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.
The Auckland Railway Station is the former main railway station of Auckland. Opened in 1930 on Beach Road, it replaced the previous Queen Street railway terminus which is approximately where the current main railway station, Britomart is located. The 1930 station was the third station to serve as the rail terminus for Auckland, and remained the sole station serving the CBD until its closure in July 2003, when Britomart became the new terminus.
Auckland Museum is regarded as one of the finest Museums in the Southern Hemisphere and is renowned for its unique collection of Māori and Pacific treasures. It is also a war memorial for the Auckland province. Housed in one of the country’’s finest heritage buildings, the Museum tells the story of New Zealand as a nation; from award-winning natural history exhibits to galleries which investigate New Zealand’s cultural origins. Scars on the Heart, the Museum’’s war memorial exhibition, tells the story of New Zealand at war, while He Taonga Māori – the Museum’s Māori treasures gallery, displays over 2,000 priceless Māori artifacts, including rare carvings and the last great Māori war canoe carved from a giant Totara tree. Auckland Museum is the only venue in Auckland where visitors can experience a Māori cultural performance daily.
IN 2022, THE CITY OF SMYRNA DEMOLISHED AUNT FANNY’S CABIN.
The building that today serves as the Smyrna Welcome Center was once a famous restaurant serving up Southern-themed fare. Isoline Campbell MacKenna opened Aunt Fanny’s Cabin in 1941, turning an 1890s-era cabin into a country store selling food made using the recipes of Fanny Williams, her family’s retired cook. The restaurant, originally located a few miles away from its current location operated until 1994.
Baccus Cemetery in Plano, Texas, dates to 1847 when Henry Cook established the cemetery to bury his son, Daniel. The cemetery was initially known as Cook Cemetery. After Cook died in 1862, his daughter, Rachel, acquired the land, and in 1878, she deeded it to Cook’s heirs for use as a cemetery and a church, Baccus Christian Church. While the church was later abandoned, the cemetery, named Baccus Cemetery in about 1915, is still in use.
Badlands National Park in southwestern South Dakota covers 242,756 acres of sharply eroded buttes and pinnacles. It contains the largest undisturbed mixed grass prairie in the United States. Originally established as Badlands National Monument on March 4, 1929, it wasn’t officially designated as a national park until November 10, 1978.
Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano or the Cathedral of the Most Holy Savior and of Saints John the Baptist and the Evangelist in the Lateran is the cathedral church of Rome. The church, which is the oldest and highest ranking of the four papal major basilicas, is home to the cathedra of the Roman bishop and is the ecumenical mother church of the Catholic faithful.
Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze was consecrated in 393 by Saint Ambrose of Milan. The current church, designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, was the parish church of the once-powerful Medici family, which ruled Florence between the 13th and the 17th centuries.
The Basilica di San Marco (formally the Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark) was likely built starting in 1063. The Italo-Byzantine and Gothic-inspired cathedral, unlike most others in Italy, is famous for its opulent design and gold ground mosaics, both symbols of Venetian wealth and power. That spawned its nickname Chiesa d’Oro (Church of gold), by which it has been known since the 11th century. It initially served as the chapel of the Doge (the head of the Venetian Republic). It has been the only cathedral in the city since 1807.
