I love lots of places—San Francisco, Sydney, Yosemite, London, Venice, lots of my own country. But…
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Segovia at night. 70 km or so north of Madrid. The hour I took walking around the outer ring road was an almost holy experience and the best hour of any trip I’ve ever taken
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Cable Beach, Western Australia. I can think of that place and become instantly calmer. I don’t know why it gets set apart from any other beach I’ve been on, maybe it was arriving there after about a week of being dusty driving across the northwest of the country, maybe it was the company on my Contiki tour, but it still resonates with me. (just beats out Cathedral Gorge in Western Australia, best “concert hall” I’ve ever been in, bar none). The absolutely oddest connection…whenever I start into the final part of the first movement of Keith Jarrett’s Koln Concert, I have to consciously keep putting my fingers on the piano keys because I’m instantly AT Cable Beach.
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Dursey Island, Ireland. Truly the last bastion of beyond. You can only get across by cablecar. The natives speak the true gaeltacht. And there was me and some sheep to have lunch facing the wild ocean and incredible green. I don’t think I need much more.
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Banff National Park. Especially the Vermilion Lakes. It’s just so breathtaking.