Hi

Take a look at this picture:http://gardkarlsen.com/kjerag/jone_g...eragbolten.jpg

It is a picture of my brother and I on top of a rock that is wedged into a crack in the mountain. The rock is about 3000 feet above the Lyse fjord near Stavanger in Norway. I think this qualifies as a big WOW :-)

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com

WOW, WOW, WOW Gard!!! How did you get onto the rock? Was it dangerous?

Hi

It is not really dangerous so get onto the rock but it is a bit scary anyway because of the height. I took my sister up there as well because she wanted a picture of herself on the rock. But when we got there she never made it out there because she was too scared :-) Here is another picture from the same area: http://gardkarlsen.com/kjerag/jone_on_kjeragnasen.jpg

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com

Laurensuite: I don't know where you get the idea that American military cemeteries are neglected. I have visited every single one in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, and the sole one in the Netherlands.

Each and every one is kept in absolutely immaculate order, with clipped lawns, magnficent central monuments, clean parking lots, and an American on site to help visitors find graves. Yes, I have seen French families (especially above Omaha Beach) strolling among the monuments, bringing their children, even picnicking in the adjoining woods. All this upkeep is paid for the U. S. government (the land was ceded to us by the local national governments), and supervised by the United States Battle Monuments Commission. You can learn more about these stunning places by checking the BMC web site.

Tough one, but to choose just 'One":-


First sight of the Victoria Falls

Laurensuite: I am in AWE of you! You've managed to make a reply to a question about 'Wow!' places political! How (or more to the point, why?) have you done that?!

Will it be a political rant on 'which is your favourite cheese?' next?! :-)

PS. Not trying to go off on a tangent, I was just so busy laughing that I had to comment!

Back to 'wow!' places.....

The Eiffel Tower at night, after they added the "twinkle".

Forgot one: The Ice Festival in Harbin, China. Huge, huge life-size ice sculptures/buildings made entirely of ice, and lit from within. Never seen anything like it.

laurensuite: what did your dissertation have to do with 'biggest WOW' places? Or did you accidentally post your rant on the wrong thread?

I literally wept when I emerged from the train station in Venice.

Also, on my list, Rome, anywhere along the Cinque Terre, coast of Corsica, Grand Canyon, Maroon Bells near Aspen.

I'm sure I'm missing a lot, but those come immediately to mind.

The world is full of WOWs. The natural, to me, the best ones, though man-made aren't far behind:

To me, nothing beats an African safari, driving, walking, or floating in a mokoro thru the Okavango Delta. The wildebeest migration - more than a million, along with half-million zebra and who knows how many antelop, that darken the plains of the Masai Mara or the Serengeti. And the elephants - big and small; the giraffe all so graceful and the funny warthogs with their high tails scurrying away; the vervet monkeys trying any which way to unzip your tent to find food you foolishly have hidden away - they'll find it; a cheetah flying across the savannah at 75mph trying to catch its next meal; the elusive leopard up a tree with its latest meal; the nasty hyenas and caggy wild-dogs; and, of course, the magnificent lion prides who are amazing killing machines. And when the day is over, the sun setting over the Ngorongoro Crater - nothing beats an African sunset; sitting on the deck of your tent looking up at the sky that sparkles with billions of stars. I can never get enough and each visit brings new and more WOWs!

The magnificent beauty of Victoria Falls; Table Mountain in Capetown that can be seen as far as 50-miles out to sea. Dune 45 in Soussevlei, Namibia; the Western Desert in Egypt; the Sahara in Morocco. Australia the oldest landmass with Uluru dead center, the Olgas nearby - natures wonders. And, more and more stars... and occasional satellite flying by.

I go on and on.

When it comes to man-made beauty - the Pyramids of Egypt, the tombs in the Valley of the Kings; Temple of Hatshepsut in Valley of the Queens, so modern in style who would believe it's over 3,000 years old. Luxor and Karnak Temples; Abu Simbel, naturally. And Turkey is full of WOWs, some so old, the Pyramids pale in comparison (sadly much is being lost under water as dams are being built); Cappadocia, Ephesus, Aphrodesius; Pergamon built atop a big hill before the wheel was invented; the Anzac Cemetary at Gallipoli; just about everything the Romans built that are with us to this day, whether the Pont du Gard, cobbled/marble walkways everywhere; arenas in France, Italy, Turkey; Hadrians Wall in the UK. The perched villages of Provence; the sunflowers and lavendar fields (oops, natural but with the assistance of man) Wow, Wow and more Wows.

Angkor Wat and Ta Phrom in Cambodia just blew me away, as did the heat and humidity.

An archeologist friend once told me that to put a shovel into the ground anywhere in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Egypt - up comes our history! And even more along the various Silk Routes out to the Pacific Ocean. And one can't forget Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania - the findings of earliest man!

In the U.S. both natural and man-made - The Rockies as far north and south, Grand Canyon, the Mississippi, the Snake and Colorado Rivers, Hoover Dam, Banff, the Golden Gate Bridge; the St.Laurence waterway; driving across Kansas and seeing a post box in the middle of nowhere with not a building for hundreds of miles in any direction!!! Hawaii - just pick an island (outside of built-up areas).

The Empire State Bldg, Sears Towers, Petronas Towers, Eiffel Tower, and the World Trade Center - up, up we go - thank you Mr. Otis for the elevator, though their headquarters in Connecticut is a single level - strange!

WOW is all around us, and when we see it, we know it! I've seen so many as many here have, who can really pick the "Biggest Wow"... there are just so many, and who would want to? Just keep traveling and we'll keep being Wow'd!

Bravo Sandi! Couldn't have said it any better than that!

sydney australia

<i>&quot;WOW is all around us, and when we see it, we know it!</i>

Very true. Life's rich pageant is all around us, if we only stop to notice. But in some places, you can't <i>help</i> but notice.

Nice post, Sandi.

The Tuscan countryside, late Spring.

A water taxi ride from the airport into Venice after a 10 hour red-eye flight

Grand Canyon at sunset

Edinburgh Castle ominously hovering over the city on a gray, rainy day

Cliffs of Moher in Ireland

St. Peter's in Vatican City

TSUNAMI !!!

the biggest wow i've ever experienced is ayers rock,australia. its just unbelievable there and relatively cheap once you get to oz of course. go on a package tour camping for a couple of days and you will meet incredible people from all over the world, believe me you will never forget it.

Have several.... Venice and Pompei in Italy and the town of Bath in the UK