Unexpected travel finds (cycle, hotels, temples, Rome)

[KemBro71]

During a business trip Saturday (non-working) to Sydney NSW, and in an effort to bull my way through the time zone difference, I pointed myself in a random direction from where I was staying and just walked.
Starting around 5am.
For hours.
In the process I discovered some local neighborhoods, a farmers market, an local artists' enclave, and a tucked-away and very cozy breakfast spot.
Oh and it's where I had my first flat white!
No pics, sorry!

[lieqiang]

That's a fun thing to do. Or pick a city bus and go for the cheapo tour of the city until end of the line then you catch one going back.

[markg91359]

We went on a trip to San Antonio, TX. I wasn't expecting much. However, I walked away impressed with both San Antonio and the Texas Hill Country.

[GeoffD]

I was driving the Route du Vin in Alsace and found a plaque in Koenigsborg Castle that said this is as far south as Sweden got in the 30 years war in 1633. The distance from Sweden is astounding.

[pete98146]

Unexpected travel finds are what makes traveling fun!!!! Nothing better than to plan an entire day around walking around a big city and getting lost (as long as said city is safe). I enjoy getting away from the tourist trap destinations and seeing how the locals live. Not only does it lead to some fantastic photos, it's also good for the soul to experience new things.

[66rover]

My GF and I were driving around Romania looking at folk architecture, ans we popped into the art museum at Iasi. Museums usually put me to sleep, but here I saw a bunch of originals by Grigorescu. His coarse rural scenes blew me away, and he still stands as my favorite painter ever.

[Hefe]

Originally Posted by lieqiang

Ever been passing through somewhere traveling and visited something just for the sake of doing it, but it ended up being one of your favorite parts of the trip?

.....

Yes, but this is in retrospect.

A looooong, loooong, time ago....decades ago, during a scruffy hippie period, I was wandering London for the first time, one or two steps above penniless. Walking by a pub late on a drizzly afternoon a girl handed us a mimeographed (!) flyer for a pass-the-hat one-man "show" in the pub next to us promising a crazy performance artist: setting his hair on fire, hammering a spike into his face, reciting poetry while sharp-toothed rodents were trapped in his pants, etc...

It sounded great for the price of a few beers & some shillings (!) into a hat in a dry place. It was actually a very entertaining & funny act in a small venue that I've never forgot, especially the poetry segment. (This is the time that Monty Python was popular in the UK but hadn't been exported to the US yet, it was very Pythonesque.)

40+ years later I thought of this guy one day & spent some time with Google & what I remembered from the show. It turns out he became a Dr Who & has had a successful acting career: Sylvester McCoy. He is currently featured in the Hobbit movies. Last month I happened to watch the 1970's Dracula movie with Frank Langella for the first time & I spotted Sylvester in what was apparently his first film role.

I had that mimeographed flyer for years but I think it's long gone now.

Bratislava Slovakia: Almost able to take a bike from Vienna Austria Western Europe into crossroads of the past Communist Soviet far East entrance. Easy walkability, relatively ubiquitous Bars, specific meticulous uniqueness. Small Town Vibe, yet generous urbanity.

Casablanca Morocco الدار البيضاء‎: Abundant French colonialism, high quality of life, welcoming friendly Middle East nightlife, and actually just enough Architecture to stimulate surroundings. Really not far away from Portugal, or Spain, yet another alien exotic galaxy.
Finally, one of top scenic train rides I have ever went on through communities of Fes, Meknes, Rabat. Wow! Lots of varying surroundings.

Poznan Poland: Huge massive town city that is entirely unknown to foreigners. One of the most massive vast Tram lines maze I have ever took a ride on. And virtually free. A mix of Hungary, Germany, Czech Republic vibes atmosphere vibes right in the heart of Poland. Only 3 hours away from Berlin!

[engineman]

In the war museum in Ottawa there were many things that I had heard about as a youngster during WW2. It was interesting to see the plywood mosquito bomber.

In the war museum in London there was a canon that looked rather new. Then I read the information card and it was from the Falklands conflict.

[athena53]

Originally Posted by lieqiang

Good one. We had similar experience with military museum in Sofia, Bulgaria. Not so much WW2 instead Cold War era military hardware from Soviet Block, they had a ton of it on display. Spent a couple hours.

I don't have any good pics but you can see from the Google Satellite view how many aircraft, tanks, and artillery pieces they've got parked around the grounds:

Oh, DH would have LOVED that one!

Another memory: we were wandering in Budapest (neither of us had a good internal GPS and we got lost a lot) and found the Ignatz Semmelweis Museum. Ignatz Semmelweis had never come up in a conversation in the years we'd been together but it turned out we'd both read of him. He realized that the reason so many women were getting "childbed fever" and dying shortly after giving birth was that the doctors who delivered them would just go straight from treating someone dying of, say, tuberculosis, to delivering the baby. Without washing their hands. Women delivered by midwives had a far lower incidence. He was ridiculed for years. The museum was the house in which he was born and where he lived.

We loved Budapest sp much we went back a few years later and re-visited the museum, too!