What was your Walley World?

Sistine Chapel 1985. Completely covered with scaffolding and nets.

Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum in Savannah, Jorja.

500 mile drive. Closed. No, I didn't check the website and notice they were undergoing renovations. Yes, I'm an idiot. The good news is there were other historical homes, museums, and plantations that were fascinating, but the Maritime Museum was my Holy Grail for this trip.

June 2022 Mount Rainier, Washington. Me and the Hot Wife were stoked for a hiking trail on this volcano. Alas, roads were closed due to snow and ice. A local said, "The mountain is usually free and clear at this time of year." So we went down the mountain and hiked a much less interesting trail in the pouring rain. FML. But we recovered that evening with a few drinks and, um, enjoying something Rick Steves likes, too. It's legal there! We went for an evening walk around Enumclaw giggling like teenagers. Of course our relatives mentioned the mountain was "free and clear" shortly after we departed.

Staffa and Iona in Scotland. We were on the Isle of Mull for a few days in June of 2022 and one day was scheduled to make the 1.5 hour drive from Tobermory to Fionphort to catch the ferry to Iona. Mull is mainly single track road and very twisty and so the drive was stressful enough. The drive took a bit longer than we thought and we missed the ferry and the ticket office was closed (Friday morning) an hour later it reopens but we're told ferry service is postponed due to waves. So we drive the single track, twist road back to Tobermory and decide to go to the same restaurant as the day before because it was so good. We get there and the sign on the door says it's closed...because it's Friday.

"Olympia"

I've wanted to see this painting ever since I learned about its history decades ago, long before I was interested in travel. I was never going to actually see it, what with not being able to drive to France and not hot on the idea of sitting on a plane for 10 hours. Finally, 'tho, I make it to Paris and I'm standing in front of the Musee d'Orsay -- I'm finally gonna see Olympia FOR REAL! I did it! I really, really made it!

"Sorry, it's in a special exhibition and all the tickets are sold out."

What's French for "godamnit!"?

(I did finally see Olympia on my second trip to Paris and it was everything I'd hoped it'd be!)

-- Mike Beebe

Mike,
Similar. Have always loved El Greco's View of Toledo. Had a print in my room growing up (was a weird kid!) Finally made it to the Met in New York, beelined to the gallery, only to discover it was on loan for a show in Spain. Fortunately, like you, I was able to return and see it on a later visit to NYC. Worth the wait!

Munich for Oktoberfest in 1999. Had no idea that you needed a reservation in the beer halls. Doh!

Not so dramatic as Walley World, but… When we were in Dublin, the two things I was most interested in seeing were 1) Trinity Library and the Book of Kells and 2) Kilmainham Gaol. I planned to do the Gaol on our last day, which was a Monday. We got out there only to discover it was closed on Monday. I was so disappointed and also surprised since I had no recollection of reading anything about it being closed on Mondays.

When I got home, I looked at both the guide books I had used (one of which was Rick’s) and indeed, both said it was open seven days a week. Perhaps something changed after they went to print; I don’t know. This was around 2007 and I was not yet in the habit of doublechecking things online. I doubt I’ll ever get to the Gail now because I did not like Dublin much do it’s unlikely I’ll return. Obviously, not a huge problem; the rest of the trip was great.

Milan. After South of Italy tour ended in Nice, I took the train to Venice with an overnight break in Milan. I planned my time so I could see the Duomo, bought tickets for a late afternoon visit. It should have worked perfectly. What I didn't plan for was a 3+ hour delay in Genoa because there was a dead lady on the tracks in front of the train. I didn't get to see the inside of the Duomo, the outside was set up for a fashion photo op, I hadn't eaten since a quick breakfast, was so hungry I ate dinner at McDonalds, got lost walking back to the hotel. Miserable day.

The Archeological Museum in Naples, around 20 years ago. Mid March. Took the ferry from Sorrento specifically to visit the museum. We'd spent the day in Pompeii the day before. I'd spent a LOT of time before the trip looking up the artifacts that I really wanted to see there, but alas- the museum was undergoing renovations and it seemed like half the galleries I wanted to see were closed, and a lot of other things had been temporarily moved. After a couple of hours of fruitless searching we just gave up and went for pizza. Oh, yeah, and I got seasick on the ferry back to Sorrento.

Not quite the same, but many years ago I went to Naples, Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast with my then boyfriend. We hired a car, which was interesting. Anyway, things were a bit tense between us the whole week. One day we drove partway up Vesuvius and parked. I was so cross with him about something that I refused to get out of the car. So he went off and had a lovely time walking around and visiting looking at the crater (?) of actual Vesuvius while I just sulked in the car.

Incidentally the whole holiday had been my idea because I was obsessed with Pompeii and the eruption of Vesuvius as a child.

That's funny, History Traveler, I also had a copy of El Greco's Toledo in my room as a child, and much later saw the original at the Met. I would like to say my Walley World moment was trying to use it as a tourist map when I visited Toledo and getting hopelessly lost (since he used artistic license in his placement of the buildings), but that wouldn't be true. Rather, I would say it was going all the way out to Ostia Antica from central Rome in 1983 and finding it closed by a strike. Finally had a good visit there 25 years later. And I admit it's not a really strong "Walley World" since Ostia Antica, while very rewarding, has never been the most anticipated highlight of a trip to Rome for me.

Golden Girl, Vesuvius and Pompeii are on our bucket list, especially hiking around the rim of the crater.

CJean, I also nearly puked on a ferry from Ireland to one of the Aran Islands. The sea was very rough. A few passengers went down hard. I just barely avoided getting sick. Not fun. And I was careful to eat a very light breakfast that day. I can't imagine going all-out with an Irish breakfast before that.

Big Mike, luckily I was in a better mood for both Pompeii and Herculaneum, Pompeii is the place that has most perfectly met my (very high) expectations. This was back in maybe 88, though, and it wasn’t busy in the slightest. I think it’s a lot more touristed now from the sounds of things.

When we took our daughter to Musée d'Orsay in 2015, among all the splendid works we especially wanted her to see was Renoir's Bal du moulin de la Galette, as we've had a reproduction hanging in our living room ever since she was little. Wouldn't you know it, the painting was 'out on tour' that year, loaned to and on display within an Impressionists' exhibit at Art Institute of Chicago.

Had the immediate 'moose out front shoulda told you' moment.

Nothing like a good ferry tale like the Irish one above. Back in 1983, Interrail cards (like a Eurail pass for European residents, which I was at that time, doing study abroad) got one deck passage on overnight ferries from Italy to Greece. Sitting out on a warm night, under the moonlight, sailing the lovely Adriatic from Brindisi to Patras? Well, not when it's March, and there is a storm at sea, and it's rough seas and freezing cold. The crew let us poor deck passengers inside -- they had to or we would have literally frozen to death. But all the seats and cabins were occupied. I ended up curled underneath a metal staircase, listening all night to the thudding of feet on the stairs as passengers rushed up them to get to the rail in time to vomit. They didn't always make it.

Not a complete Wally World experience because I didn't go to Venice just for them. Ever since I saw the movie Summertime, I wanted to go to Venice for lots of reasons, but a must for me was the bells on the campanille with the two characters hitting the bell with their hammers. Sure enough when I got to Venice they were undergoing restoration that year. I was crushed - for about 5 minutes, until I fell in love with the rest of Venice and didn't care so much that I missed them.

I, too, was overly interested in Mt. Vesuvius and Pompei as a child (it erupted on my birthday!) and was super excited to see it when we were there summer of 2017. I was craning my neck to see Vesuvius on the train as we approached. All I could see was smoke. A fire was raging the whole time we were there, obscuring the view, and I never got to see the actual mountain. Dang it. Put Pompei was excellent.

Wanted to see The Lipizzaner Stallions in Vienna. Even the rehearsal would have been nice. For some forgotten reason there was no activity at all while we were there.

Not a true Walley World experience, but in 2014 went on my first trip to Rome. One of the main things we wanted to see was the Trevi Fountain (of course). We even got an apartment half a block away from it. Walked down there and there was no water in the fountain. It was being repaired or renovated. There was a small pool of water in the front to toss your coin in. I did so, and it worked because I finally saw the fountain in all its glory in October 2022!

Rome 2014. The Trevi fountain was shut down & full of scaffolding the day before we arrived for a major cleaning and the Cinecitta (Rome's Film Studio) was closed due to renovations, so no tours.