Apr. 4: Plinky ~ “Meh” landmarks

The Plinky prompts come into my feed reader every morning, but I so rarely have good answers. I like today’s prompt, though, and although my definition of “good answer” might be questionable, I decided to play along. Because it’s me, I can’t leave my answer at just ONE—I have many. It’s how I do.

What landmark did you find disappointing when you saw it in person?

Sometimes a picture's worth a thousand words, but an in-person visit isn't worth the $5 entry fee.

It’s much easier for me to think of the landmarks that were even MORE impressive in person—the Golden Gate Bridge, the Las Vegas Strip, the Gateway Arch, the Eiffel Tower, Buckingham Palace—so Victor and I had much discussion over our answers to this question. One we both agreed upon:

manneken-pis (Brussels, Belgium)

Manneken-Pis (the peeing little boy statue) was cool to see in person, but it was disappointing because it is placed quite inelegantly at the corner of a building and could easily be missed if not for the constant crowd around it.

The dude is only two feet tall, making him even less impressive. As much as this little guy is imitated throughout the world—made into goofy souvenirs like corkscrews, etc.—you’d think the statue would be, well, life-size, at least. And the way Europe makes huge statues of even questionably significant people, I’m pretty sure someone read the Manneken-Pis blueprints wrong. I doubt we were the only people ever to arrive at the Manneken-Pis landmark and say, “OK, that’s cute. Now, where’s the real one?”

Speaking of piss, my next answer is going to piss people off, pro’lly…

Epcot (Walt Disney World, Florida)

Epcot is divided into two parts: Future World and World Showcase. Future World is your typical Disney theme park—characters everywhere, fun rides, gift shops. We like that half of Epcot. The back half of the park is World Showcase, and the part you typically hear about. Eleven countries are represented in individual “pavilions” with shops, food service, and exhibits. From across the water in Future World, World Showcase looks pretty cool. There’s an Eiffel Tower, a Norwegian church, a Japanese pagoda, and other landmark-y types of things.

But that’s the view from afar. Ultimately, World Showcase, if you ask us, is not much more than a big, stupid food court.

Keep in mind that on our first visit to Epcot we had recently returned from Europe, and we (foolishly) expected the ethnic food to be somewhat authentic. We skipped over the Canadian and U.K. pavilions and went straight to France for a bit of those delicious pastries and chocolat we had enjoyed so much in Paris months before. But the Epcot French pastries tasted like Hostess pastries, and the chocolate tasted suspiciously Hershey’s-like. Edible, yes. Authentic? Ha! Not. Even. Close.

Further disenchantment came when Darlene pointed out Korean items being sold in the Japan pavilion. Actually, we didn’t find that disenchanting so much as hilarious. Leave it to Disney to assume no one will notice.

Being that Victor and I are lovers of most things Disney, our un-love of the whole back half of Epcot was unexpected. When we went back three years later, we didn’t even venture into that part of the park BECAUSE IT IS SO STUPID.

Willamette Falls (Oregon City/West Linn, Oregon)

One of our local landmarks, we see Willamette Falls most often on the news when there’s flooding. During our city-wide flood in 1996, they repeatedly showed a houseboat going over the falls—way cool (because it wasn’t ours). At that time the water levels were so high, the falls were hardly even falling.

There are all sorts of things about Willamette Falls that should be impressive: in the US it’s third behind Niagara Falls in volume of water (or somethin’ like that), it’s the largest waterfall in the Northwest, its height is only 42 feet and it’s still considered “huge.” There are even more big-deal statistics, but I’m too lazy to look them up. So why is this landmark disappointing? Well, here’s a good picture of Willamette Falls:

Beautiful, isn’t it?

But unless you’re right on the river, Willamette Falls never looks like that. In fact, from the most convenient viewpoint (on I-205), it almost always looks like this:

See what I mean? Meh.

London, England

This was a disappointing city overall, not a disappointing landmark. I thought London was exceptionally filthy, people were unfriendly, and I absolutely hated the architecture. I didn’t like how there were new, modern buildings next to cathedrals and government buildings that were many hundreds of years old. And the London Eye, that ginormous Ferris wheel! Who let the city planners do all that? Crazy people, that’s who. Although the landmarks themselves were incredible, I did not like the way they fit into the city. Buckingham Palace was an exception, as it literally (and figuratively) stands on its own, surrounded by beautiful grounds.

Mill Ends Park (Portland, Oregon)

Mill Ends Park is the smallest city park in the world, as recognized by the Guinness Book of Records, and located right here in Portland. I’m not really disappointed in this landmark, because how could it be impressive? It’s supposed to be small. What disappoints me is how difficult it is to get a good look at it, as it’s located on a busy parkway and easy to miss and I drive too fast and also sometimes forget to even look for it.

(It’s possible that one’s just me.)

What’s your answer to this Plinky prompt?