Key stops

These are the places you just HAVE to go to. In Barcelona it might be the Sagrada Familia. In Venice it might be St. Mark’s Square. Or for you, it might be Jimi Hendrix’s birthplace in Seattle. If you’ve been to a city before and seen the top sights, maybe you take someone who hasn’t, or maybe you decide to do that river stroll this time.

People will tell you “You MUST see sight X.” The only answer that will help you is “Why?” And this is what you will ask yourself as you go through a list of Things To Do In Irkustsk, or wherever. Not that keen on the Louvre? Don’t go. But do read a bit about it, just so you know.

The challenge arises when you’re not travelling alone, and you don’t all agree on what the key stops are. This is why you do this part EARLY.

In 2019 we went to France, and two of us wanted to see Monet’s Garden. Two of us weren’t that keen, but the kind of research you’ll learn here discovered that there was a Mechanical Museum nearby, so we went to that and had a wonderful time. We even saw a machine for making clogs (the footwear, not the drain problem.)

Footnote: The photo above? We researched the Denali bus tour, and were warned repeatedly that we might see lots of neat things, or we might see none. It would depend on weather and luck. We didn’t get overexcited, and as we drove along the driver said, “Well, folks, looks as if there’s going to be too much cloud today,” and we went around the curve, and a whole busload of people gasped – and that’s the photo. Of course, that bus ride would have been a Key Stop even without the mountain AND without the grizzly bears that came right up to the bus!

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