colduphere

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.

cathies

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.

catcrazyaf

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.

cathies

Cat that's very sad.

maccabee

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.

colduphere

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.

Finecheapboxofwine

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

sueciv

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.

annhig

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.

Aramis

Hell of a first post maccabee.

Welcome - and keep on crying.

Amy_D

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.

mr_go

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?

lowcountrycarol

Yad vashehad me in tears but obviously not from joy.

irishface

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.

maitaitom

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.

cigalechanta

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.

zwho

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!

emily71

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.

Magster2005

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.

Magster2005

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