Lost Dutchman State Park in Apache Junction, Ariz. (Photo by Todd DeFeo/The DeFeo Groupe)
Guidebooks are annoying. Just because some editor who doesn’t know me tells me which restaurant is the best or what attraction is a must-see doesn’t make it a must-see attraction. Sightseers’ Delight is dedicated to the weird, the quirky and the fun. After all, traveling is fun.
If it’s not, you’re doing it wrong.
All of the places highlighted in this ever-growing database are great. Sightseers’ Delight has visited them all. We think you should make a point to see every one of them. But, this is not a guidebook. Just a webpage to help you plan your next adventure.
Boston Common, often called the Common, is a central public park in Boston. It dates to 1634 and is the oldest city park in the country and declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1987. Throughout history, the park has served as a meeting place for protests dating back to at least the early 18th century,
The Bridge of Remembrance in Christchurch, New Zealand, is dedicated to as a memorial to those who participated in World War I and World War II as well as conflicts in Borneo, Korea, Malaya and Vietnam. The Cashel Street bridge over the Avon River initially opened in 1873. Mrs. Wyn Irwin is credited with raising the idea for a memorial atop the bridge in a July 24, 1919, letter to The Press on 24 July 1919. Lord Jellicoe unveiled the monument on Armistice Day (Nov. 11) in 1924. It closed to vehicle traffic in 1976. Following the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, New Zealand spent more than NZD 2 million to strengthen the historic bridge.
The British Museum is home to one of the most significant collections of artifacts related to human history, art and culture, including the Rosetta Stone. The museum is home to more than 100,000 objects from the Classical world, making it one of the most comprehensive collections of antiquities from that era. It was established in 1753 and primarily based on the collections of the physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane. The museum, located in the Bloomsbury section of London, first opened on Jan. 15, 1759. More than 5.8 million people visit the museum annually, making it the most visited museum in England.
The Brooklyn Bridge is perhaps the most famous bridge in the United States. The hybrid cable-stayed/suspension bridge spans the East River and was completed in 1883 to connect Manhattan and Brooklyn. The bridge was originally known as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge and the East River Bridge.
The Cable Car Museum opened in December 2000 in the former winding house, which operated from 1902 until 1978, at the Kelburn end of the Wellington Cable Car. The museum houses a pair of original grip cars that once ran along the line. No. 1 is in red 1970s livery and features contemporary advertising, while No. 3 was restored in 2005 to a green livery dating to circa 1905; a San Francisco Cable Car bell was also added. If nothing else, the area around the museum offers some of the best views of Wellington.
During the Civil War, Camp Chase, named for Salmon P. Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury under President Abraham Lincoln and a former governor of Ohio, was home to a military training camp for Union troops and one of the largest Confederate prisons. The first occupants of Camp Chase’s prison were political prisoners, but during the Civil War, as many as 25,000 Confederate soldiers passed through the camp, which was built to house 3,500-4,000 prisoners. By the end of January 1865, the prison held more than 9,400 prisoners. Today, the only remnant of the camp are the graves of 2,260 Confederate soldiers, buried in quarters so tight their headstones nearly touch one another. In the middle stands a monument — with the word “Americans” engraved into its “memorial arch.”
The Canterbury Earthquake National Memorial opened on Feb. 22, 2017, the sixth anniversary of the 2011 earthquake that claimed the lives of 185 people. The memorial, located in a gentle curve of the Avon River in the heart of Christchurch, pays respect to those who died, were seriously injured and survivors. The memorial’s name, Oi Manawa, means “tremor or quivering of the heart.”
