One Cool Place

[livius drusus]

You know when people tell you they're going somewhere and you have an instant Horshack-like "Oo! Oo! You must see x!" reaction? I got that with Ymir's blood here (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2676) because he's such a skull/macabre history afficionado I just knew he'd adore the Capuchin crypt.

It's not always that perfect a combination of potential visitor and location, though. Sometimes it's just that the place you're recommending is so intensely cool you need to spread the word whenever possible. Do y'all have any places like that? I'd love to collect them in this thread if you do.

I'll kick off with a fresh cool place of my own. I'm sure everyone will be astounded to hear that it's in Italy. Just be glad it's not some other obscure hole in Rome. It's an obscure park just outside of Rome instead! :giggle:

In the tiny town of Bomarzo (http://www.bomarzo.net/index_en.html) there is a park known variously as the Park of the Monsters, Villa of Wonders or the Sacred Wood. It was built in 1552 by Prince Vicino Orsini as a tribute to his dead wife, and is a fantastical, surreal kind of giggle at the grandeur of formal Renaissance gardens like the Villa d'Este in Tivoli.

Everywhere you turn you find grotesques and mythical beasts and fake houses in strange, disproportionate configurations. My favorite was The Orc (http://www.bomarzo.net/orco_en.html). In his gaping maw is the best picnic location ever. Bar none.

It's packed full of symbolism and hermetic references -- not that I knew this when I was going there for field trips -- and is a place of neverending interest. I could never see it enough or read enough about it.

Okay that's my One Cool Place. What's yours?

[LadyShea]

I remember you mentioning that place before and it is VERY cool. I definitely would love to see it!

My One Cool Place has to be the Road to Hana on Maui. As you drive up the mountain, you can stop off to hike down to a stunning black sand beach complete with a sea cave, pull off at some gorgeous waterfalls, and have a drink at the beautiful plantation style hotel at the top.

[livius drusus]

Ohh! That's a great OCP, Shea. I've done part of the Hana Road, but my parents aren't the hiking types so we never hit the sea cave, dammitall.

[godfry n. glad]

Sorry... I can't edit to just one.


The Registan of Samarqand.

The gardens of the temples of Kyoto, particularly Ginkokuji.

Go'ri Amir in Samarqand.

The shores of Issyk Kul.

The Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

Just west of Logan Pass on the Going-to-the-Sun Highway through Glacier National Park in Montana.

The Red Shoe in Mabou, Nova Scotia, on an autumn Sunday afternoon, along with the Cape Breton Highlands National Park at the height of autumn foliage.

Brugge, Belgium.

On the mail packet on the Sound of Sleat from Kyle-on-Lacalsh to Mallaig, Scotland.

York, England.

Castlerigg Circle, above Keswick in the Lake District of England.

Stonehenge and Avebury, in Wiltshire, England.

The coffeehouses of Amsterdam.

Little Strawberry Lake in the Strawberry Wilderness Area in the John Day River valley of central Oregon.

Ville de Quebec, both Haute and Basse.

I'm not telling anybody about my favorite cool retreat, because I don't want it overrun with rubberneckers.

[Crumb]

I think you missed the "one" in "one cool place" godfry. :wink:

[livius drusus]

I call that cheating (but it's fine with me anyway). Not to ask a totally obvious question, but are there good strawberries to be found around Little Strawberry Lake in the Strawberry Wilderness Area?

[Crumb]

My dad and his brothers just bought a small house for summer use in Prairie City with a great view of the Strawberry Mountains. I should be staying there a bit this summer.

[godfry n. glad]

I call that cheating (but it's fine with me anyway). Not to ask a totally obvious question, but are there good strawberries to be found around Little Strawberry Lake in the Strawberry Wilderness Area?

Well, you'd have to be there at the right time of year. And, you'd have to expect the strawberries not to be those humungous things you buy at the supermarket, but tiny little wild strawberries. Mmmmm-mmm. Boy are they sweet. But you'd have to hunt and pick for a half-hour before you had a handful.

[godfry n. glad]

My dad and his brothers just bought a small house for summer use in Prairie City with a great view of the Strawberry Mountains. I should be staying there a bit this summer.

:envy:

[godfry n. glad]

I call that cheating (but it's fine with me anyway). Not to ask a totally obvious question, but are there good strawberries to be found around Little Strawberry Lake in the Strawberry Wilderness Area?

Well...yeah...

Tell me.... You take all those places and select one. I didn't even put the Tashkent Museum of Applied Arts on there.

[livius drusus]

Well, you'd have to be there at the right time of year. And, you'd have to expect the strawberries not to be those humungous things you buy at the supermarket, but tiny little wild strawberries. Mmmmm-mmm. Boy are they sweet. But you'd have to hunt and pick for a half-hour before you had a handful.

I could live with those conditions. My favorite strawberries are the first of the season in Italy. They're called "fragolini" (little strawberries) and they're very well named. A pile of those little guys served in a giant brandy snifter with a twist of lemon is a classic Roman dessert and hot damn is it delicious.

[livius drusus]

Well...yeah...

Tell me.... You take all those places and select one. I didn't even put the Tashkent Museum of Applied Arts on there.

Oh I feel your pain. I only picked Bomarzo just because it's been on my mind a lot over the past couple of days and needed a pretext to talk about it. :D

Still, I'd love to hear you elaborate on your list. What makes these places cool?

[Penni]

I would love to nominate lots of places too, but what came to my mind first was Badwater, Death Valley National Park. There's a salt flat, with some water pooled around and you know you are in the lowest place in the Western Hemisphere. But, what's best is when you turn back around and look up, way, way up on the cliff face opposite you and see a little sign that says: Sea Level. It's just a little creepy, and who can resist imagining themselves standing that far under the sea? It's about 278 feet below, by the way, at Badwater. It's a whopping 4 more feet lower (-282) a few miles out at the official lowest point. If you have a GPS, you can program in the coordinates and hike out to it, but there's nothing marking the -282 spot. I think that's doubly cool.

[godfry n. glad]

Still, I'd love to hear you elaborate on your list. What makes these places cool?

Uh... Okay.

Since the Central Asian ones can be seen in the gallery, I'll go with this one first:

The Red Shoe in Mabou, Nova Scotia, on an autumn Sunday afternoon, along with the Cape Breton Highlands National Park at the height of autumn foliage.

First, Mabou is a tiny village on the southwest coast of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. My wife and I were there in mid-October on an autumn foliage appreciation trip ("leaf-peepers" to the locals). The Cape Breton Highlands National Park had been recommended by friends and Mabou was where the hostel was located. We arrived on a Sunday afternoon, earlier than we had expected, and while signing in the host noted that there was a "fiddler's matinee" at the Red Shoe at 4 that afternoon. So, we got acclimated to the nice hostel (I recommend), did a short walk around the immediate area, and then, just before four o'clock, we stumbled down the highway on foot, crossed the river on the highway bridge and hoofed the entire quarter mile to the Red Shoe, Mabou's second restaurant and only tavern. We ordered up a sumptuous dinner of homemade clam chowder and bread, along with a shared bottle of local beer. There were only a couple folks there aside from the staff, one of whom was setting up the microphone system.

Now, what one needs to know about Cape Breton Island is that there are one helluva lot of Celtic musicians living there. Fiddler's galore. So, we started out with one local fiddler who did most of the matinee, with his friend providing piano accompaniment. By the time we'd finished our meal, there were enough locals that there was a decent audience for what was now a fiddler, pianist, squeezebox player and spoons player on stage. The music was great. It was a mix of Irish and Scots (with Scots prevailing) music, with an odd admixture that I finally pegged as sounding Cajun. It was... The Acadian French (in the form of the piano player) still has a major influence on the local music being generated on Cape Breton. And I mean generated, as these folks are writing new stuff all the time, rather than just repeating the same old folk tunes.

By the mid-performance break, the star fiddler was drenched in sweat and the now crowded Red Shoe (about 100-120 folks) were jumping, clapping and dancing (where they could). After the first tune of the second set, the young fiddler (with a clean, dry shirt) gave way to his mentor, who it turns out is also the mentor of Natalie McMasters. This fellow on the fiddle, with his wife on piano, were even better than the young man. And he was even more interesting to watch, as he was left-handed and played a typical violin left-handed and held it so that his bow sawed across the strings vertically, rather than the usual horizontal movement. We got back to the hostel about 9:30 that night.

A tiny village inn, jammed with happy locals, being served decent food and absolutely great original Celtic music. It was magical, especially as the next morning we drove the glory that is the Cabot Road of Cape Breton Island, through the Highlands National Park. It also made my musician wife ever so ecstatically happy and more than justified our out-of-the-way jaunt to the island.

[BracesForImpact]

I haven't been fortunate to see anything outside the country, but Starved Rock State Park in Illinois is a beautiful place I have visted.

Here (http://www.starvedrocklodge.com/gallery.html) is a small gallery.

Here (http://jove.geol.niu.edu/faculty/fischer/429_info/429trips/starvedrock/history.html) is some human history of the area.

Here (http://jove.geol.niu.edu/faculty/fischer/429_info/429trips/starvedrock/starvedrock.html) is some natural history on the spot.

I have some great memories here of hiking through this place with my son on my back. :yup:

[Shake]

I usually recommend that people who are within driving distance of western NC to go and check out the Biltmore Estate (http://www.biltmore.com/) in lovely Asheville. Especially beautiful in the fall, with all of the changing leaves. Their wines are all good, too.

Up in my neck of the woods is Letchworth State Park (http://www.llbean.com/parksearch/parks/html/291lln.htm), "the Grand Canyon of the East," according to their site. And if you like that sort of thing, there's also Watkins Glen State Park (http://www.llbean.com/parksearch/parks/html/292lln.htm). Yes, this is the same town that also has auto racing.

[Ensign Steve]

You know when people tell you they're going somewhere and you have an instant Horshack-like "Oo! Oo! You must see x!" reaction?

Whenever someone says they're going to Las Vegas, I tell them they should check out Star Trek: The Experience (http://www.startrekexp.com/) at the Las Vegas Hilton.

STAR TREK: The Experience™ is an interactive adventure based on the voyage of the most exciting futuristic television series of all time, Star Trek. Visitors are immersed in a futuristic world where they see, feel, touch and live the 24th century. Two multi-million dollar interactive adventures, the History of the Future museum, Quark's Bar & Restaurant and the largest retail stores for Star Trek merchandise make this venue the most exciting experience in Las Vegas.

You do not need to be an uber Trek geek like myself to enjoy it. A friend of mine who isn't even into Trek took me to see it because she had such a great time there before and wanted to do it again. I now make it a point to recommend it to people because it is not on the Strip and a lot of people would otherwise miss it. I missed it on several trips to LV before my friend took me, for that very reason. Location, location, location!

There are now two major attractions there. Borg Invasion 4-D: an interactive experience with live actors followed by a 3-D movie plus olfactory and tactile stimuli. Klingon Encounter: another interactive experience with live actors followed by a thrilling "shuttle ride" through space. When you're in line for the rides, you are lead through The History of the Future museum, with props and exhibits from the shows and movies. It seems a little pricey at $25 per ticket, but the ticket includes both attractions, and each one is about 20 minutes long, so it's not too bad for your Las Vegas entertainment dollar.

Outside of buying a ticket, there is other stuff to enjoy there, too. Quark's bar has all kinds of yummy Star Trek themed food and drinks. They serve hamborgers and tribble tenders to eat, and the drinks are loaded with premium alcohol and are funky colors and served in funky glasses, some with dry ice. There are actors dressed like Ferengi, Klingons, Borg, I think I may even have seen an Andorian once. They stay totally in character, interect with the clients, and tell some wicked funny jokes (though that may be one of the parts you need to be a super-fan to really appreciate). There is also a strip mall where you can buy Trek goodies, from the cheapest key fob to limited edition collectors items to $5000 movie meorabilia. Also they sell the funky glasses from the restaurant so you can have your own Quark's Bar when you get home.

There are pics here (http://gallery.ensignsteve.com/gallery/011104) and here (http://gallery.ensignsteve.com/gallery/112903) and here (http://gallery.ensignsteve.com/gallery/031603?page=2).

[BigBlue2]

http://www.claushaus.com/images/37%20Uluru%20at%20sunset.jpg
Uluru (Ayers Rock) in the Northern Territory at sunset (or sunrise for that matter).

[Shake]

ES, I love the look in this picture (http://gallery.ensignsteve.com/gallery/031603/DCP_0544). It's kind of Catholic schoolgirl meets TNG! :D

[Stormlight]

Whenever someone says they're going to Las Vegas, I tell them they should check out Star Trek: The Experience (http://www.startrekexp.com/) at the Las Vegas Hilton.


:explode:
For cryin' out loud! Why did I not know that when I was there? :sadcheer:

[livius drusus]

Man... When I saw that Stormlight was the last poster on this thread I was all excited thinking for sure he'd have posted something Luxembourgian, but noooooooooo. :nojustno:

[Stormlight]

Man... When I saw that Stormlight was the last poster on this thread I was all excited thinking for sure he'd have posted something Luxembourgian, but noooooooooo. :nojustno:

There are a goodly number of nice places here, but if I had to decide on one cool place it would probably be Vianden (http://www.tourist-info-vianden.lu/pictures/index.html) :wave:

[livius drusus]

Oh. My. God!!!! :vapours: :faint: :vapours:

[Stormlight]

Oh. My. God!!!! :vapours: :faint: :vapours:

To tell you the truth, I have no idea why they put that last picture in there. They sure as hell aren't indigenous creatures. :scratch:

[livius drusus]

Rangy cattle always look very medieval to me. Maybe that's what they were going for? Meanwhile, even though it may be a tad self-conscious, Vianden looks like an absolute blast to me. It's even in the Ardennes! I mean, I seriously had no idea anything was in the Ardennes at all except for the remnants of WWI. :blush2: