The beauty of travel is that the memories can be just as enjoyable (sometimes more!) than the actual travelling itself.
My home has travel memories embodied in a range of different objects.
A framed poster of a Matisse cut-out promoting London’s Tate Gallery (from back when there was only one Tate before the re-imagining of the Bankside Power Station into the Tate Modern). I’ve always admired how Matisse moved from working with paint to paper and scissors during the last decade of his life. A great reminder that as our lives and abilities change, we can continue to enjoy what has always been important to us – but perhaps just in a different way.
The book about architect Frank Lloyd Wright that I bought while visiting his Chicago home and studio. I was so awed that day to experience this extraordinary example of the 20th Century created by a man born not long after the middle of the 19th Century.
And then there’s the globe itself. The one I grew up with. The one with enormous expanses of pink symbolising Britain’s wide-ranging influence. The one with the U.S.S.R.
A lot can change in one person’s lifetime!
Many friends of mine are travelling at the moment. Enjoying the pleasures of summer in the Northern hemisphere. I love to see their photos on social media and live a little vicariously through their adventures and discoveries.
But, for now, I’m content to be just an armchair traveller. My travel memories are all around me in my home and in an instant I can feel like I’m there again.
Of course, from my armchair my travel memories are all of sunny, happy days with beautiful food and no blisters!