My mother and I were in car service

[conuly]

And the trip back was a lot better than the trip out for Reasons. (Those reasons being, listen, dude, just because you occasionally see homeless people that does not actually make you an expert on the subject, and if your opinion is "ship them upstate" then I think all rational people can agree that you're not an expert. Upstate doesn't want them! And once they got there, what would they do? There's no jobs there, and they'd be away from their friends and family and everything that could help them become stable!)

Anyway, an ad on the car radio suddenly blared about "twenty cities in Europe you've always wanted to visit" and, I gotta tell you, no matter how much we stretched the point my mother and I could not come up with a full 20 cities in Europe we want to visit. We got 17, and one of them was Helsinki. No offense, but I don't actually want to visit Helsinki in this lifetime.

Our list, in no particular order, went something like:

1. Rome
2. London
3. Paris
4. Moscow maybe, is that Europe? (Edit: Though looking at google, it looks like the famous cathedral is in Saint Petersburg, so let's go there instead.)
5. Madrid
6. Barcelona
7. Capri? Is that a city? I'm gonna want to go to the beach, anyway.
8. Venice
9. Um, Vienna?
10. Berlin? Gotta say I'm not really feeling Berlin...
11. Helsinki? In the... summer? Midnight sun and all? I'm in the right time zone for that here, right? Anyway, one of those Scandinavian cities. In the summer.
12. Amsterdam! That's a popular city!
13. I think Lisbon has some nice museums maybe?
14. ...Brussels? I've been to Brussels, it's not that special.
15. Athens! How did we forget Athens?
16. Is Turkey Europe? If so, maybe Istanbul? They've got cats, I hear. (Insert five minute digression on cats in Istanbul, plus ten minutes obligatory singing.)
17. Nice would be nice, also, beaches.

We rejected several cities on the grounds that "nobody seriously wants to go there, you're just naming cities now", "If I go to $Country, I'm going to want to see their natural wonders, not their cities" and "this is a whirlwind tour of Europe, not a tour of Italy, anyway, there's got to be more to do on vacation than look at art and eat".

What say you? Twenty cities you've always wanted to visit? They don't have to be in Europe... or, if in Europe, in more than one country thereof.

****

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Comments

[foliedemars]

No particular order:
Waterford, Ireland
Scottish Highlands
Welshpool, Wales
London, England
Northampton, England
York, England
Poitiers, France
Gravelines, France
Brussels, Belgium
Pfalz, Germany
Budapest, Hungary
Tuscan region, Italy
Pompeii, Italy
Santorini, Greece
Lima, Peru
Argentinian coast
New Zealand
New Brunswick, Canada
Japan (I can't decide on a city!)
Bahamian Islands

[foliedemars]

I should say that many of these are due to the fact that my ancestors are from there, or I have friends there, or there is a beach there, or there is excellent food there.

[conuly]

Food is a good reason.

[conuly]

So are the others, I mean, but.

[moon_custafer]

Just going to nitpick that New Brunswick is a province* (I grew up there, in Sackville); did you mean any New Brunswick town or city in particular? Personally, if you're going to visit a Canadian Maritime province, I'd suggest Nova Scotia instead.

*unless there's also a Canadian city called New Brunswick that I didn't know about.

[foliedemars]

Oh, I'm sad that I missed Cusco. Gotta see Machu Picchu.

[delphi]

The first twenty in Europe that came to my mind (in an imaginary world where everything is rosy and I was actually inclined to travel right now): London, Paris, Marseille, Edinburgh, Rome, Seville, Amsterdam, Athens, Charleroi, Łódź, Dublin, Budapest, Berlin, Sofia, St. Petersburg, Zürich, Geneva, Monaco, Copenhagen, and Stockholm.

(A few of those are ones I'd really only want to see because of a family history connection. I also thought of Reykjavik, but that probably falls into wanting to see the natural sights more than the city.)

[conuly]

Charleroi?

[delphi]

It's where one of my great-grandfathers was living before he came to Canada, although I have reason to believe he had more of a connection to a town about twenty minutes outside the city. He's one of the more eccentric figures in the family tree, and I just think it would be neat to see where he was from.

I know it's not much of a tourist spot, but it apparently has a few interesting museums and some good restaurants, so I think I could have fun there. :D

[senmut]

1. Edinburgh, Scotland
2. Dublin, Ireland
3. Cardiff, Wales
4. Dover, England
(Let's be honest, I'd hire a car and drive all over all the islands that I could get to if money were no object)

5. Mont St Michel, France
6. Nice, France
7. Rouen, France
8. Paris, France
(Again with the drive all over the country really)

9. Barcelona, Spain
10. Lisbon, Portugal
11. Gibraltar (British Territory in Iberia, I think?)

12. Venice, Italy
13. Rome, Italy

14. Monaco City, Monaco
15. the island of Cyprus (doable in a day, right?)
16. Lichtenstein (just to say I have been to the tiny country)

17. Reykjavik, Iceland
18. Copenhagen, Denmark
19. Stockholm, Sweden
20. Amsterdam, The Netherlands

And most of these are capitals just because I know the names... I really would prefer to spend a day or two just driving through the countries to see them though.

[conuly]

Lichtenstein, blink and you'll miss it.

[amaebi]

It's a funny thing. I could easily name hundreds of locations, if not cities, that I'd like to visit, but I'm also perfectly fine with not.

[conuly]

Few of us get to do everything we'd like to do if we could, so it's good to be fine with that fact.

[randomdreams]

I will recommend: copenhagen, reykjavik, granada, seville, berlin. I would love to see: london, paris, stockholm, prague, athens, monaco, vienna, at least.

[nicki]

I lived in Europe as a pre/teen for 4 years and I've been back 4 times since, and we are going again this summer so I'm including revisits/ planned visits. (humble brag :P )

1. St. Petersburg (new)
2. Bordeaux (New)
3. Bern (new)
4. Tallinn (new)
5. Gothenburg (new)
6. Copenhagen (summer)
7. Stockholm (summer)
8. Edinburgh (summer)
9. Venice (revisit)
10. Rome (revisit)
11. Bucharest (new)
12. Florence (revisit)
13. Milan (revisit)
14. Paris (revisit)
15. London (revisit)
16. Athens (revisit)
17. Prague (revisit)
18. Dublin (revisit)
19. Cardiff (we drove by Cardiff n a tearing hurry once on the way to the ferry to Ireland but I don't think that counts as a visit)
20. Strasbourg (revisit)

There are definitely more, esp since I'm not sure what we are counting as a city.

[conuly]

I'm not sure either, tbh. Some of those cities on my list turn out to be pretty small in population by my count.

Not in priority order

[brokenallbroken]

Dublin
Edinburgh
London
Copenhagen
Amsterdam
Brussels
Paris
Lisbon
Barcelona
Florence
Rome
Venice
Vienna
Salzburg
Berlin
Hamburg
Geneva
Sarajevo
Budapest
Prague

That took some editing...

[wpadmirer]

Amsterdamn, Paris, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Copenhagen, Warsaw, Poznan, Geneva, Lusanne, Berlin, Malaga, Moscow, Budapest, Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, Athens, Bonn, Brussels, Munich (20) - Vienna, St. Petersburg, Bucarest, Utrecht, Rotterdamn, Dublin, London, Glasgow, Cambridge, Oxford, Lisbon, Stuttgart, Zurich and Prague.

I'd travel the hell out of Europe if I had the money.

There is a lot of world to See!

[pink_halen]

1. Rome
Bellisimo

2. London
Iconic

3. Paris
yes. Eifel, Creve Cor, Arc de Triumph

4. Moscow maybe, is that Europe? (Edit: Though looking at google, it looks like the famous cathedral is in Saint Petersburg, so let's go there instead.)
St. Petersburg was Peter the great's European City. it is modeled on Amsterdam. None the less Moscow is interesting. How's your Russian. Horoshow?

5. Madrid
6. Barcelona
7. Capri? Is that a city? I'm gonna want to go to the beach, anyway.
I Don't think so. It's an island near Naples.

8. Venice
Wet

9. Um, Vienna?
amazing.

10. Berlin? Gotta say I'm not really feeling Berlin...
I was quite surprised with Berlin but I like Neurumburg better and Koln quite a lot.

11. Helsinki?
The train station is amazing.

12. Amsterdam! That's a popular city!
Venice of the north. Red Light district and all.

13. I think Lisbon has some nice museums maybe?
Lisbon has some wonderful monuments like the Navigator's monument and great Portuguese Paving.

14. ...Brussels? I've been to Brussels, it's not that special.
Were you expecting Brugge? Brussels is pretty pedestrian unless you go for the Flower Carpet.

15. Athens! How did we forget Athens?
The New Parthenon museum is spectacular.

16. Is Turkey Europe?
Only part of Istanbul is in Europe. The other half is in Asia.

17. Nice would be nice, also, beaches.

Don't forget the small places like Andorra, San Marino, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, and Vatican City

Bratislava is quaint.

Budapest in unique.

Tallinn Estonia is very interesting.

Dubrovnik is a treat.

Kotor Montenegro is a walled wonder.

Nuremberg and Koln Germany are great.

[kshandra]

Istanbul is Europe and Asia! (I'll ask that we skip the singing, because there is SO MUCH MORE to the Queen of Cities than that one bloody tune, but I will put in a plug for Kedi here.)

[conuly]

You can skip singing, but I always sing all the time.

[tielan]

I've been to Europe several times and each time I've been I want to go back. There's just so much to see - and a lot of it in places that aren't necessarily tourist traps. Or even in the tourist traps, but off-the-beaten-path so to speak. Off-the-beaten path is the BEST in just about any city I've ever been to.

Go Back To;
London, Paris, Venice, Berlin, Vienna, Delft, Amsterdam, Prague, Budapest, Lucerne, Cinque Terre, Brussels.

See for first time:
Rome, Madrid, Dublin, Edinburgh, Istanbul, Kiev, Ankara, Athens, Santorini, St Petersburg, Ulm, Cardiff...

I mean, that's all pretty random, and that's just in Europe. I can't remember half the names of cities in the Scandinavian countries, but I'm not sure I'd want to go to the cities so much as see the land.

Don't even get me started on the rest of the world...

[marahmarie]

I can't come up with 20! If I could it'd take me days, so maybe not impossible, but certainly not worth waiting on. Would I want to see/drive through 20 countries? Maaaaaybe (more likely than that many cities), 'tis a stretch, though.

1. London
2. Tokyo
3. Taiwan
4. Something in Italy
5. Something in France (perhaps multiple municipalities; Paris probably just for the been-there/done-that/got the t-shirt cred)
6. Something in Ireland
7. Something in Greenland
8. Quebec (Canada) sounds maybe-ish
9. Something in Russia (enough Russian cities interest me that to pick one I'd have to narrow it down, perhaps with further study)

And I'm out (might wander back to edit, though, if I think of more).

[archersangel]

i don't know if there are 20 in the WORLD i want to visit, but her are some;
in no particular order;
rome
london
paris
venice
athens
warsaw (just because my ancestors are from poland)
perhaps madrid and berlin too.

outside of europe;
las vegas
new york city
new orleans
alexandria, egypt (could be changed out with cairo or luxor)

[julian]

So some of these are to go specifically to, but some of them are to go and hang out in and then use as a 'home base' for exploration around the country nearby, because there's lots to explore. I stuck with Europe Plus Russia because um, I didn't notice your last bit about anywhere, basically. My anywhere list is larger.

(I went to (parts of) France, England, and Spain with my folks when I was 13, and to the then-Soviet Union in the summer of 1990. There was, to understate, a lot going on, politically.)

1) Rome. (Art! Buildings! Scary traffic!)

2) Florence. (Art.)

3) Venice. (Before it sinks. Unless that's just paranoia, but I also just want to go and be there for awhile.)

4) Vaduz. Capital of Liechtenstein, to which I've wanted to go ever since I read The Mouse That Roared.

5) Some Alp-y place in Switzerland. Bern? Lucerne? Whatever, research will find out.

6) Amsterdam, because Amsterdam, but also then I could explore the parts of the Netherlands that Calluna's family is from.

7) Paris. (And stay awhile.)

8) Nantes. (Didn't go, when I was in France when I was 13.)

9) Andorra La Vella, which as I remember it was kind of polluted, but I was tired and cynical, and I mean, it's in the middle of the Pyrenees and presumably things have changed since 1986. Also, I just want to be in Andorra again. Or rather, the Pyrenees.

10) Madrid, so I can go hang out at the Prado and see all the stuff I missed the last time.

11) Toledo. Steel!

12) Segovia, so I can go to the Valley of the Fallen (which is nearby). But also it has an acqueduct, and a a castle, and...

13) Moscow. I went for like, a day, when I was 15 (with a peacenik singing group), so I want moooore.

14) St. Petersburg, to which I also went for a day, and the (massive and great) Hermitage Museum was closed. (It was a Monday.) I was bitter. I want to gooo.

15) Estonia. Oh, um, city. Talinn.

16) Saaremaa, which (if it's where I think it is) has this great castle and is very historic and gorgeous, and I want to see it while I'm not completely smashed on cognac. (I did not know its strength.) Also, it has a meteorite crater, which we totally did not go to or even get told about, hmph.

17, 18) Riga, Kaunas -- Not been to Latvia or Lithuania, want to explore.

19) Inverness. Explore northern Scotland & The Orkneys.

20) Copenhagen. My parents lived in Denmark for a few years, so I'd love to explore it.

So many places, so little cash/energy

[bibliofile]

I dunno, I'm kinda happy visiting new places of all kinds. And looking at art, and looking at/walking in nature.

UK: London. I love London. And Glasgow. And over to Cornwall and Wales.

Paris. I want several days just for the Louvre and other art museums. And eat tasty food.

(Shit, I still haven't seen the Grand Canyon! Must get there someday. At least it's on the same continent as me. For that matter, I'd like to spend more than a weekend in New York City.)

Scandihoovia, especially bits of Finland & Sweden. And not just in winter.

Italy: As someone else said, Venice, before it sinks. Rome, maybe. Milan, also for the art.

Definitely parts of Eastern Europe, for the art and the music and food and people and sights.

In the Caribbean, Puerto Rico and Cuba, now that I'm thinking of music. And not freezing cold in winter! But probably not during hurricane season.

(Better stop here, before I lose several hours online, researching all the interesting places to visit.)

[chelseagirl]

Oh, no! Everything is triggering my Umbrella Academy-generated "Istanbul/Constantinople" earworm.

Edinburgh? Florence? Venice? (Actually those three and Paris are my "let's be reasonable how much am I ever going to travel?" list, having already been to London and Copenhagen, which admittedly I visited because a friend was living there but is amazing.)

[gingicat]

I want to go back to England and explore at some point. So that covers several cities.

I definitely want to do a tour of European museums and one of Bronze Age history and...

[spikethemuffin]

Hay-on-Wye?

Vatican City?

[thekumquat]

So, so many.

Paris, (have been for long weekend and passing through, so for more than running from one side to the other, ideally when neither flooded nor on strike.)
Bruges
Prague
Florence (a week was not enough)
Berlin (only a few days, years ago)
Augsburg (Brecht fan)
Munich
Hamburg
Lisbon
Madrid
Valencia
Marrakesh
Krakow
Warsaw
Milan
Bologna
Petra, Jordan
Beirut - Lebanese cooking is supposed to be the best in the world and my experience of Lebanese food anywhere else is good enough to support that)
Palermo
Dublin
Belfast (have been, but a week there and enjoying the NI coastline would be grand)
Oslo (been to briefly when I was young)
Copenhagen
Moscow
St Petersburg (those three ditto)
Tokyo again if I had an interpreter with me
Baku (been to a long time ago, before any tourists or phrasebooks and the infrastructure was ropey)
Tashkent

Maybe:
Boston
Seattle
Vancouver
Philadelphia
New Orleans

Pretty much anywhere if someone else was paying! I've found anywhere is interesting for a few days, but that means spending lots of breaks in the UK, to avoid the inconvenience of travel.

[elainegrey]

Cities, strictly? Not really. There are landscapes i'd like to visit, especially assuming a botanical guide, and natural wonders (AURORA!) but cities are far less interesting than landscapes.

[conuly]

That's my general feeling, I guess.

[rebeccmeister]

Two that I've visited that were just lovely, to add, for Europe:

Dublin!
Copenhagen! (WAY more interesting and fun than Brussels)

Also, does Iceland count?

I would like to visit Istanbul at some point, and haven't been to Italy at all. Not a city, but I also LOVED the island of Bornholm.

[larryhammer]

In no particular order, Europe only. Some of these are want-to-return-tos:

Reykjavik
Akureyri
London
Amsterdam
Brussels
Paris
Strasbourg
Basel
Geneva
Lucerne
Zurich
Munich
Prague
Budapest
Berlin
Helsinki
Lisbon
Barcelona
Venice
Athens

That was pretty easy, actually.

[thewayne]

I wouldn't set foot in Russia until after Putin and his cronies are long gone.

Berlin was awesome, lots of great places. Pottsdamerplatz, the 1934 Olympic stadium, very vibrant place and the nicest subways I've seen thus far. Dresden was beyond incredible. Prague is pretty bitchin' for architecture and religious friezes and iconography.

Personally I'd like to rent a car and spend a month or so in Germany and Austria, basically all over Europe, doing the Eissen game fair and the Photokina trade show, though they're probably not at complimentary times. Plus I have friends in Poland and relatives in England.

Lisbon, IIRC, has a Salvador Dali museum.

[conuly]

I wouldn't set foot in Russia until after Putin and his cronies are long gone.

That's what I feel about the US, but I'm stuck here, alas.

[thewayne]

Sadly, ditto.  My wife completes her 25 at the telescope in a very few years, I'm hoping she can find a job at one in Chile or Europe.

[hamsterwoman]

(Insert five minute digression on cats in Istanbul, plus ten minutes obligatory singing.)

Heh!

(And, yep, Moscow is in Europe -- the parts of Russia that are west of the Ural mountains are Europe. Apparently Istanbul is, too although the rest of Turkey is not... at least on my map.)

If I were to make a list of just cities in Europe I haven't visited yet, it would be something like:

1. Edinburgh
2. Dubrovnik (I've been to Croatia, and we made it to Split, but Dubrovnik was too far to drive, and I definitely want to visit)
3. Athens
4. Istanbul (which I guess counts as Europe)
5. Florence (I've been to Rome, which I'd like to revisit, and Venice, which I wouldn't, this seems like a natural next step)
6. Porto (I've been to Lisbon and it was nice in a mind-trippy way (it reminded me a lot of San Francisco), but from my mother's visit it looks like Porto is cooler)
7. Tallinn
8. Lviv/L'vov
9. Cluj-Napoca -- our actual likely next destination
10. Podgorica (just 'cos I'm curious about Montenegro and that seems like a good place to start)
11. Kazan
12. Barcelona
13. Plovdiv
15. Palermo (or something else in the south of Italy)
16. Bath
17. Copenhagen
18. something in Switzerland, I guess, IDK, Lugano?
19. Malta in general, including Valletta
20. Kaliningrad/Königsberg. -- just, lots of interesting history

Ooh, reading through answers above, I realize I forgot Toledo. That should also be somewhere on the list.

I also want to visit Yerevan and Baku, but those are in Asia.

But I could also, even more easily, come up with 20 cities in Europe I've been to and would happily return to:

1. Prague (one of my favorite cities, and I miss it)
2. Budapest (gorgeous architecture and delicious food; I didn't like the vibe 10 years ago but have heard good things from people who've visited more recently and would like to give it another shot)
3. Bratislava (cute little town, and home to our favorite restaurant)
4. Vienna
5. Salzburg
6. London (mostly for museums)
7. Regensburg -- we had a brief visit but on a day/at a time when most everything we wanted to see was closed or under construction, and I'd really like another go
8. Rome (visited once as a kid, would like to visit properly)
9. Kyiv/Kiev -- the city where I was born, which I haven't had a chance to visit or show my family
10. St Petersburg -- I visited once, very briefly, as a kid, and would like to have a proper visit
11. Varna -- we really liked our visit last year, and I'd be happy to go back
12. Granada (ideally not in July...)
13. Bruges/Brugge -- it's cute! and I finally found where the swans are
14. Tromsø (this is what you want for midnight sun)
15. Reykjavik -- I mostly want to come back to Iceland for the countryside and natural beauty, but we didn't get a proper visit of the capital, either. And the penis museum which my parents stumbled upon last year sounds amusing.
16. Ljubljana -- I don't love it as much as the other Eastern European capitals, but it's a cute little city
17. Oxford -- especially if I finally had someone who could get me into University College, finally
18. St.Malo -- it would be nice to be able to enjoy the city without sand in my eye (in general, I'd love to return to Bretagne/Normandy)
19. Vaduz -- we stopped there just long enough to say that we'd been in Liechtenstein, but it would be cool to visit some museums and generally get a feel for it. (We wanted to! but couldn't find parking, LOL)
20. Krakow -- not too terribly soon, as parts of the visit left a bad taste in my mouth, but I liked it enough to eventually come back

I would also go back to Tbilisi in a flash, but as far as I can tell, Georgia is considered Asia.

I wanted to see Venice once, but now that I have, I've got no desire to return. Similarly, I think I've seen enough of Paris and Amsterdam, though maybe I'll be interested again in another 10 years or something. And there are COUNTRIES I'd like to revisit without feeling the need to (re)visit particular cities, like Ireland (I liked Dublin, but I've seen the bog bodies and the national treasury, and now I just want to see the countryside).

This was fun, and now I want to make travel plans for real!

[robby]

Is "in car sevice" using Uber or Lyft?

[conuly]

No, it's car service. Specifically, Clove Lake Cars because they're reliable, unlike, say, Big Apple which sucks.

[robby]

I looked it up. I'm not familiar with things big-city! We don't have sidewalks or streetlight here!

[conuly]

That sounds scary.

[smokingboot]

I'm surprised you couldn't find twenty, there's a lot to see in Europe! But I guess it's down to what would interest you. The only one on your list I would avoid would be Capri, as it's a huge amount of hype for little reason. But the mainland of the Amalfi just across the water from Capri is gorgeous! Not really a city though some beautiful towns, Sorrento and Positano. The nearest city is Naples which isn't very pleasant, though it has great food and an awesome archeological museum, including the secret room, full of ancient pornographic art. Flying phalluses abound!

[kareina]

I have never wanted to visit a *city*. Sometimes I do anyway, because I have friends or family who live there, or I need to attend a conference for work, and that is there it happens to be located, but when I am there I am always aware that the population density is higher than I am comfortable with...

[cellio]

I'd kind of like to go somewhere in northern Scandinavia in *winter* -- little or no sun, lots of night sky, and chances for auroras. I've never seen the aurora live, only pictures.

I of course want to combine this with pleasant indoor activities and accommodations, because I am not one of those crazy people who wants to spend all day outside in the freaking cold. :-)

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Twenty...? Okay, let's see - in no particular order:

1. Venice
2. Copenhagen
3. Dublin
4. Kiev
5. St. Petersburg
6. Paris
8. Edinburgh
9. Florence
10. Athens
11. Reykjavic
12. Vladivostok
13. Romney Marsh
14. Hilo
15. Prague
16. Victoria B.C.
17. London (been once)
18. Rome (been once)
19. Marrakesh (been once)
20. Quebec (been once)

[mme-n-b.livejournal.com]

I can easily name 20 cities in Italy I want to visit ;) There's just no time to go everywhere (and it's really hard not to go to Venice again, because Venice).

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

Always wanted to visit? Trouble is, most of them I've already visited. Are repeats allowed?

Venice
Vienna
Copenhagen
Jokkmokk (in winter)
Istanbul
Rome
Naples
Athens
Prague
Lisbon
Marrakesh

That's about it. Most of the rest are either too unsafe, or in places where I know I'd hate the climate.

[conuly]

Sure, repeats are allowed.