Goals - Places to see before you die

[Troll_Inc]

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There are plenty of places to see in the world, and hopefully we'll all have plenty of time to see them all.

So Loungers, what are the "must see" places on your list?


I'll get us started, and add some more as the thread develops. Please post pictures.


Stonehenge, England:

A place shrouded in mystery, even today we still do not know definitively why this structure was constructed.



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How about Carhenge? This seems more like fun.

[Blarg]

Somebody find that picture of Outhousehenge, please.

[hyde]

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Depressing as this is I would really like to see the concentration camp Auswitch.

http://members.home.nl/jaccohendrix/Auswitch/

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[x] depressing
[x] worth it

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I have been to Dachau and it was an immensely depressing and moving experience. I am very glad I went. I would like to visit Auschwitz someday as well.

If you have not seen it, I strongly recommend the Spielberg documentary called The Last Days, which is a Spielberg-produced documentary about 5 Holocaust survivors telling their stories. It's really amazing.

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I visited Dachau at age 20, it remains the most powerful and important place I have ever been. sobering, somber and grim.The visit has stayed with me ever since.
I brought my kids to the Holocaust Museum in D.C. in their late teens hoping for a similar impact. It was good but not as powerful. I think the impact was lessened by the lines of hundreds of kids on school trips....

[tonybormin]

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The sense of danger is much less than you would think. The country is certainly an armed camp with restaurants and such often having an armed security person in front but people aren't looking over their shoulders living in fear either. I didn't feel threatened and in all truth I was far more worried about being pickpocketed than suicide bombed.

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I toured quite a bit of Egypt last year and I had the same feelings. On nearly every city corner in Cairo there is a standing guard with an uzi. You just walk by them as you walk the streets. Kind of a strange experience at first but by the end of the trip is just felt normal.

On the Egypt front, of course I recommend the pyramids, but if you get a chance try and get to Luxor and the Temple of Karnak.



I was in absolute awe when I saw this place... and this was after I had been one of the pyramids.

The one place at the top of my list right now to visit next?

I've never been...

[DannyOcean_]

Ok, i absolutely have to link this youtube video called 'where the hell is matt'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNF_P281Uu4

This is one of the more inspiring things i've ever seen. I want to be like that guy.

My personal list would have start with Ireland and Greece, which is where my family comes from.

[Pete H]

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On the Egypt front, of course I recommend the pyramids, but if you get a chance try and get to Luxor and the Temple of Karnak.

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Karnak was much better than the Giza pyramids.

[Orlando Salazar]

This thread assumes everyon here has been to Las Vegas, right?

[Five-Star]

As a person who has been always interested in history and as a soldier

Normandy:



The sadest aspect is I've already been to France twice and never been able to go there. They were both school sponsored trips so we had to go where they told us.

[OrigamiSensei]

Five-star, you'll also want to check out the famous battlefields from the Great War. The Somme battlefields were fascinating (and depressing if you analyze them from a military tactics standpoint - talk about a waste of good soldiers).

Some friends of mine did a Normandy pilgramage recently - the grandfather had landed at Omaha beach on D-Day so the son and grandson started their and traced his path through the bocage and all the way through to Germany. That a "mere" rifleman survived all that way was pretty unusual as the tendency was to keep them fighting until they got killed or too badly wounded to fight anymore.

[dylan's alias]

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I've been wanting to see the Galapagos! I fear I am running out of time as I just read that the government of Ecuador wants to put severe restrictions on tourism to the islands. I can't say I blame them.


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I went a few years ago and it was absolutely amazing. I've been to many of the places named so far, but the Galapagos is the most unique trip I've ever taken.

The key to enjoying the islands was being in a small group. I was on a boat that carried a max of 8 passengers. There were only 4 of us on the trip for the week. That gave us total freedom (with our guide) to time our land trips to avoid the larger groups. Usually the boat would travel after dinner. If we got to the next island and there were a lot of other boats docked, we would get up early, skip breakfast and spend a few hours alone on land while the bigger ships were still getting organized. Also, the maximum landing party size is 20, but there were ships with 80-100 passengers. That meant that their trips were severely curtailed by schedules.

This is the company I went with:
http://www.quasarex.com/mainland_ecu...pagos_main.htm

The ship I was on is no longer with them, but is available through another company for private charters. I'd recommend getting a group together and chartering your own ship.

http://www.oceanadventures.com.ec/rachel.htm