FAVOURITE PLACES

As the years tumble by, as my creaky joints get creakier and my old back bends like a wind-swept willow, I come to accept that there are many famous sights, that I will not in person ever visit.  I shall not melt to the Taj Mahal by moonlight, nor traipse down the Great Wall of China, nor climb up to the Inca shrine of Machu Picchu in Peru. I know these are sights which should feature on my “bucket list” to be seen before I kick the aforesaid receptacle. But actually I prefer my pleasures close to home, close enough for only a short hop, close to a convivial pub and close to a well-equipped NHS hospital. In defiance, I may speak disparagingly of the great global sights, speculating that they will be knee-deep in tourists stretching out their arms to take their endless “selfies”, spoiling the picture by including their own florid, grinning physogs. How sympathetic I feel towards those celebrities, like Pope Francis, Obama, Cameron (RIP), or Sam Allardyce (RIP), entrapped by the impertinent and pushy faithful, electors or fans, impossible to offend, who have to embellish the “selfie” with their own inane grimaces, uneasily knowing the selfie will become someone’s cherished family heirloom!

I personally have lived in Aberdeenshire, London, The Cotswolds, Athens, Samos and Folkestone; photos of each of my favourite places give you a flavour:

Feuch from the Bridge of Feuch, Banchory

Golders Hill Park, North London

 

Bourton-on-the-Water, Cotswolds

Mount Hymettus and Kaiseriani Monastery, Athens

So the torrential Feuch, with salmon leaping upstream in season, in matchless Deeside gives way to a push-chair lugging or dog-walking paradise in manicured Golders Hill Park, followed by tranquil Bourton, very near where we lived in the Cotswolds. Mount Hymettus is well-wooded and overlooks our Athens home, dominating the eastern suburbs. The peaceful bay of Avlakia, where I swam a few weeks ago, epitomises the joys of Aegean Samos, while The Grand, on The Leas at Folkestone, whose promenade I meander down, is the 1899 icon of traditional sea-side establishments.

The bay of Avlakia, Samos

The Grand, Folkestone, Kent

Of course all of us have our favourite places. One friend loves gardens and scours Southern England, and even France, to savour them. Another finds pleasure in the incomparable coast and valleys of West Wales: while yet another rides on horseback round his finca in Costa Rica, replete with her uniquely rich flora and fauna. The Northern joys of the gentle Pentlands and Lothian entrances another. All my readers will cherish some corner of their existence – by all means tell me about them. Most, I fancy, will be within 20 miles of their own front door.

Some of us are lucky enough to know well some places where a brief walk brings you face to face with buildings and monuments of historical significance and often of beauty too. I am thinking of delicious times I spent in Oxford, The City of London and Plaka in Athens – all very special to me and to all visitors.

In all the world there must be favourite places, intrinsically or by association, close to every person. I imagine a lovelorn swain, even, say, in benighted North Korea, who can join long-gone Donald Peers in his signature tune:

In a shady nook, by a babbling brook

That’s where I fell in love with you!

SMD

29.09.16

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2016