We were there in 1989 (on Oahu for a conference) and did a 24 hour jaunt over to the Big Island. We stayed in Hilo. We drove up from the coast, through Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (going from sunny beach-y weather to cloudy rainforest weather), then down another road to a different part of the coast to where the lava was flowing into the water.
Everything for the last several miles was BLACK. No vegetation. The occasional burned tree carcass standing up. The sky was overcast. There was no color ANYWHERE. Then we parked, and got to walk to within a few feet of the active lava flow, as it headed into the ocean. It was a solid black surface, but with the occasional crack where we could see red because it was still hot and liquid. Even the beach was black. The ocean water was blue - but more of a grayish color due to the weather (I assume; it was a more normal blue in Hilo).
We decided that this was the perfect image of hell. Black, burning lava, sulfurous smell…
I’ve had two mind-blowing experiences that I just found accidentally. The first was the Jean Tinguely’s Heureka:
We were in Zurich for 6 months in 1967 and out for a walk one fine Sunday in late spring and came on this object in full motion. It is quite impressive as a static object but in motion it just boggles the mind. In those days it operated twice a day for 15 minutes. Acccording to the site, it now operates three times a day for 8 minutes each.
The other one was a temple (Buddhist, I think) in Kyoto. Again my wife and I were just out for a walk and saw this interesting looking temple and wandered in. Far and away the most beautiful building I’ve ever been in.
We spent 2 months in England and France in the summer of 1964, a sort of honeymoon trip and drove out to Stonehenge. In those bygone days, anyone could just drive up, park and wander among the stones. Most impressive; unfortunately you can’t do that today. We missed by one year being able to tour the Lasceaux caves, but that would have been perhaps the most striking of all. Ah well. One thing we could do was to spend a half hour absorbing the ambience of La Sainte Chapelle. We went in with no fee, sat down and looked. Not a single other person was there. Twenty seven years later, there were lines around the block of tourists waiting to get, an entrance fee, and no possibility of sitting there to just enjoy the windows.
The first time I saw Michelangelo’s David (1988) I was completely blown away by the scale of the thing. I’d obviously seen a million pictures, but seeing it right there in the gallery, up close, was incredible. We went there again about 5 years ago, and, y’know, it was still pretty great.
My first view of the Grand Canyon was a similar all-those-photos-don’t-really-capture-it kind of moment.
I think the Gateway Arch in St. Louis is exceptionally entertaining. I love the pure space-age design of the elevators, even if they’re just w wee bit claustrophobia-inducing. And the views from the top are spectacular.
The Crown Jewels at the Tower of London were surprisingly interesting and impressive. I expected a pure tourist trap, but my adult son and I had a great time. We were there just weeks before Charles III’s coronation, so some of the artifacts had been removed to prepare for that, but I must say that the best thing in the Crown Jewel gallery for us was Charles II’s bathtub sized punchbowl, with its meter long ladle. The man could apparently throw a party. I should note that we went there at opening time on a Monday in April, so the crowds and lines were not obnoxious.
The Cinque Terre in Liguria, Italy. Insane crowds. Didn’t care. So beautiful. Stay in Levanto, north of the park, for quiet and excellent food.
The Vatican, even with crowds. When we were there in 1988, we got to see the Sistine ceiling halfway through cleaning and restoration. Seeing the clean, bright half next to the barely visible through grime half was revelatory. It seemed clear to me (and my Art Historian wife), that Michelangelo painted the thing in eye-popping colors so it could be seen from below. The cleaned figures seemed like sculptures, not paintings. Kind of a pity that no one will ever again see that stark before-after comparison in person. The only regret we have is that an undergraduate professor and mentor of my wife was a major Michelangelo scholar. She was in grad school elsewhere by that time, and, in those days before email and cheap long distance phone calls, she didn’t think to contact him before our trip. Found out later that he could’ve gotten us a tour up to the scaffolding they were using for the restoration. We could’ve been in touching distance of the freaking Sistine ceiling. It was still a terrific experience, and the current restored ceiling is still a wonder.
I was in Paris last March, and went to a concert of sacred music in Sainte Chapelle.
My normal reaction to stained glass is to think, “Yeah, that’s pretty. Must have taken a lot of skill and talent to create it, as well.” But walking into the sanctuary, I actually gasped aloud; it’s like stepping into a building-sized jewelry box. Sublimely beautiful.
As to artworks, anyone who ever gets the opportunity to visit the Art Institute of Chicago should seize it. Their Modern Art collection has two iconic American works: American Gothic and Nighthawks. When I went to the museum, I was aware they had American Gothic, but I had no particular urge to see it; it’s possibly the most famous American painting in the world, and we’ve all seen reproductions and parodies and homages, so there’s nothing new there, right?
But of course bad paintings don’t get reproduced and referenced to the point of cliché, do they? I stood in front of American Gothic for a good ten minutes, absorbing it. It’s a powerful image.
Nighthawks, too - seeing it in person, I noticed a bunch of details that don’t always show up in reproductions. For example, I had always thought that the diner in the painting was on a busy city street. In fact, outside the bright glow of the diner’s lights, the street is empty and dark, which emphasizes the loneliness of the image, and the alienation of the figures seated at the counter. Nighthawks is another work that is unexpectedly gripping.
The Art Institute also has a bunch of O’Keefes and Seurat’s Sunday on La Grand Jatte, among other important works. Seriously, if you are in Chicago, go - it’s one of the country’s great art collections.
Was in both the Serengeti and Ngorongoro in 2019 and again in 2023. I always tell people “if you get a chance to safari, DO IT.” It wasn’t on our travel list, we went with friends so they wouldn’t need to share a jeep with strangers. And then went back to take our kids. We also saw a lion hunt on the first trip - and the second trip a den with three mamas and at least six cubs - and a leopard hunt. Last trip we saw NINE rhinos in Ngorongoro. And its worth a stop at the little museum overlooking Olduvai Gorge.
I have discovered that standing in front of famous paintings usually does not disappoint. I’ve never been a fan of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, but standing in front of it - that painting breathes…it has a soul.
We went to Peru for Macchu Pichu, which is amazing - what we didn’t know was how good the food in Lima is.
If you are in London, make time to see the Churchill War Rooms. I dragged my husband to Bath that same trip - and it certainly exceeded his expectations.
Chicago’s art museum is GREAT. And you can go see the UBoat at the Institute of Technology while you are there, which is another “it does not disappoint” experience.
The National Museum of Military Vehicles near Dubois, Wyoming (and Yellowstone National Park) is awesome. There are all sorts of military equipment, dioramas etc. You can spend all day there. Admission is $20. Veterans get in for free.
Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks must be seen to be believed. You’ll need at least a week for each. September is the best month to do it; cooler weather discourages casual campers so that spots are easier to get, and the mosquitoes are gone.
The museum at Hiroshima has been mentioned. The adjacent Peace Park is most impressive. In 1975, only 30 years after The Bomb, there were already large trees.
I made sure my trip to Paris, in the spring, also included a day at the Musée d’Orsay, since Van Gogh’s Van Gogh’s Bedroom at Arles is one of my favorite paintings. It, and all the other Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings were splendid, but I found I got a bit of, I guess you could call it, genius-fatigue. I mean, go into the Impressionist gallery there and it’s just one masterwork after another - “Oh, look, there’s Starry Night! There’s Le Déjeurner sur l’herbe! And over there, there’s a Toulouse-Lautrec! A Renoir, and a Monet, and a Pissarro, and a Degas ballerina!” I found myself most entranced by paintings I knew much less about, like Gustave Caillebotte’s The Floor Scrapers; I’d never even heard of the artist before then. I also came away from that trip with a deeper appreciation of the talent of Mary Cassatt; a photo of her Girl in the Garden is now my phone’s lock screen.
Totally agree. I’ve been to Paris many times but only got around to seeing Sainte Chapelle a couple years ago. I thought it would be nice, but not that nice. Like you, I gasped. Astonishing.
This reminds me of another recent visit that elicited gasps from me. Here:
The second gasp was on entering the chapel (pix in the wiki link). The first gasp happened in the Mirror Cabinet:
Even my kids, who have become jaded after touring lots of epic palaces and cathedrals, were impressed by the glasswork.
New Zealand. Wife and I spent 17 days there, 4 days checking out Auckland and the Coromandel on the north island then 9 days driving a loop around the south island. Some places were really mystical, the Pancake Rocks, seeing penguins in Milford Sound, driving on Banks Peninsula to Akaroa. Visited my wife’s distant cousins and saw one of the greatest harness races ever in Christchurch. We are already planning on going back in 2026, going to spend at least a month this next time.
Redwood National Park. Those trees are huge, you can’t get the feel for the size till you stand next to one.
Crater Lake. The lake is only part of the beauty of the park.
Glacier National Park. Visited in September and very few visitors due to wild fires. Got lucky and the fires were contained and the park service opened the whole park.
Ketchikan, Alaska. Visited while on a cruise. My wife was sick so I went into town on my own. Ran into a classmate from high school that lived there. She gave me a tour of the area that very few tourists see. Seeing some things that haven’t changed in thousands of years was amazing. If I had to live in Alaska, this would be the place.
Its so easy to get art fatigue. A few years ago I was in London and went to the Queen’s Gallery - an exhibit of DaVinci’s notebooks. Amazing…but too much. And I was there when Buckingham Palace was open - and barely remember - a lot of Rembrandts. But I went to Hampton Court that trip, and because it isn’t an art museum, I vividly remember both the Titian, just hanging there, with no one looking at it. And this one hanging around a corner where you had to look for it.
I’ve never been a huge impressionist fan…and for me its really easy to get tired of them. Particularly Monet, who I find boring.
About six years ago my wife and I did a five day guided road trip through the Scottish highlands. It was in a large minivan with a driver/guide and one other randomly chosen couple. If we had chosen our travelling companions we could not have been more fortunate; both parties got along really well and the driver was former UK Army. I was a recently retired RCN officer and the other husband was former USN and we had an absolute blast, as did our wives. We stayed in various small inns and hotels and, with the beautiful highlands, the trip was magic.
We’ve also fallen in love with Malta twice and we spent a week in Sicily, staying in two different locations. At our first place, our room in a small hotel had a balcony with a view of Mt Etna and our first evening Etna was merrily “burping” little shots of lava every couple of minutes.
Yeah, I was impressed by the David statue. I had no idea it’s so big. I just stared at it. As a side note David statue souvenirs were a huge hit with my female co-workers.
