Okay, what is the not widely known attraction that blew you away?
Sep 13, 2016, 8:27 pm
#571
In Memoriam, FlyerTalk Evangelist
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Canyon de Chelley in Chinle, Arizona. It's a National Monument and I describe it as being "not THE Grand Canyon but A Grand Canyon". It has all the beauty of the GC but without any of the crowds. When I toured it I had the park almost all to myself. And it's free!
Sep 15, 2016, 7:48 am
#572
Join Date: Aug 2013
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The Hungarian Parliament, Budapest - You enter on the ground floor and assemble in a dim hallway. After you are processed in, you ascend a staircase with blank walls on either side. As you go up, first an ornate ceiling and then the vast room it covers blooms into view. The effect is magical, and my jaw dropped as I watched it unfold.
Muscat, Oman - The city is built around a series of hills and ridges, but they seem to emerge organically from amidst the buildings, rather than the buildings being on them. I've never been anywhere else like it.
Muscat, Oman - The city is built around a series of hills and ridges, but they seem to emerge organically from amidst the buildings, rather than the buildings being on them. I've never been anywhere else like it.
Sep 15, 2016, 8:01 am
#573
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: New Orleans
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The Octagon in Washington, D.C., is an unassuming but terrific discovery. Just a couple of blocks from the White House. Terrific docents, interesting architecture including some quirky hidden passageways and an active research dig in the cellar. Connection to many key aspects of early American history and social life. When I went a few years back there was a gallery on the top floor too. Highly recommended for grownups.
Sep 15, 2016, 8:27 am
#574
Moderator: Travel Buzz
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The Ospedale degli Innocenti (Hospital of the Innocents) in Florence. A former orphanage built in the 1400's. During the Plague years, many parents left their small children in the depository for care. Only extensively small infants could fit through the grid.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ospedale_degli_Innocenti
Also the Dolomiti National Park in Italy. Like driving through an Alpine postcard.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ospedale_degli_Innocenti
Also the Dolomiti National Park in Italy. Like driving through an Alpine postcard.
Sep 15, 2016, 9:54 am
#575
Join Date: Apr 2000
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I left the Pioneer Village Museum in Minden, Nebraska a few hours ago after visiting it for the second time in twenty-five years. We let the numerous billboards on I-80 advertising it lure us there the first time and didn't regret it for a second.
Tens of thousands of casually-curated artifacts of the progress of (mostly American) technology overwhelm the visitor. If you ever wondered what a limelight is, how much a microwave oven cost in 1956 ($1,150), how brooms are made, or what a thresher drawn by 32 horses looked like, this museum will answer your questions.
Tens of thousands of casually-curated artifacts of the progress of (mostly American) technology overwhelm the visitor. If you ever wondered what a limelight is, how much a microwave oven cost in 1956 ($1,150), how brooms are made, or what a thresher drawn by 32 horses looked like, this museum will answer your questions.
Sep 15, 2016, 1:24 pm
#576
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Sep 15, 2016, 11:26 pm
#579
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Snorkelling with beluga whales in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada this summer.
I've been all around the Caribbean and Hawaii, and none of it compares to this.
http://www.everythingchurchill.com/e...beluga-whales/
I've been all around the Caribbean and Hawaii, and none of it compares to this.
http://www.everythingchurchill.com/e...beluga-whales/
Sep 16, 2016, 9:16 am
#580
Moderator: Travel Buzz
Join Date: Aug 2012
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Snorkelling with beluga whales in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada this summer.
I've been all around the Caribbean and Hawaii, and none of it compares to this.
http://www.everythingchurchill.com/e...beluga-whales/
I've been all around the Caribbean and Hawaii, and none of it compares to this.
http://www.everythingchurchill.com/e...beluga-whales/
Sep 16, 2016, 10:34 am
#581
formerly known as Tad's Broiled Steaks
Join Date: Jun 2004
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Apr 28, 2017, 9:12 am
#584
Moderator, OneWorld
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Fun to see this thread resurrected.
Here are a couple of relatively little-known places in the northern Highlands of Scotland that blew me away; they're just a couple of hours from one another.
Croick Church: In lonely Strath Carron, the churchyard was used as a staging area for evicted Highlanders during the infamous Highland Clearances of the 18th and 19th centuries. (Following the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, the new English landlords reduced the population of the Highlands by evicting families that had lived there since whenever and introduced sheep farming, which required far fewer workers.) While they were in the churchyard awaiting deportation (to Ireland, Canada, North America...) some of them scratched pitiful messages in the church windows, still visible.
Dun Dornaigil/Dornadilla: A couple of hours north of Croick is the prehistoric broch or fort of Dun Dornaigil, set on an unnumbered and incredibly scenic little road near the foot of Ben Hope. It's been there for thousands of years, speaking to the antiquity of the land. Nobody knows exactly when it was built or its original purpose, but it's quite a feat of engineering; the keystone over the low door must weigh tons.
Here's a map that also shows an interesting place under most people's radar, Smoo Cave outside Durness on the Scottish north coast. Interesting sea cave to explore, reputedly used by Vikings for storing plunder while they were out plundering someplace else.
Here are a couple of relatively little-known places in the northern Highlands of Scotland that blew me away; they're just a couple of hours from one another.
Croick Church: In lonely Strath Carron, the churchyard was used as a staging area for evicted Highlanders during the infamous Highland Clearances of the 18th and 19th centuries. (Following the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, the new English landlords reduced the population of the Highlands by evicting families that had lived there since whenever and introduced sheep farming, which required far fewer workers.) While they were in the churchyard awaiting deportation (to Ireland, Canada, North America...) some of them scratched pitiful messages in the church windows, still visible.
Dun Dornaigil/Dornadilla: A couple of hours north of Croick is the prehistoric broch or fort of Dun Dornaigil, set on an unnumbered and incredibly scenic little road near the foot of Ben Hope. It's been there for thousands of years, speaking to the antiquity of the land. Nobody knows exactly when it was built or its original purpose, but it's quite a feat of engineering; the keystone over the low door must weigh tons.
Here's a map that also shows an interesting place under most people's radar, Smoo Cave outside Durness on the Scottish north coast. Interesting sea cave to explore, reputedly used by Vikings for storing plunder while they were out plundering someplace else.
Last edited by Gardyloo; May 19, 2018 at 8:06 am
Apr 28, 2017, 9:53 am
#585
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The Newseum in Washington, D.C. blew me away. http://www.newseum.org/visit/