Kev's Wonders of the World Tour
Cities
ALL CITIES
Toronto
San Fran
 Las Vegas
Catalina
Ensenada
Anchorage
Tokyo
Beijing
Cairo        3/19
Petra        3/23
Prague     3/28
Munich     4/2
Madrid       4/6
Ibiza         4/8
Mallorca   4/9
Granada   4/18
Morocco    4/15
Gibraltar    4/16
Seville      4/17
Barcelona 4/19
Athens     4/22
Mykonos   4/24
Santorini    4/26
Venice       4/29
Florence   5/1
Cinque Terre
Rome       5/5
Helsinki    5/9
Stockhlm  5/15
Oslo         5/21
Dublin      5/27
Edinburgh 6/3
Loch Ness 6/5
London     6/9
Paris        6/16
Brussels   6/19
Amstdam 6/20
New York  6/25
L.A.          6/27 		Las Vegas
OUR CITY OF LIGHTS
I visit Las Vegas twice:  before the EuroMediterranean leg to see the Wonders Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam.  And after to celebrate the Fourth of July and to see how well the Vegas casinos mimic the real landmarks.
NY
Vegas from NY NY Casino 		BEFORE: Las Vegas, our City of Lights, is not too far from two major U.S.Wonders:  the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam.  So I decide to take a quick stop by Vegas.  

Vegas is more like a huge theme park than the old' Sin City rep of the past.  The desert city is all about the huge hotel/casinos. A new themed super hotel blossoms every six months, so if you haven't visited recently, you'll see something new.

I catch a short helicopter tour from the Strip to the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam.

AFTER:  After getting to LA, my family decides to meet up in Vegas for the Fourth of July.   We drive 4 hours from LA, through the desert.  At 112 degrees, Vegas scores the hottest temp recorded on tour.  It's not muggy so I don't melt, but the hot wind (no cool breezes here: the wind feels like a furnace door opening) definitely dries out my eyes.   

We go the top of the Mirage parking garage to watch the fireworks near the Stratosphere.  They are OK, nothing great.  Probably would be better to watch them near the Stratosphere or Stardust.  Guess Vegas is better at New Year's hoopla, leave the Fourth to NY, DC and Boston.  

After the fireworks, I revisit the Vegas hotels, a great reminder of some of the Wonders of the World and landmarks I visited, with the Pyramids, Eiffel Tower and castles all conveniently located on the three-mile strip. It's a much faster way to do a round the world trip cause touring the casinos is free.  The major difference is the Rule of Thirds: monuments are about a third as big as the real things, while the souvenirs cost at least 3 times as much.  Since I just saw the real things, here's a grading scale of how well the casinos mimic the real things.

Las Vegas Casinos as Wonders of the World and Landmark Cities

Other Casinos

Mandalay
Mandalay Bay as SE asia tropics

MGM
Well, MGM is not supposed to be any monument, but where else can you see a huge 30-story high Britney ad for her concert

Mirage
The Mirage volcano erupts at night. recently won a 5-diamond award.
Reality Las Vegas Mimic Rating
(out of 5 )

Pyramids at Cairo

 

 Luxor
Luxor


Well, for one, there ain't no pyramids in Luxor - the Pyramids and Sphinx are near Cairo.  But I guess they didn't name it Cairo cause Luxor sounds more luxurious.  The rows of rams and other sculptures are smaller versions of the ones at Luxor Temple. Souvenirs shops are great, with more stuff than I saw in Cairo- at higher prices.

Neuschwanstein Castle, Munich

 ExcaliburExcalibur
You can see a joust at Excalibur


I'm pretty sure Excalibur is supposed to be an English fantasy castle, but its towers look like Neuschwanstein.  The Medieval dinner joust is fun cause you can eat a turkey drumstick and chunk of broccoli with your hands.  But other than that, not too much to transport you to medieval England.  

Eiffel Tower, Paris

 The Paris
Paris
At the Paris, where restaurant hostesses can say "Bonjour," but that's about it.


The Paris hotel excels at copying the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triumph, etc. But the inside isn't so good. The few cafes don't capture the true spirit of Paris' cafes.  Needs more cafes and little shops in the shopping strip.  And the lighting is weird.  The one highlight: $5.95 fancy dessert crepes are good and about the same price as in Paris

Statue of Liberty, New York

 New York, NYNY
Memorial flowers and flags at the NY NY casino and hotel.


The New York NY casino does a great job on the oustide with a Disneyfied NY skyline featuring the Empire State, Chrysler, and Grand Central.  And a great job on the inside, with a Central Park gambling floor, and a maze-like Greenwich Village shopping area where you can get NY pizza, NYPD T-shirts and Statues of Liberty.  Steam even oozes out of the fake manhole covers here, just like in NY.  And the roller coaster ride races through casino, sounding like the rumble of NY's subways.  Excellent job.

Venice

Rialto Bridge, Venice

 Venetian
Venetian
People get married at the Venetian's gondolas in front of St. Mark's Square


The Venetian copies the Doge's Palace and Rialto Bridge extremely well.  And now,  I even recognize the Bridge of Sighs cause I saw it in Venice.  The highlight is the gondola canals, oustide, and inside winding past pricey shops to the San Marco square.  You can buy Murano glass and masks, just like in Venice.  Highlight is a gelato shop - the gelato's not as good as in Venice, but hey, it feeds my gelato fix fine.

Colosseum in Rome
Rome's Colosseum and Victory from the Louvre

 Caesar's PalaceCaesars Palace
Hail Caesar at Caesar's Palace


Caesar's columns, fountains and statues do a great job imitating Rome's.  They're even building a new Colosseum performance hall for Celine Dion's permanent  March 2003 debut.  But I couldn't find a good Italian style pizza, tartuffo, or the Spanish Steps to hang out on. 
Museums
Yes, ya read that right, museums.  In Vegas.  Along with trendy upscale restaurants, Vegas continues its upscale culture trend with a few museums.  The Venetian has TWO Guggenheim museums.  Still in museum mode, I visit the 
  • Guggenheim-Hermitage museum to see works on loan from the famous Hermitage in St. Petersburg.  I couldn't go to Russia from Helsinki cause I didn't have a visa, so it's nice to be able to see at least a few works now.   I guess I learned something going to all those museums in Europe, cause now I can now painting-spot the brushstrokes of Matisse and Picasso from across the room, much to the annoyance of whoever I'm museum-hopping with methinks.  
  • The other Guggenheim museum features funky Gehry architecture and is showing the Art of the Motorcycle exhibit which ends soon
  • I swing by the classy Bellagio, which has a museum featuring some Calder sculptures

After fireworks and fancy paintings in Vegas, back to Los Angeles 

Aladdin
The Aladdin features an indoor rain fall

Bellagio
The high class Bellagio featured in Ocean's 11