This is for all travelers, and has been written before on Arachne. It is so automatic to my daily life, that sometimes I forget that I am old fashioned because I would rather make space in my purse for a flashlight or torch and leave cell phones and computers and even cameras behind. Read this as a shout: Travel with a small Flashlight (called a Torch in the U.K.) in your purse. It has helped me to see details of lace and clothing in galleries and great house museums all over Europe and in China. Even in the V and A. It has helped in complete galleries that have dim lighting. If you use it discretely, a museum security person will not bother you. If you flash it all over a wall, like fireworks, you may be stopped. Use common sense, and it will be alright. A flashlight was invaluable on my first trip overseas - to Switzerland 37 years ago. I was in St. Gallen, which has a museum of interest to us, though much is incredibly detailed laces produced by machine - you can search to read about. (There was a good review in a newsletter from the Chesapeake Region Lace Guild - Washington DC and states around it - very recently that would make most of us want to go there.) St. Gallen is not far from Zurich by train, and connecting trains took me all through the Alps to figure skating landmarks. In St. Gallen, I stayed in a very old hotel near the clock tower in the old part of the city where the open market is very interesting. A friend was there, visiting her family, and we all went out on New Year's Eve to a chalet on Lake Constance. At nearly midnight, young men left the party to go to the village church. We put on our Winter coats and went outside (it was snowing gently). At exactly midnight (their timepieces are quite accurate) they began to ring the church bells. Other men in towns around the lake were also ringing church bells. The ringing bells echoed back and forth across the lake. Best New Year's ever. So, we returned to St. Gallen and I was dropped off at the old hotel. In the lobby, very little lighting. Up one set of stairs, none! It is at times like this that a lady needs a flashlight to find a light switch. Please remember everyone. You'll be able to examine laces close up in light. If you have room in your purse, a reasonably-sized magnifier is also handy. As we get older, it is more difficult to read fine print in train schedules and the like in dim light. This is when both of these handy items are worth their weight in gold. I know. I know. You can take a picture with your phone and then see these things, but.....what parts of the overall experience of travel are you missing while you are being a photographer focused on one thing? I hate this aspect of modern life, because people with all these devices over-ride and sometimes block what I'm trying to capture from everywhere around me and retain in the best device - the human brain. I've found very few people are interested in another person's photos. You may take your "stuff", but I'll take a flashlight (every day) and small magnifier (just in case) on every trip! Glad for the experience, I returned to St. Gallen some dozen years later, in Summer. The old hotel was being reduced to rubble. The picturesque aspect of the area was being destroyed forever. It is like old lace. Look at as much of it as possible, because much is being destroyed forever. Jeri Ames in Maine USA Lace and Embroidery Resource Center
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