J_Correa

Yesterday I watched the countdown of the 10 World's Creepiest destinations on the Travel Channel and thought you all would get a kick out of this.

In the list was the Bermuda Triangle, The Tower of London, Gettysberg, Area 51, Salem Mass, New Orleans and a couple other places. I almost spit out my tea when they announced the #2 creepiest place in the WORLD as the Winchester Mystery House. Yes, apparently the oracles of travel have dubbed the Winchester Mystery House as the 2nd creepiest place in the WORLD.

Me thinks that a certain imfamous poster (or posters as he claims to be) is now an editor for the travel channel

J62

WMH #2. LOL.

turn_it_on

Oh god, even when I was a preteen I didn't think Winchester was creepy, and I was into creepy. Everytime we drive by, my boyfriend threatens to take me there if I'm not good because it's SO BORING.

love
roxy

J_Correa

We took the "spooky" night time tour that they always have around Halloween one year. God, it was the lamest thing EVER. I suppose it COULD have been creepy since it is a big old house at night, but there were zillions of people going through and every person had a flashlight. It wasn't dark, it wasn't quiet. It definitely was not creepy.

FainaAgain

J_C, agree with your every word. Did you watch long enough to hear the #1? Will you share with us please?

Patrick

If Winchester House was the number two Creepiest place, then the Liberace Museum in Las Vegas was probably number one.

Wallace_and_Gromit

I never heard of the Winchester House ... why is it so creepy? (or supposed to be)

ElendilPickle

Somehow I managed to escape visiting the Winchester Mystery House when I was growing up in California.

Gettysburg, creepy? Moving, yes, but not creepy!

Lee Ann

Wednesday

I'm so diappointed We have been watching shows about the Winchester House and thought it must be a really creepy place...too bad...I have been driven by the Amityville Horror House when visiting friends in Massapequa years ago...but it's redone and you can't recognize it unless you know which one it is...wasn't too creepy either.

J_Correa

The Winchester Mystery House is a giant victorian house in the middle of San Jose. It started out as a small farm house until Mrs. Winchester bought it and added on. Mrs. Winchester was a crazy woman who was convinced that the spirits of the people killed by Winchester repeating rifles were haunting her. Some phsycic told her that if she kept building 24 hours a day, the spirits wouldn't haunt her - so that's what she did. For a couple decades she had carpenters there 24 hours a day, adding on to her house. They built weird stuff to confuse the spirits - like stairways that lead to the ceiling, doors that open to a 3 storey drop and things like that. She also held séances and parties to make any spirits that were there happy. Legend has it that the spirits of the carpenters are still there and you can hear hammering in the middle of the night.

The place is interesting in an off-the-wall sort of way. The story of this woman is also pretty good if it is told right. There isn't much creepy about it though - just strange and kind of tragic the way she decended into madness.

I think the major problem with the Mystery House is how it is run - it is marketed as really creepy, they charge a lot for people to see it, and then they run the tours through there like cattle. And most of the guides aren't very good.

Wednesday

Thanks J,

Suzie

Here's a link to the creepiest places. LOL about Winchester Mystery House. Lizzie Borden B & B is #1. If it's the world's creepiest why so many in the US?

Suzie

Here's a link to the creepiest places. LOL about Winchester Mystery House. Lizzie Borden B & B is #1. If it's the world's creepiest why so many in the US?

http://travel.discovery.com/fansites...py/creepy.html

Clifton

The Winchester House???

I like the story of the carpenters though. Imagine your eternal soul trapped forever - at work. That IS a nightmare.

I didn't see the show. Did they mention Transylvania by any chance? I was in the coolest medieval walled gothic town called Sighisoara this last halloween in the middle of Transylvania. Vlad Tepes, the actual guy who was called Dracula, was born a a couple of doors down the narrow cobblestone alley from the guesthouse we were staying in. Now that place is kind of creepy at night when the fog comes in, but in a cool way.

P_M

I enjoy hearing good ghost stories and visiting places that are a little creepy. Whenever I am traveling and I hear of a ghost tour, I usually do it. That doesn't mean I believe all I am told, but it's fun to hear it anyway.

When we visited the Winchester House, we thought it was just a silly hodgepodge of construction that was commissioned by a rich but mentally ill woman. We kept laughing at stuff like the stairs that go up to the ceiling, windows that look at a wall that's an inch away, etc. We laughed so much it never occurred to us the place is supposed to be haunted. In fact, I'm not sure the guide even mentioned that it's supposedly haunted. It was a fun tour, but not at all creepy, IMO.

Now Transylvainia--that sounds wonderfully CREEPY!!

robhart

My partner & I actually stayed at the Lizzie Borden B&B for my birthday two years ago. By luck, there was a cancellation for the "guest room" (the room where Lizzie's stepmother was found) which is considered the most haunted.

The place was very nice; the night manager gave a tour, and afterward they had a birthday cake for me. The other guests were great -- some had driven hundreds of miles just to stay there for the weekend. Nothing creepy happened that night ... but in the morning, as I was waking up, I felt something like a cat walking on the bed ... like something pressing down in specific places on the mattress ... moving up from my feet toward my head, along the side of the bed. When it got about halfway along, I opened my eyes, and it stopped. I went to take a shower (next door down the hall). My partner, still half awake, thought I had come back and had lain down on the covers, because he felt the weight (like a body) holding them down tightly. When I came back and said, "Showers free" he jumped because he thought I was there already. We found out that some people in the room had seen the outline of a body on the bed pressing down the covers after the bed had been made ... things like that.

Supposedly other, wilder things have happened in the room ... shoes and small object being tossed around ... people have left in the middle of the night.

We enjoyed ourselves. But maybe we're weird.

J_Correa

Suzie - I too noticed that this show seemed to be a tad "Amerio-centric"

I was disappointed that Transylvania was not even mentioned - I mean that seems pretty obvious to me.

joan

I dunno, Clifton. 24 hour working carpenters? Seems more like a dream come true to me! Around here, you can't even get 'em to arrive before 10 AM...

P.S. Wasn't Alcatraz on the list?

Suzie

Alcatraz is not on the list.
But the cities of New Orleans, Roswell and Salem are, the Bermuda Triangle & Haunted Hollywood. Goofy list.

talltraveler

When I toured the Winchester house, the guide told us that Mrs. Winchester was told (by a psychic) that she would not die if there were still building projects going on at the house, so she had the work crews keep building. Of course, she did die. It's an interesting house but definitely not creepy (and I went as a teenager).