Cities, Towns and Buildings

You know that moment, when you arrive in a city, and stand in front of a monument or building that you’ve seen hundreds of times in photos or on television?

For me that’s always a ‘pinch myself’ kind of moment. That feeling of having travelled so far to see something so familiar. Yet no matter how many photos you’ve seen, no image, however beautiful it is, can ever truly compare to the real thing.

To put yourself in that photo, to stand in front of an icon like the Taj Mahal or the Statue of Liberty, the Leaning Tower of Pisa or the Eiffel Tower, to hear the buzz of people around you – the touts, the tour guides, the tourists – and to take in the local smells, the local flora and sometimes fauna. And then to pull back and see the context of that setting and how it fits into the landscape…

That’s when you truly appreciate the architectural wonder.