To me, that’s what would be most interesting: just seeing just how the paint was applied, etc. My experience is that to a certain degree it makes you feel like you’ve had a type of interaction with the painter himself just by virtue of observing firsthand the paint he laid down and the strokes of his brush.
I’ve always heard Van Gogh’s work was amazing in person, but like you I may have seen enough paintings already so that the 3D effect wouldn’t be so striking, etc. I’d love to see some of them one day just the same.
The Corn Palace in South Dakota. I couldn’t believe the amount of work that went into the thing. I’ve since concluded that the local residents don’t have a lot to do and plenty of time to do it in.
Australia. I was amazed and delighted the first time I visited Australia, and in particular, Sydney. Sydney is spectacular. The Sydney Harbour, what would be called a bay in the US, provides a dazzling framework for the city and surrounding towns.
Melbourne is more subtle. It reminds me of San Francisco, but without the hills. The restaurants are excellent. I was in Melbourne once for Anzac Day, and was moved by the depth of the patriotic feeling the Australians exhibited.
I found the people in Australia to be a wonderful surprise. Australia is so far away from the rest of the world, they seem truly delighted to have you as a visitor. This is a generalization, of course, but the Australians I met were generous, open, and forthcoming in a way that reminded me of the best characteristics of my fellow Americans.
I love cities that are crossroads. I like the atmosphere you get when you throw in a mix of ethnic backgrounds, religions, and nationalities. That’s what I loved about growing in in Washington, DC. That’s what I love about New York and Paris. I’ll add Sydney and Melbourne to the list.
I’d like to make a special shout-out to the men of Australia. who are* damn * good looking.
I am going to fourth or fifth the sentiments expressed about the Taj Mahal. It carries such a feeling of quiet gentleness - yet class. I somehow was there in the late afternoon-early evening with the full moon shining down. I for the first time understood the phrase breath-taking.
I am sure it is no longer the case, but I was very impressed with 10 Downing Street. When I was there in the '60s, there was really not that much to set it apart. At first, I was let down. Then I thought about it and was quite impressed. I said to myself, “That’s great. That’s what democracy is all about. It’s just a row house with a couple of guards.”
I was also very impressed with the Spirit of St. Louis. I mean, a man flew 33 hours over the Atlantic Ocean in a plane that looks smaller than my pickup truck? He and it clearly had to be something special.
Another place would be the site of the **Sand Creek Massacre **where a good portion of the Plains Indians (and old men, babies, and women) who stood against the might of the U.S. Military were slaughtered by the Colorado Militia. There is no statue, just a small plaque on a small wooden stand in the middle of a field miles from the nearest highway or structure of any kind. Still, as the wind blows through the nearby cottonwoods, it is haunting and impressive in its solemnity.
A person I was not impressed with - Richard Nixon. He was the first of three U.S. Presidents I would eventually interview. I was a college journalist eating a lunch at a Presidential event in Denver. I had found a room with some privacy and was eating when in comes Eric Severeid, John Chancellor, Howard K. Smith and two or three other gods of the journalism world of the early '60s and they started eating too (them I was impressed with). Then Nixon with no fanfare comes in and starts rambling about this and that.
He seemed, I don’t know, small, confused and rambly. I said to myself, “This is my President?”
A little while later, his press secretary came in to “explain” what the President meant. By that time, however, we had already filed our stories.
I’m coming to this thread late and have shimmed the previous messages and was surprised no one (at least I didn’t see) listed Yosemite Valley! Freaking awesome!
Also the Petrified Forest in AZ. It was much more that I expected.
Omaha Beach in France was a little disappointing but the American Cemetery wasn’t.
Big disappointment: **The Old Man in the Mountain **, NH. It is no longer there (no big loss IMO).
Santa Fe, NM and San Antonio, TX. I was expecting them to be quaint little cowboy towns. I wasn’t expecting metropolises.
Gambling Casinos. The first time I went to Las Vegas I was expecting the patrons in the casinos to be laughing, smiling, and partying it up (just like they show in the ads & commercials). But I witnessed very little of that. Most of the customers were frowning, quiet, depressed-looking old women mindlessly sticking quarters into machines.
Rio Grande River near Santa Fe. You call that a river? Many creeks in Ohio are wider than the Rio Grande, at least where we crossed over it near Santa Fe.
New York City - Manhattan. I was amazed at how dirty the sidewalks were.
New Zealand. I couldn’t believe all the gang graffiti. Even in the small towns. That really shocked me.
Singapore. I was expecting police and cameras everywhere. Didn’t see either.
F-16 fighter. I think it would fit in my living room. Very small.
Went to the French Quarter in New Orleans in October. A couple things surprised me. First were the very narrow streets. Second was the fact that people were throwing beads from the balconies, which I thought only occurred during Mardi Gras.
I was really disappointed the first time I saw the ocean.
When I saw it on TV or in pictures, It was usually the West Coast, or some Tropical location. I thought it was going to be a pretty blue with surfable waves. And thanks to advertisements of “Ocean Breeze” scented products, I thought it would smell nice.
However, Panama Beach provided none of the above. It was an ugly green, with disappointing waves. And the smell of old socks almost knocked me down everytime I went outside.
It was much smaller than I had imagined, it was closed for repairs, the area surrounding it was covered in trash, and the Mississippi River looked like an oil slick.
I used to live in Durango, and I have made that drive through Chaco Canyon. I remember thinking that it was eerie and serene at the same time. I wanted to stop and hike, but didn’t have time. Did you hike or camp there?
Paris - incredibly filthy, smoky, busy, crowded, and small. But I loved it.
Notre Dame - disappointing. Beautiful, huge, but it felt too “touristy” for my taste.
Sacre Coeur - absolutely moving. You walk in, and the place is silent. People are praying, no photography allowed. Like someone else wrote before, you are hit with a feeling that something is there.
Winged Victory of Samothrace - stunning. I had never heard of it before coming to the Louvre (I was 15 when I went to Paris) and I fell in love. Pictures do it no justice.
Eros and Psyche - Another sculpture I had never heard of that I fell in love with. Again, pictures don’t do it justice. It tends to be washed out.
Michelangelo’s slaves - I’m not sure of the real names, but it’s the two men struggling against their bonds. I had seen these before, but they were absolutely huge in person.
The Oklahoma City Bombing - I was in the 5th grade, and my mom and I went down to see it the day after it happened, before they cordoned off more of the area. You could get within two blocks of the building and it just floored me. TV made it look so small.
The OKC Memorial - One of my favorite places to go at night. Very moving, very quiet. Again, TV just does not cut it.
The Jefferson Memorial is my favorite. I like that it’s a bit out of the way. We did go at night, though, and we were the only ones there; we must have spent an hour in it. I’m wondering now if that’s why I liked it more than the others, including the Lincoln Memorial. When we visited the LM, there were gobs of people yammering and taking pictures. It was impressive, but the tourists kinda ruined it for me.
I was also a bit disappointed with the National Air and Space Museum. I was hoping for more interactive displays, and was surprised too that specific aircraft were missing, like the Pitts. But then, this was back in 2000. Perhaps the exhibits have improved since then. I loved The Spirit of St. Louis.
I took a shortcut through Zion National Park once on my way to somewhere else and I was stunned at how beautiful it was. A winding, two-lane road snakes through deep red-orange canyon walls with waterfalls and tunnels through mountains and eagles flying over and, wow, was it ever cool - and completely unexpected. (Initially I was annoyed to learn at the park entrance that my shortcut was going to cost me $15; it was worth every penny.) Yellowstone was a great disappointment. Traffic was horrible. If a herd of elk is spotted off to the side, people will start pulling over to park, and when those off-road spots are filled, those who come alone afterward will just park in the middle of the road and leave their vehicles to get a look, effectively jamming traffic for miles. And I went during the slow season. Yikes. Additionally, gas was expensive and food was bad. I thought it was highly overrated.
But the area between the west Yellowstone exit and Big Sky, Montana, was some of the most beautiful country I’ve ever seen.
Yeah, that one (‘Turkish’ from Lock Stock, and he was also in the remake of The Italian Job)
I didn’t actually meet him. I just walked past him going the opposite way in Douglas IOM.
He was a full head height smaller than me, I am 6’1.
It was him, because I knew he was on the IOM filming at the time, and there was no mistaking that face.
Thought of another one: the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado. I was little (8?) when I saw them, and still remember the sense of: whoa, that’s a lot of sand. Because, really, you’ve got really big mountains and, sort of piled up in front of them, a whole lot of sand. In the summer, at the foot of them, is this teeny-tiny river, from snow melting off the mountains. There are equally-tiny waves that come at exact regular intervals - it’s something like every ten seconds or something. Incredibly cool, really hard to hike up, and a mind-numbing amount of sand.
