Never To Return
Aug 4th, 2013, 04:51 PM
#61
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How could I have forgotten?
St-Cirq-Lapopie. Nice geographical setting with the most extensive collection of Made in China items in any village in France.
Montauban - city of absolutely not a single left turn. Good if you like that merry-go-round feeling when you're driving.
St-Cirq-Lapopie. Nice geographical setting with the most extensive collection of Made in China items in any village in France.
Montauban - city of absolutely not a single left turn. Good if you like that merry-go-round feeling when you're driving.
Aug 4th, 2013, 06:37 PM
#70
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http://travelerscenturyclub.org/
http://www.listology.com/guy-cockin/...club-countries
It is a group whose members have visited at least 100 countries and territories. They have list from which you must qualify. They are fairly liberal. For example you get credit for a visit to Madiera, Puerto Rico, or Sicily.
I am only 98 away from entry. But next week I plan on visiting 17 countries in 3 1/2 days.
http://www.listology.com/guy-cockin/...club-countries
It is a group whose members have visited at least 100 countries and territories. They have list from which you must qualify. They are fairly liberal. For example you get credit for a visit to Madiera, Puerto Rico, or Sicily.
I am only 98 away from entry. But next week I plan on visiting 17 countries in 3 1/2 days.
Aug 4th, 2013, 06:42 PM
#71
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I'd go back to Vienna. If I had business to do in the city at least then it would be interesting.
Going back to Bruges isn't on my list either. Lovely but it was boring. We had booked 2 nights in Bruges and the next morning we took the train to a little town on the coast to see a casino where Magritte had his 1st paid commission, also they have a Keith Haring wall. We had to wait until 3pm in this seaside village that was already closed up for the season and we still had a more interesting time than we would have had in Bruges.
Going back to Bruges isn't on my list either. Lovely but it was boring. We had booked 2 nights in Bruges and the next morning we took the train to a little town on the coast to see a casino where Magritte had his 1st paid commission, also they have a Keith Haring wall. We had to wait until 3pm in this seaside village that was already closed up for the season and we still had a more interesting time than we would have had in Bruges.
Aug 4th, 2013, 07:16 PM
#73
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I would go back to Vienna, too, but it wouldn't be very high on my list. Actually, I think I would say that I wouldn't avoid Vienna; if I were passing through, I'd stop for a night maybe. It was a pleasant town, just not very awe-inspiring compared to Prague and Budapest which I saw before and after Vienna on that trip.
My first impression of Pisa was quite negative, too. Mostly I saw either the area around the Central Station (run down) and the Field of Miracles aka the Field of Touristy (where the Tower of Pisa is), on a day trip. But I decided to go back and give Pisa another shake a few years ago and spent a few nights there. Honestly, away from the Field, there are few tourists in Pisa - it's kind of a lively town with a lot of students. And there are some neat churches and buildings on the Arno River running down the center of town. I stayed at neat old (but run down) hotel, the classic Royal Victoria. I still wouldn't call Pisa a warm, inviting town, but I liked it quite a bit more on my second visit.
My first impression of Pisa was quite negative, too. Mostly I saw either the area around the Central Station (run down) and the Field of Miracles aka the Field of Touristy (where the Tower of Pisa is), on a day trip. But I decided to go back and give Pisa another shake a few years ago and spent a few nights there. Honestly, away from the Field, there are few tourists in Pisa - it's kind of a lively town with a lot of students. And there are some neat churches and buildings on the Arno River running down the center of town. I stayed at neat old (but run down) hotel, the classic Royal Victoria. I still wouldn't call Pisa a warm, inviting town, but I liked it quite a bit more on my second visit.
Aug 4th, 2013, 11:07 PM
#76
Kilmarnock, I had to work there and I believe the local population is the ugliest I have ever seen. Walking down the High Street is like a scene from Shaun of the Dead.
I ought to add Lille, which has a "central interjection" where the single slow lane you are driving on pops up in the middle lane of a motorway, it had me screaming.
I ought to add Lille, which has a "central interjection" where the single slow lane you are driving on pops up in the middle lane of a motorway, it had me screaming.
Aug 5th, 2013, 02:30 AM
#77
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cigalechanta, I was all but ready to call you a soulmate and you go and dump on Liverpool, practically the only city I was really excited about on a cruise of the British Isles. There was a time I'd also have taken you to task for listing Brussels as it was my favorite city after our first trip to Europe in 1973. Returned many times shortly thereafter, then gave it a rest and went again as a day trip from Paris a couple of years ago and could not rediscover whatever I had seen in it.
Overall I've found this an enormously interesting thread. To pose the question in a Carrie Bradshaw kind of way--I wonder, what is it about a place that causes us to take an instant like or dislike to it and what is it that can change our minds on a subsequent visit? And can we ever change back again?
Several of the places mentioned here are in some instances places I can't imagine not loving. Others make me wonder why I ever went to see them in the first place--and then I recall the many places I did not enjoy on a first or even second exposure and now have come to really love, as well as those I loved and now can do without. I think there is a lot to be said for expectations. Sometimes they are so high that almost no place could live up to them. Other times we bump into a place that we hadn't even expected to stop at and fall in love. Sometimes its even our own expectations formed from an earlier trip that are too high causing disappointment on a second exposure or too low causing new excitement at things seen in a more interesting light. I'd be interested to hear about experiences travelers have had that changed their minds about places and if there is anything in particular they can trace the change in mindset to--weather, personal circumstances, actual change in the place, etc.
Besides my change re: Brussels from wonderful to meh, I've changed from meh to pretty darned good re: Florence, similarly Rome, and I've changed from total hatred for Paris on a first trip (wouldn't even return to the city for many years) to regard it with the same adoration you hear burbling from the mouths of teenage girls and we now return almost annually. We never could see what our guidebook raved about in Nordlingen or Charleville Mezieres but then we've never been back to either and probably never will return. We loved Barcelona on our initial visit and have only enjoyed it more each time we've returned even after enduring a purse snatching and an attempted mugging on subsequent visits, though we were really tested on a trip with a lot of rain while staying in an apartment with never dry towels--sometimes it's the little things that can almost turn you around on a place. Sometimes being forced to spend more time than you intended in a place will also force you to see more interesting things than you'd expected to find and leave you with a positively improved perception of it--or even greater hatred/annoyance at it, e.g. when we go on ski vacations with our son, we may spend days in a tiny town that we think we'd exhaust and grow tired of in a day only to find that being forced to slow down, relax and really explore every nook and cranny enhances our enjoyement of the place and even causes us to want to return.
I'm no longer sure where I'm going with this rant but I'd be interested to hear from others about places where subsequent exposure caused them to change their minds and to what they attribute the change.
Overall I've found this an enormously interesting thread. To pose the question in a Carrie Bradshaw kind of way--I wonder, what is it about a place that causes us to take an instant like or dislike to it and what is it that can change our minds on a subsequent visit? And can we ever change back again?
Several of the places mentioned here are in some instances places I can't imagine not loving. Others make me wonder why I ever went to see them in the first place--and then I recall the many places I did not enjoy on a first or even second exposure and now have come to really love, as well as those I loved and now can do without. I think there is a lot to be said for expectations. Sometimes they are so high that almost no place could live up to them. Other times we bump into a place that we hadn't even expected to stop at and fall in love. Sometimes its even our own expectations formed from an earlier trip that are too high causing disappointment on a second exposure or too low causing new excitement at things seen in a more interesting light. I'd be interested to hear about experiences travelers have had that changed their minds about places and if there is anything in particular they can trace the change in mindset to--weather, personal circumstances, actual change in the place, etc.
Besides my change re: Brussels from wonderful to meh, I've changed from meh to pretty darned good re: Florence, similarly Rome, and I've changed from total hatred for Paris on a first trip (wouldn't even return to the city for many years) to regard it with the same adoration you hear burbling from the mouths of teenage girls and we now return almost annually. We never could see what our guidebook raved about in Nordlingen or Charleville Mezieres but then we've never been back to either and probably never will return. We loved Barcelona on our initial visit and have only enjoyed it more each time we've returned even after enduring a purse snatching and an attempted mugging on subsequent visits, though we were really tested on a trip with a lot of rain while staying in an apartment with never dry towels--sometimes it's the little things that can almost turn you around on a place. Sometimes being forced to spend more time than you intended in a place will also force you to see more interesting things than you'd expected to find and leave you with a positively improved perception of it--or even greater hatred/annoyance at it, e.g. when we go on ski vacations with our son, we may spend days in a tiny town that we think we'd exhaust and grow tired of in a day only to find that being forced to slow down, relax and really explore every nook and cranny enhances our enjoyement of the place and even causes us to want to return.
I'm no longer sure where I'm going with this rant but I'd be interested to hear from others about places where subsequent exposure caused them to change their minds and to what they attribute the change.
Aug 5th, 2013, 02:47 AM
#79
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You make several good points. This sort of thread is a bit silly and only slightly better than "Your favourite European cities". Most tourists get a very superficial look at any town or city and often overlook the parts where the inhabitants live, enjoy themselves and eat. Impressions are very subjective and as you say, one can be put off a place by a bad meal in a tourist restaurant, a downpour or a poor hotel.
