Adventures in Travel...Not

As Agnes and I enter the final week before our trip to Germany (translation: two weeks of beer, good sausage, visiting the family, and no work), we've been thinking about some of the things we ought to see in our travels...not just on this trip, but on others coming up. We have the things on my 101 Things to Do list that are travel-related (by the way, I've added "Visit London" to the list), we're planning a trip to Colorado in September and, of course, the 40th high school reunion is coming up in October (speaking of visiting old ruins, ha, ha). So many places to visit, so little time.

Fortunately, there are plenty of sources of advice about what to see, and what not to see.

Yes, folks, augmenting the books like 1001 Places to See Before You Die comes this list of the world's "germiest" tourist attractions. It includes:

* The Blarney Stone (Ireland) and Oscar Wilde's Tomb (Paris) - whose idea was it for hundreds of thousands of people to decide there were things that they all had to kiss? Yuck...



* St Mark's Square (Venice, Italy) - very picturesque, with those beautiful buildings...and those tens of thousands of pigeons. When everything is colored white, and it's not because of paint, I think I'll pass. Special note: if you visit Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, you can see acres of white cars in the parking lots. Same thing...


* The Market Theater Gum Wall (Seattle, Washington) - who on earth thought that a wall of used chewing gum "several inches thick, spanning an area 15 feet high and 50 feet wide" was a good idea? I think I'll pass...


* Grauman's Chinese Theater (Hollywood, California) - think all those movie-star handprints in the concrete, the ones that everyone walks over, birds poop on, and every other tourist in the world has stuck their own hands into. Ugh.

There are more, but you get the idea.

Maybe I should just stay home, where at least I know whose germs I'm getting.

Have a good day. Kiss your significant other, not some stone. And keep your gum to yourself.

More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo