Love, Life and Laughter

I think that the title of this blog speaks in volumes. These are the main three components that I think can comprise an interesting, and highly adventurous life. Yet, there are those who feel that love can come across as an unecessary pre-requisite, or something that can interfere with how you run your life. I know that this just boils down to how you interpret and deal with the idea of love. Is it that love is something that grows over time, or does it just suddenly hit you like a bullet. There are those that believe in love at first sight, and those that would say to dream such a dream is foolish. I can never know in my heart which one of these statements I would wholeheartedly endorse, if either.

It is possible to live life and laugh without the need for love, but then love is a nice accompaniment to both of those activities. I have pondered these things whilst travelling through the beautiful cities of Germany. I have been on my travels since January, and have only now had time to get onto the internet and take stock of it all. I have started off in Soest, a lovely little city, quite close to Dortmund. We took a walk last week along the old wall that surrounds the city. It's so lovely to see that its still intact for the most part, and yet people walk past it without marvelling at its beauty. I find it so interesting at what we all take for granted in this world - the little marvellous things that pass us by in our day to day lives. Sometimes I think that we all walk round with our eyes half closed to things that are right in front of us. This is because we class them as 'what we know' and just accept them for what they are after years of looking at them. It was only in recent years that I was able to appreciate the beauty of my own home city of Liverpool. I spent the summers of 2005/6 walking around the city and taking stock of the beautiful architecture, strolling the streets looking for random passageways that I'd not yet discovered, staring wildly at the history that was right in front of my eyes. I forget what a wealth of knowledge there is right at the edge of my fingertips.

Today we finally arrived in at our second stop in Germany - Xanten. It's the only town in Germany that begins with the letter 'X' if you were interested to know. I have been doing some research on the internet and there are lots of old ruins here. There are palace ruins, and an amphitheatre - both well worth a visit. I think there will be a lot more reflective entries in this place. I find a certain amount of calmness in the surroundings that I find myself in. Were staying in an old house that's got flat conversions in it. We are in the middle of nowhere. It feels like were in the middle of a field because to get to it we had to drive down a snow covered track, that was level with an equally snow-covered field! We had to completely rely on our sat-nav to keep us from falling into the ditches that were inevitably at either side of the road.

It is now coming up to 12:30am and I think my ramblings have gone on quite enough for one day. I'll be back soon though. I have no doubts about that.