Memories of Paradise

Up in Newcastle, I ask S and D where they would go, if they could go back to anywhere they'd loved being?

Their answers surprise me.

D says she'd go to the Old Dragon's Gate, a difficult spot to find, where the Great Wall of China meets the sea. It's one of the few original patches of wall, unrestored, and you need to be able to speak Chinese to find it.

S says she'd drive north to Iceland. Apparently, you can do this from the UK. There are just enough small island ferries between Scotland, the Orkneys, the Faroes, the Hebrides and Iceland, for you to make it.

I've never heard of any journeys so original. They fired me up to ask more and more people.

Now I know how to make up my itinerary. Fuck the guidebooks. I don't need them. My itinerary will be made up of people, and their memories.