Many beautiful places are not only a place, but a time. It comes together for you at a particular moment, and even when you go back to the place, it is never quite the same.

Here are two of mine.

Night, on a long, wide, flat, deserted beach. I was alone and walking just at the border of the land and the sea. It was foggy and it seemed that I was walking in a small open space about four metres square, walled in with fog on all sides, that moved along with me. Black night, black wet sand, black smooth water, white fog. No sound at all, anywhere. Then the fog cleared above me just enough that I could see stars, and they reflected in the thin wet layer as the waves slid up under my feet. I walked for a long time. It was like walking in space, with stars all around. Hard to tell whether I was really moving or if time was passing at all.

Second place: Dawn at sea, far out from land when I was a child on my father's boat. We had been sailing all night and the wind was wild and strong. We were blowing in towards the mainland and the sun came up in a rush behind the peak of an offshore island. It looked like a volcano erupting. Cold air around us, hot orange fire coming up in the east.

Brunnen-"OK, that's my moment of emotion for this year"G