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When you get to my age, you're allowed to have the luxury of thinking back, of being introspective, thinking about things that were (of course, still thinking about things that will be / might be !!! )
Here follows some of my thoughts ... unfortunately only with words, since these moments were mostly such that there was not a photograph recording of the event.
Roman Aqueduct ... in my first year in Europe, I did a six week tour of europe in a London double-decker bus. Upstairs was converted into a sleeping area (with bunks along each side) and with a lounge area up front . Downstairs was a kitchen and seating area. All modern cons, (including the kitchen sink) .... but you will notice there is one thing I did not mention ... no toilet facilities ! Anyway, I digress .... this moment is about a night in the south of France. We had left Paris, and were heading towards the Mediteranean. That night we started the evening at the location we had reached at the end of the day ... an impressive Roman aqueduct spanning a wide and deep valley. We saw it in daylight, then after dinner, a few of us decided to climb back up to the top, and walk over the aqueduct.. It is still complete - stone slabs cover the water channel. Lying there, lying on stones placed two thousand years ago, staring up at the stars. Feeling the history of the stones, the stars. The people who lived and died to build it, the people who had walked over it in those two thousand years. It was an incredible feeling ... it touched my very soul. (Remember, I was born in a country where something was "old" if it was more than 100 years old !! And Maori history was ancient .. but that only went back 900 years) |