Oh dear yes.. my first trip to Ireland. I won't go into detail, but I sobbed. Yes, a bawling, blubbering, heartfelt, snotty, tearful sob. I'll never forget it. To those who have experienced it, you know the feeling well.

A bit differently was when I was 17. I had been traveling for a bit and had been to Italy and Greece already, but when I saw the Eiffel Tower in Paris.. wow! I just stood there with my jaw open, a few happy, excited tears rolling down my face.
I was a 17 year old girl - in Paris!! I felt like the world was mine, and that anything was possible. What a rush. Every teen girl deserves to know what that's like! I'm taking my 15 and 18 year old girls in April.. !

St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague. The artwork. Oh, my. The emotion surprised me.

Ireland was it for me..I could see my grandfather's face in the famine sites and thatched roof farmhouses tumbling down. OMG a grandmother sobbing like a heartbroken baby!!!

Touching the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. Appropriate, I guess. So many centuries of my people's history there.

Another place that caused an emotive outburst was Aushwitz. Where man's inhumanity to man is on stark display..There have been many other places that have been cause for pause and damp blinks but Ireland and Aushwitz were the most tearful.

Walking into St. Mark's Square in Venice one evening for the very first time. I couldn't believe I was there.

And my sister burst into tears upon entering St. Peter's in Rome for the first time. Seeing her cry, I started to cry too, though I had been in the Basilica several times before.

The American Cemetery, near Normandy. My husband helped fold the flag of the day, at 5:00. I couldn't hold it together.

Gallipoli. I'd been to see one of the Turkish museums first and see history written from the other side (i.e. how they whipped our butts) and then I lost it a little later in the day when reading all the epitaphs on the grave sites in Anzac Cove, Lone Pine and Chunuck Bair. The epitaphs were written by families of those who died forty years after WW1 had ended and you could still feel the pain in what they had written. "We miss him still." and the like.

You all will think I'm a goof. The first time I went to Munich alone was the 175th year of Octoberfest. Standing in the crowd on the street for the Sunday parade just bowled me over. I love a parade and the costumes and the music just got me.

26th May 1999, Barcelona's Camp Nou stadium.

Touring the Celestial Seasonings factory in Boulder Co: the mint room. They keep it sealed off from the rest of factory because the fumes are so intense. The instant you walk in there you are overcome.

Then there was that vindaloo in Manchester.

The 1st. time I walked into St. Peter's Square in Vatican City - I couldn't believe a small town girl from Milford Michigan could be there.

Okay, I'm not alone

One of these posts made me recall a 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th..... I hadn't initially put them on my list because they were somewhat more about a deep expected emotion associated with the place than the place itself. What I love is that some of mine are perhaps obvious to others, and some are going to have people shake their heads - maybe they didn`t even like one of these places. Whatever moves you, folks. Just seek out the experiences

In order of occurrence (as near as I can remember the order of about 2 dozen trips);

Venice, The Grand Canal - walking off the train and out to view the Grand Canal for the first time early on a glorious summer morning. Wooden pilings? In a lagoon? To build a city? That looks like this instead of a bunch of shacks on stilts? Are you kidding me?

The Grand Canyon, South Rim - I heeded advice I was given (and advice I give to everyone who has yet to go) to absolutely not look until I was at the edge. You need a willing accomplice for this one or the ability to navigate while looking down at your feet and using peripheral clues. My young kids thought this approach was quite funny and they happily played along while my wife lead us all. Once we got there and I looked up and broke down, they weren't giggling anymore. No tears from them but the looks of absolute awe and stunned silence was cool.

Brugge, Rozenhoedkaai (Quay of the Rosary)- I don't know what it is about standing on the southeast edge of the quay looking across the water to the Belfry. It is the classic Brugge photographic "shot" if you haven't been there before. It gives me a peaceful feeling unlike any of my other favourites. I would be happy to have this be the last thing I ever see.

Cordoba, The Mezquita - I expected a spectacular piece of Moorish architecture, but I had already seen the Alhambra and the Nasrid Palace without losing it so I was only expecting to admire the scale and the form and to be amazed and a little angered at the inclusion of a Christian cathedral right in the middle of it. Whoa, whoa, whoa, somebody get me about 6 hankies cause it's going to take a while to mop this up before I can even focus again so that I think about taking a picture. How could man create this?

Krakow, The Rynek Glowny - I love market squares and I had seen many pictures of Europe's largest before heading off to Krakow. By now, I realized that "scale" was something that moved me so I thought it would be fun to try the Grand Canyon technique here. I asked my wife to play along and we held hands as we looked down at our feet and moved into the position I wanted to be in from my memory of the layout (from viewing all those maps and pictures). Aw geez, not again - this isn't the Grand Canyon. Why am I doing this? Because it was magnificent in scale, form, and the variety of architectural styles.

The newly "remembered" ones are the collection of Word War I sites we visited in Belgium. The Menin Gate destroyed me for close to an hour. In Tyne Cot cemetery I was fighting off the misty eyes as we walked along the high outside wall to reach the entrance gate. I lost that fight, big time, once we rounded the wall and I was left looking across the massive green field to the perfect rows of white headstones. A couple of the most humbling moments of my life.

Christ Church Cathedral on my first jet lagged day in Dublin. Stumbled alone in on a sparsely attended evensong service where the choir outnumbered the worshippers. When the choir walked down the aisle I burst into tears because they all looked like me, I felt like I had found my people. I felt this way the whole trip. My grandma was a Clancy, I had no idea I was going to have such a visceral reaction to Ireland.

Strolling past a little elementary school in Paris and seeing a plaque on the wall outside with names of the Jewish children who had been taken away from that school during the war, never to return. Just past the plaque a glimpse into the sunny playground where children were happily playing really brought it home.

The Camp at Dachau. Very moving.

The beaches at Normandy.

Anne Frank House in Amsterdaam.

Oraduer-sur-Glane

http://www.frenchentree.com/france-limousin-tourism-leisure/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=1994

And my sister burst into tears upon entering St. Peter's in Rome for the first time. Seeing her cry, I started to cry too, though I had been in the Basilica several times before.>>

I'd been to St. Peters' before, but burst into tears when we reached the point of the Scavi tour where you are under the grand altar, and they starting singing mass right above my head.

strange, because I'm not in the least bit religious, or so I thought.

and I cried as we sailed up the grand canal as we left Venice after spending a week there with our grown-up children; we had had such a wonderful time together and i doubted that they would want to travel with us again. Actually that has turned out not to be the case, but I didn't know that at the time.

In 2011 I was traveling in Spain with a friend from college for whom traveling wasn't easy because she had trouble walking for than a few hundred yards at a time. I was worried that she wasn't having a good time until we reached Mérida.

We were walking toward the Roman ruins, and when she caught the first glimpse of the Roman theater, she stopped, stunned. She said she had to fight back tears when she saw the theater.

The theater has survived in large part, and has been reconstructed in part. I've seen a lot of ruins, and I myself was pretty impressed. But what really thrilled me was Sandy's reaction.

There have been other places that have thrilled me, of course. I'd been to Italy numerous times but had never visited Venice because I thought it would be overcrowded with tourists. When I did finally visit Venice, I was stunned by the beauty of St. Mark's square and by the sight of the church of St. George, which looked like it was floating on the water.

A lesser thrill, but still a thrill, was standing in front of paintings by Van Gogh in the D'Orsay in Paris. I've always especially loved his painting of the church at Auvers and of his bedroom at Arles, and to think that I was standing right in front of them really impressed me.

I am a guy so no. But almost. Stuttgart 2006 World Cup of Soccer with my daughter. Tunisia versus Spain. People from all over the world so darn happy to be there. Everyone talking and singing and laughing.

And then the Spanish guys near us pulled out cigars. I think I did cry then.

I am a guy so no>>

didn't you know cold? - crying is the new macho thing to do.

Andy Murray does it all the time.

http://www.sbnation.com/tennis/2012/7/8/3145083/wimbledon-2012-andy-murray-cries-video-roger-federer

Standing in St Peters square and looking up to see Pope John Paul give his blessing.

the first time i walked into St Paul's in London. when a children's choir began to sing i had to fight back hot tears that welled up

Not tears, but stunned into silence and then I just had to giggle it was so surreal- that first sight of the main amphitheater in Bryce Canyon, Utah.

never cried. but landing in Barcelona just as the night was turning into a dawn was memorable :
the sun was not up yet ,the horizon was turning red and gold , the sea - just a band of dark blue.
Then, the plane made a turn from the sea to the city ....there it was - right above the flickering lights of the sleepy town - the biggest and the most beautiful moon I have ever seen.
Another , very different, moving memory:
watching little German kids happily running among the stelae of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.
I don't know if can describe my feelings, but
I know the moment will stay with me for a long time.

I didn't cry, but: I arrived in Cairo late evening, jet-lagged, tired, and hungry. Went to the Mena House Hotel, set my bags down, opened the curtains, and the Great Pyramid loomed up in front of me, so close it looked like I could reach out and touch it. It was the most amazing thing, certainly the most amazing hotel view I have ever had.

I really hate to admit this after reading all the amazing places that have made other people cry but it was Disney World for me - as I was leaving with my two kids - in my defense I WAS pregnant with my third at the time (just a couple months). I DID tear up when we landed in London 4 years ago but not the 14 year old Justin Bieber thing!! And I AM a crier

I have never cried because of where I was.
The Grand Canyon was a wow moment yes, but I just don't get emotional about places.

The Alhambra, Generalife Gardens: standing at the top of the gardens,at the golden hour of the late afternoon, and hardly a tourist around, it was so easy to imagine how the fleeing Moorish king Boabdil felt as he looked back and wept.
I wanted to stay, too.

I cried the first time I saw what the price was for the train trip from Grindelwald to Jungfraujoch.

My favorite "cry" story is that when Tracy saw the David in Florence for the first time, she joked, "It looks like the one in Vegas."

The next day we climbed Giotto’s Campanile and met a woman at the top. When we asked her about her trip, she replied. "On my first look at David, I fell to my knees and wept."

I turned to Tracy and said, "Don't say anything, or I'll have to kill you."

First trip (age 20), standing in front of Michelangelo's David.
And a few years ago, alone in Limerick, the town my Irish ancestors came from, sitting in a bar on the waterfront listening to traditional Irish music, and an old man singing some beautiful Irish folk song in his quavering voice...oh my!

Ha Maitaitom! Typing my response at the same time you were posting yours, I hadn't seen your comment about David. But that was not me your Tracy spoke to...I've never been to the top of Giotto's Campanile!

annhig: The Scavi tour at the tomb of St. Peter got me and my husband too, and neither of us is that religious either. It was just overwhelming. There must be something to it. That is the only time for me.

"But that was not me your Tracy spoke to...I've never been to the top of Giotto's Campanile!"

Phew!

sdt - funny it should have got both of us, and your DH. Mine was completely unmoved, BTW.

tom - I cried when I got to the top of the campanile too, but with relief that I'd got there.

and i can't possibly reveal what I thought when I saw David, but my DH wept then!

We need more criers!

I didnt cry but on my first trip ever to Europe, we were in the West of Ireland on the Dingle Peninsula and I thought that there must be a God and he must have created this because the landscape was so stunningly beautiful.

As a guy, I am not sure that I meet the specified standards of tears for this thread, but there have been a few moments.

1) The memorial at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

2) Standing in front of Bernini's "Apollo and Daphne" in the Borghese Gallery in Rome. Almost three years have past since then, during which time I passed through a lot of art galleries, but it remains the single piece of art whose beauty has most moved me.

3) Last summer, I got up at early one morning after spending the night at Rifugio Nuvolau in the Dolomites. The Rifugio is perched essentially at the top of a cliff, with spectacular mountains views in every directlion. No else had come outside yet, and I had it all to myself for at least 30 minutes.

Okay I cried hiking down from near the top of the Matterhorn gondola. But it was because I was frightened by one of the ledges we had to cross.

The Pieta in St. Peter's in Rome. It is so beautiful. My second was in Sacre Coeur, by very good luck we arrived there at 3pm on a Friday and 3 nuns in their simple white habits were singing the responses. It was a beautiful moment.

I've had a number of cries, for beauty, for meaning, for history. But most poignant for me has been the Vietnam Memorial and scratching with pencil and paper over the names of young men I knew who had died there. That is "my generation" and it still haunts me now.

Cat that's very sad.

Long time lurker, first time poster! I couldn't resist jumping in for this thread.

Cried because of meaning: I remember getting teary-eyed when visiting the Holocaust memorial in Boston. Seeing all those names on those pillars and reading the quotes carved in stone just overwhelmed me and I ached for those who lost their lives.

Cried because of beauty: First time at the Grand Canyon, peering over the edge and stunned by the vastness of it all. Nothing can remind you more that you're an insignificant little speck in the whole scheme of things like being confronted by a vast, beautiful natural structure.

Cried because of homesickness: As much as I love to travel, I get crippled by debilitating homesickness at the halfway point of every long trip where I'm very far from home. The first time was when I went to Japan on my own when I was 17. I didn't speak the language and I was sitting in a ryokan in a tiny fishing village, thousands of miles from home. I cried so hard that I must have scared the poor Japanese landlady.

Cried for embarrassing reasons: I'd always loved Phantom of the Opera, and I finally saved up enough money to go and watch it one year in Vegas. It wasn't London or Broadway, but when I finally got to watch my favorite musical live, it was beyond awesome.

Good stories Maccabee. What a different world back then without instant communication. I remember trying to figure out how much it would take to call home from Europe. Or you could send a letter. Not the same as skyping.

I wasn't blubbering but remember getting teared up at the beaches and memorial in Normandy.

During a trip to meet what was to be my future husband's family, I cried in the Nurenberg Cathedral, in the back was a film running about how it was rebuilt - by the Americans and British. Michael explained to me how devastated Nurenberg had been, why most of the buildings were brightly colored cinderblock squares...had to be built fast and tight for warmth. In the 40's there had been no time for architecture, just build rooves and walls for the families.

During a trip to meet what was to be my future husband's family, I cried in the Nurenberg Cathedral, in the back was a film running about how it was rebuilt - by the Americans and British>>

sueciv - i had a similar experience when my german penfriend's family visited us and we went with them to Coventry Cathedral - my penfriend's father wept openly in the ruins of the old cathdral, which was bombed in November 1940. he and my dad [who came from Coventry] were the same age, and of course they had been in opposite sides in WW2 but our families got on very well.

that was a very moving moment for me.

Hell of a first post maccabee.

Welcome - and keep on crying.

This is such a great post - thanks for starting it Aramis.

I was the same way with Ireland. It was so moving to be touring the places that my ancestors once called home. Definitely an emotional trip I won't soon be forgetting.

I'm kind of distanced from my emotions, so no... I've never cried my eyes out while traveling. But I've gotten a bit choked up several times, for different reasons.

My first trip to Paris, I was overwhelmed when we walked into Notre Dame cathedral. I couldn't stop thinking, this place was already old and venerable when my country was still an undiscovered wilderness. It was a real moment for me.

In Amsterdam, I misted up a little as I wrote my comments in the guestbook at Anne Frank's secret annex. The words I used were more than a little pointed.

In Australia, I woke up one night with a touch of PTSD from my bungee jump the day before. No tears, but some disturbing hyperventilation ensued. I guess I didn't realize how deep-down-to-the-bone scared I'd been beforehand.

And a few days after visiting the Ponheary Ly Foundation's Knar School in rural Cambodia, I got a little emotional thinking of those kids. So full of life, so enthusiastic, so adorable... and just so damn poor. I kept thinking of Linda Hunt's final words in "The Year of Living Dangerously"... what, then, must we do?

Yad vashehad me in tears but obviously not from joy.

Just reading this thread has me weeping. So many of the places mentioned were incrdibly emotional for me.

Others for me

Ely and Wells Cathedral, visiting with James Herriot in Thirsk back when he had a regular open house one afternoon a week, Corrie TenBoom's home, Speen Bridge in Scotland and the memorial to special forces, and many more touching little moments here and there.

I think I speak for Tracy, Kim, Mary and certainly myself when I say that we all shed a little tear when we realized we had filled up our Diesel rental car with Regular petrol outside of Gubbio in 2005.

I don't think any of you clicked on my link to see what heart breaking tears are.


Mait, My late husband and I luckily stopped across from a luxury car repair station. I went over there and explained my S0 put in the wrong thing. They said after lunch, we'll tow you here and suction it out. Sitting at the curbside in the hot Sud sun, we learned a pricy lesson.

A cathedral courtyard in the Bari Gotic of Barcelona. That's the setting. There was a trio of musicians playing for change and the weather was too beautiful. A mild clear early Spring day. I became overwhelmed w/ our pure luck at being there at that moment to enjoy all this beauty and literally fell to my knees sobbing. My DH was a little worried until I explained to him what caused the breakdown!

Never cried but was awed by St. Chapelle in Paris. The outside and the staircase are so dull that when you open the wooden door and see the huge colored windows in front of you, it's hard not to gasp

The other time was going to Spain and seeing in person all of the El Greco works that I had only seen in my Spainish textbooks in high school. Back then, I never thought I'd be able to go to Spain.

What a wonderful (and moving) topic.

Never sobbed, but I did cry when I saw the Pantheon in Athens (overcome by art and antiquity), Goya's painting of "The Third of May" at the Prado(the facial expression of the central figure still haunts me), and the Eiffel Tower twinkling just as our bateau mouche went by -- I remember thinking that I wanted to remember that feeling of pure happiness for the rest of my life.

Meant the Parthenon (not Pantheon). Too much emotion LOL!

If you open yourself up to the experience you will cry a number of time. In Portugal at a Fado House I sat drinking some great Port, listening to beautiful Fado and cried in my wine. I'm a guy, but that didn't matter. Reminded me of my Grandmother singing as a child. Another was in Sitiges, Spain. I was walking high on a cliff late at night. The moon was blood red, the Mediterranean was glass still, the music from a tavern played in the background and the smell of fish cooking on the beach gave me a moment of tears for the experience it gave me. It was so romantic and I was by myself as my partner of 12 years had died in the spring of tha year. Romantic and sad at the same time. Another was Ireland in November on the Ring of Kerry. It was a heard of sheep and me looking out at the endless ocean and all I could hear was the sheep braying, my heart beating and the wind blowing. Absolute beauty and many tears of joy!

@maitaitom I'm as bad as your friend Tracy...in Italy a girl from South Africa was just floored by the beauty of gondola rides in the venetian canals and was talking about how there's nothing else in the world like it. Don't get me wrong, I thought Venice was beautiful, but my first reaction was definitely 'WOW the venetian hotel in Las Vegas did a damn good job!'

I don't think any of you clicked on my link to see what heart breaking tears are.>>

you're right, cigalechanta, i didn't and now I have.

nothing more to say, really.

The first sight of the Taj Mahal brought me to tears. I couldn't believe how beautiful it is. Tears df sorrow at the American Cemetary in Normandy.

Snowdonia, Wales, when the rhododendron were blooming. Ironically, there's a major effort to get rid of it as it's not native and is choking out the local flora. Understandable but it certainly was beautiful.

The first time I walked into the Water Lily room in the Orangerie in Paris...

Sitting in the Piazza San Marco in the bright sunlight looking onto the blue blue lagoon, in one of the over-priced cafes drinking prosecco, when the band suddenly started playing "time to stay goodbye" (spectacularly cheesy, but the moment was just perfect)

walking through the Holocaust museum in Washington DC...

in the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam...

at the American Cemetary in Normandy, watching a very frail veteran pay his respects to his fallen brothers in arms...

I feel so lucky to have had moments like this in my travels. I hope to always have them!

The Money Exchnage at CDG.

I cried like a baby the first time I visited the Anne Frank House, in 1997, before they renovated the museum.

At the end of the guided tour of the house I entered the museum and saw a wall size mural of men laying in bunks in a concentration camp. One of the men was our family friend, Mel Mermelstein. I became frozen with emotion as the tears poured out of me. I'm still crying about it...

Robyn

The Swiss Alps, specifically, the BO area. This was at the end of a trip that included Paris, Rome, Florence and the Cinque Terra. When I saw those majestic mountains I became emotional.

Other places--
Early morning looking at the snow dusted rims of the Grand Canyon from the bottom
First trip to Glacier National Park
Michealangelo's David--I just couldn't take my eyes off him and hated to turn and leave

in Chicago my party stopped into chinatown for some food. i took a bite of my brother's extra spicy dish. i cried

Work - every Monday morning

Yosimite Park and the Ring of Kerry...Both unbelievably beautiful!

The Turnabuoni Chapel in Santa Maria Novella (Florence).

I just have to say that this has been one of my favourite threads to read ever...well, other than the instructions on how to book train travel on TGV.
After reading the responses I now know for sure that I have to visit Ireland soon. I've never had a full out blubbery Justin Beiber type cry but many times a few tears have just uncontrolably rushed down my cheeks. Usually it's "a first", like the first time I saw the Atlantic Ocean, my first glimpse of the rocky mountains, the Eiffel tower, beaches of Normandy, lighting a candle at Notre Dame for my devout Catholic grandmother who has passed on. But I'm saving my big cry for when I see my daughter walking down the aisle on the arm of her Dad in Brittany, France this April as she marries the love of her life.
Thanks for this thread everyone.

As a 12 year old, I visited the Capitol Building in Washington DC and remember the tears flowing. I couldn't believe that little ole me was standing where Presidents had stood. This visited ignited my love of history and travel. My first visit to Rome and exploring the Roman Forum brought similar emotions. Even as a "seasoned" traveler I am often overwhelmed-Red Square, Great Wall of China, Taj Mahal, Sydney Opera House, Victoria Falls, Machu Picchu, and many more places have brought me to tears, not overflowing tears like the Capitol Building but emotional moments none the less.

My first glimpse of the Taj Mahal.

Auschwitz, Dachau and any type of Holocaust Memorial always gets me.

In terms of happy tears, I cried the first time I saw Jerusalem.

I broke down when I saw the Vietnam War Memorial in DC. It is a beautiful monument but the tears were for all the death from a war that had no reason to be fought. I am a man but I am not ashamed to say I bawled like a baby.

In Granada having dinner outside about sunset time, our restaurant had a perfect view of the Alhambra. One of the most moving sites in Spain, tears came again.

Twice in my travels, I have burst in to tears that came from nowhere:

In 1978, first time I ever saw and entered Sacre Coeur. It was early evening and raining, and I picked up one of the hand-held telephone like tour talks, and it was a priest (I assume) speaking a prayer in French. I just sobbed, unexpectedly.

Then, at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem in about 1998. Our of nowhere, sobs came as I tucked a prayer in to the wall. Unexpectedly, again, so you don't have to be Jewish.

There are funny, laughing tears moments also, but the above are the real emotional moments for me.

Let's see if we can make 100 posts with this topic.

Reviewing all the responses so far, I have a few favourites;

- Oktoberfest I can relate but I managed to stop at "extremely giddy" myself)
- Disneyworld (awwwwww)
- Work - every Monday morning (close, real close)

It's just great that we can be surprised with some of these emotions and also be absolutely certain that when we finally see some long treasured desire something is going to give.

When I see the Taj Mahal and glimpse the Great Namib Desert for the first time (and also from the air in a small plane - oh please oh please oh please) someone better have some smelling salts handy to revive me.

The Twelve Apostles along the Great Ocean Road near Melbourne, Australia. It was my first, much anticipated trip to Australia. This was my "I'm really here" moment.

The Lincoln Memorial. Reading those words...the tears just flowed.

I've been to Rome several times but the view of the city from Frascati, in the evening, all the city lit up and twinkling with storm clouds in the distance. Tears ran down my face as I realised how much I loved the city and couldn't wait to move there.

1. Collosseum/Rome for historical significance.
2. 1st sight of Eiffel Tower/ driving around 20 km outside Paris. I had antecipated to see ET much later and it appeared before my eyes without asking permission.

My eyes well up just writing about these:
Mausoleum of Galla Placida in Ravenna - a perfect little mosaic filled jewel box
Apollo and Daphne - unbelievably beautiful
Michelangelo's Bandini pieta in Florence - to me, very moving
Arriving in Venice
...and many more

Times when I think "I am so happy/lucky to be here, seeing this;" they are moments of precious, exquisite happiness.

(But I have been known to cry over commercials, too.)

Went back to my home country with my son, whose mom's Asian. A guy came up to me at a bus stop and asked what nationality my kid is. I told him he is local, though he cannot speak the language very well. The guy said - he looks nothing like us, how can he be local. Been to fourty countries. This was the first time I cried when traveling.

mix - that's really sad.

where is your home country?

Medugorje where are the apparations of the Virgin Mary.
That place has some unworldly peace. I cant wait to go back. Im thinking about it all the time.

An unforgettable boat ride on the Ganges River at dawn. When the sun began to rise, I placed a lit candle with flowers in the water in remembrance of my mom, who had recently died. The sights and sounds surrounding me at that moment were overwhelming.

At night, in a boat, being up close to the lighted Statue of Liberty. Just thinking about all the people that had passed her to come to America. And why they were coming here. I sobbed.

The cemetery at Oraduer-sur-Glane.

Just seeing so many headstones with the same date: June 10, 1944 was a shocking realization of what really happened that day. I love visiting cemeteries for the beautiful headstones, but this was just stunning, and not in a good way. Just horrific. Seeing the photographs on the headstones of entire families, 4, 5, 6 members murdered that day. Will never forget it. Ever.

Sunday Evensong at St Paul's Cathedral in London with my toddler in my arms about 8 years ago. She was a really musical baby, and her eyes lit up with such a sparkle of joy when that magical singing began. With the walls echoing and vibrating and humming with music, I just held her close and took in the moment. She didn't make it through the whole service before she started to fidget... but even the memory of it today brings a few tears to my eyes. It was spectacular. I was just so grateful to be there.

I seem to get crying jags in the big cathedrals... St Peters basilica once when the light shined through the glass and made this stunning shaft of colored dusty light. Another time was in Notre Dame in one of the little chapels off the main area. I'm not religious at all, but my late grandmother was a devout Catholic... and being in those cathedrals just does something to me.

I think I shed a few tears my first time seeing the impressionists at the D'Orsay.

And I'm pretty sure I cried a little (after laughing much too hard) the time my husband (then my boyfriend) and I got lost in the Louvre and took a "detour" that ended up taking us at least an extra hour to find our way back out. We ended up somewhere all alone in a giant room filled with enormous marble statues, and by then were so worn out, it was comical--he started posing with the statues and making ridiculous silly faces and the "V" for victory hand gesture. (In our pictures from that day almost 20 years ago, he looks like a silly teenager on a school field trip.) Definitely a cautionary tale: remember where the exits are in the Louvre, lest you be there beyond your limit.

I love this thread. Your comments have reminded me of a few good cries of my own:

Dachau - I went when I was a teenager and was completely overwhelmed with emotion.

Lincoln Memorial - I was on an early morning winter run during a visit to DC a few years ago and ran up the steps, only to find myself breaking down in tears. I guess I was just struck by the quiet of the near-empty mall and by thoughts of all that the monument represents.

The Alhambra - those were tears of joy, that such beauty exists in the world and that I'm lucky enough to see it. I expect to feel the same when I finally get to see the Taj Mahal.

The Parthenon - I stubbed my toe and was bleeding all over the place. Mostly tears of humiliation.

The Tetons - I drove from the east and there was that first moment when those amazing peaks suddenly appeared before me and I realized how small I was.

The American Cemetery in Normandy. All those crosses! All those young men who died in the invasion! Heartbreaking
Then entering Piazza Della Signoria in Firenze last October. I had not been there in several years. My reaction was completely unexpected. I looked at that grand space and at the Loggia with the sculptures and was overwhelmed,

Never blubbered, but definitely choked up and teary a handful of times.

First NYC Times Square New Year's Eve - I remember watching it on tv since I was a kid, and always said, someday I would go. When it finally happened in my early 30's, I couldn't believe I was finally actually there in the middle of it all.

Disneyland at Christmas Time - First time, my grandma (who absolutely loved Christmas and decorating) had just recently passed and standing there on Main Street after the fireworks, when all the lights change to Christmas lights and it snows...yeah, it got me.

First time I saw an elephant in the wild, in Africa.

Holocaust museum in Washington, D.C. - the room with all of the shoes, and the room with the walls covered in pictures...both very moving.

Standing in Piazza San Marco at night for the first time, on our honeymoon. All the soft lighting and the dueling orchestras, sipping a glass of wine with the love of my life. It was the perfect evening.

Sacre Coeur's Virgin Mary's chapel made me cry. Perhaps, it was because I was there on a Thanksgiving while away from my 3 year old.

The Taj Mahal. When I found out my cancer had metastasized to my hip, I thought I would never walk normally again. I woke up one morning and thought "Now I'll never be able to see the Taj Mahal". (Never mind it wasn't even on my bucket list)

When I got there a couple of years later, I burst into tears. I remember my daughter telling our guide, "Sorry, my mom's just like that".

I think it is good to "like that".