On a Clear Day…

We are talking about places we’ve always wanted to visit…and why.
Where WOULDN’T I want to go? I haven’t had much chance to travel. I have seen a lot of America just going back and forth, traveling through, although not well into New England, nor to the Pacific coast. I’d like to go there, to both areas.
I have friends around the world now and have invitations to almost all continents,(I don’t know any penguins), but many places are never going to happen, at least, not until or unless I see Europe.

I realize that Europe is big and diverse and choosing would be hard. But here is where my thoughts lie:

I wanted very much to be an archaeologist. I read many books on the subject, but ancient civilizations are what really grab me, so Greece is near the top of my list as there is so much there, so much already found. I won’t be doing any digging, I resigned myself to that a long time ago.

I’d go to Ireland in a heartbeat. We have been exploring the Irish side of the family. We can’t find the direct link yet, but I wouldn’t wait to find it to go.

So much of the entire continent is so rich in differing cultures, it would be heartbreaking for me to go and not see everything. I am completely unlike Colin Farrell’s character in “In Bruge”(!) I want to look at the old buildings and see the charm everywhere, such as the old, relatively preserved cities such as Prague, Budapest, Istanbul, or the lesser visited ruins in Macedonia, or the ancestral homes of my husband’s Austrio-Hungarian / Croatian-Slovenian roots, then there is Switzerland, the tiny countries and Scandinavia, especially to go to Norway to see the fjords. (Have you read the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” books? In one the “Designer of Earth” asked the main character if he had ever seen the fjords, because he had won an award for those!)

Goodness! You’d have to give me a month just to glance at everything in Germany.

Italy is a no-brainer. My mother’s parents and some of her siblings were ‘off-the-boat’. Even though my grandmother’s village in Umbria was destroyed in the 1976 earthquake, I’d still like to find relatives. And you want to talk history? This is also my husband’s first choice. Few places are as rich in continual history as Rome and he could banter religion at the Vatican. So Italy was always top on my list but…

A few years ago I saw a documentary on El Museo Nacional del Prado; The Prado.

Of course Italy has art everywhere and France has the Louvre, (and many more charms, I am sure). There is great art all over Europe, but I was blown away by what I saw on the DVD. You take the Prado, the incredible architecture, crocus fields and diverse regions and I would never turn down a chance to go to Spain.

Some years ago a reporter visited Melanie Griffith at her home at the southernmost tip of Spain. As they gazed across the Strait of Gibraltar she said, “On a clear day, you can see Africa”. For some reason, that struck a chord in me. I would LOVE to stand in Spain and be able to see Africa. I may have to wait a long time there for clear enough weather, but I would love to do it.
A side note: My niece decided that “On a clear day, you can see Africa” would be a pretty good euphemism…clearly she was thinking of Melanie’s husband, Antonio Banderas.

So although I wouldn’t be going with Antonio, put me down for Europe, especially if it’s a clear day at Gibraltar.

Anyone care to join me?

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