Location, location, location

The Realtors' motto is also an imperative for dream explorers. I try to bring back every possible detail of a dream location, especialy when it is unknown to me in ordinary reality. Sometimes I can match it to a physical location that I may visit in the future. Sometimes the dream place exists in its own reality, and what happens there stays there - except in my journal and dream sharing.

In a dream last night, I cheked into a hotel in Germany.I was traveling with my two sons, sons I don't have in ordinary life. They wanted to explore the old city we cound see from the hotel, bt I did not want to drve at night and I told them we wouldhave dinner in the hotel.

I return from the dream remembering, in exact detail, the layout of the public spaces in the hotel, though its namehas escaped me. Lying on my back, head sightly raised agisnt the pillows, I make it my game owalk slowly through the hotel again. I return to the airy greenhouse-likes space where I sat my boys down to study enormous menus under a leaded glass ceiling. The young fair-haired lady at the next table is still looking over work papers.

I pad again through the lushly carpeted lobby where a fire is burning in the hearth. I nod to the very correct grey-suited lady standing guard at the reception desk. I again inspect the formal restaurant with its cherrywood paneling and bright lights - the chefs want you to see their creations - that I thought too stuffy for my boys. The diners are elegantly dressed, the waiters of course wear black tie. A prosperous family is sharing roast goose.

I duck my head into the brew pub with all its pipes and barrels and so many beers on tap. I want tofind a dining area with a view over the water to the old city, the view I amired when we arrived here. It seems none of the restaurants and bars on this level overlook the lake.

I think we are near Munich.

My search inside the dream locale naturally orients my search online. I seek "Munich hotels with a view". I dwell for a while with pleasant images of the Kleinhesseloher See, a lake in the public park known as English Gardens in the heart of Munich. The view from my dream hotel was a little more scruffy. I found something strongly resembling it at the website of The Flushing Meadows, a trendy, upscale contemporary hotel an hour's drive from Munich. Could I go there in the future? Always possible. But not with my sons.

I take a closer look at these boys I know only in the dream. Each has the dark brown hair and the oval face I had at their ages, 8 and 10. They could be Younger Roberts. However, they have different names (that I don't need to share here) and it seems clear to me that they have their own identities. I'll look forward to spending more time with them, in what may be an alternate life.

I seem to be much younger in the German hotel than I am writing these lines. I may be in a different body altogether.