Where are your favourite places in the world and why?

I absolutely agree with Waterloo Bridge. Two things always happen when I walk across.

1. I start singing Waterloo sunset. Every time.
2. I absolutely have to stand and look down at the Thames for a while. I have no idea why.

I walked across during a very bad blizzard once, and the Thames was jet black. No trains or buses running, I eventually walked all the way to Marble Arch before seeing a bus that would take me to within a mile of home. I have never been so cold as I was that day.

My absolute favourite memory is of Borehamwood (Elstree) Fire Station. A Christmas party for all the Fire Crew's kids, we were allowed to roam all over the spare Fire Engine, sit in the driver's seat, ring the bell (shows my age) and generally marvel at all the polished chrome , leather and brass of it all.
We were then assembled in the empty indoor parking bay (all decorated up with sparkly things, tree etc) and had to shout for Father Christmas. He eventually slid down the Fireman's pole to massive cheers.

Every time I see a Fire Station with its bay doors open, I nearly always find myself reminiscing.

I have spent hours and hours in the Tower...visiting almost every time I was in London (at least twice a month for two years)...and I doubt I could ever tire of that place (although I understand there were many who wanted away during the years).

Pompeii was another place that sends shivers up my spine each time I think of it.

And, prosaic as it may seem, Central Park in New York...especially the statue of Alice and Belvedere Castle.

NYC:
Carl Schurz Park is still my favorite park here in NYC. It's the park in the Upper East Side which was the neighborhood I first lived in when I moved to NYC.
http://carlschurzparknyc.org/
The High Line Park. Even after half a dozen visits, it's still a beautiful and surreal experience to have a park space float over the streets of NYC.
http://www.thehighline.org/

BOSTON:
Fenway Park which is Mecca for Red Sox fanatics.
The Japanese Buddhist temple in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

PITTSBURGH:
The Cal U Ice Rink at PPG Place
http://www.ppgplace.com/directory/the-rink/

If I'm traveling to outside the continental USA, I'd say my favorite place is US Virgin Islands....with time spent both in St. Thomas (for nightlife) and St. John (for private time and pristine quiet time with awesome beaches).

I must add that I've only traveled to Caribbean, Mexico, and all over North America. If I'm well enough, I'll soon plan a trip to Switzerland near the French border, in particular, Lausanne as I've a friend there.

However, in continental USA, it'd be Siesta Key Beach here in Sarasota, FL. SKB has the finest white quartz sand and widest expanse of beach where you can walk/stroll for more than 3 miles and have the best beach experience. Water temps is warm almost year round.

However, I prefer it when all the snowbirds are away. I just watch out for the sand wiches.

Re. The Tower (of London) Frank, I was strolling round there once, and listened in to a Beefeater as he spoke (shouted) to a crowd of mainly American tourists gathered near to traitor's gate.
He had sergeant major stripes and a voice to match. "Any Americans here?" Many hands went up. "Tell me, what on earth do you have for breakfast?"
Mutterings about toast, fruit, ham and eggs...then someone was foolish enough to ask why.
"Well, one of your fellow Americans....one Mr Erroll Flynn, stood here in 1938 resplendant in green tights, under traitor's gate which weighs several tons. With one hand holding up the gate, he fought off a gang of the sherrif's men with the other..."

I love those Beefeaters.

Sounds like Erroll to me.

And sounds like a Beefeater to me also.l

Erroll was an Ozzie.

So? Errol bites the heads off of bats then?

I can't speak to his relationships with bats,
but he wasn't an American.

Ozzie Osbourne is a Brit.

The Bronx Zoo. I spent many, many days there as a child. And not as many days there as an adult. I was a member of the Bronx Zoological Society and got to go to the Zoo at night. Loved it. I would love to go there one more time before I kick the bucket.

I was on a boat on a fjord in Norway heading from Bergen to Oslo. Don't know the name of the fjord, but standing on the deck of that boat, breathing the freshest air I ever breathed, feeling the water spray on my face, and being surrounded by magnificent mountains is firmly embedded in my memory. A standout.

Sailing off the coast of Maine on a three-masted schooner. No land in sight. Just water, waves, and wind. Heaven on earth.

The British Museum. I wanted to go back to London and find a place to stay near the museum. I'd go there every morning and do something else in the afternoon.

The Museum of the Academy, Florence Italy. The David is there. Nuff said.

I'm sure there a many others, but these are the places that popped into my head first.

I was a penniless sailor, in Osaka, Japan. I loved to start walking, aimlessly, to see where my feet would take me. I loved the response of the people I met - none of whom seemed to speak English. I would go back for a visit in a heartbeat.

I was a penniless private in Fort Pinder, Zirndorf, Nuremberg, Germany for only a couple of months before being deployed to the Saudi Arabia for the first Gulf War. When I returned to Germany in late April, they closed the base down a couple of months after.

Sadly I didn't get to go traveling around Europe because I thought I had plenty of time. I didn't get much time trying to learn Germany.

I too would want to go back for a visit in a heartbeat.

That's a hard one for me, because I love every place I've ever visited - even though of the many places I've visited more than once.

You can visit my travel blog at www.travelpod.com/members/c.i.222 to help me make up my mind.

Many places, some small and close.

But also far - there was us, flying over the Guatemalan jungle. A friend (more aggressive than even me) set up our trip, three girlfriends. I know more about Guatemala now, and did much more shortly after. But in the meantime the three of us were blank slates in a non pressurized small plane.

We landed at Tikal, roamed around with an interesting woman (anthropologist?) talking the place up to us. Climb, roam. We liked her and she, us. We were the only visitors. She was british, had hitched to Tikal, in varied ways, from Rio. That's a far way. We felt like children (mid twenties) compared to her, our own age, but she glommed on to us and we talked a lot. She had married a belize indian with apparent low language exchange. I can't drum up her name in my mind, but might recognize it.

And flew back to Guatemala City, where we stayed in a converted convent with giant cockroaches. Memory? the green jungle from the low plane. Being in space. Far past and present now.

Did you have any chance to visit the Guatemala museum?

haha ozzy

Dat's true - he's from Tasmania. (not that Ozzie!) Not a lot of bat head biting there. That looks positively unhygienic!


I did just that on my first time in London. I stayed around the corner and went in every morning to see something else! That was my first real WOW experience out of Australia!

One place that sticks in my mind...Glendalough, in Ireland.

I knew nothing at all about it, and just followed a sign late on my last day in Ireland, as I headed back to Dublin. I was just overwhelmed by a sense of peace and tranquility. Beautiful to look at, too. I've never forgotten how it made me feel. I'm still trying to get back.

And, of course, my own local - Sydney Harbour!

Interesting in all weathers, from my own local bit of sand, to the Sydney Harbour Bridge and all the rest. I take every opportunity to be on or around it.