Seeking Interesting Sites When Travelling the World?

An anonymous reader asks: "Is there anyone besides me who likes to travel and look at engineering projects? When I first read Neal Stephenson's Wired article on his trip around the world to watch an intercontinental fiber cable being built from England to Japan (still available at HotWired) I knew this was what I wanted to do with my vacation days. Space launch sites, high-speed rail lines, container ports, technology museums - I've tried them all. Does Slashdot have suggestions for destinations, or for web sites where people share their experiences."

Comments

Why don't you tell us some?

[dukethug]

I'd be curious to hear which of these places you found interesting, stories from your travels, etc., etc.

First look around your town

[Anonymous Coward]

I know somebody who travelled all the way from Washington State to Europe just to ride a Talgo train. He wasn't amused when I pointed out Amtrack runs Talgos on the route from Eugene OR, through Portland and Seattle to Vancouver, BC. Had he done five minutes of research he would have already taken his trip to Japan for their high speed train. Or he could have skipped Spain and rode the Chunnel train.

People tend to look all over the world for what they want to see or experience without looking in their own city.

Re:First look around your town

[susano_otter]

It's like no one is happy with where they are.

Yeah, it's defintely like that... only different. In fact, it's almost as if there's a lot of places I'd love to visit, even though I wouldn't want to live there. In fact, I'm quite happy with where I currently am--except for the part where the Louvre, the Kennedy Space Center, and the Northern Lights aren't within walking distance of my home.

Maybe you can afford to be smug, in your topologically-convenient universe, but the rest of us still have to deal with the fact that there's more to life than what we can walk to in an hour, or a day!

Or maybe I should just adopt the Buddhist approach and renounce all desire. That way, I won't be dissappointed that I never got to see Mt. Kilimanjaro up close.

Three Gorges Dam

[Artagel]

1) It is a huge, huge dam. Supposed to supply something like 10% of China's electricity.

2) Unfortunately, the Three Gorges were an artistic inspiration for centuries of Chinese artists. They will be flooded, and their beauty lost. You can still see them pretty well now, but that won't be true for long.

So that trip is a twofer.

Work for the Project

[limekiller4]

Just a thought; why not get involved with a project you're interested in and make it your job. You might not get it, but there might be some positions that involve travel that you're qualified for.

I don't know your personal situation, perhaps you have kids or something, maybe it is entirely out of the question. But if I had a nickel for every time someone suggested something "obvious" to me that I hadn't considered before...

When I was in Washington DC

[SomethingOrOther]

I'm from Europe + when I was hitchhiking through the US I did the usual touresty stuff around the White House etc.

I hardly heard a single American accent in DC!
People will trael the world but not look at what is on there own doorstep. (I'm sure I could say the same for most cities in the world)
Incidently, the Musiums in DC are some of the best I've ever visited....