Sorry...I meant to address it to "enroute"....

It's probably whatever you see first. Over time you just get jaded sadly.

For me it was probaby Big Ben after popping out of a subway station directly under it.

This is going to be so unique for each person.

Thank you, tower. Thank you very much.

-e

danon,
I feel exactly the same way when I see the real painting or cathedral after all those years of art history slides.

With paintings in particular, I love to stand close up. I always think "I'm standing exactly where _________ stood when he made that very brushstroke!"

Lady Liberty- God she's beautiful!

I don't know why it was also quite emotional for me.

<With paintings in particular, I love to stand close up. I always think "I'm standing exactly where _________ stood when he made that very brushstroke!">

My mom, who is an artist, and I were just saying the exact same thing. I can't wait to go to the Orsay in Paris and stand as close as possible to those. :)

Most surreal?

Prices!

The Parthenon -- had to wipe the tears from my eyes

The Eiffel sparkling at night -- I was so excited, I jumped up and down

Goya's painting, The Third of May (at the Prado) - touched me in a way I will never forget

*The moasics in the Choria in Istanbul.
*St. Peter's grave in the scavi under St. Perter's.
*Landing on a grass strip in Honduras near Copan, getting out to find ourselves surrounded by men armed with machine guns there to guard the plane.
*pretty much anywhere in Bali

Shelly, I just loved the Orsay! It's a beautiful building filled with beautiful art and it's 'human-sized'.

We had lunch in the formal dining room (the day was planned by my SO as a surprise for me) and I believe you need a reservation for that, but there's also a wonderful-looking more casual restaurant behind the big clock.

I'm so envious of your visit there!

1) Lava flowing down the Arenal volcano in Costa Rica. I mean, there was a real volcano in front of me!

2) Times Square/Statue of Liberty in NYC. Oh, and attending the Macy's Day Tday parade. What a thrill!

3) Just being in London, my first trip overseas.

4) Golden Gate bridge

I leave for Italy in 1.5 weeks, so I know I will greatly add to this list.

I feel like this on nearly every trip, but really memorable ones are:

The ruins at Angkor

The Silver Pagoda in Phnom Penh

Driving through the countryside in Spain

Seeing Manhattan from the air, at night, flying into LaGuardia

I am going to Galapagos soon and expect to have a few of these moments there!

St Peter's Basilica, my daughter taking her First Communion at the main altar on Easter Sunday.

A far distant second, The Grand Canyon.

Willtravel I love yours!...
I just remembered a really "surreal" one (ala Dali) I was at a concert in the St Merry Church in Paris and looked up to see a chair(a wooden straight -back oak) stuck to the ceiling!!! (an Art show left over...don't you just love the French!)

After hiking the Inca Trail I walked into Machu Picchu on my 40th Birthday and there was a double rainbow over the Urubamba River.

Stu Tower, so many of your posts always touch my heart in ways I can not explain. You are a very special person.

Europe
St. Peter's Basilica - I was in awe.

Sitting in our hotel room in Positano and looking over the city and sea. After seeing pictures, it was so exciting to actually be there.

Stateside
I'm always impressed by the site of Devil's Tower. Flatland all around and suddenly there it is.

On 2 prior brief visits to San Francisco in June we had fog and the Golden Gate Bridge was barely visible. During Christmas vacation we had 2 miserable rainy days in NAPA Valley.
On Christmas Day we headed south to Muir Woods and San Francisco. Gorgeous blue skies and sunny. When we approached the Golden Gate Bridge recreational area from the North side and I finally saw the bridge and surrounding area it was an awesome site and I nearly teared up.

Arriving after dark for my first visit to Athens (and Greece). Checked into the hotel, opened the balcony door and being completely astonished at the Parthenon floodlit above me. It was so close I felt I could reach out and touch it.

It was an experience I will never forget. In my years of travel it was the most pleasurable and surreal.

Joe

Great thread!

The most breathtaking, wonderful moment ever for me was when I got lost on my first morning in Rome and accidentally stumbled upon the Roman Forum at sunrise. I was all alone, it was totally quiet, and the air smelled amazing...and then I looked up and saw the Colliseum in the distance. It was an unforgettable vision. I still get shivers thinking of that moment.

Oh, I just remembered something that really did seem surreal. We were at the fish market in Tokyo at about 4 in the morning. We never did find the tuna auction but we wandered around the fascinating market stalls in the cold, dark morning (it was December) until the sun started to come up and then we had a sushi breakfast. What an amazing morning.

Love this thread, shelly. It's manna for travel-lovers like us.

I'm glad ya'll have enjoyed reliving your most special moments. I certainly have enjoyed reading them all.

A couple of other posters have already touched on the moment when I was really struck--in the d'Orsay, standing in front of one of the Van Goghs, (I think it was "the church at Auvers) and thinking "I'm standing in front of this picture that Van Gogh painted. He really painted that picture. Amazing!"

A great thread here- don't think I have seen Monet's pond in his gardens at Giverny mentioned. The water lillies and Japenese bridge as he saw and painted them are surreal! Everyone near Giverny should visit.

My first one is kind of bizarre actually. I grew up thinking travel was only for very wealthy people and just assuming it would never be possible for me. But for as long as I can remember I dreamed of going to Greece. And I made it there on my first real trip in the fall of 2005. After a very long and sometimes comically horrific (comical in hind-sight anyway) trip, my friend and I arrived at our hotel in Mykonos. It was dark so we hadn't really seen anything along the way. We walked out of the main lobby to head outside to our room and it was like walking into a Greek village. I cried. And this was just the hotel!

The next moment came soon after when we ate supper at an outdoor table right on the edge of the Aegean Sea. As beautiful as it is during the day, the color of the sea is somehow even more vibrant at night.

My other two surreal moments both happened in Scotland:

Standing in front of the Clan Donald headstone at the Culloden Battlefield.

Going on a private tour with a friend of a family friend who took me deep into the middle of nowhere (Bohuntin, Glen Roy near Roy Bridge) and showed me the most beautiful glen (absolutely breathtaking) and then finding out my ancestors lived there when it was a village centuries ago.

Walking into St. Peter's Basilica for the first time. It was my first trip to Rome and on my first day, we walked over to the Vatican (our hotel was right next to it). Although I am not Catholic, the sheer beauty of St. Peter's had me in awe. Also, turning to my right after first entering and seeing my first Da Vinci work "in the real"- it was amazing and a feeling I will never forget.

I still remember my first trip to NYC. Flying into New York and seeing mile after mile of concrete and buildings. Then the unmistakeable skyline of Manhattan, and then that green that continues to grow unil Central Park becomes a giant green oasis. WOW!

Oh yea, I also loved the top of St. Peter's in Rome-even though I was almost having a heart attack after walking up all those steps.

When Herself and I look back on our trips, we are far more likely to think about what happened than what we saw, and what happened usually involves interaction with people -- things like the drunken crepiste in Fougeres, or the amazingly polite little children we encountered in Entrevaux, or the much-put-upon waiter in Rome.

But two visual experiences dominate:
- seeing the massive walls of Dubrovnik, walking through the Pile Gate, and seeing Stradun, with its honey-white buildings and its honey-white paving lit by the afternoon sun;
- our first (of many) visits to Gougane Barra, when the mountain streams were bursting with water feeding the lake below, and we saw the little church on the island; oddly, we both felt a sense of deja vu.

Herself might make a case for her first view of the Old Town Square in Prague, but I have come to feel a bit ho-hum about it.

Amsterdam, first visit to the Rijksmuseum. Standing in front of "The Night Watch", a painting I have loved since I first saw a picture of it in Art History class way back in the .... well, way back.

I was totally entranced. Stood in front of it for about 20 minutes, then sat on a bench and looked at it for another 20 minutes. Absolutely couldn't believe I was in Amsterdam, let alone seeing my favorite painting right there in front of me.

A close second would be EVERYTHING we saw during our first trip to Paris.

Third would be Trafalgar Square. Don't know why, but I just love that place.

The world is full of wonderful places to see and be.



SoundDiva

The very first was coming by train into Victoria Station in London -- not that it was especially beautiful, but because I had just conquered my very real phobia of flying, had crossed the Atlantic and ARRIVED. I kept saying, "I can't believe I'm really here" over and over.

Others include Moscow's Red Square at night and Ephesus, both "can't believe I'm really here" experiences.

For deja vu -- when I first stayed in the Cotswolds in a centuries old B&B where, supposedly, Catherine Parr had lived. Felt like I had lived there before, perhaps as Catherine Parr??? lol

Standing on the farm in Norway where my ancestors lived for generations - since the 1600s. Looking out over the lake from their farm and wondering how hard it must have been for them to leave such beauty and move to America.

1)Paris
2)La Pietá in St. Peter.
3)Rio de Janeiro from the Corcovado
4)Grand Canyon
5)Walking the Brooklyn Bridge

Sitting on the rocks at Kupari with my sweet Croat love. This seaside resort is now just the bombed and burned remains of what was once a beautiful resort. I could almost hear the music from the little bar floating on the warm breeze, the clink of glasses and happy laughter. Very, very surreal.