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Sally's avatar

Wonderful post Gregory... and those Elizabeths follow you everywhere it seems!

The photos really bring this alive - I love the variety of all the architecture. I also notice just how clean everywhere is - no trash or anything to mar the streets. And I also notice just how the people are so... blonde!

As far as the expense of alcohol and food (and anything else) goes, I wonder if the salaries there match the expense, or whether it really is expensive for residents too?

I'm also fighting myself not to add the apostrophe in Bishops Arms... oh heck it needs it... here you go... 'Bishop's Arms'. Unless there's more than one bishop, in that case 'Bishops' Arms'.

I completely understand what you mean about the smell of 'home'. Leaving Southern California 6 years ago, I hadn't smelled anything like it until I went to Kew Gardens in London, and stepped inside the Princess of Wales Conservatory with its desert and mediterranean plants. My daughter was with me, and we both immediately breathed in, looked at each other, smiled, and said 'this smells like home'.

And I think you may have just answered a question I asked in a previous comment on a different post about where 'home' is for you. It is possible to have lived somewhere and called it home once, and then to move on, joyously, to somewhere else, and for that to become home with no looking back. I get that completely.

P.S. My favourite photo is the dilapidated houseboat. Now that's a place I would love to do up and call home for a while...

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John McWilliam's avatar

Enjoyed your Swedish tour. Possibly, you have outgrown your homeland and need the adventure of a new place. Portugal. Comfort and order can sometimes be overrated. Though, I think I would miss the architecture of your Swedish town. But Lisbon ain’t so bad either!

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