rainy, so it might have just been a bad day. It is not that I don’t like ruins - Ephesus was awesome.
South Beach, Miami has gotten pretty sleazy over the years-and now very expensive. I much prefer North Miami Beach now-its quieter and much less expensive.
I have to disagree about Williamsburg, VA-I always enjoyed my visits there-the best time to go is early spring and late Fall-less crowded and not hot.
I don’t want to say Athens was disappointing, exactly, because the ancient sights and ruins are unbelievable to lay eyes upon – I was blown away by the SCALE of some of the monuments, such as the Temple of Olympian Zeus, which is so huge that my mind could barely grasp how human hands created it. But Athens itself smelled like piss and the people weren’t friendly at all. To be fair though, New Orleans also smells like piss and it doesn’t have a Parthenon to recommend it, and plenty of people like going there.
Davenport Iowa-seems to be inhabited by zombies…even the “good” restaurants don’t serve after 8 PM. What-do people have to be home by sunset? Absolutely nothing there to see or do.
A city that’s best avoided.
Definitely the Biltmore Estate. Huge crowds getting pushed through a tight velvet rope course to see approximately 1/6 of a huge restored mansion. The grounds are beautiful, and I had a great brunch at one of the restaurants, but the tour itself was boring and left me feeling vaguely awful, thinking of all the excess and consumption of resources.
I agree with:
[ul][li]The Sistine Chapel: There are a couple of beautiful pieces (God + Adam, the Last Judgment), but it was incredibly dim in there; if I wanted to see any details, I’d have better luck looking at them in a book or on the internet. And some of the art was kind of mediocre (e.g. paintings of “women” who look like Sylvester Stallone smuggling a couple of apples under his shirt). It probably didn’t help that I was there with a tour group (and a dozen other tour groups, of course) so it wasn’t very leisurely.[/li][li]Macao: My wife and I don’t gamble, so it probably wasn’t worth the day trip. There were a few cool things to see though in terms of art and architecture, I guess.[/ul][/li]
When my wife and I were in Paris, we were leaving on Tuesday and we didn’t realise that the palace of Versailles was closed on Monday. I figured it wasn’t worth going to Versailles if the palace was closed, but my wife insisted. I’m glad she did, because the gardens blew me away! They’re just enormous and beautiful and filled with fountains and statuary.
I was pleasantly surprised by Mount Rushmore. I figured it would involve 3 minutes of looking at the faces, then saying “Yup, that’s Mt. Rushmore all right, what’s next?” But there was a nice little trail to walk around with park rangers giving interesting and informative talks in strategic locations. I certainly wouldn’t spend all day there, but it was a pleasant stop on our bus trip to Yellowstone.
We saw Crazy Horse immediately afterwards, and I had much more of a “That’s a huge, incomplete Crazy Horse all right, what’s next?” feeling there. Plus it had a certain amount of begging for donations, which was a bit of a turnoff for me.
It is privately owned. I head the head of the family which owns it on Marketplace; he is pretty happy with the admissions charge. It is keeping them in style in Philadelphia.
I know I am late to the discussion, but I kind of agree with the original comment. The Italian museums in cities that were heavily visited by international tourist didn’t have anything in any language other than Italian. It’s like they didn’t even care (which did jive with overall hostility that we received from many Italians).
Think about it. Foreigners make up a LARGE percentage of the people that visit these tourist museums. What kind of non-Italian people are most likely to be there? Those from the European continent or more wealthy, educated tourist from around the world. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a language that most of these people would know to some degree that they could also include on some of the signs to help the highest number people…
Having lived in San Antonio all my life, I am disappointed when people are underwhelmed by The Alamo, but I can understand it.
Being in the center of town and close to the river, it was quickly surrounded by the growing city, and the area was used for storage and not revered as anything special for a long time. All that remains is the chapel and part of the adjoining barracks, so most of the compound and battlefield have long been covered over by buildings and pavement. It is a wonder that the chapel, the part everyone recognizes from the pictures, even still stands at all.
It isn’t impressive to visit as a structure, and it is a small building surrounded by a modern city, but it is the surviving monument to a very special event in Texas history. Considering that a lot of other special places around the country have been lost to growth, neglect and indifference, I am glad that the little chapel still remains, humble though it is.