So, I plucked it from the shelf and started reading. It wasn't long before I realized my already way too long "bucket list" was about to get much longer.
I'm sure most of you already know that going to my ancestral homelands----Scotland, Norway, Denmark, Greenland, and Iceland-- are number one on my bucket list. They deserve their own blog post about all the sights I want to see and experience there, so I'll save those for another day.
Here are some cool things from the first few chapters of The Atlas Obscura I'm adding to my bucket list:
1. Tour Hereford Cathedral in England and see the Mappa Mundi. The Mappa Mundi is the oldest known medieval map in existence. It is probably one of the most wonderful maps ever. Wikipedia notes:
"It depicts 420 towns, 15 Biblical events, 33 animals and plants, 32 people, and five scenes from classical mythology.
Jerusalem is drawn at the centre of the circle, east is on top, showing the Garden of Eden in a circle at the edge of the world (1). Great Britain is drawn at the northwestern border (bottom left, 22 & 23). Curiously, the labels for Africa and Europe are reversed, with Europe scribed in red and gold as 'Africa', and vice versa."
2. The Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall, England. This place has an OMG Factor of 1000 out of 1000. It is supremely beautiful, sprinkled with mysterious elements of fantasy and boasting a secret but romantic past. At the beginning of WWI, many of the garden's workers were deployed to the battlefield. Many didn't survive, and the gardens fell into decay...and were forgotten...until a hurricane devastated the area in 1990. The website for Heligan Gardens gives this story of how the gardens were rediscovered:
"After decades of neglect, the devastating hurricane of 1990 should have consigned the now lost gardens to a footnote in history.
Instead, events conspired to bring us here and the romance of their decay took a hold on our imaginations. Our discovery of a tiny room, buried under fallen masonry in the corner of one of the walled gardens, was to unlock the secret of their demise. A motto etched into the limestone walls in barely legible pencil still reads “Don’t come here to sleep or slumber”, with the names of those who worked there signed under the date – August 1914. We were fired by a magnificent obsession to bring these once glorious gardens back to life in every sense and to tell, for the first time, not tales of lords and ladies but of those “ordinary” people who had made these gardens great, before departing for the Great War."
I don't know if I've ever beheld such a marvelous "secret" garden. It's so enchanting that even the stodgy ole Duke of Cornwall (Prince Charles of Wales) found himself delighted (trust me--that's his delighted face) to walk across the rope bridge:
But take in a deep breath before you look at these next pics...because they are breathtaking:
I just HAVE to go there one day!
3. Skellig Michael is the larger of the two Skellig islands located off the peninsula near County Derry, Ireland. The monastery flourished between the 6th and 8th centuries, and the monks there weren't feeble old men. Harsh weather and climbing endless flights of stairs made these men strong, and as a result, they held off a Viking attack in 823. What's cool about many places in England is that you can roam among ruins, touch anything you want, without gates or chains to keep you two hundred feet away. I remember wandering around the ruins of Scarborough Castle, alone, and the experience was one I'll never forget.
4. The Crypts at Christ Church-- Christ Church in Dublin was one of the first Viking Churches to be built in Ireland. The crypts below look amazing to wander through.
6. The Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland-- I HAVE to walk among these hexagonal basalt formations....because they're depicted in Dragon Age Inquisition.
The legend goes:
"According to legend, the columns are the remains of a causeway built by a giant. The story goes that the Irish giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn MacCool), from the Fenian Cycle of Gaelic mythology, was challenged to a fight by the Scottish giant Benandonner. Fionn accepted the challenge and built the causeway across the North Channel so that the two giants could meet. In one version of the story, Fionn defeats Benandonner.[9] In another, Fionn hides from Benandonner when he realises that his foe is much bigger than he is. Fionn's wife, Oonagh, disguises Fionn as a baby and tucks him in a cradle. When Benandonner sees the size of the 'baby', he reckons that its father, Fionn, must be a giant among giants. He flees back to Scotland in fright, destroying the causeway behind him so that Fionn would be unable to chase him down.[10] Across the sea, there are identical basalt columns (a part of the same ancient lava flow) at Fingal's Cave on the Scottish isle of Staffa, and it is possible that the story was influenced by this."
Here's part of the actual causeway.
Here's part in DA:
7. Eisbachwelle-- What surfer wouldn't want to surf on this stationary wave for their longest ride ever? This one is in Germany, and despite the cold, I'm up for it!
8. Capri's Blue Grotto---I'd like to rent a private boat to take us there during off hours...the place is my kind of blue...
And Capri doesn't look too shabby either!
Anyway, I just thought I'd share some obscure but interesting places I've found in the first few pages of the book. I'll post more as I find more. And I'll list the cool bucket list things I want to do in my ancestral lands.
Right now, I'm planning my trip to CA to see Callie graduate!
Very cool!