Louise Spence

The 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' Castle.

Sunset in Zeeland, Holland

Monchau

View from the balcony, Zeeland (one of the only times we stayed in an actual building!)

White Cliffs of Dover, Sunset.

Austria

Looking at the castle

Another mountain. We swam in the lake in the foreground.

with Dad

When I was younger I spent many summers touring European campsites. I would pick up tastes of new languages, and stand on top of mountains looking down at the world. I would wake up in new countries and fall asleep in laybys on the borders of another. One day, I passed through six countries. I have been cycling in the rain and walking in the sleep and running through the blistering heat. I have seen capital cities and beautiful villages. Venice and Monchau and Austria and Switzerland and Luxembourg and so many others, so many times. I have been swimming in bottomless lakes surrounded by mountains. I have dived through waters which were cystal clear and waters which were muddy brown. I have canoed around the shores of Interlacken and cycled across a narrow path over an almost unreal lake. I have seen things I could only have dreamt of and it's only now that I begin to appreciate it. I enjoyed the spontenaity of waking up and deciding to do something crazy, something different. I enjoyed cycling to the local village for breakfast bread and cycling back surrounded by the heavenly scent of fresh pastries. So many coffee shops, so many villages, so many towns. So many times I've walked to shops on a monday and found them all shut. Each holiday involved exercise, the kind I didn't appreciate as a child but the kind my somehow more energetic teenage self longs for. I'm glad I got to grow up that way.

These are photos from Austria, and Monchau. I wish I'd had even a faint intrest in photography back then because of some of the wonderful sights I missed but I didn't, so these are all I have.