# Places you've been. . . **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 8, 2019, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879 "2019-09-08T14:38:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Wrenching\_Spanners](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecb155/32.png) [@Wrenching\_Spanners](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wrenching_Spanners)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/141 "2019-09-11T13:38:01Z")
I may be the only one on this board who’s hiked the Snowdonia Way in Wales from Machynlleth to Conwy. Considering that we did a combination of high-level and low-level route sections, not to mention a few [del]wrong turns[/del] side trips, I’m sure nobody followed the exact path we did. Another fairly unique UK hike is in the Lake District from Ulverston to Coniston. We’ve also done the round trip around Ullswater. I’ve been to the Scilly Islands in Cornwall and visited every island you could get to by public boat. In China, I worked in Shandong province for eight months and visited all of the provincial highlights, at least the best sounding ones in the Lonely Planet. In France, we’ve done a week’s bike riding in the Entre-Deux-Mers following a custom wine tasting route. A couple other remote places in Europe are Flåm, Norway (including the village, not just the tourist area) and Mjlit Island, Croatia. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/142 "2019-09-11T13:39:54Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Googling turns up a number of articles about the Wabegon Bar and Grill’s unique location, and the benefits to thirsty/gambling Minnesotans nearby. :eek: > > I loves me some enclaves and exclaves, to be sure. > > PS: you a Giants fan? I went to HS with Brett Butler. Not a geographic anomaly, or unique location it’s true. Libertyville High School? Yes I’m a Giants fan. I remember Brett Butler very well. He was on the team at Candlestick Park when the Loma Prieta earthquake stopped Game 3 of the 1989 World Series. Related places I’ve been: The San Francisco Giants played at Candlestick Park, which is now demolished. I attended many games there, as have other Dopers. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/143 "2019-09-11T13:52:47Z")
> [@pullin](#): > > Q for Chefguy about Dalton highway: Can you drive it in a regular (newish) pickup truck? Can you do it with a normal gas tank? I’ve always read that the truckers on that road are “less than friendly” to wandering tourists. Did you notice anything like that? It’s on my bucket list. I plan to drive this too in a newish Jeep Grand Cherokee. From the reading I’ve done, the truckers are just trying to get through and do their job. The road isn’t wide, so tourist drivers like us need to be watchful for trucks and give them space to get past. I intend to pull over and let them pass easily, so I can then continue at my leisurely, scenery-admiring pace. Just keep your eyes peeled for the truckers, give them room, and I think we’ll be fine. If I don’t, e.g., then a trucker will likely be on the CB radio telling other truckers, hey folks watch out for the asshat driving the white Grand Cherokee with California plates. Which then could lead to other, umm, interesting encounters with other truckers. Hopefully **Chefguy** will chime in. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/144 "2019-09-11T14:36:14Z")
> [@pullin](#): > > And it’s painted to resemble a Domino’s pizza box. Been there. 😃 > > Q for Chefguy about Dalton highway: Can you drive it in a regular (newish) pickup truck? Can you do it with a normal gas tank? I’ve always read that the truckers on that road are “less than friendly” to wandering tourists. Did you notice anything like that? It’s on my bucket list. I was driving a 27’ motor home and had no problems with the truckers. The only incident worth mentioning was a company pickup truck with an asshole driving it that passed me at a high rate of speed, which threw a cloud of rocks up into my vehicle. No damage, but it really pissed me off. The rule of thumb on that road is that if you slow down, so will the truck drivers. If you are throwing up a big cloud of dust when you approach an oncoming semi, he’s probably not going to slow down, which could cost you your windshield. I just slowed to a stop and pulled as far to the right as possible. My understanding now is that there are even tour buses driving the highway. As for gas, the highway is about 400 miles to Deadhorse from its intersection with the Elliot Highway just north of Fairbanks. You can refuel at Coldfoot, which is about 240 miles from Deadhorse, so as long as your tank will get you that far, you’re fine. You can then refuel again at Deadhorse for the return trip. ---
**Author:** ![missing\_link](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@missing\_link](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missing_link)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/145 "2019-09-11T15:13:04Z")
Many good places to visit in the future in this thread! I am reasonably sure that noone has been to Longyearbyen (Svalbard) or to [Koh Rong Sanloem](https://goo.gl/maps/BjYy2TnDHThXZzS37)(a small island off Sihanoukville in Cambodia) And I am very sure that noone has been on [Round Island, Mauritius](https://goo.gl/maps/26rv95j6HoRiWvrR6). The island is a conservation area and off limits to visitors except for field station personnel (I got in because my now ex-girlfriend did the fieldwork for her thesis there and I got to go there for 10 days). It is home to several species which are either very rare or extinct outside of the island (e.g. the Gunthers Gecko or the Telfair Skink). Plus a huge colony of Shearwaters and Petrels. ---
**Author:** ![Gus\_Gusterson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@Gus\_Gusterson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gus_Gusterson)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/146 "2019-09-11T15:54:03Z")
I have been backstage at Madison Square Garden. When we were leaving we were directed to an elevator which would take us up to street level. We couldn’t find the elevator so we asked an old man who was sitting on a chair where the elevator was. He informed us that we were in it. It was huge. He said that it’s the elevator they use to bring beer into MSG. They don’t load the cases of beer into the elevator - they drive the truck into the elevator and bring it down into the building. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/147 "2019-09-11T16:25:48Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > Inside the reactor compartment of a U.S. Navy nuclear power plant. > > …while it was shut down, of course. > > (The reactor compartment is the portion of the power plant that is within the secondary shield, and contains the shielded reactor vessel itself. While at power, this area is strictly off limits and sealed. > The hatch looks like a gigantic lead cork, and the viewing windows are a deep amber color from the thickness and special stuff in the glass.) > > My specialty was referred to as an ELT (Engineering Laboratory Technician) and we were responsible for the plant chemistry and radiation safety. As part of the second aspect, we were the ones who set up the control point through which folks accessed the reactor compartment during shutdown. > > There are other Navy nukes on this board, and they surely visited the reactor compartment at least once during their qualifications. Yup. I remember going through the reactor compartment of the [D1G](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D1G_reactor) prototype reactor in upstate New York, and squeezing around a tight space inside. IIRC, it was the heavily shielded ion exchanger (which acts to filter out any impurities in the coolant, and is therefore itself highly radioactive, even when the plant is shut down). Anyway, it was a very exposed position to squeeze your whole torso around one of the more radioactive parts of the plant. I imagined I was getting a whole body X-ray, but worse (because they were gammas). ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/148 "2019-09-11T16:36:09Z")
> [@pullin](#): > > Q for Chefguy about Dalton highway: Can you drive it in a regular (newish) pickup truck? Can you do it with a normal gas tank? I’ve always read that the truckers on that road are “less than friendly” to wandering tourists. Did you notice anything like that? It’s on my bucket list. That sounds a lot like the private logging roads deep in the North Maine Woods. These unpaved roads are the only way to access the upstream starting points for many of the inland wilderness waterways, like the Allagash River and the West Branch of the Penobscot River. Every time I’ve traveled on these roads, I was in a van full of people while hauling a trailer with 5-6 canoes. Anytime we encountered a logging truck on these gravel roads, our driver pulled over as far as he could to get out of their way. Many of them drove at ridiculous speeds (50-70 mph on dirt roads). Our drivers always noted that it was their road and they always had the right-of-way, so it was best to just get out of their way. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/149 "2019-09-11T17:21:26Z")
> [@susan](#): > > I’ve been in Boring, Tangent, and Drain, Oregon. Road trip! Done Boring and Drain a lot of times. How about Arock? ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/150 "2019-09-11T17:31:23Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > […] > Anyone else been in the Hundertwasserhaus in Vienna? Check! The most remote place I have been was on the western shore of Lake Baikal, where the famous end of the road can be found. We took one of this Sowjet hydrofoils (_Cometa_) and went further, past Listvyanka, to places where I guess I will never be again but not all the way up to Nizhneangarsk. That was almost 20 yr ago, wonder how much tourism development there has been since. By the turn of the Century it was desolate but beautiful. > [@Nava](#): > > I’ll be quite surprised if anybody turns out to have been to Olite Castle, the Foz de Arbayún or the Ciudad Encantada in Cuenca. […] Check the Ciudad Encantada too. It was in all my geography schoolbooks and one day I went. > [@Royal\_Nonesutch](#): > > I have also been to (or at least past the entrance to) the world’s oldest existing, functioning brewery, Weihenstephan, in Freising, outside of Munich. > > Sadly I was too late to take the tour, so I found a nearby ratskeller and sampled several of their excellent brews instead. Yes! > [@KarlGauss](#): > > [Checkpoint](https://cropper.watch.aetnd.com/cdn.watch.aetnd.com/sites/2/2018/05/hith-Checkpoint_Charlie_sign.jpg) [Charlie](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/24/berlin-crisis-standoff-checkpoint-charlie). > […] > In 1970, when I was 15. Influenced my worldview. Mine too! I crossed it a couple of times, as I have a Spanish passport too (Germans had to go through other checkpionts). But I lived round the corner, so it probably does not count. 1982. > [@gkster](#): > > […] > I’ve also been inside the interpreters’ booth at the United Nations; it’s off-limits to the public, but an interpreter brought me inside. I am an interpreter myself, I have not worked there, but we were allowed to visit. Have been in many other booths, of course: probably all the (Spanish) booths in Brussels, in the Bundeskanzleramt in Berlin, the Reichstag… funny how you get blasé with all the places they let you in as an interpreter. > [@panache45](#): > > […] > I was also at the “Wiener Riesenrad”, the ferris wheel in Vienna that was featured in _The Third Man._ […] I also was in Oulu and drove to Saariselkä, Finnland. In Winter! That is the _other_ end of the road I mentioned above, or at least feels like it is. ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/151 "2019-09-11T18:27:30Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I thought of one more - the basement of the UN. Back when I was in high school my father worked there, and when I visited I pushed through some doors in the lower lobby, by the vending machines, marked Employees Only. Never got stopped. Back then, no security to mention. > Just offices down there, nothing very interesting. I don’t remember if it was the basement, but it was certainly the employee only area - I worked on the installation of the security system for the UN in '92 or '94 (don’t remember, but it was during the winter Olympics) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/152 "2019-09-11T18:48:27Z")
> [@Zyada](#): > > I don’t remember if it was the basement, but it was certainly the employee only area - I worked on the installation of the security system for the UN in '92 or '94 (don’t remember, but it was during the winter Olympics) I went with him to plenty of employee only areas too, but this was an interesting one since you got in through the lower level of the lobby. I got lots of funny looks - but if you walk confidently, you can go lots of places. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/153 "2019-09-11T19:03:27Z")
I’ve been to the bottom of the deepest mine in the world (4km). The wall rock is too hot to touch. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/154 "2019-09-11T20:15:42Z")
- Deep in the mountains of Haiti, where the villages don’t even have “official” names - In the middle of slums outside San Jose, Costa Rica ---
**Author:** ![Limmin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f04885/32.png) [@Limmin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Limmin)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/155 "2019-09-11T20:37:45Z")
What fun, making this list. Interesting places, but no doubt each of them have been visited by at least one other board member! - Knossos Palace, Crete - Backstage at the San Francisco Symphony - Kyongbuk Palace, Seoul - Golden and Silver Pavilions in Kyoto…I lived between them (they’re kilometers apart) - Tower of London - Meteor Crater, Arizona - Death Valley - Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood and Mt. Baker (all Pac NW) - South Point (southernmost point in USA, is on south side of the island of Hawaii) - “The cave where Zeus was born, Crete” Granted, there are probably lots of places in Greece claiming this - Cape Canaveral, FL - Cape Flattery, WA (Most NW point of WA) - Have visited all 50 states! But one oddball place that almost NOBODY has visited but me: Years ago, as a high school exchange student living in rural Japan (Shuchi, in Tamba-cho, Kyoto prefecture) I blazed a trail to the top of a small mountain that’s always looking down on the village but had no trails I could find (or anyone knew of). Got to the top and sure enough, found the rumored remains of an old building with a stone foundation. Locals called it “Castle Mountain” so presumably this building was a medieval keep of some kind. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/156 "2019-09-11T21:06:11Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I’ve been to the bottom of the deepest mine in the world (4km). The wall rock is too hot to touch. Winner, I think. I’m curious as to whether you had to decompress coming up out of it? ---
**Author:** ![steatopygia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steatopygia/32/3132_2.png) [@steatopygia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steatopygia)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/157 "2019-09-11T21:12:24Z")
Lots of winners. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/158 "2019-09-11T21:19:01Z")
And lots of places I haven’t been to yet but want to. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/159 "2019-09-11T21:22:28Z")
> [@Limmin](#): > > - Tower of London > […] > - South Point (southernmost point in USA, is on south side of the island of Hawaii) I’ve been _to_ - but did not take the tour of - the Tower, but it is the _easternmost_ point I’ve been to in a both relative and absolute sense (since I’ve never been out of the American/Western European quadrant.) If I go back to England I might visit Canterbury which would make it a little harder to determine the eastern- and westernmost place I’ve been to. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879/160 "2019-09-11T21:22:40Z")
In the cockpit of a 747 coming in for a landing at Hong Kong … as done by one of Boeing’s simulators in WA. Cool. Well, until the student at the controls crashed it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-youve-been/839879.md?page=9)