Joshua Jay has just written a thought provoking piece in Magic Magazine. He notes that art critic Michael Kimmelman has suggested that everyone should go on a pilgrimage to see an important piece of art.
I think it’s an interesting idea, and so thought it would be good for everyone to answer this question – where would you go on your pilgrimage? It might be somewhere connected with your religion (or lack of it); your love of theatre, film or art; your hobby; somewhere that you have always wanted to visit or someone that you have always wanted to meet; or perhaps something to do with your family history or personal life.
Either way, let’s share ideas for destinations and see where we all end up!
Richard Wiseman 
Places in Nepal!
Kennedy Space Center
Fun! My favorite road trips in my lifetime have been great quests to absurd destinations. A boyfriend and I once pilgrimaged to a little Florida swampy hick town which reeked of paper mill that was experiencing a wave of bigfoot sightings. The locals named the alleged creature the “Bardin Booger”. Bardin was the name of the little town. We did it mostly as a joyride, but when we got there we were very excited to find taped to the town’s lone general store a hand written sign that said, “No wet crick feet.” They were cashing in on their sightings. I bought a nylon cap that had a picture of a swamp bigfoot holding a lantern that said “Bardin Booger.” Awesome day.
I favor ironic or absurd destinations, but if I had to choose something serious it would be a tour of CERN.
The himalayas!
I would go to the town Mostar in Bosnia and walk upon the rebuilt bridge. I have only seen its ruins, and it would mean a lot to me emotionally to see it restored to pre-war glory. That particular town with that particular bridge has had a lasting effect on my entire life. I would bring my ex-wife and a few other persons who have not seen the bridge restored, but who witnessed the devastation back then.
I don´t know for sure if I could do it, though. I think I would be crying all the time.
NorthEast ArnhemLand (Oz)… craddle of the Yidaki !
Vegas to see Penn & Teller perform.
Abbey Road
Easter Island. Don’t know why, probably cos it’s both very remote and very iconic.
I consider all travel that involves engaging with the landscape, culture and/or people to be a form of pilgrimage.
Some of the more consciously pilgrimish travel I have done, though, included going to Down House where Darwin lived and walking along the gravel path where he thought about evolution, and having a conversation about evolution. I think the re-enactment element was important there.
Another example was going to Canterbury Cathedral. I am not a Christian but I find the story of Thomas a Becket moving, and I like Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and Jean Anouilh’s play Becket.
Visiting stone circles always feels like a pilgrimage to me. They are beautiful and numinous places.
Olduvai Gorge.
The Scottish Islands. I’m Scottish and I’ve never been to Mull or Iona and I’d love to walk the rugged landscape on a granite grey day with the wind battering and bagpipes playing in my ipod. Oh, I’m welling up…
the world stone skimming championships on Scotland’s Easdale Island. Great location to do something silly
Scrovegni Chapel, Padova (Italy) to see Giotto’s frescos.
I already go on a pilgrimage every day, since I am surrounded by blank walls.
Bletchley Park.
MITs AI lab.
And the bedroom of the bloke who wrote Tetris.
I flew from London to Glasgow to see AC/DC perform.
I would prefer a pilgrimage to an “atheist temple” …
I, unfortunately, don’t understand what the point of a pilgrimage is, so I don’t have anywhere in mind to go to.
Does it have something to do with the feeling of accomplishment after arriving at a goal following an arduous effort? If so, I’d rather spend that effort on something useful rather than on walking.
Every year, at Christmas time, I apply the melted Hertel wax upon the sacred Kneisels and travel to Alta Ski Resort in the mountains high above the Great Salt Lake and ski the Supreme lift until Sunset.
My son attends university in another country. He currently has an exhibit up called, “Look Ma, No God! Blasphemous Scrawlings.” I would love to be there.
I would leave everything and go for a walk all over Latin America. It would be my personal pilgrimage.
By this definition, I take several pilgrimages to London each year, to see plays and performances by artists I love.
I did my pilgrimage earlier this year: Hamelin Pool in Western Australia to see the stromatolites.
For a piece of art, I would go to the Hague to see Vermeer’s Girl Wit A Pearl Earring. Favourite painting ever…
But since the journey is not that attractive to me, my real pilgrimage would be to Japan. Can temples, moutains, and breathtaking landscapes be considered as “natural” art ?…
World Gurning Championships, Egremont. Because I’m going there on Saturday 🙂
along the 900 kilometres (560 mi) of the patrol road of the former “Inner German border”…
Italy to visit places that have to do with Leonardo da Vinci
Athens, to visit places connected to Aristotles
A pilgrimage is always associated with physical places which is fine. I would love to go to Varanasi, Nepal or South America and experience what they have to offer.
But, we can all go on our own personal pilgrimage if we choose…Clear our minds for some time and meditate and experience ourselves….
Then book a flight!!!!
Amsterdam. Coffeeshops! 😀
Hmmm. I used to do a pilgrimage to there, and always stayed in a crazy little place called The Last Watering Hole. Wow.
I was young, dumb, and full of bhang.
Wow, nobody said Compostella! I would definitely do the long walk from France.
No one’s said anything religious at all – unless you count ‘Look Ma, No God!’ (yep, that one gets my vote too!)
Compostella is mostly walked just by non religious people nowadays. And I wouldn’t do it for religion either.
Oops! There’s an extra “just” in my previous comment and no edit feature.
There are several routes to do Compostella pilgrimage depending where you come from, all of them are interesting!
I went to see Banksy in Bristol.
I’ve already been. St. Andrews, Scotland, the Home of Golf.
@Erik R. would you then maybe make your pilgrimage then to the Augusta National for the Masters….I’m a stones throw from there!
New York City, Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza. Stephen King’s “The Dark Tower” saga is the most important book of my life, and whoever read the story knows that’s a special place.
What a brilliant suggestion! I love those books. Totally overblown but incredibly fun and so moving.
I second that motion.
Ireland for sure…I wish I were well enough to still try and go!
Hi lila. Missed your fun ramblings at the weekend. It’s cold, wet and windy here in Ireland this morning – so you’re not missing much today anyway.
Rusty you are in Ireland?! Did I know that? lol I started a new med…chemo wasn’t feeling too great but working on feeling better…working on rambling more soon…lol…but cold wet and even windy sounds good….I like the cold better than the hot temps been having here….by end of week we will have broken a few records for longest number days over 90 degrees! Trade ya!
Yep, Lila, in Belfast (hadn’t said) – that’s why I objected to Richard caving in to the sheep’s demands for segregation!
I’d noticed you mention chemo meds, so was looking out for you at the weekend – horrible, but hope the new stuff does the job.
My no 2 was in Washington on Independance Day this year – he’d never experienced heat like it! And you’re nearer the equator! Swapsies? No thanks! I’ll stick here where it’s cold & wet (&therefore green) but no dangerous animals!
A Gutenberg Bible – several relativly nearby my place hiere in Germany.
I’ve always wanted to go to Western Australia and see the stromatolites.
To Marinaleda
If its a pilgrimage, then its gotta be Japan!
1. Greece, to see the Acropolis, Parthenon, etc.
2. Italy, to see the Sistine Chapel, the Coliseum, etc.
(basically, an art museum/architecture tour of Europe)
3. The Galapagos Islands
To the Institute of Geology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences to see my favourite fossil, the “Fighting Dinosaurs”
http://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2009/05/22/a-bit-on-the-%E2%80%98fighting-dinosaurs%E2%80%99/
Café Procope, of course. Diderot’s favourite haunt and the place where the idea for “Encyclopédie” was born!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caf%C3%A9_Procope
I’m not a religious person (I don’t believe in God), but I do love architecture and churches tend to be good at that. I love Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire, and one of my favorite places on earth is the North transept of York Minster about half an hour before sunset, when the light is beautiful. St Paul’s in London is an exhilarating place to be, too.
And of course, Stonehenge.
I would go to the Parthenon as it is the iconic symbol of ancient greece, widly regarded as the cradle of civilization, where what our world and our society means began to form, perhaps even some of the most integral aspects of what it means to be human. Also some of the advances made in those times are most evident there, mathamatics, engeneering, architechture, displaying the wonders we humans are capeable of.
However, to me it is also a reminder of the worst of humankind. Greek myth is riddled with the cruel actions of the gods, all seemingly selfish, spiteful, and with naught but contempt for human life. And they were worshiped. Ancient greece could just as justifiably called barborous as wonderful, with a slave trade, and the murder of people for their beliefs, a famous examble being Socretes.
Travel to see all the known Vermeer paintings. And a behind-the-scenes tour of the Sistine Chapel.
My pilgramage this year was to the Big Chill Festival, where I joined 800 others to become part of an art work, not just seeing one. We stripped off, and painted ourselves before Spencer Tunick photographed us in various formations. One of these depicted the BP oil spill (I was part of the oil!)
I can honestly say the experience has changed me- it was so liberating and fun. Unfortunately for my 17 year old daughter, I am dying to strip off again,given the opportunity!
way cool…..way, way cool!
A kind of “pilgrimage” was, when i walked up to an alpine pass, while pushing my bycicle on site. It was every time a new challenge. While i was doing this “sport”, i had time to think about so many things and also about the creation…
As an English major and former theatre major, I declared Shakespeare’s Globe in London to be my personal Mecca YEARS ago.
Though I’m good with anywhere in the UK. 😉
Odd pilgrimage that was inspired by the wonderful Weird New Jersey Magazine. There is an old man”s bar in Lambertsville, NJ that is renowned as the “Boner Bar.” The former owner had every variety of phallus from horseshoe crab to raccoon to monkey mounted on a wall. That and cheap drinks!
The Amazon basin rainforests, the Forests of New Guinea or Borneo.
At some stage to go to Niederweisel in Germany where part of my paternal DNA comes from
To me a pilgrimage is something other than a fun trip. My pilgrimage would be Auschwitz. I don’t expect it to be a pleasant experience, but some things must never be forgotten.
Walnut Grove in Minnesota!
My daughters are crazy about the Little House on the Prairie series. We spent hours and hours watching the DVD’s (on rainy afternoons, of which we have plenty in The Netherlands). Would be great to see how Laura Ingalls actually lived.
Machu Picchu.
Shame that tourism causes erosion and other types of destruction.
What an incredible place, though.
1. Anywhere suitable to get a really good view of the Aurora Borealis
2. Solar Eclipse
3. The best dark and clear sky location possible to see the full majesty of the Milky Way.
In 2008, I went to the Bonneville Salt Flats during Speed Week. That was a pilgrimage for the incurable hot rodder and speed freak in me.
In 2009, I went to Ethiopia to adopt my son. That was something of a pilgrimage too, to the place where human kind began.
I would still love to go to the Kennedy Space Center, to see the Apollo 11 launch pad: the place where we took our first wobbly step out of the cradle.
I know I’ll be back to Bonneville a few times, probably with my son. I know I will take him back to Ethiopia when he’s older, to see his home land. Maybe we’ll stop by Florida on our way home….
What’s the difference here between a pilgrimage and a regular trip?
Well, I’m not English, but I understand pilgrimage is going somewhere walking or by bycicle, at a low speed so you can arrive to the place after doing some route.
I would go to upstate New York to see the stone VW. I have a book that features a picture of it and I have spoken, once, to the artist on the phone. Although, not a true religious pilgrimage, that is where I would go.
To Hadfield (where the League of Gentlemen was filmed). In fact, I did do. Turns out it isn’t far at all from Sheffield, where I live and I pretty much drive past it to get to my parents’ house on the other side of the pennines. 🙂
I’d go to Egypt to check out all the ancient art and hieroglyphics. Mystifying culture!
Anywhere that is really hard to get to. Life is too easy for most of us.
I would also love to see another total eclipse of the sun.
I’ve already been to Arnhem Land, so that’s off my list. The pilgrimage I’d love to make next is to Borobudur.
I knew the answer to this straight away.
James Turrell
Roden Crater project
Even though it is not open to the public yet!
For the Art side of things I would like to go and see a Ballet- Probably Coppelia but I would want it performed by the top dancers of all time.
For the Spiritual I would want to go to the Canadian wilderness- I have only seen pictures and it looks amazing. I think if you are somewhere that beautiful that is natural it must have some sort of effect on how you think about God, Life, the World and Everything!
Aside from the topic, that picture is of Elizabeth Castle which lies just off the coast of the island of Jersey – where I live! Not that anyone will share in my amusement, but the idea of people going on a pilgrimage there jollies me!
That’s all. In terms of a pilgrimage, off the top of my head I’d quite like to visit some of the old haunts of the beat generation of poets and writers. Maybe even a coast to coast road trip; staying in the Chelsea Hotel at some point along the way.
CERN or the Andes
Newton’s home, where he “invented” physics in 1666-1667.
The Cavendish lab, where Rutherford (and Geiger and Marsden) conducted the gold foil experiment.
Fermilab, Brookhaven, SLAC and CERN.
I’ve already done this. I took my daughter to Paris to find all of the places from her Madeline books (she was 8 at the time). We spent 7 hours in the Lourve because we had to see the Mona Lisa (she got 3 days in disneyland as a reward). I have also taken all of my family to see the sistine chapel and every building of significance in Italy, Germany, Austria and France. We’ve also trooped to the British Museum so we can have an appreciation of all of the stolen art stored there. I prefer buildings over paintings – but I take the kids to all of the art shows and performances as well.
Liverpool , Anfield specifically. Always wanted to watch Liverpool Football club live. Hopefully in a derby match
Wealthy and traveling where ever and whenever I want with my doggie, plus helping get dogs fixed, and those that need homes, and organizations that do thus and such.
Three years ago I went to San Francisco on a holiday road trip and ended up in the City Lights bookstore. I realized it was an important place for me as I grew up reading the Beats. At Big Sur we stopped at the Henry Miller museum and I also felt quite moved. I had undertaken a pilgrimage without realizing it.