And every stranger’s face I see..

Have you ever been in that place where you know you should be grateful and full of appreciation and really soaking it all in, but instead you are just dull? Numb? It happens all too often. Overwhelmed with excitement, gratitude and awe for a while, and then it’s gone.

 If you’re rolling your eyes or shaking your head in disgust, go on move along now. No reason to read further. But if you get it, if you’ve had that same thing happen again and again pull up a chair and read on. In a foreign country over a dozen times now, some visits lasting as long as three weeks, a number of people have asked,

“What do you do all day, in the hotel, while your husband is working?”

It’s easier to talk about what I don’t do. There’s no dishes, laundry or housework. Although there have been occasions to hand wash a load in the bathtub and leave it hanging all over the bathroom to dry.

Having no kitchen can get old. The garden back home overflows  with tomatoes as I write.  Tomatoes would be picked and chopped and mixed with fresh garlic and basil to roast over some french bread. Back home. In the kitchen.

But here there is no garden. There are no projects like at home. No big shelves to refinish. No funky pants to sew.  No quilt to tie. No plants to buy and put in before winter. No rooms to be painted. No wallpaper to hang.

Just homesickness.

As beautiful as it is here, my appreciation is dwindling. Maybe travel isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Oh it’s nice for a little spell, to see something new or enjoy unusual tastes and smells, languages and customs, art and scenery, shopping and all that. But traveling closer to home would do; touring in the good ol’ USA.  The west coast, the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, Napa Valley, the Finger Lakes and Adirondacks.

So here’s  a look at another afternoon in Roskilde and some favorite places, but remember they are all shot through a lens of haze and homesickness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The square here has been transformed into an art gallery.

  He is called “Bishop”.

This one is called “Secret Admirer”.

         And believe it or not, this is called Angelina Jolie.

 

This has to be one of the most majestic manmade things ever constructed, but impossible to capture with a camera, no matter how many shots are taken. It’s another angle of the Roskilde Cathedral.

       This marina beckons daily. A beautiful walk.

   And the shoreline’s chorus gently laps away disquietude.