Narrow streets host a sensory dance, the intertwining of shadow and light bounced off medieval buildings with pale plaster. Wider streets see couples promenading slowly past cafés and shops, the sun illuminating their smiles. Window boxes spill over with late summer flowers. A few people sip coffee from small tables under an overhang, their coats on to ward off the slight chill I’m not feeling as I watch them from my position basking in the warm rays of this early autumn day. feldkirch isn’t crowded but it is alive. With the energy of a smaller European city in a shoulder season after so long with slow, or no, tourism. A sense of hopeful optimism seems to be alive in the air, entering my body through each breath in and out, in and out. I think of the cosplay culture when we join a tour with Countess Mechthild but am infatuated with her enthusiasm for the history of this city and the way she so effortlessly brings the past alive in the present. After hours of putting our brains to work ...