top - port isaac, cornwall
middle - gloucester, england
bottom - edinburgh, scotland
in the early seventies, i was in edinburgh. i remember it being charming, sweet, and green. i remember going through the old part of town and taking a tour through holyrood castle (which was especially meaningful as i had just finished reading Mary, Queen of Scots, by Frazier).
this time it seem noisy, dirty, and uncharming. there may have been extenuating circumstances for this impression. one, all the streets downtown were torn apart and there was a lot of accompanying noise. two, we didn't visit the castle or the old part of town. three, we were rushed and did not have time to really spend time poking around in the little nooks and crannies. we stayed next to the zoo and did not even have time to visit.
i remember going back to the street i spent my high school years living on to find the house were i had lived. half of the houses on the block had been torn down including my old home. now i am fearful of going back to boulder and boulder county for all the changes i will find. the small funky town is no more.
if you live in a place the changes are gradual enough (even the startling changes) so you are not shocked. you grow into the new stuff. guess i will not be doing a schmidt trip!
on the other hand the visit to gloucester cathedral was wonderful. i had seen pictures in art books and have watched the Harry Potter movies that used the cathedral as background. but real life is always more. the fan ceilings of the hall was wonderful. i originally put it on my itinerary to cross off one of the items on my bucket list--to hear an organ in a gothic church. i scoured the guide books to find a church that had evensong and gloucester happened to be on our way to port isaac. i didn't quite hear a pipe organ--they were singing baroque music hence were accompanied by a small electric organ in a box. BUT....it turns out that the cathedral is famous for its singers. people come from all over to go to school in town so they can sing in the choir. all males, ages ranging from quite young to older. we were able to sit in the quire and the accoustics were all that i had expected. i was supprised that their were not more people there to listen (only about 10).
port isaac also turned out to be a pleasant experience. even though i had seen it on tv and in the movie Saving Grace, it was my first visit. it was a little touristy, but not spoiled like rye.
sometimes expectations can be totally crushed, sometimes altered as in the case of the organ (i didn't hear a pipe organ, but the singing was a great replacement), and sometimes it turns out just right. i would guess that if i were to go back to port isaac in a few years i would experience the same sense of dissapointment i felt when i visited edinburgh.
