Places to go

[rsc]

Lifted from spwebdesign.

List five places you've been that you think the people on your friends list should see before they die. If you like, say why you think they're special.

Hm. The hard part is going to be picking only five.

1. Venice, Italy.
   Like no other place on earth. Narrow pedestrian-only streets line interlocking canals, and although old Venice is really quite small, you can get lost in it almost immediately -- and you won't care, because every turn will bring you to something beautiful.



2. The Grand Canyon, Arizona.
   Yeah, it's a big tourist attraction, but there's a reason for that. There's no substitute for seeing it in real life.



3. Mont Saint Michel, France.
   Medieval monastery built on an isolated rock. An island at high tide, at low tide it is surrounded by mud flats as far as the eye can see. The land is so level that you can see the water spreading over the flats as the tide comes in.



4. Tikal, Guatemala.
   One of the largest Mayan sites in Central America -- and there's still much more of it buried in the jungle. A lot of pyramids and other ruins, all really fascinating. And it's also a wildlife preserve; if you have a good guide (and you really should see it with a guide) you'll see lots of beautiful birds, and probably monkeys as well.



5. Marvao, Portugal.
   A small walled city in the mountains right on the Spanish border. At one end of the walls is a fortress section with all kinds of little chambers, including one with a reverberation time of about seven seconds.

jwg is going to be shocked that I didn't include Conques (a small village with a big church in central France), but he can always put it in his list. As I said, it's hard to stop at five.

Comments

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this list. I'm an armchair traveller who longs to do more. I certainly hope to see the first two, maybe more.

[jwg.livejournal.com]

Marvao was pretty special, but I'd have chosen Conques - especially since I've been there 3 times which is probably more than any other person from the US.

[spwebdesign.livejournal.com]

Wow, that looks beautiful!

[rsc.livejournal.com]

If Conques had looked like that the one time I was there, I probably would have included it. November may not have been an optimal choice.

[spwebdesign.livejournal.com]

Surprisingly (as I've been just about everywhere else west of the Mississippi except Seattle), I've never been to the Grand Canyon. On my next cross-country trip (probably this summer or fall) I'll have to swing by there.