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50 PLACES OF A LIFETIME
(3)
Country Unbound
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Alps Switzerland’s jagged Alps provide one of the world’s most dramatic mountainscapes. Aside from the terrific skiing, I love the Swiss village of Zermatt—right near the Matterhorn—because no cars are allowed there and I can go Rollerblading.—Picabo Street, Olympic gold medal skier |
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Big Sur California’s Big Sur coastline at Garrapata State Park, south of Carmel This is the California that men dreamed of years ago, this is the Pacific that Balboa looked out on from the peak of Darien, this is the face of the earth as the Creator intended it to look. —Henry Miller, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch |
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Canadian Maritimes The lighthouse at Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia The Bras d’Or Lakes are my favorite landscape on planet Earth. Nestled into the rolling hills of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, their pristine tidal waters reflect centuries of Scottish culture, music, and friendly people.—Gilbert M. Grosvenor, Chairman of the Board, National Geographic Society |
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Coastal Norway The fishing village of Reine, Lofoten islands Summer in Norway is a season of enchantment, a time to move through hours of almost endless light, to sit in a garden or on a sea rock, reading or watching a lone fisherman calmly cast his line into the still waters of a fjord.—Eric Andersen |
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Danang to Hue The Xung Khiem Pavilion at Tu Duc’s tomb, Hue Vietnam! Pearly white gravestones protruding through the dense green rice like teeth, multicolored pagodas with rooftop dragons clawing at a cloudless blue sky, and flocks of motley ducks flowing like quicksilver from one paddy to the next.—Karin Muller, author and filmmaker |
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England’s Lake District Discover Ullswater Lake in the northeast corner of the Lake District National Park. The Lake District of northwest England was immortalized by mighty poets. Their verses fill the universe’s memory bank with crags and gray satin waters, and hills of trees down to the lake shores.—Frank Delaney |
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Loire Valley The town and château of Amboise Dusk in the Loire Valley seems to have been painted by Monet: the light, the colors, and the reflections in the water. It is pure magic—nearly every night.—Claude Taittinger |
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North Island, New Zealand The hinterland around Wanganui, New Zealand, is composed of rugged river valleys and volcanic plateaus. I was overseas in an overcrowded Europe once and someone said to me, "Do you realize how lucky you are to have a people and a valley to come from?" Every day I give thanks that I do.—Witi Ihimaera, New Zealand novelist Explore the North Island with New Zealand native and novelist Keri Hulme in the October 1999 issue of TRAVELER. |
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Tuscany An abandoned monastery in Volterra, Italy, stands guard over the dramatic countryside of Tuscany. When I was in Tuscany filming A Room with a View, I remember being in a horse-drawn carriage near Fiesole. I looked down to see wonderful cypress trees in a landscape lit unlike any other I’d ever seen. The spell, the beauty were completely intoxicating. I never wanted to shake that feeling; I wanted it to last. —Ismail Merchant, film producer. |
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Vermont A snowmobile crosses the pristine landscape north of Windsor, Vermont. Vermont is an incredibly beautiful place, but beyond that there is an extraordinary sense of community that permeates the state. This is the ideal place for connecting with the natural world and working with great people.—Jerry Greenfield, Ben & Jerry’s. |
