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Opinion

Some places I'd like to visit

I am not much of a traveler. In fact, I am a terrible traveler. I do not like airports. I do not like lines and crowds. I do not like going places with a lot of people. I do not like being stuck in an aluminum tube 35,000 feet above the ground, going several hundred miles an hour. I don't like being tired, and most of all I don't like listening to people talking about their trips.

On the subject of travel, I think I have made myself clear. And yet, there are several places on this beautiful Earth that I would like to see at least once, and that I would even put up with the torture of travel to visit.

First, there is Desolation Peak, a mountain top in the North Cascades National Park in Washington State where writer Jack Kerouac spent two months in the summer of 1956 as a fire lookout. There he wrote, studied Buddhism and meditated. Next, there is the battlefield of Dien Bien Phu, located in Dien Bien Province in Vietnam. Here from March to May 1954 the armies of France and the Vietminh clashed, and more than 10,000 died, effectively ending French colonial rule in Indochina and setting the stage for the next Indochina war. And finally, there is another place, not one of hard training and meditation or fierce battle, but one of immense beauty and order.

And that final place that I dream of visiting is the home and gardens of the French artist Claude Monet at Giverny, northwest of Paris. It is said that Monet first saw the town of Giverny from the window of a train and decided to move there. This he did in 1883 and he remained there until the end of his life in 1926. Monet proceeded to pour his talent and energies into his home and gardens. And what results! Every room of the home is alive with color, sometimes bold and sometimes subtle, like the pastels of his paintings. His walls contained the works of his contemporaries, and works from his amazing collection of Japanese woodblock prints, including those by Utamaro, Hokusai and Hiroshige.

Monet was an avid and skilled gardener, and he once remarked, "All my money goes into my garden." Monet's garden showed his love of form and color, and many of his paintings were set there.

The upper garden is a traditional Normandy clos, a walled garden for fruit and vegetables. Monet put arches over the paths and mixed fruit trees with his flowers. The garden includes Japanese cherries, tulips, irises, nasturtiums, oriental poppies and roses.

In 1893 he bought some adjoining property that was located across a road and railway and dug a pond and planted wisteria, weeping willows and water lilies and built his famous Japanese bridge and water garden. The bridge was modeled on those he had seen in his ukiyoe collection. And this pond is the setting for some of the magnificent paintings of water lilies that Monet is famous for.

The house and gardens of Claude Monet at Giverny are open for seven months a year, and each year as many as 500,000 people visit. Some day I hope to be one of them.

(539 words)

Discussion: Where are three places you would most like to go?

Shukan ST: July 21, 2006

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Opinion Some places I'd like to visit By David Parmer I am not much of a traveler. In fact, I am a terrible traveler. I do not like airports. I do not like lines and crowds. I do not like going places with a lot of people. I do not like being stuck in an aluminum tube 35,000 feet above the ground, going several hundred miles an hour. I don't like being tired, and most of all I don't like listening to people talking about their trips. On the subject of travel, I think I have made myself clear. And yet, there are several places on this beautiful Earth that I would like to see at least once, and that I would even put up with the torture of travel to visit. First, there is Desolation Peak, a mountain top in the North Cascades National Park in Washington State where writer Jack Kerouac spent two months in the summer of 1956 as a fire lookout. There he wrote, studied Buddhism and meditated. Next, there is the battlefield of Dien Bien Phu, located in Dien Bien Province in Vietnam. Here from March to May 1954 the armies of France and the Vietminh clashed, and more than 10,000 died, effectively ending French colonial rule in Indochina and setting the stage for the next Indochina war. And finally, there is another place, not one of hard training and meditation or fierce battle, but one of immense beauty and order. And that final place that I dream of visiting is the home and gardens of the French artist Claude Monet at Giverny, northwest of Paris. It is said that Monet first saw the town of Giverny from the window of a train and decided to move there. This he did in 1883 and he remained there until the end of his life in 1926. Monet proceeded to pour his talent and energies into his home and gardens. And what results! Every room of the home is alive with color, sometimes bold and sometimes subtle, like the pastels of his paintings. His walls contained the works of his contemporaries, and works from his amazing collection of Japanese woodblock prints, including those by Utamaro, Hokusai and Hiroshige. Monet was an avid and skilled gardener, and he once remarked, "All my money goes into my garden." Monet's garden showed his love of form and color, and many of his paintings were set there. The upper garden is a traditional Normandy clos, a walled garden for fruit and vegetables. Monet put arches over the paths and mixed fruit trees with his flowers. The garden includes Japanese cherries, tulips, irises, nasturtiums, oriental poppies and roses. In 1893 he bought some adjoining property that was located across a road and railway and dug a pond and planted wisteria, weeping willows and water lilies and built his famous Japanese bridge and water garden. The bridge was modeled on those he had seen in his ukiyoe collection. And this pond is the setting for some of the magnificent paintings of water lilies that Monet is famous for. The house and gardens of Claude Monet at Giverny are open for seven months a year, and each year as many as 500,000 people visit. Some day I hope to be one of them. (539 words) Discussion: Where are three places you would most like to go? Shukan ST: July 21, 2006 (C) All rights reserved