What has exceeded your expectations

[DenisetheMenace]

On the back of another thread, what has exceeded your expectations.

If I may, I’ll kick off with The Lost Gardens of Heligan, St. Fagans Museum, Tokyo, Michelangelo’s David, Tintagel and Porthminster Beach Cafe in St. Ives.

Lanzarote. People are so sneery yet it’s absolutely beautiful fantastic beaches and super clean and other worldly. Amazing star gazing too.

The Northern Irish coast around North Antrim and beyond. Best road trip holiday ever.

Thank you @ArcheryAnnie. We're rather taken with her

ohpleasesleepbabysleep oh yes Warsaw is amazing! We went not knowing what to expect when dd was about 10. Gorgeous, fascinating, sophisticated, food was great, weather brilliant. I’d go back.

Venice is probably my top one.
Disney world, I was expecting to like, but it still exceeded my expectations.
Verona arena just sort of blew my mind. I couldn't stop thinking about the history of it.

Radio City Music Hall, NYC

Resistance Museum, Amsterdam

My first reformer Pilates class yesterday. so many muscles are sore today . I think I am a convert. Flat stomach here I come....

Having kids - love being a Mum so much.

My Philips Air frier.

Portable charger

@LunaNorth

Actually, thinking about it, the town I live in.

I knew the town as my kids went to school here, but we lived in the sticks. I moved here with reservations.

But I absolutely LOVE it. I live on a quiet 1950s estate, but within fifteen minutes walk in one direction I’m in a wood, another direction I’m on the Wolds, and in another I’m in the middle of the town. I can pop to the greengrocers, butcher, bank, coffee shop, art galleries, newsagents - we even have a cinema/gig venue and our own music festival.

I can go open-water swimming in a nearby lake, we have nice pubs and restaurants. I even get my milk delivered!

It’s so nice to be part of a community, and to be able to walk around rather than getting in my car every time I need something. We had the opportunity to move a little while back and after looking around, decided that actually, we couldn’t imagine wanting to be anywhere else. A real surprise.

This is the gold standard. I am rather envious! And very happy for you.

The Northern Lights.

My robotic vacuum cleaner.

@theluckiest same - it’s one of my favourite things I’ve ever watched, I’ve only just finished it and can’t wait to watch it again!

Seville
Budapest
Copenhagen

All cheap last minute city breaks that totally exceeded my expectations.

East coast of Australia. I did 5 days of driving north from Brisbane and it was incredible. Wish I’d known how good it was going to be and skipped Sydney/Great Ocean Road/Melbourne and had more time to go as far as Cairns

@TheChosenTwo

I was going to say a type of body scrub for keratosis pilaris but erm, perhaps I’ll just agree with *@MissPerfectlyFine* that Rome exceeded my expectations too

I need to know the body scrub pretty please

Tulum
Twenty five years ago, I cut out a picture of the ruins over looking the beach and stuck it on my fridge. For five years I just looked wistfully at this picture every time I got the milk out. One day, DH (then DP) and I were talking about travel and holidays and wondering where to go and I caught sight of the fridge and said - Tulum. We ended up going to Mexico for six weeks and travelling all over - we stayed in some amazing places - yoga retreats in the jungle, an old palace in Oaxaca and a cool surfer place in Puerto Escondido, but we arrived in Tulum on CHristmas Eve and first thing Christmas morning, we drove this bashed up Beetle to the ruins - about 6am before anyone else got there, and it was everything in the picture and more. The sun was coming up into a cloudless sky, the ruins were beautiful, the ocean was blue and warm and the sand was white. There was this moment where I was floating on my back in the warm caribbean sea with these amazing ancient ruins backlit by a rising sun and I just remember thinking, this is the best moment of my life so far.

Angkor Wat, Cambodia

The Inca Trail and Machu Picchu in Peru. I thought it would be super touristy but it was just stunning and incredible. I'm so glad I did it.

Vietnam.
MONA in Hobart.
The Kimberly in northern Australia (the real red earth Australia like crocodile Dundee. All wild and untameable)

The Great Barrier Reef. I know it's one of the wonders of the world. We've all seen the pictures, the films, I've been snorkelling before. Absolutely nothing like this, it was truly truly mind blowing. We went eight years ago and I still think about it all the time. We've got flights booked for a holiday up there in August and I can't bloody wait to go again (fingers crossed!) and take the kids too. It honestly is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen/done in my life. You can keep your humidity though north Queensland, it's horrendous!

Oh and Pompeii...the history, walking those same streets which are pretty much unchanged was amazing. It was so good we went 2 days in a row, just fantastic.

My Jaguar

Grandchildren

Scuba diving in the Asia where I've seen plants & creatures that I never knew existed, in deep, warm , high visibility water
I still dream about diving

My DH

@fecking i updated last night with a short blurb style review and a photo but essentially it’s the sanctuary hot sugar scrub and a vigorous rubbing action

Wow, such a vast array of places and “things” (for want of a better word ). Really Interesting too how different people experience them in quite different ways.

I though I knew the UK pretty well but there are several places mentioned that I didn’t know existed and can look forward to seeing. Thank you