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Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan
Those who live in the Washington DC area often hear the same laments:
"...So my cousin came to town for the week, and one day she said to me, 'Hey, I want to see the monuments. I want to see the Holocaust Memorial. I want to see the Cherry Blossoms. What'd you say?' ...and I realized how long it's been since I've seen those things."
"Y'know, it's funny... I've lived here all my life, and I've never gone to see (insert landmark, monument or building here)."
"No, I go into town to work, and back out, all the time... but I never seem to go down and sightsee anymore."
Maybe it's because Washingtonians are so busy, maybe it's because they get complacent, or maybe it's because there are so many things to see here... but a lot of us have gone indifferent to the sights around here.
(I try not to fall into that, but I'm aware of how many monuments have been put up in the last 20 years that I haven't gotten around to seeing yet...)
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I was in D.C. in May for a funeral and my son went overboard showing me around. I got in late Wednesday night, the funeral was the next day at Arlington, then we did the whole Arlington tour, then the next day I had a private Senate tour, doing parts of the Mall before and after, and then the following day was Native American Smithsonian, then a private White House tour. I left at 4:30 the following morning totally exhausted!
Quote:
Originally Posted by bevdeforges
I've been living in France (Paris region) for 15 years now and I'll admit that your reaction to things does change over time. For example, I'll do almost anything to avoid having to go into Paris for "business reasons" during the week. The city itself can be dirty, noisy, hectic and especially in bad weather, basically kind of unpleasant.
However, when I have the chance to go into Paris to see friends or family visiting from "the Old Country" and I can show off the place a bit, all the old magic comes back.
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I was in West Berlin for a tour of East and West Berlin (when it still was divided) with a group of Army Officers and wives. since I spoke the mot German in the group of wives, and was very familiar with getting around I was appointed unofficial tour guide when we were knocking around in the west. it got to be about lunch time and some of the ladies were advocating for eating at McDonald's. I told them that they could be eating at McDonalds for the rest of their lives and they had very few days to eat in West Berlin. I started to get back on the Strassenbahn and let them have their way when it finally occurred to them that no one had been paying attention and they hadn't a clue as to where they were at
my longest trip to Paris I stayed in the CLuny hotel. I had a direct view of Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower. it was amazing to wake up to that every morning for 10 mornings!