Stop staring

I started staring at the Niesen in 2009, before our apartment was even built, looking across from the building site in anticipation of the vistas to come. 

Then, for eleven years, I stared at the Niesen from our terrace -  morning, noon and evening; spring, summer, autumn and winter; sun, rain and snow - often paralysed by the beauty. 

Under the spell of the Niesen I watched my daughter grow, from a nine year old girl playing pretend with our neighbour's children, through the adolescent school years, to now an adult university graduate. The memories of place and people will remain entwined.

But now I no longer stare at the Niesen. The apartment is empty of our things. The trucks were loaded, to drive off to new vistas. I turned around for one last look.

Venice

This week I watched as England were defeated by Italy on penalties in the final of Euro 2020. If one is going to be beaten, then better to be beaten by people as civilised as the Italians. I thought back to my visit in February 2014 to Venice, a city built on islands, which shows the achievements of man at their highest and carries the patina of history with utmost beauty.

In Venice even the gulls seem to be more elegant, and to walk with a certain style.

This gull may have the opportunity to donate its body to science. The Natural History Museum in Venice has a collection of stuffed animals and, as in Berlin, taxidermy is taken to new heights of realism. Here birds and bats fly and hunt overhead.

Dormi bene Venezia, e complimenti agli Azzurri.