Thrilling Cities

Growing up in a small town in a lower middle class family I dreamed  of  traveling and seeing exotic locations.  But I never believed it was any thing more than a dream.   My grandmother never saw the ocean until she was in her late 60's although it was only three hours away from our home town.   I tried to convince my parents to go to Italy and revisit the places my father was in during WWII.  We knew my father was developing early dementia and I thought it would be one last great experience for them.  Instead they never got any farther than those three hours to the Ocean City, Md where my grandmother had finally seen the ocean.

Growing up I watched the James Bond films.  I was thrilled with James Bond and all of the fascinating locations he explored.  I'm not sure what I liked more.  Sean Connery or the beautiful and exciting places he visited.   I thought about those places for years and like my grandmother and parents I never thought I would ever see them.

Photography became my escape.  I had my first camera at the age of eight.  I took photos of my town, of my younger sister, my cousins.  I loved photography.  But I never became a photographer.  Perhaps I should have.   It truly is my passion.   I am just a man with a camera who might get a great shot on a 10 gig chip.  I am reading a book by Ian Fleming called Thrilling Cities..  This brings all of this back to those James Bond movies I saw as a kid.   As an adult I have gotten to see many of those Thrilling Cities Fleming wrote about in his novels and in the book I am reading now.  And I am realizing I will never be that great photographer or that expert on foreign travel.   Or a great writer.  That is my third great passion.  I wanted to be a writer.   I have many great novels buried in my head that I have never written along with the great photographs I have never taken.

Fleming writes in Thrilling Cities "Zurich came and the banal beauty of Switzerland, then the jagged sugar icing of the Alps, the blue puddles of the Italian lakes and the snow melting down towards the baked terrazza of the Italian plains."   My photo above is taken from a plane flying over Zurich and Switzerland headed to Italy.   I could never have described it like Fleming.  I saw it.  I loved it and I photographed it.  Reading his book today I can see his words in my photo. 

I have been to many of the Thrilling Cities Fleming describes in his book.  I'll never have his words to describe them.  I'll never write the great travel blog and take the perfect photo about them. But reading his book today I have discovered a thread that takes me from a little movie theater in 1962 watching the movie from his novel Dr. No that leads me to my travel adventures today.  It's been a long journey.  But I have gotten to travel across that ocean my grandmother finally got to see before she died.  And I have gotten to visit the locations where my father was located in WWII that my parents never got to see.   And today my daughter is writing a novel based on my fathers  war experiences that I never got to write.   So it all goes full circle.  And we all have seemed to fulfill hopes and passions our parents never completed. 

I still have a bucket list of Thrilling Cities I want to see.  Thank you Ian Fleming for sparking that flame inside me.   And thanks to my Aunt Louise who bought me that first camera at the age of 8 which is still my inspiration.   And I am thankful my daughter has been inspired to write about the exploits of my father in WWII.  My oldest daughter is also a writer.  She has many wonderful ideas and journals for stories she wants to write also.   My mother once started a journal with the words "the flowers were in disarray."  She never completed the sentence.   The journal remained empty.    But we all have visions, dreams, hopes and inspirations.  To my two daughter I say :   Follow the dream, take on the fantasy, and follow the inspiration of those who were unable to complete their fantasy and leave a little unfinished work to inspire those who follow behind you.

Thrilling Cities await you.  Don't hesitate to find them.

My grandmother at Ocean City Maryland seeing the ocean for the fist time

I love Paris

Eiffel Tower a photo by litlesam on Flickr.

It sounds trite.  But its true.  I do love Paris.  Paris was always a fantasy for me.  From the time I was a child I always wanted to go to Paris.   I remember watching the movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes on the old Saturday Night At The Movies on NBC when I was a child.  I watched Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell sit at a sidewalk cafe singing When love goes wrong, nothing goes right.  I knew then that I too wanted to see Paris and sit at a sidewalk cafe.  Maybe I couldn't sing with Marilyn and Jane, but in my mind they would be right there with me.  It was a fantasy that stayed with me.

I married in my twenties, had two daughters, bought a house and any fantasy of travel was far from a reality.  I finally was able to travel to Europe for the very first time when I was forty nine years old.   The person I was traveling with had a business conference scheduled for Marseilles.   I was going to France!   Although Marseilles is no where near Paris I was not going to France for the first time and not see Paris.  So we flew to Paris for three days and then took a four hour train ride to Marseilles.  I literally traveled from once corner of France to the other on that trip.

Paris, the city of lights was everything I had hoped for.  I sat at sidewalk cafes.  I walked along the West Bank.  I saw all of the sights.  And then there was the Eiffel Tower, the crown jewel of Paris.  I will never forget my first view of the tower, the elevator ride to the top, and the view of the Seine from the Tower.  My mother used to sing the song "I Love Paris" when I was a child.  It was a favorite of hers.  She never got to Paris.  But when I climbed up the Eiffel Tower her voice was with me singing that song all the way to the top.

I returned to Paris again eight years later.  I was concerned that it would be a let down.   I was afraid it was not be as magical the second time.  I was wrong.  I have done a lot traveling between my first visit to Paris and the second. I have seen many beautiful cities.  But for me nothing compares to Paris. 

I will return to Paris again.  And I know it will woo me and charm me once more.  Marilyn and Jane will be at the cafe. My mother will be singing.  And I will be making the fantasy a reality once more.

"Every time I look down on this timeless town
whether blue or gray be her skies.
Whether loud be her cheers or soft be her tears,
more and more do I realize:

I love Paris in the springtime.
I love Paris in the fall.
I love Paris in the winter when it drizzles,
I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles.

I love Paris every moment,
every moment of the year.
I love Paris, why, oh why do I love Paris?
Because my love is near." (Cole Porter)