After reading my friend Jen's blog about traveling and the World Heritage List I was going to write this post yesterday but I got bumped off the computer. I must confess that Jen is INCREDIBLY well traveled and I for one am pretty damn jealous. She is also incredibly funny & I love reading her blog Jen on the Edge so I guess I'll get over it! :)
Before reading Jen's post yesterday I had never heard of the World Heritage List. Its a pretty nifty little list. You can check it out HERE. As I said I'm not very well traveled by any definition. My family vacations when we were young were usually very nice but we were a big Disney family & tended to go there and Space Camp when we were young. One summer my sister & I did a week at Space Camp and then my parents picked us up and we spent a month going to various places in Florida. It was fun but I was seriously ready to get home by the end of that trip! I also took a really incredible geology/biology trip through the Southwest when I was in college. That was my first introduction to camping. The trip was definitely a wonderful learning experience- even though I fell on a cactus. Yes folks I fell ON a cactus. Thank G-d I have high pain tolerance! Anyway, I'm explaining all of this to give you a bit of background on my travel experiences. The only time I left the United States is when we went to the Niagara Falls & stayed on the Canadian side for a few days (which is incidentally where I had the best Italian food of my life!). I've got my wish list of places that I'd like to go to: Australia, Israel, Ireland, Scotland, England, Poland, and a tropical island or two. (If you want a fun read check out a Pirate looks at Fifty by Jimmy Buffett!)
Now back to the World Heritage List. The places I have been to are:
Mesa Verde National Park A very cool place that has an almost earth bound spiritual feel to it (if that makes sense)
Grand Canyon National Park (Ok- I really need to go here again because this was the last hike on my trip to the Southwest and after I fell on the cactus. My mom was so excited to hear my opinion on it and I reportedly told her "Its a big freaking hole in the ground" Have I mentioned I don't do tired well?
Mammoth Cave National Park Pretty cool if you're into the whole cave thing
Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site this place has a very spooky unsettled feel about it.
Carlsbad Caverns National Park The first time I ever saw a bat flight and it was awesome! I've wanted to have a bat house ever since!
Now here is a very abbreviated version of places I'd like to go (I'm leaving out places in the US because I figure I have a better than good chance of hitting those)
You can pretty much go with the ENTIRE list of Australian sites but a few must see are:
Kakadu National Park
Tasmanian Wilderness
Sydney Opera House
Australian Convict Sites
Historic Centre of the City of Salzburg
Palace and Gardens of Schönbrunn
Historic Cairo Actually Egypt is another place you could just put me down for the entire list. I used to be so good at reading hieroglyphics it was scary!
Palace and Park of Versailles
Palace and Park of Fontainebleau
Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Former Abbey of Saint-Remi and Palace of Tau, Reims
Skellig Michael
Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls
Vilnius Historic Centre
Medina of Marrakesh Again Morocco is another place that you could just put me down for everything on the list!
Tongariro National Park
West Norwegian Fjords – Geirangerfjord and Nærøyfjord
Cracow's Historic Centre Again, for Poland please insert the list. Being Polish is such a huge deal for my family and it peppers my speech & cuisine so I'd really love to travel it extensively.
Auschwitz Birkenau
German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945) Since we had family that perished in WWII I feel its a place I should go to not that I want to lest one never forgets its on the list.
Belovezhskaya Pushcha / Białowieża Forest
Historic Centre of Warsaw
Wooden Churches of Southern Little Poland
Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania
Historic City of Toledo Also, just a side note- the best, bar none absolutely the BEST marzipan candy in the world comes from Toledo!
This is just part of the wish list (I didn't even touch on the UK except for a few place in Ireland!) but my bed is calling so I'm out. What destinations are on your wish list?
2 comments:
As compared to my husband, I'm not actually all that well traveled. Whereas his family were all over the place when he was a kid, my family didn't have that kind of money. Then, when he graduated from college, he and one of his brothers spent some time traveling through Europe. Still, I feel lucky to have gotten to go to the places I've been.
You've already seen my travel list, but I have to say that my greatest priorities on that list are Australia and Italy.
I wish I could have done Europe. My sister has lived their twice and done a TON of traveling each time. The last time she lived in England and had a horrible attitude about it so she didn't enjoy it much. Such a pity!
Australia & New Zealand seem so neat! I did a paper in college that touched on these caves in New Zealand that had rivers running through them and the cave is lit by the light of these glow worms. I wrote that paper at least 15 years ago & still remember that & want to check it out!
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