Magnet memories

 

Wherever we go we look for a magnet. Not only is our fridge covered, Rick ended up putting them on the stairs leading to the bathroom.

 Out fridge in France was so full of magnets we moved all the Swiss ones from our French  to our Swiss fridge.

It isn't just the magnets themselves.

When I open the freezer door I see the bagpipe that plays a Scottish folk song when you press it. But it also triggers memories walking down Princes Street in Edinburgh, and the bagpipe player in full kilt playing "Amazing Grace." I see Julia and me in a tea room above Scott's statue eating scones and drinking tea. And then there's the day Llara and I ate Sushi above Princes Street.

Then there's the Heidi heart bought when we passed Heidiland by accident and decided on the spur to the moment to go in. We walked through the village recreation. I can still  hear the goats in my imagination just as I did when I read the book as a child. Even if it is in Switzerland we are leaving it with other heart magnets.

When I left Stuttgart after living there for two years, I thought I'd never be able to return but the Stuttgart magnet(s) show several returns. It is where I fell in love in living in Europe. 

It is also where we decided to find unusual museums. In Stuttgart it was a museum dedicated to pigs, some 40,000 plus. There was a prostitute museum in Amsterdam and a miniature museum in Ticino. We will continue to search them out when we can travel again.

Then there's the Liechtenstein castle which we could see from out hotel. It was step three of our honeymoon (visit the principalities of Andora, Monaco, Liechtenstein and San Marino).

When I see the magnet I remember the roses on the bed and the conversation with the owner about a certain kind of tree. When the women couldn't think of the name, she looked it up and called our room to tell us.

And at the Palace of the Popes in Avignon, I could show Rick a painting of Jacques Fournier, Pope Benedict XII, a major character in my novel Murder in Paris. 

Year ago, there was a television program "This is Your Life" where Ralph Edwards would recapture a person's life. In a way, our fridge is a recapture of our lives: things that made us laugh, discover something, share a moment of happiness. It will conjure up good meals, hotels and BnBs.