TRAVEL - single special memory of a place you've been?

Hmmm - so many memories, of relatively little travel.

OK - I love history and English literature - so, Westminster Abbey is a sacred site for me.

When I went it was just before the summer tourist explosion in London. There were a couple of groups wandering around, led by the inevitable guide - but there was plenty of space for me to meander at will, encapsuled in my own little world.

I came across many things that moved me immensely, but two brought me to tears. One was coming across Chaucer's tomb - (sadly, as I recall, without his body - but still...) - and being able to touch something so old and so connected with this wonderful writer, whose words come down through the centuries with such freshness and delight.

The other was Elizabeth I's tomb, with her lovely effigy - and the little inscription nearby mentioning that Mary Tudor's body is also interred somewhere in the vicinity - and speaking of them as two sisters divided in life but united in death - I was quite transfixed...such a coming together of history and the joys of the writers of the period - tears again.

Hey, Bunny - good yarn! What about the "drop of sweat" story?

Hmmmmm - again?

Paris as a pimpled youth with golden girl, April romance......

...sigh.....

Sunset in March in Sweden and Denmark

staying at a fancy hotel on the Costa Del Sol, got on a local bus going into the nearby mountainsn an hours drive perhaps, a small village and i got off the bus, in the center, the plaza, a small cafe 2 or 3 tables in the sunshine, i had a coffee as a farmer walked by on his way home from his fields, he sat down beside me, had a glass of wine, we talked, "come" he said, "we shall eat" and we walked the half a block to his home, a walled street with only doors opening from the solid walls to note the home inside. We ate, he and his wife and I, then sat on the patio in the back with our coffee and cigars, i caught the bus back to town.

Sitting in PK's Cafe in San Augustine for breakfast. At a nearby table was some regulars, among them a former mayor of that beautiful city. As the local artist walked by their table he asked the ex-mayor " Hey Pete, what's on your plan for today?" The mayor answered "Well, john, I'm going to sit here and talk to beautiful people all day."

That's what I want to do too, when I retire!

Sitting by a fire made of donkey dung, 4200 metres up in the Himalayas, where we were trekking. It was night, so the only lights I could see were the fire and the most beautiful stars - so clear and unpolluted - the milky way looking very milky!

I was listening to "Nothing compares 2U" by Sinead O'Connor on headphones.

I felt so far away from everything that I thought "A nuclear war could take place and I wouldn't even know". Strange to say, on our bus back to civilisation and away from altitude sickness, I was informed that the preparations for hostilities in Iraq (Gulf War 1990) had just started.

My special memory is still with me, it refers to my travel to Afghanistan in 1982-86 in framework of my service in the Soviet Army. It is a little scar on my left forearm, resulting from the hand grenade fragment.

Lying on a cool smooth rock on a desert mesa in southern Utah at night. The sky was crystal clear, the stars were amazing. But, what's that? One is zipping across the sky! Nope, it wasn't a meteor, it was a satalite. The first time I'd seen one. Made me think about how thin and precious our atmosphere is.

:wink: Thats very nice littlek

littlek,

I saw my first shooting stars on a beach in Sardinia - it was a night to remember...skinny dipping in water with those plankton that glow when you move them, too!

I had a very similar night by Hampton Bays last summer - we watched the moon come up and move further and further from it's shadow in the water!

Hmmm....KP

Nice

Another moment was a day or two after I moved to Santa Fe. I'd just spent a rocky month and a half with my crazy aunt in LA. I got to SF alone, 2 friends showed up a day later. I drove out of town and down a dirt road. I wound up at a little tiny canyon at a tributary to the Rio Grande. I crept into the little split, climbed up on a rock, looked up at the stony walls. I felt like I'd returned to the womb. I was moved to tears. There were canyon wrens flitting about making their beautiful music and there were sage and pine sap smells in the air.

Wonderful stories, people!

Hiama - Paris and a girl, eh?! What happened to her - to you? What's happening, now? You probably can afford a better class of wine now....

NewHaven - Sweden and Denmark are stunning, aren't they. That's my plan for this year - the midnight sun in the north of Sweden, with some friends. (the good Lord and GWBush willing!) I remember seeing snow falling for the first time drivin from Sweden to Norway - driving along with a mad friend who was trying to video a glacier as he drove

dyslexia - Spain is fascinating - you probably don't need the suggestion I made on your thread about Andalusia - always worth a trip...

Bigdice - I think you were probably born to do that - all you have to do now is find the right place! (Pretty outgoing for a Swede!)

KP - I haven't tried the Himalayas or Sardinia, but they sound great. So much to see; so little time! Nepal was probably wondrous place to be before the start of the Gulf War - times very like now! Hmmm - consider Nepal???

Steissd - your special memory is a tad unpleasant - have you ever been struck by the wonder of something, a scene, a sunset, the most beautiful thing you've seen?

Lil K - wonderful memories - and they're there - always, just below the surface. No need to look for videos, photo albums, just think!

Another place that stands out in my memory is Glendalough, in Ireland. I had always intended to get there, but knew little about it. Ireland being as it is, it's just so easy to get distracted and wander off in another direction. So, I finally get to Glendalough, late, on my last night in Ireland, after a day of driving across the country.

I was prepared for a pretty little mountain and water scene. What I found was the most stunning stillness - that just settled over me like a blanket of peace. There was a slight haze on the water in the twilight. Some ducks were sailing along. The light seemed to be magic. I stayed until it was dark - who needs a feed? I was absolutely enthralled with the place, and yet I hardly moved from where I first saw it. It's part of my plan to get back there soon, too.

Which brings up another point - can you go back? Is it as good the second time? What do you think?

Margo what a host you are-thank you.

The golden girl I took to Paris told me during our trip that she was actually going out with another guy and she was dumoing me. I had two choices -sulk or get laid. I leave you to guess the outcome, suffice to say it takes a lot to make me sulk.

On the topic of Denmark and Sweden I experienced a great example of human friendship and open-ness whilst hitch hiking around Sweden after finishing my first degree.

Me and my friend from College were getting nowhere it was late at night and we had been waiting at the side of the road from our last lift for 3 hours. A BMW pulls up with a gorgeous blonde lady in it, a few years older than us, we were 21 and 23 respectivley, she was around 30. She offers to put us both up for the weekend at her weekend cabin. It transpires she is sharing it with her brother and pregnant girlfriend. We had the most wonderful weekend-barbecues, an elk hunt-just looking-no guns I do not believe in killing anything, my buddhist philosophy of life, we went skinny dipping in a very cold lake.

In matters of a carnal nature I drew a blank being a mere baby, the smile on my friend's face told me he was rather more lucky.

Great people, beautiful country, marvellous hospitality-what can I say.

Hiama - I'm really looking forward to Sweden - the midsommar festivities, etc. But my Kiwi friend Neil, who lives there, is as mad as a cut snake, so there's always something odd happeniing. S'alright. Odd things happen to me anyway.

I'm just trying to decide on another place for a week - it's a bloody long way to travel just for a week or so of midsummer fun!

Can you go back? I went back to that canyon many times after the first. Turns out it is a big party spot (haha!). We brought out generators and had a band play once. It was always magical, but not quite so magical as the first time I happened upon it.

New Mexico is filled with magic - it's not lie when they call it the land of enchantment.

You can never go back little k, the momnet has gone.

Margo- try the Uk we are OK