I had read the stats on Mt. St. Helens after she blew; number of feet lost in elevation; explosion equivalent to so many tons of TNT, etc. But I never really grasped the full extent of the damage until I flew over it later. Awesome.

Yeah, go to the Johnston Ridge Visitor's center and take it in.

Wow.

Golden Gate Bridge... it feels so small driving over, but if you hit the park on the North side... Whoa. Took three rolls of film, watched the Buddist monks almost get blown off the edge and drove back to the hotel humbled.

A redwood. Muir Woods blew me away. I'm used to palm trees and these things are enormous. I felt positively insignificant next to those serene giants. And those crazy roads on the edge of the Pacific between Half Moon Bay and San Francisco. I seriously thought I was going to fall off the side of the mountain or be smashed by falling rocks. But so amazingly beautiful and full of random, pristine beaches. More rolls of film. :D

Copenhagen... let down. more Burger Kings, KFC, and chinese takeout than where I live now. Sweden was beautiful and so much more cultural that I thought it would be. And cold in March. Helsingur and Helsingborg (sorry, for the spelling, no extra characters!) were absolutely amazing. I felt like I was in a time warp. First time seeing snow. Brrrr...

/me feeling the itch to pull out the passport again. sigh.

Yea, the Alamo sure wasn't what I thought it would be----no wonder we lost---shooting around those sky scrapers was tough. I hear that there is a replica some place west
of SanAntonio where they shot the first movie with the Duke. Going to find it some day...

Padra Island NATIONAL sea shore--just east of Corpus Cristi--the first time I was there was in 1980---the dirtiest park I had ever
been in. No garbage barrells --litter everywhere, and big globs
of crude oil all over the place...and I had to pay to get in.....

The Rio Grande river the first time...of coarse we had been in a
drought for 9 years, but there was no "wet backs"..There wasn't
enough water to get your ankels wet......and this is supposed to stop illegals???

I'll add my name to the list of people disappointed in Mt. Rushmore. Just don't get that. I will say, though, that there's a restaurant called Creekside in Keystone (right near Rushmore) that had some EXCELLENT food. Made up for the let-down at Rushmore ;)

I think Carlsbad Caverns will surprise just about anyone if they take the natural entrance (there's two ways to get to the main cave, called the big room. One is take an elevator down, the other is to walk down via the natural entrance. ALWAYS take the natural entrance!) You just keep going down and down and every once in awhile you look up and see the entrance, which is HUGE, and you know it's huge 'cause you walked through it 20 minutes ago, but now it's a tiny little window with a tiny silhouette of a person walking along the trail.

And then even after you're out of sight of the entrance it's a good hour, filled with amazing sights, to get to the big room, which has so many amazing things that it makes the stuff you've already seen look ordinary by comparison.

It really is an incredible cave.

Haven't either of you guys seen "Pee Wee's Big Adventure"??? Which reminds me, for those of you who have yet to visit the alamo: it has no basement!

great thread-topic lindalove, though i did not share your perception of mt. rushmore.

disappointing:

- mona lisa... too small, too crowded.
- hollywood... that town is much too crappy/dirty/depressing to be the entertainment capitol of the world.
- notre dame... nice, but not nice enough to justify its popularity/reputation.
- waikiki beach... crowded, overdeveloped, touristy, bland.
- roppongi... maybe i just didn't know what to expect, but the whole place felt threatening and claustrophobic.
- eiffel tower... about as big as i expected, but i didn't think it would be so brown for some reason (which, was disappointing somehow). perhaps if i did not experience it by myself?


surprisingly neat:

- rome... from top to bottom my favorite city across the pond.
- japanese bullet trains... those sons-a-bitches are fast
- london underground... my favorite public transport system.
- ginza at night... it's surreal
- st. pauls cathedral... the nexus of history and architecture on a grand scale. love it.
- the vatican... so much to take in, much more than i expected
- C-5 Galaxy... a feat of engineering. if you've ever had the opportunity to "pet the jet" i think you'll appreciate the scale of the flying monstrosity.

There's a picture, that I desperately, though unsuccessfully, tried to find in poster form, each trip to London, and i had forgotten about it til now... I've seen pictures in history books of the bombing of London during WWII, with St Pauls cathedral standing quite proudly/defliantly/very britishly in the face of adversity - it's an amazing picture... and an amazing place.

Not really super famous, and i guess that's why it suprised me.

In Alberta, there is a small mining town called by Crowsnest pass called Frank. They dug coal out of frank mountain for years until the whole side of the mountain was riddled with shafts. One fateful morning the weakened mountainside collapsed, sliding down and wiping out most of the town. Driving through the slide (they brought the highway right through the middle of it) I was completely suprised and amazed at the scale of the devastation. The rubble went on for miles and miles, rocks the size of buildings strewn about the landscape. The museum is set on a vantage point that allows you to see the whole thing, and it is just incredible. Really something i'm glad to have seen.

Ooh, me similar. Thanks for reminding me.

I had never understood Salvador Dali. Then I went to the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, where they had an original (I don't recall which one). I was locked in front of it for a half hour, amazed. There's a crispness that a reproduction can't show.

Let me count here... Downtown Copenhagen has 1 KFC and like 2 or 3 Burger Kings. Where exactly do you live?

I don't think you'll find a larger European city without fast food places. And since when does the number of fast food places equal the impressiveness of a place? Prague has 8x the Burger Kings of Copenhagen and is much more impressive (at least to me, a native Copenhagener).

Well, it depends on what you expected I guess.
Most people are pretty unimpressed and let down by The Little Mermaid, which really, truly is little.

From way back when...

The St. Louis Arch. I went there over 20 years ago and thought it was just some arch... no, it's freaking huge! To make it even cooler, they have "elevators" that you ride to the top and little port holes to look out of (really neat for a 14 yr. old).

Try walking over it ;) We walked halfway across the bridge...wow. Amazing.

As for Muir Woods--Muir Woods is NOTHING compared to the California Redwoods up near Eureka. More trees. Bigger trees. Wow.

And I have to agree with those roads, especially the one between Pacifica and Moss Beach...my friend was driving and ogling the surf...I kept having to remind him to keep his eyes on the road. Eek.

The sears tower....I'd always wanted to see it....I wasnt impressed at all :(

The Empire State Building...

Towering over NYC like that (post-9/11) was impressive.

as stated by a few others, I wasn't impressed with the Notre Dame at all. Granted, I only was in there for about ten minutes [we were in a rush, had reservations @ the hard rock cafe there] but it didn't seem that great.

Versailles - I thought was quite overrated, due to the extreme crowds there, barely had enough room to walk.
Plus, the street vendors were in full force there [to boot, I went on a drab, drizzly sunday morning there].

The louvre - Besides the fact that mona lisa was a bit small; the museum was huge [good, but I didn't see all of it! There were so many other pieces there with no crowds and just quite beatuiful, especially the sculpture.

In spain [forget what town, though I recall it was near barcelona], There was a small museum of dali that was a part of this mini-village like. We went there on a weekday night, a couple hours near closing time, and had the entire place to ourselves, including the museum ! It was lovely to view some of his work, and adjacent to there was a wing of local artists as well, so serene, alone.

Switzerland [went to zurich, bern, and lucerne] - It was beautiful and just really sexy.....The champs Elysses is breathtaking and priceless.

Disneyworld - Florida - Overrated ! I went there when I was thirteen [about 6 summers ago], my expectations were a bit high, I suppose, to begin with; but it was overpriced, crowded, and only could appeal to kids under 10, imho. Definitely don't go there for the rides....the only one I enjoyed was space mountain. Some of the dissatisfaction, though, may result from the fact that Six Flags and cedar point are both within a 2 hr drive from me :D
The weather wasn't that great either - especially the humidity.

my own asshole.

i mean i bent over and looked in the mirror and i was like WHOA... thats disgusting looking.

uhhh... nevermind. i pick mt. rushmore too.

Michaelangelo's David. I could have sat there in the gallery and stared for an hour. It was so smooth and the details were so supple I half expected his arm veins to pulse.

As for Mt. Rushmore, I was suprised by the huge pile of cast-off rubble lying at its foot. I had never considered what they did with the chippings. All I could think of was <i>"What an odd thing to do to a mountain!"</i>

Absolutely, I'd never been outside the US before! Should have been less specific about the fast food places, it was strange to see all the places I've seen in my town stuck in these amazing old structures. I was suprised, is all. I thought the Little Mermaid was pretty neat, but yes--small. Loved the windmill... I was a cheesy tourist. :D

I loved it! So enormous that I was humbled. Too afraid of heights to walk over it.

Prague, absolutely stunning and one of the few European cities where most of the structures and streets were left alone and still maintained it's old world charm.

This was before the fall of communism. Now it is like some sort of over-crowded amusement park on speed.

Yeah. I went to an expo on Dali in Philly this year.. I was familiar with some of his work but seeing his paintings up close, the man has AMAZING technique.

As for nature.. Crater lake in Oregon was just beautiful. So was the Landmannalaugar area in Iceland (I need to trek there again!).

Landmannalaugar

Man-made.. The first time I walked in New York. Yes, I knew how tall the skyscrapers were supposed to be, but standing right underneath one.. Wow.

And speaking of tall things; everytime I visit the town of Baalbeck back home (in Lebanon).. It's amazing to stand next to 72 feet colums that are over 2000 years old. Massive.

Baalbeck

Really, it's not like I'm only into massive phallic shapes. I swear.

Hmm... I'm going to have to agree with you on the first one. The tour wasn't even that great.

As for the jewels, well, I found them to be kind of a letdown. They rushed us through really fast, so that probably had something to do with it.

I was amazed at Picadilly Circus though. Sega World in particular was cool, they had a free-fall roller coaster inside.

My favorite sort of famous place is the Cincinnati skyline. It's so beautiful at night when looking across the I-75 bridge, especially since they finished all of the construction with the stadiums (which are also both amazing places). It just amazes me how beautiful things like that can look.

The Hoover Dam was a letdown for me. Maybe it was because I saw it at night, it just looked really small, just a curved section of road. I was more impressed by the Eisenhower tunnel, which is a little over 2.5 miles long, and is at 11,000 ft. elevation. Just approaching it and seeing the huge vents needed to provide adequate air to the tunnel was pretty impressive.

Amazingly beautiful. You've just given me 2 new places to add to my list of things to see in my lifetime.

What a fantastic thread! Being surprised is something I love more than almost anything else.

Overwhelmed:
* The number of people on the street in Harajuku, Tokyo on a Sunday. I lived in Manhattan for years and I can tell you it's not that crowded when the circus lets out at Madison Square Garden.
* Lake Bled, Slovenia. Okay, they said it was nice and magical... but HOLY COW was it magical.

Underwhelmed:
* The California redwoods. Don't get me wrong, they are absolutely beautiful. But I just thought they would blow me away... and they didn't.
* Michael Jackson. I just after Thriller came out and my parents finally got cable TV. My older sisters were watching MTV and I saw this scrawny black guy with a fro. That's him?

is this the one you were referring to? it's one of my favorites anyway...

http://www.bol.ucla.edu/~raffee/lond...sCathedral.jpg

that's be the picture -- thanks :)

Yosemite National Park: Standing on top of El Capitan and looking over the valley was an amazing experience, as was showering under lower Yosemite Falls.
Crater Lake National Park: You have to see it to believe it, I live only a short drive from this park and every time I'm there I leave feeling humbled.
California Redwoods: simply amazing, if you've never been there, I recommend going to "Trees of Mystery" near Eureka Ca. Yeah it's a total tourist trap, but the education you get about these trees is worth the price of admission.
Harris Beach Oregon: Ok so it's not world famous (which is one of it's assets), but it's one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.

Grand Canyon. I first though, "It's a hole in the ground, who cares?". Then my sister and aunt came out to visit and dragged me up there with them. Saying it's a whole in the ground is like saying Jupitor is bigger then a duck. True, but doesn't begin to give you proper perspective on it.

Yup. Been there in the middle of summer too, about 100 degrees downtown, so you could imagine the heat radiating off of this gigoondus arch. I really wanted to touch it but couldn't for more than a second or two or else I'd get burned. My father was surprised that the arch didn't span the river (apparently he was expecting that) but the river is wider in St. Louis than the arch. There is a neat little tourist center that runs underground beneath the arch, and the litlle trolley elevators that rotate as they go up and down so you're always oriented the normal way. And at the top is a little room where you can look over the city. I didn't know you could go inside, I thought the whole thing was hollow and empty. There's a lot to learn about that arch. The way those legs had to be precisely aligned as they built them is truly an engineering feat. One of the five most impressive things I've ever seen, and I'm from New York, a city full of impressive stuff.

I really liked St. Louis as a whole, there is a lot to see within a short walk of the arch. You MUST see a Cardinals game when you visit the city. I still have yet to see a city so completely devoted to their baseball team as St. Louis. EVERYONE wears red and cheers like crazy. Bob Tewksbury took a no-no into the 9th against the Cubs the day we went, which made it even more exciting. Another little surprise was the Bowling Hall of Fame, across the street from Busch Stadium, being bowlers my dad and I made sure to stop in there.

And one thing that I will NEVER get jaded to is flight operations on the deck of an aircraft carrier. Unfortunately not many people get to see this in person, and watching it on TV or in a movie simply does not do it justice. There's always some cheesy soundtrack, and you don't get a sense of how busy the deck truly is. You also don't get to feel the breeze of the 30 knot relative wind, the smell of the JP-5 mixed with the scent of the open sea, and of course the NOISE LIKE YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD IN YOUR LIFE, THAT YOU HAVE TO SCREAM AT THE TOP OF YOUR LUNGS SO THE GUYS RIGHT NEXT TO YOU CAN BARELY HEAR YOU!

At night is the real show. The twin cones of fire shooting out the back of an F-14 as it sits on the catapult at full afterburner, and then roars off into the night. Takes my breath away every time. Then the recovery begins, and you watch pinpricks of light slowly approach the ship, to become jets slamming down on the deck and screeching to a stop in under 400 feet. In the back of your mind is the eerie sensation that at any second, any of a hundred things could go wrong and you might witness a horrific mishap. This is why the walkway that overlooks the flight deck is affectionately named "Vulture's Row". My ship's been in drydock since January, and I can't wait for us to get back to see so I can experience it all again.

By the way, whoever mentioned C-5 Galaxy aircraft... true dat. I live and work out of Naval Station Norfolk, and those big boys fly in and out of the Air Station daily. If you're REALLY lucky, one will land on the runway that overpasses I-564 as you approach or leave the base. I have been on the tarmac as one taxied in and HOLY CRAP they're unbelievably big. Hard to imagine something that massive can stay in the air.

-Mikey

I have to agree with the St Louis arch...we drove through St Louis when we moved from NC to UT, and I remember seeing it come into view...I even got a pretty decent picture of it from the moving vehicle. It was a pretty neat sight.

The Netherlands (Holland) is absolutely beautiful. The countryside is gorgeous as you drive around or take trains or buses around the country... and Amsterdam, though pretty much at this point a giant tourist city, has so much history in it that you still feel like you're seeing something awesome, even though all the shops are either food or souvenirs.

All in all, I spent two full days walking around the city, and it's MASSIVE. I didn't get to go IN the van Gogh museum, but it's pretty big from the outside. I will make it a point to see it next time i'm there. The canals are also really neat-looking, and all the city streets run in concentric half-circles out from a central point downtown... so every street you're on, you can see for a long way down each side before it bends around.

I was also amazed at how clean and relatively drug-dealer-free the streets around the Red Light District were. They weren't dark or dangerous-looking or gross at all. It's also a very odd sight to see women- many of them are unbelievably gorgeous, many of them are 18 to 24- just standing behind the glass doors and waiting for you to pay them for sex. It's just an odd thing to see.

Disappointed: So many people who go there, tell me the beaches in Tampa, FL are awesome, and how clean and beautiful and so on... (I live in Orlando, about 1.5 hours away) well, I decided to go one time and spent almost the whole day looking for a beach that didn't look like garbage. We only spent an hour at one beach, and I was really disappointed. I've been back twice since that time, at different times of the year, made no difference. I won't bother again.

On the other hand, Tampa has a pretty damn nice night life. Great clubs, HUGE clubs, great music, pretty good people.

DINKY?!? The images are carved into the side of a granite mountain! The faces alone are 60 feet high, and the monument is visible for 60 miles. Mt Rushmore is one of the few mountains in the Black Hills over 7000 feet high, and the view at night is magnificent.

I couldn't disagree more with your opinion of Mt. Rushmore. I took a plane ride with a pilot friend this summer around Mt. Rushmore (and believe me, Homeland Security was watching) and the view was spectacular. I don't know if you are more accustomed to Disney rides that natural splendor, but Rushmore is da bomb.

The Grand Canyon surprised me. There aren't many ways to play up a giant hole, but the SIZE of the hole is what's amazing. Your idea of open space takes on new dimension when you drive up to look at a river a mile below where you are standing.

Yosemite National Park. Yosemite valley surrounded by huge granite walls that extend as high as the eye can see is unreal when you see it in person.

When I saw an iPod up close for the first time, I was surprised at how tiny it was. Prior to that, I've only seen pictures online, and it turns out they were all bigger than the real size.

Grand Canyon - Unbelievable, Gorgeous, Bigger than I could imagine and the rivers inside didn't quite look as wide as the tourguide says they were..

Las Vegas.. Different than it looks on TV.. The older part of Vegas is more what you expect from TV, but the newer part is where you'd rather be..

I don't get out much so...

The Mississippi River. I remember walking up to it in New Orleans and being dumbfounded as to how big it was.

Try walking Times Square at 1:30 on Wednesday, the crowds are overflowing the sidewalks to the point where they took one lane from the cars and added it to the sidewalk.

for me it was the Northern Lights in Iceland. You don't look north to see them, you just look up. they are amazing each and every time I've seen them (3 times so far...)

Anything by mother nature amazes me... and anything of grand scale by humans also amazes me.

I've seen them only once - on a much delayed flight from chicago to ny - the pilot came on teh intercom and said anyone who was still awake, might wantto check out the window and check out the northern nights... Pretty spectacular at 30,000 feet... I'd llove to see them again whilst on the ground.