monday's mulling: back home and reflecting

A few days after a long holiday can be unsettling. We're basking in the glow of such a wonderful vacation, each day filled with new experiences and sights and wonder and awe. And then boom, the plane has landed and we're back home - home sweet home - with photographs and memories, and grocery lists, to-do lists, a chiropractor appointment, clearing the flower beds, buying pumpkins, figuring out what to have for dinner. I miss the coffee machine at our hotels, pushing a button and voila! My morning cappuccino. (A milk frother is on my Christmas list!)

While in Europe and people asked where we were from, I proudly said, "Dayton, Ohio. It's where the airplane was invented," and a nice surprise when so many people responded with, "The Wright Brothers." Dayton is home, this is where we belong. And I’m appreciating and remembering that the world is big, that people are more alike than I realize at times, and I can grow as an individual spiritually, physically, and emotionally—just as much here as I can on vacation.

A photo from each of our stops. 

The Chagall windows, Fraumünster Church, Zurich, Switzerland.

The oldest bridge in Lucerne, Switzerland, the Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge), was  constructed in 1333. It is also the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe.

Edinburgh Castle is one of the oldest fortified places in Europe and is set in the heart of Scotland's capital city.

Ozzy remembered on a graffiti wall in Leith, Scotland.

What an experience to walk on the golf course at St. Andrews and stand in the presence of the Royal and Ancient, one of the oldest golf clubs in the world.

Manchester, England. The statue outside Old Trafford features the three Manchester United legends known as "The United Trinity": Sir Bobby Charlton, George Best, and Denis Law. They are depicted arm-in-arm, celebrating the club's success, and a key moment they are associated with is the 1968 European Cup win.

York, England. York's City Walls are the longest medieval town walls in England, mainly built in the 13th century, and are the most complete in England. The walls are a popular walking route with scenic views, and they are free to walk, though some sections are narrow and have unguarded edges.

London, England. Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese was rebuilt in 1667 after the original one was burnt down by the Great Fire of London. Over the past 355 years the Cheese has been frequented by numerous prominent literary figures: Dr Samuel Johnson, Mark Twain, W.B. Yeats and Charles Dickens, who even featured it in his novel, A Tale of Two Cities.

 The iconic Stonehenge, Salisbury Plain, England.