<p>I’ve been telling myself for a while to start this thread, and I hope that the posts will stay on track. This is for those places (US, Europe, wherever) that have been deeply affecting and worth pointing out to families looking for destinations that may be out of the ordinary.</p>
<p>Put the destination in the title box and the description in the body of the post.</p>
<p>I’ll start it out…</p>
<p>We heard about this by word of mouth. It was (is) a small town in France. On June 10th 1944, in retribution for the invasion in Normandy, the entire population - about 600 people - of the town (except for less than a handful of people who survived to tell the story) was rounded up and killed by German soldiers. The town was then destroyed - blown up and set afire. When Charles de Gaulle saw the ruins, he asked that the town be preserved exactly as he found it. Now you can visit it and walk the streets with the ruins all around. Burned out cars are still parked in front of the buildings; a metal cafe table frame is still in a roofless cafe. It is unimaginable, but not a tourist site that you’ve heard a lot about. A visit to this place will never leave your memory…</p>
<p>Info in English, with photos: <a href=“http://www.oradour.info%5B/url%5D”>www.oradour.info</a></p>
<p>One of our finest family vacations was to the Canadian farmland where our pioneer ancestors first came to when they traveled to America. Threre was so much to see including their ruined farmhouse and barn, the local church they attended, the cemeteries with countless relatives. It was not only an enjoyable vacation where we encountered wild bear, but also a geneology lesson.
Another fine one day trip we took was to Gettysburg PA to see ggrandfathers name on the PA Monument. The teens enjoyed it and the little boys enjoyed running around Devil’s Den.</p>
<p>By the way, Digmedia enjoyed your critique of France and was amazed you took on that theif! Woa, guts!</p>
<p>The American Cemetery outside Luxembourg City. What a beautiful horrible place.</p>
<p>bhg -</p>
<p>I certainly agree with you there. One of our most memorable trips was a quest to find the family homestead of my wife’s grandfather in a small town in Sweden. All we had to go on was the name of the town and a photo of the house her great grandfather had built. Not only did we find it, but we knocked on the door and met the woman who now lives there (no relation at all). Incredibly, she had a poem on the wall, in a small wooden frame, that had been written by my wife’s great-grandfather. It had “come with the house” and she had kept it on the wall for over 40 years. What a great day that was - even the neighbors were invited over. By the time we left, she and my wife were crying and I had a few tears myself.</p>
<p>Verdun:
Half a million soldiers died there during the Great War.
Fiesole (north of Florence): the local church of St Francis is the headquarters of Franciscan order. The church crypt has an exhibit illustrating the martyrdom of Chinese Christians and foreign priests in the 18th century.
The cemetery by the bridge on the River Kwaii (Thailand). The bridge itself has become very touristy, but the cemetery is blessedly peaceful. There are registers containing the names of Dutch, English and, if I remember correctly, Americans, who died building the bridge.</p>
<p>One of our best family travel experiences was to Miya Jima Island in Japan. Miya Jima is considered a “sacred” island to Shinto practitioners. It’s about 40 minutes south of Hiroshima by train and then by ferry. By tradition, all animals on the island are considered sacred — so, you get off the ferry and are greeted by herds of deer strolling through the streets and there are wild monkeys up in the mountains. There are very few cars on the island so it feels like you have returned in time. A huge shrine forms the center of the town, but there are shrines around every corner. We stayed in a tiny traditional style inn up in the mountain (no joke: our directions to the inn were: leave the ferry, turn right, walk for a mile, then go up the stone steps. When you reach the maple trees and can no longer see the village, you will find our inn). The hospitality of the inn keeper and his wife was wonderful . They were especially kind to our children, teaching them how to feed the wild deer and make origami, even though they didn’t speak much English and we didn’t speak much Japanese. We slept on tatami mats and traditional futons on the floor and our room hung over a koi pond and a waterfall. We were one of only a very few non-Japanese staying on Miya Jima while we were there.As a result, everywhere we went we were greeted warmly (actually, we found this to be true in many places throughout Japan) and many people approached us to ask where we were from. At night, the streets of the village would be filled with people out for an evening stroll - candle lanterns would guide us up and down the hill to town. Beautiful and very, very memorable for both us and our children - but all of Japan was special for our family during our month long visit.</p>
<p>Dachau concentration camp in germany</p>
<p>the name says it all… too much for me to type really, but on the entrance to the camp the gates read “arbeit macht frei,” which translates to “work makes free.” they told the prisoners that, but of course it was a lie…</p>
<p>I am a travel writer, and we have been privileged to have taken unbelievably fantastic family trips that have nurtured close family relationships, and incredible intellectual curiosity and depth in our kids. Our best trip ever was to Kenya and Tanzania when they were 16 and 13. We visited Nairobi, and continued to Kilimanjaro, the Serengeti, Lake Manyara, and Ngorogoro Crater. We stayed at eco-tourism camps managed by CCA (Conservation Corporation of Africa.) Visiting Africa is an experience that changes one forever, and is especially valuable for today’s American teens to understand exactly how much of the world lives. If it is at all feasible, I encourage you to consider a trip like this. Its not easy, but there is hardly anything that can compare to this crash course in reality.</p>
<p>I love that they have inherited the familial wanderlust:our son is graduating from Brown in May, and is planning to backpack around the world (literally)for the summer before starting work. Our daughter will be starting Yale in the fall, and she’s planning a trip to the Middle East. I’m going to miss travelling with them!</p>