1000 Places to See Before You Die?

So Miss Elaine and I had an argument about the 1000 places to See Before You Die list. She did not seem to mind the fact that the list is VERY heavily Euro-centric, which would not be a problem by itself if Patricia Schultz did not list almost every street corner in London, Paris and Rome as places to see before you die. She almost completely ignored Eastern Europe, and even all of Russia had only about 10 entries. She focused heavily on hotels and restaurants; something of which very few should be a must-see before you die in my opinion. Places like Angkor and Machu Picchu were listed as one, although they take days to discover and usually consist of several parts, each definitely worthy of a mentioning.

Finally, it's one thing Schultz did not put Minsk, Belarus on her list. I can understand her western naivete here. But what about Kiev? Vilnius? Tallinn? Even in San Francisco, America's most beautiful city, she listed only the Cable Car tour! No Golden Gate or Bay Bridge, no Lombard Street, no sealions at the Fisherman's Wharf, no view from Twin Peaks or even Sequoia groves and parks in Northern California. Appalling.

Well, it is still a list, and a travel one at that, so I did go into the labour of finding it online (I would never buy such a book), and compared my own travel achievements to date. Turns out, I visited a whole of 206 places from the list so far. And yes, I have to admit she does mention world's most important sights overall, if a but skewed up. So, here you go.

Great Britain: 1. Tower of London 2. Victoria and Albert Museum, London 3. Lands End 4. London 5. Winchester Cathedral 6. Hadrian's Wall 7. Cotswolds 8. Canterbury Cathedral 9. Lake District 10. British Museum 11. Hyde Park 12. National Gallery 13. Tate Modern 14. Tate Britain 15. Westminster Abbey 16. Portobello Rd, London 17. Regent's Park, London 18. Oxford University 19. Bath 20. Stratford-upon-Avon 21. Warwick Castle 22. Salisbury Cathedral 23. Stonehenge 24. York Minster 25. Isle of Skye 26. Na H-Eileanan Siar (Scotland) 27. Edinburgh Castle 28. Caernarfon Castle, Wales Ireland: 29. Dublin Pubs 30. Connemara 31. Galway 32. Dingle Peninsula 33. Ring of Kerry 34. Giant's Causeway, Northern Ireland Austria: 35. Vienna, 36. Stephansdom, Vienna Belgium: 37. Cathedral of our Lady, Antwerp 38. Bruges 39. Grand Place, Brussels France: 40. Mont St. Michel 41. Paris 42. Arc de Triomphe, Paris 43. Sacre Coeur, Paris 44. Centre Pompidou, Paris 45. Tour Eiffel 46. Louvre 47. Musee D'Orsay, Paris 48. Notre Dame, Paris 49. Bastille Day in Paris 50. Ile St. Louis, Paris 51. Jardins des Tuileries, Paris 52. Place des Vosges, Paris 53. Ste. Chapelle, Paris 54. Chartres cathedral 55. Versailles 56. Loire Valley 57. Antibes 58. Vieux Nice Monaco: 59. Grand Casino, Monte Carlo Germany: 60. Branderburger Tor 61. Museuminsel, Berlin 62. Agyptisches Museum, Berlin Greece: 63. Crete 64. Santorini 65. The Acropolis, Athens 66. National Archaeology Museum, Athens Italy: 67. National Archaeology Museum, Naples 68. Pompeii 69. Roma 70. Galleria Borghese 71. Colosseo 72. Foro Romano 73. Spanish Steps 74. Trevi Fountain 75. Vatican 76. Campo dei Fiori, Roma 77. Via dei Condotti, Roma 78. Sistine Chapel 79. Firenze 80. Galleria dell Academia, Firenze 81. Duomo di Firenze 82. Ponte Vecchio, Firenze 83. Piazza del Campo, Siena 84. Venice 85. Galleria dell Academia, Venice 86. Chiesa dei frari, Venice 87. Doge's palace, Venice 88. Grand Canal, Venice 89. Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice 90. Basilica San Marco, Venice 91. Piazza San Marco, Venice 92. Museo San Marco, venice 93. Torcello Holland: 94. Canal Cruise, Amsterdam 95. Keukenhof 96. Oude Kerk, Amsterdam 97. Red Light District, Amsterdam 98. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 99. Van gogh Museum, Amsterdam 100. Kroller-Muller museum, holland 101. Delft Portugal: 102. Evora Spain: 103. Sevilla 104. Sagrada familia, Barcelona 105. Madrid 106. Museo del Prado, Madrid 107. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid Switzerland: 108. Lucerne festival Czech Republic: 109. Hradcany, Prague 110. Karluv Most, Prague 111. Staromestske Namesti, Prague Hungary: 112. Castle Hill, Budapest 113. Gellert (Szecenyi) Baths, Budapest Poland: 114. Rynek Glowny, Krakow 115. Wawel, Krakow Russia: 116. Armory, Moscow 117. Red Square 118. Moscow Metro 119. Tretyakov Gallery 120. Hermitage, St. Petersburg 121. Pavlovsk 122. Petrodvorets Denmark: 123. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen 124. Tivoli, Copenhagen 125. Louisiana Museum 126. Odense Iceland: 127. The Ring Road Morocco: 128. Essaouira 129. Fes 130. Djemaa el Fna, Marrakech 131. The Great Sahara South Africa: 132. Phinda reserve, 133. Drakensberg China: 134. Victoria Peak, Hong Kong India: 135. Palace of Winds, Jaipur 136. Taj Mahal Cambodia: 137. Angkor Wat Thailand: 138. Ayuthaya 139. Ancient Thai Massage, Bangkok 140. Grand Palace, Bangkok 141. Hill tribes 142. Ko Phi Phi 143. Phanggna Bay 144. Phuket USA: 145. Getty Museum, LA 146. Hollywood 147. Monterey Peninsula 148. PC Highway, California 149. Cable Car, SF 150. Napa Valley 151. Sonoma Valley 152. Yosemite 153. Disney World, Florida 154. Savannah, Georgia 155. Oahu, Hawaii 156. Chesapeake Bay 157. Legal Sea Foods, Boston 158. Cape Cod 159. Nantucket 160. Bellagio, Las Vegas 161. The Strip, Las Vegas 162. NYC 163. Central Park, NYC 164. Empire State bldg, NYC 165. The Met, NYC 166. MOMA, NYC 167. Rockefeller center at Christmas, NYC 168. Statue of Liberty, NY 169. Ellis island, NY 170. Times Square 171. 42nd Street, NYC 172. Brooklyn Bridge 173. Grand Central Terminal, NYC 174. Lower Manhattan, NYC 175. World Fin center plaza, NYC 176. Museum mile, NYC 177. Outer Banks, North Carolina 178. Oregon coast 179. Crater Lake 180. Cliff walk, Rhode Island 181. Shenandoah NP, Virginia 182. San Juan Islands, Washington 183. Pike Place market, Seattle 184. The Mall, DC 185. Smithsonian, DC 186. Whitewater rafting, West Virginia Canada: 187. Whistler, BC 188. Sun Yat-sen park, Vancouver 189. Granville Island, Vancouver 190. Pacific Rim NP, BC 191. Royal BC museum, Victoria 192. Vieux Montreal Mexico: 193. Chichen Itza, Mexico Argentina: 194. Recoleta, Buenos Aires 195. Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires 196. Iguazu falls 197. Glaciar Perito Moreno 198. Parque Nacional Los Glaciares 199. Bariloche Brazil: 200. Pantanal 201. Paraty 202. Carnival, Rio 203. Corcovado, Rio 204. Ipanema beach, Rio Chile: 205. Torres del Paine Uruguay: 206. Colonia de Sacramento