Snapshots

If I've learned anything while traveling, it's that you simply have to pause, enjoy the moment and know that you can never adequately capture an experience in a photograph or describe it in words. But as my train zips along the Welsh coast somewhere just beyond the Penmaenmawr train station, I want to attempt it, no matter how impossible a feat, (that is, during the moments my view is obscured by tunnels or walls) if only so that I can remember this serendipitously beautiful moment.

A rainbow stretches across the bay, though not quite full as the right side fades into the low cloud cover that brings a hazy blanket to cover the rolling hills just beyond the bay. Ahead of us, and visible on the left of the bay, a low, tree-covered hill holds the tunnel we are about to pass through. And to my right, endless stretches of sandy beaches with gentle waves rolling up on the shore - the same kind of beach that always invites me to pull off my shoes and walk in the area where water meets sand.

There are castles and city walls and sheep, all set against the Welsh countryside - green, rolling hills and the occasional rocky hill thrown in the mix. Some fields contain cows, normally not an exciting sight, but British cows are the cow-iest kinds of cows: white and covered in black patches. And rolling through towns, the train window affords me a glimpse of old houses and churches nestled in among the hills.

I did snap a picture, but with the angle I wanted, there was no way to avoid the reflection of the train window. So it will serve only as a reminder of a beautiful sight I witnessed on an unexpected July morning.