Well, apparently my biggest mistake is not ever taking the 101. Me=fail. heh
Every one of my friends reactions upon seeing the Hollywood sign for the first time, “That’s it?”
It really is small.
I thought it was actually decently sized just, you know. . . far away.
Ah yes, the letters are 45 feet high according to Wiki.
But yeah, it’s pretty unimpressive from miles and miles away.
No, I’m not much for theme parks but that’s fine for what it is. Besides, that’s Anaheim, not LA! I was thinking more right in and around LA including Hollywood, Rodeo Drive, Grauman’s and the other touristy-type stuff in that area.
If Plymouth Rock ain’t in first place, it’s sure a contender.
That’s the truth. We were so annoyed that when we got down we told all the people starting the climb it wasn’t worth it. I don’t remember the smell, but I do remember the immense heat and the scratched windows that obscured the tiny view.
The Sears Tower in Chicago. I’ve been there two or three times, and even the view from the top is pretty disappointing. I saw the dirty tops of other office buildings, a lot of traffic, and a lake. Woo.
The House on the Rock, a tourist attraction/trap in southern Wisconsin, not far from Frank Lloyd Wright’s school Taliesin.
The house itself is a tiny portion of the attraction, having been built on a standing pedestal of rock. Really, the “on the rock” part is the most interesting bit. The rest of the attraction is a series of buildings containing huge collections of… junk. Strange animatronic displays, dolls, knick-knacks galore. The review in the linked Wiki article is still on target as of my most recent trip there perhaps five years ago or so - the place is dark (one suspects to cover up the shoddy nature of many displayed items), dingy, and generally becomes very boring once the “whoa, this is so freakin’ weird!” reaction wears off. If you look at it as an excellent horror movie setting, it might provide some more interest. I was taken there as a child by my parents and distinctly remember getting tired and bored after a while, and having to take one of the “early exit” hallways, much like a commercial haunted house lets those go who aren’t having fun any longer. It’s an appropriate reaction considering the weird, twisted feeling to the place.
The CN Tower. It’s a true miracle of engineering and the view is jaw dropping. Looking at it from below it’s almost hard to grasp. It’s physically a truly amazing structure - at the observation deck you are at a height equivalent to the height of the Empire State Building’s observation deck plus another forty stories, a height taller than the roof of the Sears Tower, and there’s still 400 feet of spire above you.
But to be honest, they sap as much of the wonder out of it as they possibly can. It’s really expensive, a pain in the ass to get up there, and when you arrive at the main deck, it’s kind of plasticky, shoddy and cheap. Most of the money appears to be going towards expanding the souvenir shop and adding motion simulator rides in the basement. You’d think they could spruce the place up a bit in the manner it deserves, but it’s very much like having a great view from inside a bus terminal. You look at the view and it’s great, but the place is otherwise shitty so you don’t want to stay.
Having a bad day Rick?
Most battlefields in general, but Gettysburg in particular. Unless it’s changed radically over the past few years it was the biggest tourist trap I’ve ever been to- hard to get a sense of history with all the cheesy gift shops and wax museums.
At risk of unpatriotic sacrelige, the National Archives in D.C. (specifically where the Constitution and Declaration are displayed) isn’t worth the 90 minute wait it has during peak tourist times. The documents are so faded that they’re almost illegible, it’s loud and claustrophobic due to all of the tourists, hard to get more than a few seconds look at the items because of the crowds, and any time in D.C. is far better spent at the Smithsonian or the National Gallery or just walking down the streets sightseeing than the hour or two hours you’ll spend for a one-minute exhibit.
Most of these landmarks were what I expected, but underwhelming in how much smaller they were in reality. Pike Place, for example, had the merchants I expected, but I thought there’d be more of them. For the amount of retail space there, it seemed awfully empty.
I worked a couple blocks from the La Brea Tar Pits, and I initially didn’t believe the “La Brea Tar Pits” sign on the fence. I did not think it would be in an urban setting, and I imagined it’d be the size of a swimming pool. It was more the size of a kiddie pool. I imagined steamy, bubbling tar; it actually looks like a still water pond with its bottom painted black.
I found Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island quite dull. The best place to view volcanic eruptions remains on TV.
The Golden Gate Bridge was cool, but it’s more cool to drive on it. Getting out of the car and taking pictures of it takes something away from the experience.
You can stand at the bottom, look up, and not go “whoa?”
The size didn’t bother me. To me the place was just…well…ugly. The individual pieces of art were very impressive, but the overall effect was extremely gaudy. It’s hard for me to explain, as I’m not an art buff, or particularly knowledgeable regarding architecture, but I just could not understand what all the fuss was about.
The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen and the Manekin Pis in Brussels are the very definition of underwhelming.
The Little Mermaid statue. I went all the way to Denmark to see that…
I’ve read this before, and looked at pictures, but I still don’t understand this. Surely Plymouth Rock is not meant to be impressive per se, but just as a location. You’re not meant to be impressed by looking at a small rock, rather by thinking about what happened at this small rock.
Even if there’s no actual “thing” on a site, I love being able to look at a place and think that something historic happened right here. I commute to work along the South Bank of the Thames on my bike, and I love the fact that I’m cycling right over the top of where the old Globe Theatre, for instance, even though there’s nothing to actually see there. (The new Globe is a few hundred yards away.)
The Pyramids / Sphinx. A shopping mall is larger and more impressive. Cairo in general was fairly cool (if you are a rich tourist).
Not only that but it looks like every other room or hallway in the entire Vatican. If you weren’t actively looking for it you’d walk right past and never know it.
I also second The House on the Rock. So a crazy man built an eyesore, great.
Chinatown in San Francisco. Saw nothing of real interest there. Plus the climb back up the hill the catch the cable car is like climbing a mountain. Enjoyed everything else about the city though.