What took your breath away?
 

Or made you just stop in your tracks to look again. I'm thinking of those travel experiences that transcend sore feet and crowds, that are aesthetically, spiritually unique, that become a defining image for a city or the trip. <BR>I'll share one of mine. We were at the end of 3 very hectic weeks in Eastern Europe, attending a wedding, visiting former students, adjusting to 3 very different cultures. We were pretty pooped. On our last day of the trip in Prague we woke up early in the morning and looked out the window. Prague had disappeared! [okay so it was fog ;)] My spouse and I looked at each other and said "Charles Bridge!" [which we had been avoiding because of the crowds] Off we trundled across Stare Mesto. Not only did we have the bridge to ourselves, the images of dark medival shapes emerging from the soft grey fog was one we will never forget! We crossed over into Mala Strana, walked a bit and crossed back. It was a peaceful, magical experience...

The train ride from Interlaken to Grindelwald. We had just arrived in Switzerland the day before and visited Bern. When we had arrived in Interlaken later that afternoon, it was hazy, and we could only see some of the closer mountains and no snow. So we didn't know what to expect the next day when we wanted to visit the Jungfrau. When we went out the next morning, all refreshed from a good night's sleep and saw the beautiful snow capped mountains around the Jungfrau, as clear as you could hope for, it was quite a sight. I could not take my eyes off those mountains everytime we caught sight of them on the train that morning. It was truly great to be alive and in Switzerland (not to mention the wonderful cool air of the Jungfrau peak after being in 90+ in North Carolina two days before).

On our first visit to Salzburg, we left the train station and took a cab to the hotel without looking around at any scenery. We then took a cab to Mozartplatz and then took the funicular to the HohenSalzburg. We were not prepared for the view from the back side of the HohenSalzburg. It was as if all of the mountan in the world had suddenly appeared. We proceeded to the little restaurant, ordered some cheeses and beer and enjoyed that view for at least an hour...and the beer was good as well.

I have to agree with Dan. Although I love many things about Europe, probably the most break taking moment was coming into the Jungfrau region of Switzerland. We traveled from Bren to Wengen, a small mountain top town south of Interlaken, and I was speechless on the train. I could not peel myself away from the window. When we got to Wengen, we had the town almost to ourselves (went during the off season) and when we hiked up the mountain, we were iterally "on top of the world." My words don't do it justice!! <BR>

The town of Assisi in Italy took my breath away. I had the fortune to see the town for the first time in an early spring day in 1994. The long loud ringing of the Monastery bells, the perfume of the almond blossoms, the thousands colors in a wonderful medieval setting....breathtaking!!

Arriving at night in Cortina tired after the long trip by plane and bus. Feeling disappointed as the village looked so ordinary at night but then waking up the next morning to bright sunshine and standing on the balcony completely surrounded by the beautiful jagged Dolomites.

Many things have taken my breath away over the years in my travels. Here are a few. Coming out of the the train station in Venice and taking in that first glimpse of the city - it seemed like stepping into another world. Waking up in Zermatt before sunrise, sitting on the balcony, and watching the most incredible sunrise I've seen come over the Matterhorn - a bright red glow reflected from the sun starts at the top and slowly engulfs the entire mountain. Also, the view from the top of the Klein Matterhorn is breathtaking.

This will not compare with what others wrote but I will never forget my first trip to London, many years ago, and took my first ever tube ride to Westminster station. When we walked up the stairs we saw Big Ben right before us. It was then that I fell in love with London. When we have returned with friends I always take them here first. <BR>

Two things from my last trip to Ireland come instantly to mind whenever I think of Ireland . One , a perfectly clear day atop Connor's Pass on the Dingle Peninsula and the other ,an early morning(no crowds)at the Cliffs of Mohr with a young lady sitting at the base of O'Brien's tower playing a harp and singing Irish ballars.

What a great question! Watching John Hopkins glacier calve a few hundred feet in front of us in Glacier Bay, Alaska took my breath away, as did the sight of Denali appearing thru the clouds on an august night

<BR>In no particular order <BR> <BR>The view of the sea from Cape Sounion, <BR>Temple of Poseidon, south of Athens. <BR>All I could think of was Homer's phrase <BR>"the wine-dark sea". <BR> <BR>My first trip to Monet's garden at Giverny. It was June, about 12 years ago. I was there first thing in the morning, just when it opened. Just a handful of other visitors were there.The garden was a blur of color and then I actually stood on that Japanese footbridge. <BR> <BR>My first sight of the Winged Victory of Samothrace, in the Louvre. <BR> <BR>Jefferson's Monticello (sorry, it's not Europe).

<BR>I, too, am a sucker for the awesome sites of the Alps in Switzerland. I love peering out of open hotel windows early in the morning at the incredible views, no matter what the weather is like. Flying over Denali Park in a light plane and climbing glaciers in Alaska also was incredible. I think anything with mountains and water does it for me!

In chronological order as I experienced them: the red stars aglow atop each Kremlin tower as I bussed into Moscow at night (obviously long ago in the communist era); <BR> <BR>the Winter Palace in Leningrad, oops, pardon me, St. Petersburg; <BR> <BR>the exquisite English countryside from a train window as I went from London to Liverpool; <BR> <BR>the Winged Victory of Samothrace in the Louvre, ditto from above; <BR> <BR>and the Wurtzburg fortress floodlit at night as viewed from my hotel window across the Main River, my first experience of Germany. <BR> <BR>For all the above, I simply could not believe that these things existed, they were so beautiful. Especially the English countryside, it looked JUST like the pictures! What joys these all were. Thanks, Wes, for coming up with this one.

That incredible statue of David in Florence. The most incredible thing ever made by man!!!

I am always taken by the view of a church spire across the landscape - the two notable vistas are Laon Cathedral in the northern part of the Ile de France and Chartres. They are so high/so massive, that you see them for miles. It is awesome when you think of the scale of these cathedrals in their own centuries. We admire them, but we are also used to monumental urban landscapes with huge buildings - but to think of coming as a medieval traveler or pilgrim across the plains of France and seeing these spires for miles and days, getting slowly bigger jsut knocks me out. <BR> Landscapes: besides the splendor of America's own Sierra Nevadas, which knock me out every time I go out my front door, lucky me - I have forever the incredibly romantic landscape image, sitting on a knoll on the southern Japanese Island of Shikoku in the summer of 1962 watching the sunset reflected across the flooded young rice fields - not a building in site. It is an unbelievable and timeless image in a time-driven century. I felt like I had floated back through time. <BR>

Campo de Criptana (La Mancha, Spain), late afternoon of a spring day, in 1989. <BR>The light like liquid gold, the windmills on the top of the hill, the little village with bright white walls and blue doors and above all the sky, crossed by puffy white clouds running in the wind. <BR>I simply never forgot the magic <BR>

Campo de Criptana (La Mancha, Spain), late afternoon of a spring day, in 1989. <BR>The light like liquid gold, the windmills on the top of the hill, the little village with bright white walls and blue doors and above all the sky, crossed by puffy white clouds running in the wind. <BR>I simply never forgot the magic <BR>

Yes to that comment about the English countryside. <BR> <BR>Like the first post-er.....We were laying in bed, but not sleeping on one of our first nites in Paris, which seemed jam-packed with tourists. All of a sudden, I had an idea - told my husband, if we got in a cab right now and got over to the Eiffel Tower, I bet there wouldn't be any crowds. So we did and there weren't -- tho there were more people around than I would have expected, post-midnite. Luckily for us, we got there when we did -- we hadn't realized they turn the lites off at 1 a.m. So we "put the Tower to bed" and went back to bed ourselves. <BR> <BR>Another good one: listening to Vivaldi by a string quartet in Ste. Chappelle...those windows and that music -- mmmmmmmm!

The view from the lower Basilica in Assisi was the most incredible thing! We were there in early December of 1994. There is no development down there (by law) and the streaming light came down from Heaven like something out of the religious paintings..... <BR> <BR>I had always heard that the light in Tuscany and Umbria has a quality all it's own. I had seen it and never believed until that day. It's amazing.

The tulip fields outside of Amsterdam on the way to the Keukenhoff Gardens are one of my most vivid memories from Europe. They were so beautiful! I nearly cried as I watched one of the bulb farmers plow through the field of flowers with a tulip "guillotine" to keep the bulbs from using all their energy on producing flowers.

Another breathtaking sight was when I visited the Grape Festival in Meran (in the Sud Tyurol in Italy. This was a great and fun German festival mit wurst, beer and umpah bands. Taking a break, I walked out on the river walk. Returning through the beautiful woods, and looking up to the huge mountain height I saw that it was snowing heavily. Here I was in my comfortable shirt watching a small blizzard not 3 miles away! Beautiful.

On a foggy spring morning in Greece last year, setting out by car from Olympia south into a land that time forgot; climbing up into the mountains on a winding, one-lane road with just us and herds of untended goats; looking down into valleys that were once the pinnacle of civilization but which now bear no impression that man has ever set foot upon this land; driving through these mountains for an hour without ever encountering another car, certain we were lost, and then rounding a corner and seeing... the temple of Bessae. <BR> <BR>It still takes my breath away to think about it! <BR>

It not only took my breath away but instilled the "wanderlust" in me. As a young sailor ,20 years of age, standing on the flight deck of the carrier Intrepid at dawn as the coast of Portugal loomed out of the mist. <BR>My first visit to a foreign country, way back in 1958, a sight still etched in my memory. A close second is waking up in Atami, Japan , raising up from my tatami and walking to the balcony to see the surf crashing against the rocks 50 feet below. I've been back to Europe many times but next year will mark my return to Japan.

Wow! You are making me want to revisit places I've been as well as desire to go those places I haven't. Please keep them coming! <BR>BTW I'm NOT wes ;) <BR> <BR>

Just returned fron 3 weeks exploring Italy. The most breathtaking sight was upon entering our hotel room No# 21 of La Tonerrella in Sorrento as the Sliding glass door opened upon the setting sun and the view of Naples, Mt Vesuvius and the Sorrento coast line. <BR>Simply Awesome !

Some breathtaking experiences: <BR>Western Ireland, Western Scotland, San Sebastian and Ronda in Spain, The beaches north of Royan in South western France, the mountains of "Rondane" in Norway (most breathtaking walks I ever have experienced), the view from the mountain of Floeyen in Bergen/Norway (my home city), Sierra Madre in South Western Mexico, The inland of Sri Lanka, Prague, Brugge in Belgia, Amsterdam, Puerto Angel in Mexico, Trinidad and Old Havana in Cuba, Louvre and Versailles in Paris and last but not least: The Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. Nils <BR> <BR>

<BR>There's a lovely river valley between Reading and Oxford in England with truly gorgeous walks along the river and in the hills. best place to start is Goring-on-Thames. Wind in the Willows and Three Men in a Boat were based on this area. If you go there, make sure you visit the Fine Food Club shop in the high street which sells nothing but British speciality foods and is a den of temptation!

The highlightgs of my first trip to Europe were both created by Michaelangelo: David at the Accademia in Firenze, and the paintings of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. They were both simply awsome!

I've never been affected like I was when <BR>I first saw the Acropolis in Athens. It literally took my breath away.

After a long overnight flight, and negotiating the train and subway, I stepped off of the Metro in Rome to be directly confronted with the looming mass of the Colosseum. WOW. Something so awesomely, massively, spectactulary ancient right there. Later the same day I managed to wander into the Forum by mistake. Almost everything I found that day I found by accident, not having deciphered my map yet, and all of it was incredible.

This is a great question -- it really brings back wonderful memories! I had 3 defining moments on my very first trip to Europe (Italy) 3 years ago. First, after many hours of travel, arriving in Cortina at night, waking up and throwing open the shutters to see the snow-covered Dolomites turned pink in the sunrise through clearing storm clouds...boarding the vaporetto, turning down the Grand Canal and seeing the bobbing gondolas, colorful shutters and great domes of Venezia -- wow, we're really here! The greatest of all, entering the Accademia 30 minutes before closing, and stopping , speechless, dead in my tracks before Michaelangel's David. We had him all to ourselves, no one else was there. We whispered. <BR>

Three moments I'll never forget: <BR>1. While in Switzerland a few months ago, I went with a friend to the Schilthorn. Just the process of getting there was fun - trains, a funicular, and two lifts-, but nothing had prepared us for the thrill of being at "the top of the world" on a mostly clear day with just enough wispy clouds to make bits of the mountains disappear and then reappear from moment to moment. <BR>2. On a rainy day, I went with German friends to the Vierzehnheiligen church in northern Bavaria. We walked to the top of the hill, where we found what seemed to be a large but simple church building. Then we walked in, and the baroque elegance absolutely took my breath away. <BR>3. During Holy Week in 1996, I was staying with a Spanish family whose home is in the historic area of Salamanca. While all of the Holy Week processions were beautiful, the one on Good Friday night was especially impressive. Even at midnight, the streets were full of people of all ages, watching in silence. The procession included a small band, but except for their music, the only sounds were a slow, steady drum beat and the shuffling feet of the hundreds of marchers. They were dressed in completely black outfits that, other than the color, were like those the KKK used to wear. Each marcher carried a huge white lighted candle that reached almost to the ground. The climax was a "float", carried on the backs of some of the men, with a life-sized figure of the Virgin Mary surrounded by candles and flowers. The whole experience was mystical beyond belief. <BR>

Another *special* experience... <BR>We were returning to Venice from a 2 week Greek cruise on a small Epirotiki ship [the Orpheus]. It was early in the morning as we headed for the docks near the Accademia. <BR>What was in front of us was the blue of the sky and the calm blue of the water [different]divided by Venice's skyline, which was mostly yellow in the early light. Accompanying us were flying fish who soared and plunged as we slowly made our way in. It reminded us of Turner's paintings of Venice. It was a very peaceful, yet overwhelming half-hour or so... <BR>

My older brother and I went to Assisi this past June. The view from our hotel balcony was so beautiful that my brother cried! (He's not the crying type!) The green, quiet, serene, expansive landscape below was so sublime, it felt like heaven. It looked (and felt) like the whole world was right in front of me. <BR> <BR>The Duomo in Milan literally knocked the wind out of me. I had to stop and breathe deeply for a while because I got dizzy. Glorious spires (135 of them) on a course to touch the clouds, peaceful interior, colorful stained glass windows and soaring vaults! Wow!!! <BR> <BR>Going inside the York Mister was an experience I will never forget. As soon as I walked in the doors, the choir started singing this quietly magnificent hymn. The chords soared throughout the whole cathedral and gave me goosebumps! <BR>Lastly, I stayed in a hotel situated on top of a hill in Varese (Italy). From my hotel balcony, I could see a portion of the lake (Varese or Como, not sure) peeking out from the tops of pine (?) trees and blue moutains rising protectively on the left. The only sound I heard was the blessed chirping of the birds in the trees. I never tired of that view and looked at it again and again.

<BR>First went to Europe at 17. My most profound moments occured in Florence. Woke in the middle of the night to the sound of pouring rain. We were staying in a convent high on a hill overlooking the city. We had arrive in the middle of the night. I can still recall sleepily opening up the window--it was just after dawn--and seeing the whole expanse of Florence below me, the sweet smell of rain, a cool wind blowing after all the heat of Rome in summer....I fell in love with Florence from that point on.

Few tourists go to Verdun. Outside the town lies what must be largest military cemetery in all of France, perhaps the world. Its main building is called the Ossuaire, a sprawling marble structure at the crest of a long slope covered with crosses and Moslem gravestones (many French North African troops were killed there in 1916). At the building's base, stretching from one end to the other (about 100 yards) are small windows. Ossuaire -- a place for bones. Look through those windows and you will be shocked, your breath will feel as if it was sucked out of your body. Because stretching as far as the eye can see are bones..human bones... thousands upon thousands upon thousands. The mortal remains of young Frenchmen who were never identified, just collected, and now displayed for generations to come. Grim? You bet. Breathtaking? Yes, but then it represents only a fraction of the dead of Verdun.

I'm bringing this back up for several reasons. First to see if my post posts [It is obvious this thread has been stricken by the Fodor's 'ghost in the machine']Second to remind people that even if your post doesn't post you should be able to use your back button to get to the screen where you typed your post and then cut and paste it to someplace else until the shost is OUT of the machine. Of course if THIS doesn't post... <BR>

My husband and I returned last night from ATHENS, GREEK iSLES AND TURKEY. <BR>seeing picture of the places we went to see just didn't do the scenery and emotional experienc justice. each person will have a silghtly different response. for me, seeing the caryatids and parthenon were for me, totally unexplainable I just cried. <BR> The hill where Paul preached to the Athenians was so slippery from being worn over several thousand years , gave us a fantastic view of the city of Athens. Another moving experience was to be at Ephesis in Kusadasi, Turkey, where I took over 2 rolls of film. Seeing the color of the mediterranean sea is so awesome it makes you want to jump into it. views from atop Santorini are unbelievable as is the voew from Cape Sounion. Had a great experienc. very busy. One word about Money. We had a difficult time obtaining money from ATM' withe plus or cirrhus. there were very few on the islands and in Istanbul. take lots of travellers checks, personal checks and cash, it wiil make your life easier. email me for any further advice. <BR>

There are so many great stories here! <BR> <BR>Mine are my most recent. <BR> <BR>Although I lived in Germany in the 80's, nothing stands out like my last two trips to Europe. <BR> <BR>The first, my wife and I honeymooned in Bavaria in July, '97. She had never been <BR>to Europe and she was enjoying all of the sights, but the one that stands out is our drive from Munich into Garmisch one morning. It was foggy and overcast when we left and as we got closer, she was busy reading our maps and I was watching the Alps rise before us. I said nothing and as the sky was clearing, she looked up and noticed her surroundings. Her expression of delight, I will not forget. The Alps rose so majestically before us! I got goosebumps. <BR> <BR>The second was on our trip to Paris last January. We arrived in the morning and went straight to our hotel to eat and rest for awhile. We awoke in late afternoon as the sun was going down and headed out in the unlikely 50 degree evening air, going to the Metro and the destination was the Eiffel Tower. We arrived at our stop at Bir Hakeim and came out onto the street. Hmmm, no tower. I said that I thought it was close by and we proceeded to walk two blocks east. On a corner, I said that maybe we were on the wrong side of the river, that I didn't remember exactly where it was. There was no response. My wife had just stepped around the corner and was looking up at the tower which stood just above us and was all aglow in the clear night sky. She told me: "There it is!". We just stood there looking at it. What a sight. <BR> <BR>Those are two of my fondest. <BR> <BR>Here's to many more for all of us.

Two of my most memorable experiences: The breathtaking view of Lake Como from our balcony at The Villa Edy in Tremezzo, Italy. And the sight of all those old caskets with King Ludwig and others just sitting on the floor in the crypt in the basement of St Michaels? Cathedral in Munich. We paid one DM each and were totaly blown away by the sight at the bottom of the stairs.