A version of this and the photos originally appeared on The Mystery of the Haunted Vampire.
Today is the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson died from a sniper wound at the height of the battle, his greatest victory and the battle that probably saved Britain from invasion by France and Spain.
OK, that doesn’t sound like a promising start to a happy story. But it is. I think. Join me on the flip to see.
As some of you know, I’m a huge Anglo-phile. Always have been.
And one of my dreams was to travel to England. I did and wrote about it before in an earlier happy story.
Part of my desire was to follow in the footsteps of Mr. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson.
But I always loved stories of the British Navy too, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars.
And the greatest of all heroes of the British Navy was Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson.
A lot has been written about Nelson of late and Britain is currently caught in the grip of Nelson-mania with the bicentennial of Trafalgar and his death.
I spent considerable time at Trafalgar Square, photographing Nelson’s Column (the statue above is one of my shots).
I visited his crypt in St. Paul’s Cathedral.
And I took the train to Portsmouth to see his flag ship, the HMS Victory. The ship is still afloat in Portsmouth Harbor.
It might be hard to understand the sense of happiness and connectedness I felt by being on the very vessel that Nelson and others had sailed upon.
It was like the pages of a history book coming to life, like last weekend when Raybin and I walked upon the Battle of South Mountain sites in Maryland together.
Even though Nelson did not live to see his greatest victory, he lived long enough to know it would occur and he had guided. He lived history and he made history.
He overcame overwhelming odds to save his country, a country he loved so much that he could say honestly that he had no need of a greatcloak on a bitterly cold night in the North Sea for his love of England kept him warm.
I can understand that feeling. Though the fires have died of late and nearly covered with ash, my love of my country warms me.
And though we are in bitter days and the odds seem overwhelming, I see hope for us. It’s far off at the edge of the horizon and the future is cloudy, but it does seem as if a glimmer of hope is breaking for our country.
Nelson always advised his captains that when in doubt, always sail straight at the enemy. Nevermind manuevers. Sail straight at them.
That is good advice for us today.
That’s my happy story tonight. Your happy story may be about anything you wish to share.
my favorite vacation was a trip to Nice France. My hubby had been stationed in France in the Korean war and he loved the French people. He traveled all over at that time and remembered a past life in Metz – he knew every street and talked to the mayor as if he were kin. So we went to Nice. He talked French with an Okie accent – totally deplorable to my ear, but they loved it cause he really tried. He swam in the ocean even though it was March. We went on every tour. Into the alps where Hannibal had taken his elephants and around into Cannes where they have the film festival. I have pictures of us with the alps behind us. I also have pictures of a lot of the toilets as Robear became fascinated with the variety. We looked at art galleries and flea markets. We walked all over that place as well. One of the fascinating things to me was that pets were acceptable in cafes and stores. They had pet health insurance for sale as well. But they didn’t want the dogs on the “beach”. The beach was nothing but round stones that I found hard to walk on, so pet poop might have lingered for days.
One of the things I missed about not posting the happy diaries when I was on my break was reading your stories. He sounds like he was a fun man to be with.
the ordinary. I can remember coming back through New York and customs. I had taken some rocks from the beaches and some Eucalyptus seeds too and I was terrified that they might be contraband, silly me. Bob put one of our carry cases – the one with the rocks on the baggage carosel and I saw it go off and realized it wasn’t tagged! I was in a frenzy trying to get that bag back and worrying about missing the flight or getting caught in no man’s land with the security. Totally going off. I get on the flight finally and Robear is not worried at all and is just as calm as he normally was. We get into KCI and there is that bag with all the other luggage! I am really glad to have the rocks. I’ve used them for all kinds of things – worry stones for one thing.
Carnacki, I’ve also been to Trafalgar Square and visited Nelson’s Crypt in St. Paul’s. Did you see the great story about Nelson and Trafalgar in National Geographic just a month or two ago?
I did not. I’ll be at the library tomorrow and will look for it. Thanks