London

After a productive meeting six International Mountain Leaders went for a wander in that most challenging of environments - the city.
Like many many a visitor we were drawn down to the South Bank - iconic views, street entertainers and a relatively open space, somewhere to simply absorb the essence of, an easy place to realise how special our capital city is.
Sat outside at a bar in the evening sun we watched a multicultural throng pass by, every fashion, age, gender, race or attitude on display, the air simply buzzed with people. We chatted about past present and future trips, destinations, our plans and games - around us people of every type did the same. We spent a while guessing the languages we could hear- between us we've been to every continent and most countries - but happy excited chatter is, wonderfully, the same in any tongue and for a lot of it we were simply guessing, our mirth making more mirth, our waiters and neighbours joining in.
Fed and watered we wandered a while - the first spots of rain turning us around before we reached London Bridge - we crossed the river and made our way home, 6 mountaineers in a vibrant city of millions, happily chatting, stopping to take pictures, to admire the green spaces, the towering places, the bright lights.

And despite the horrors you'll see in the news today, that was London last night. Happy, vibrant, laughing and diverse, a great city filled with great people.