Rhine Gelt

"Rhine Gelt" (Rhine Gold) in Wagner's "The Ring" and surely the Rhine is one of the golden nuggets of Germany's landscape. Packed full of history, culture, Romanticism, and nature. For me it was a long time in coming, I had seen the Rhine when I was 18 years old traveling on a night sleeper train but it was only a glimpse. This time we were to spend 3 days there to get to know its currents and eddies and see the mountains unfold as the Rhine swept us along. The place we stayed at was Bingen, a historical town with a medieval feel, famous for the compositions by the Medieval Abbotess Hildegard (Hilgegard de Bingen) a relaxing church music style that in its day was quite revolutionary. Other well known people who inhabited Bingen was the novelist Victor Hugo. For our stay we had met up with Leila's family and we spent a nice time baking under the autumn sun and enjoying strolls along the Rhine and admiring the interaction of flowers and public spaces of the city.
But for me it was the Rhine, the barges relentlessly pushing against its flow, and effortlessly gliding with it. The castles reminded me of lyrics from the Pogues's song "Lorelei" with "Castles out of fairy tales..." the drama of a rainy sky over towering skyline of Lorelei herself. Mythology was in my mind too as we took a cruise down the Rhine, Lorelei, the Valkyries, the Sirens, Rhine Gold and the Ring; History invaded these thoughts with Roman's fording into Germanic lands and Napoleon taking castles along the shore, Romanticism was born here and myth and history forming the imagination of Hitler and artists such as Goethe, Wagner, and the philosopher Nietzsche who played an important figure in my late teens. But these places were enhanced with the company, happy and pleasant.

Bank Hall Hotel to the Yellow Submarine

Yellow Submarine?

Our latest manifestation occurs in Liverpool, a rendezvous in a hotel/hostel in an industrial quarter where Leila helps herself to copious amounts of free tea and coffee! The radiator rattles to the rhythm of the streets and the blinds over the windows does not block out  the light, so we wake at dawn...
We spend our time shopping...well, Leila shops, Kevin looks a little bewildered, too many ´things´ as he is used to  the sea and wind...but it is nice to see Leila tackling the 'Liverpudlian' accent, and looking for Iranian  brand tea (which is produced in the UK). We stroll along the docks, passed tourists and restaurants that pelt us with sickly smelling aromas mmmmeeeeaaaaaaaarrrrrrr!

Where are the keys to your heart?

Along the sea front we see yachts racing, the Ferry that Crossed the Mersey; children marching to a concert all dressed in their Sunday best; chains and locks were swinging to the Mersey Beat...thank God not the Beatles; children being packaged in plastic balloons and thrown into the water by their loving farther while their mothers sit serenely watching the head of the family trying to drown their offspring...o yes, Liverpool at its best.

Child Control

Liverpool is full of Irish immigrants...and possibly a few other nationalities too, and some paraded through the streets reenacting the Northern Irish Protestant marches, flute bands and drums, national songs and a tinge of pride and hate...made me want to run and eat kebabs...which we did. Coffee at "Nero" where we planed our plans and lost ourselves in ourselves....OOoooooo that coffee was a drug. We found an International Shop where we could buy our way out of England, and we did with chilly sauces and noodles...but no Iranian brand tea! I noticed there was not an English Fish and Chip shop in sight, gone in the mists of time along with the Slave Trade and the Shipping Trade that made Liverpool what it was....and is.

Soon another episode will pass and the insects will spring to another "green, green grass of home..." and close the plane/train door on another chapter...until we metamorphose once more from our cacoons. It was nice to spend this short, but pleasant time with you Leila and Kevin.

The Journey Started

Kevin and Leila met each other outside Cyber Space on a 1st May, that is, workers day! Still don’t know why we chose this day for our first encounter! But it is a good date to remember forever!  We immediately started our first journey: a long walk in nature along the canal from Croy to Falkirk (about 20 Km/12.5 miles). 

It was a nice journey to get to know each other! For Leila it was a big effort to get used to Kevin’s English, or better say his Cumbrian accent. Kevin also sometimes couldn’t understand Leila’s Spanish accent! We also interchanged some Persian, Arabic, Turkish and Dutch words. Leila learned some nice English words from Kevin like “Broom”, those yellow flowers from gorse bushes with a very nice smell, the first English lesson she received from Kevin for free!

We took some photos of each other separately to keep them as our first memories, without being sure whether we would continue this journey of life together in future.

We had a visit to Falkirk Wheel and Kevin explained to Leila how boats were traveling through canals in olden times.

 

The journey was very enjoyable. It was also a competition between Kevin and Leila to see who gets tired earlier. But neither Kevin nor Leila gave up! Well, Kevin didn’t say he got tired but Leila took a photo of him as evidence, make your own judgment.

The whole journey took us something about 5 hours. It was a very nice way to know each other outside the cyber space! We really enjoyed it. At the end we decided to take a photo together using the self timer of the camera. After many tries here is the result, Kevin and Leila’s first photo together, and this is how our journey of life started to be more serious!

An Introduction to Each Other

This is our first entry of our blog, a pictorial calender of two "bichos raros" who came together through St. Google and decided to see life together. First of all we live apart but live together. Leila is from Iran and Kevin is from England but we live in Spain...and other places too. Perhaps we are a product of Cyber Space a different version of Second Life.

Kevin is a giant...Leila is a small Persian girl. We like to travel and enjoy folk-traditional music and we sometimes play  music together - Leila on piano and Kevin on what is available. We like to go sailing and walking in the nature, camping under the stars and enjoying Cyber Space which Leila is at home with. we have an ambition to live together...in the same country...and perhaps in the same town.

Here is our photo of us taken in the Border of Scotland near to a town called Annan. We had just finished sailing and were happy to have made it the 2 miles and anchor next to some excitable cows! The weather was typical British weather cold and cloudy...our summer in fact.

The cows woke us up at early morning by licking the boat, they had just been down to the sea to drink sea-water, so they must have identified the boat as a cow too! After we had woken up we had breakfast, which Leila enjoyed and felt very energetic afterwards...

 

Here is the picture of the local sea monster comming out to terrorise the little persian girl.