Memories that never leave.

We used to live in Switzerland, and often used to go hiking in the mountains at weekends. One Sunday my daughter & went on a hike, intending to have lunch at the restaurant at the top where we could then catch the ski lift down again. As we hiked up we could hear snippets of music, and loud booming notes. When we got to the plateau where the restaurant was located, there was a folk festival going on, with lots of people dressed in colourful traditional costumes, men blowing Alpine horns folowed by musical numbers with accordions, brass instruments and choirs of singers. Most unexpected. I got lots of lovely photos of the participants, many with the Jungfrau Joch glistening in the background.

A few years ago, DH & I were camping in France. I needed the loo in the middle of the night and as they were a distance from our tent and it was pitch black, I asked DH to come with me. Without any light pollution, we were treated to an amazing sky full of stars, including 5 or 6 shooting stars. We stood there for ages and DH described it as looking at light through a hessian sack. It took me back 50 years to the first day I met DH and he walked me home pointing out, and telling me about, the stars.

Sorry I am unable to do links.
However if you google..
Playa de Gulpiyuri - Wikipedia.
You will see some lovely photographs of the inland sea and it's beautiful beach.

We were on a motor bike tour in Northern Spain enjoyong the countryside when our guide (now a very good friend) pulled up and walked us through a field.
I was a bit put out as it was a hot day and we were biker gear
Suddenly he stopped and pointed down.
I could not believe my eyes.
Below us was inland sea (salt water) and soft sandy beach.
Amazing.

Around about 1999 we were staying in a B & B in Aylsbury to attend an RAF passing out parade. In the beautiful summer evening we were sitting out in the garden and from seemingly nowhere the sky was filled with hot air balloons. These are never seen in our own part of the country... Magical.

Emelle. I had a similar experience to yours. My friend's husband was a wonderful engineer who hand-built scale models of steam engines as a hobby. The size that you see at venues pulling carriages for people to ride in. He was very skilled, and loved to take his engines to shows and rallies.
Sadly, he died fairly young. As we emerged from the church after his funeral, we suddenly heard a long blast from a train whistle. The nearest railway line was some distance away, but it sounded out, loud and clear. It was a poignant moment. like a salute to his talent, which brought tears to our eyes.

Such a lovely thread annsixty I have really enjoyed reading all those happy memories. I can almost visualise those hot air balloons ?? ?....up, up and away .

We always visited the airshow at RAF Finningley back in the '90's but one year our son was playing at Sheffield Arena the day it was on so of course we had to miss it to watch him. On the way back my husband decided to pull up at the side of the road at the end of the runway saying we might see some of the planes. I opened the sunroof and stood up through it just as the Vulcan took off and went vertical right over our heads - the sound was incredible as was the sight. A memorable day for both reasons.

September 1965, my first flight to Kenya and my first ever long haul flight. I woke up in the morning and looked out of my window to see the sun rising over the desert, showing up the dunes and contours. Then - there below us was the Nile which we followed all the way to Uganda where we 'turned left' and were treated to the view of the snow-capped peaks of Mt Kenya. A wonderful start to the most memorable five years of my life!

I was with my firstborn son who was about three and we were taking the dog for a walk when he stopped with an expression of total awe and delight on his face. There in the hedgerow was a perfect spiders web hung with tiny raindrops and the sunlight was just catching the edges of each drop and creating multicolours like a rainbow. Beautiful, he said with his eyes like saucers and we sat and looked at the web for ages. It was my first introduction to the way small children can turn your perception of the most ordinary things completely upside down, and I was stunned to realise how he had transformed a mundane walk into pure magic. Everytime I see a spiders web in a hedgerow hung with rain drops or frost I think of that moment and remember his little face lit up with delight.

Fixed memory of Sea Otters fishing and eating salmon in Canada. Seeing Icebergs in Newfoundland last June plus Whales.

Visiting my son one summer afternoon. He had just moved house and had to apologise for the noisy afternoon we were about to encounter from one of his neighbours. Pre-warned, A doctor, large house , large garden, celebrating his birthday each year with bands, singers, etc. It was one of the best afternoons I have ever spent. The singers were the best, amplified. The music was everyone's taste, with fantastic weather. Lovely afternoon, best ever.

I was at Kew Gardens on 10th July this year when suddenly a succession of aitcraft flew overhead, all in amazing formation - it seemed to last for ages and was incredibly moving. I felt so lucky to see it and proud of our RAF - it was their 100th anniversary fly past on the way to Buckingham Palace! Superb!

Also seen French Red Arrows taking off in formation from the French airport where I was meeting a friend, which was amazing and brought the traffic to a standstill. But my favourite memory is when I was walking past a row of trees in winter. It had snowed, part thawed and then frozen. The snow was deep, the sky grey and all the trees looked like huge chandeliers, every branch covered in ice. As the wind blew they slowly moved and tinkled like glass. Magical!

When I was young my family lived in New Zealand along with my Aunt and Uncle and cousins. Every Sunday my Uncle took us all to some really breathtaking places. One was Rotorua near where we lived and one day we climbed up a normal looking hill, when we got to the top we saw 2 large lakes..one was aquamarine blue and the other was bright green. Magical !! I will never forget that sight, it was so beautiful and unexpected. Luckily also got to see the gorgeous "Southern Lights" while there. I was so lucky to have seen many strange and wonderful sights like this as a child. I went back to NZ 3 years ago and showed my adult children the sights and they were gob-smacked.

Visiting family in Libya before the Gaddafi era, as we drove from the airport to Benghazi, along the way tribal leaders were travelling up from the desert to a convention in the town. Suddenly we were amongst garlanded camels and Arab men on horseback, dressed in colourful robes, with what looked like gold and braid trim. A wonderful and exotic sight which I'll never forget.

Driving home after seeing my dad in the hospital the night he passed away, I was on a quiet country road between Dunblane and Crieff and saw Halley's comet streaming across the sky. I was in floods of tears that night

Walking in Austria my husband going ahead and leaving me, as usual, I hesitated before attempting to cross a scree slope. Suddenly a chamois plunged out of the trees and ran half way across the scree then stopped dead when it saw me. I called to my husband and he was just in time to see it bound off. I've seen wild black bears in Canada too: there is nothing so thrilling as seeing animals in the wild. They are so dignified and beautiful.

I had just given birth to my first baby. The nurse glanced out of the window and said "oh it's snowing". So I was holding my newborn while seeing the big snowflakes at the window. It was a magical moment and I will always love to see snow.

After much thought we decided to scatter my father's ashes on a Lakeland Fell which he loved. Dad served in the RAF during the Second World War so we were beyond amazed when half way up the fell we heard the drone of a Lancaster Bomber which flew directly over us. It seemed like he had his own personal fly past and gave us such a wonderful memory!

Standing on the Great Wall of China watching the sun go down with some new friends I had just made on a singles holiday. That was 7 years ago and all 5 of us still meet up and go on holidays together

Elderly very shabbily!

Decades ago, after going swimming with my Dad in Plumstead, South London we popped into the pub for a drink... it was crowded and bustling. There was a piano in her corner, and an elerley, dry shabbily dressed gent sat down and started to play the most amazing music... it may have been classical.... dad had his back to him and commented on the recording.... he was amazed too ... often wondered about it all since...

Annsixty.
Your memory has evoked a very similar memory for me. We lived on the south coast but our work at that time was in Northampton. We had to commute, Friday nights coming back home ...Sunday evenings back to our workplace. On several of the Sunday evenings during the summer time we would often see several hot air balloons around the Oxford area and used to look out for them. We were quite disappointed when we did,nt see any. Had never seen any before then and only one or two since then. This was in the late 90s - 2000.

We were staying in an old farm house in Spain and when I opened the back door there hundreds of glowing lights in the garden. They were magical glow worms!