Were you ever disappointed?

I have been gluten free for years and was delighted when I saw that Morrison’s had produced a gluten free version of iced buns that I occasionally enjoyed from the baker’s shop. I was bitterly disappointed. They were completely tasteless apart from the icing being far too sweet. I suppose my tastes must have changed.

I have to agree that Cadbury's chocolate has changed and does not taste the way it did years ago, it leaves a nasty after taste. I no longer buy any Cadbury products.

The Eiffel Tower. I’d built it up way too much in my head. When I went to Paris with school it was closed for renovation. The second time because of a strike. The third time, strike again but one leg was open. I queued for well over an hour and forked out a goodly sum for the privilege of being crammed into a small smelly lift so tightly packed I could barely breathe, shouted at by a stroppy Madame as I was swept into her by the crowd behind me and underwhelmed by a view I could barely see.

And Juliet’s balcony in Verona. Again queuing for ages to stand on it so that DH could get a photo of me waving from way up there. Which he did, allegedly. When we zoomed in on it later he’d actually snapped an old man with white hair wearing the same colour top as me.

My first visit to London when I was seven was a disappointment in almost every way. Buckingham Palace? It didn’t even have turrets. Piccadilly Circus? Definitely not a circus, no clowns or trapeze artists in sight. 10 Downing Street? Just a terraced house that didn’t even have a front garden. I wasn’t impressed by any of them.

St Peters Rome and the Sistine Chapel. Jammed in cheek by jowl and only allowed to see a small part of St Peter’s. Hot and airless, can appreciate the skill in the paintings but they’re not to my taste. Loved everything else about Rome.

The Little mermaid in Copenhagen. Very small, wouldn’t look at it twice if it wasn’t so well known. Even the Danes said it was a disappointment.

I love a cream tea. There’s a well known outdoor tea rooms near me and we finally got to visit a couple of years ago. The best raspberry jam ever but the scones were not fresh. Crumbly and dry. To cap it all we were besieged by wasps!

Chestnut

If you go back somewhere you knew from the past then be prepared to see the 21st century version of the place you love, more traffic, more people, new buildings, who knows?
The past is another country.
They do things differently there.

And supermarket food is never going to compare with a proper bakery version, although I've even had bakeries selling tasteless stuff these days.

I have many times been disappointed by cakes/cup cakes sold in tea rooms or coffee shops. My daughters both make the most wonderful cakes, light, fluffy and very flavoursome, whereas these taste of nothing but sugar. No flavour whatsoever.

Chestnut I find myself in agreement with you on so many subjects. You have said what I was going to say .Also foods today have less sugar or salt which makes them more tasteless sadly.
I have sometimes visited a place which I liked in the past and found it so altered, which given time of course it would be.
everywhere is crowded now.

Prentice Yes, the crowds are everywhere. I used to spend a lot of time in Cambridge in the 1960s but when I see it now there are hoards of tourists everywhere and the peaceful atmosphere has been lost.