The pure joy of travelling again.

Giverny and The Luxembourg Gardens.

“Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world” – Gustave Flaubert

My home may be here, it may be there, but in-between, little homes created from my suitcase.

I cannot pretend that the luxury of having my things in one place, shall I call it home, welcomes the soul on her return. For a while to stretch out on a bed that is simply my own, open drawers and cupboards to greet the familiar. Cup of tea in the same cup my mum drank tea from. Hand trailing the threads of a well worn throw. Home of history and lovely things.

I play for a while. Working from my grandfather’s desk, water the garden, take down the Christmas things. Bake and cook and put the lemons in the blue bowl. For a very, very trying time of not being able to travel, apart from loved ones and places lusted after, the borders opened up.

Rules as long as the white stream of a jet across the bluest English sky, documents tripled, it was more than a year before my plane took off for Paris. Some fussed at wearing masks and new procedures in place, I did not care, I was flying to family, via Amsterdam to Paris, and onto to London. Travelling with COVID is not easy, there are stops and starts all along the way. Most important is to have your vaccine passport to enter restaurants, bars and other public areas. A mask is compulsory for the same, put it on as you wait for a table, take it off when seated. One gets used to it.

To step out on the Parisian streets, walk her parks and spend a day out of the city, at Giverny and also Versailles was like breathing again. The sound of foreign accents, culture, history, was a revelation.

Not the usual hustle and bustle in the cities one is used to. Oxford Street in London was a sad sight to behold, many shops boarded up and empty, the tourists are still far off returning. In some ways, the quieter streets and museums were more pleasant to explore and dare I say, the repercussions of Brexit clearly evident in the many signs for help for hire. More than once the restaurant of choice was closed in the evenings due to lack of staff.

The Thames still rolls gently, rising and falling with the tide, and in that little has changed - Autumn in the city and countryside spectacular offerings. Did the start of the Christmas season feel a little flat? I guess it did, maybe I am just not that keen to spend on material things this year, values changed, but the lights, ah the Christmas lights and window displays in London still make her the best city to visit at this time of year.

The flight to Cape Town was long, a day flight and I was as usual, hugely impressed with KLM, the Dutch Royal Airline. Movie watching, another mask change and now it is time for the summer. I have managed to travel again, and the desire to fly again soon, is always with me.