I did not have any expectations: it was supposed to be a business meeting, the weather was getting progressively colder, I was jet-lagged (having returned from India a day before).. and it was a very early start to the day.
At the break of dawn.. and I am already in a different country.. walking towards the meeting location!
But then came the river (Rhine), a charming wooden bridge, a church in the distance.. and a smile on my face 🙂
Right next to the ‘onion-shaped spires’ church, overlooking the Rhine, was our destination.
So, it’s one of those instances where you go to a charming place for a meeting, and never leave the hotel. But it’s also fair to say that one never so studiously admires the leaves right outside the window, or so ardently longs for the walking trail right beyond the door, as one does from inside a meeting room.
Yes, I noticed the change from sunny to cloudy in a moment..
to ominously overcast yet stunning..
Given the context, I am not able to judge whether the place was actually as pretty, or did my imagination take over? Only one way to find out- to go back, at leisure.
It’s a small station called Bad Säckingen. I had never heard the name before. But it turned out that couple of people had visited before, and for a common reason- given their kids’ love for trains and the outdoors, they simply hop on the inter-regional train (wherein the monthly tram/rail pass is applicable) every weekend, and get down at a different station every time! And so they had become acquainted with little Bad Säckingen.
‘How simple!’ I thought. ‘What stops me from doing that? I have a monthly pass.. I have weekends..’
The only difference that struck me was that I am not a child anymore. I look at names of places I know/ have heard about, and make advanced plans to go there. It’s wonderful, but there’s also another kind of wonderful- of stumbling into something unexpected, of going to places with no names (ok, names you haven’t heard before), and looking at every tree, and river, and house with pleasant surprise.
Not being a child is no excuse for not being child-like!
