![\"\"](\"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/San-Antonio-1024x757.jpg\")
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<\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\nIt was the 15th time we have declared our forever love by\nplacing a lock on a bridge. Normally we are not super-sentimental people, but\nlove locks are a ritual we have grown to cherish during our travels, leaving\nour mark on bridges and walls all over the United States, Europe and Mexico (so\nfar).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paris, France<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
It all started in the summer of 2016, when I was planning to\naccompany Gavin\u2019s scout troop on a week in the romantic city of Paris. Before\nwe left, Bob gave me a padlock and asked me to write our initials on it and\nhang it on the Pont des Arts Bridge, which was famous for having so many\nlovers\u2019 padlocks affixed to it that it groaned under the weight, and\nauthorities had had to cut them off. He had seen the bridge during a weekend he\nspent alone in Paris during a business trip, and thought it would be nice to\nhave our own lock there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Surprised and touched by this rare sentimentality, I happily obliged. After the troop set off for the next leg of their trip, Switzerland, I went down to the River Seine and searched for the love locks. The city had decommissioned the Pont des Arts Bridge in 2015 because of the weight of the locks, so I went to the Pont Neuf. It was covered with thousands of lovers\u2019 padlocks tumbling down the banisters and onto the railings of the river walls beyond. Across the River Seine from where I stood was a magnificent view of the Louvre. I locked our padlock, blew a kiss to Bob across the ocean, and took pictures. I\u2019m sure if the locks get too heavy, authorities will cut them off again. But until then, RG & LH<\/em> will grace the Pont Neuf in Paris, the city of lovers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Paris-red-680x1024.jpg\")
Paris<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n It was a grand, and small, gesture of love. It felt good. It\nmade me think about why I had married this man, what we had experienced\ntogether, and how special our life was. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hamburg, Germany<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Three years later, we were visiting my brother Patrick in\nHamburg, Germany, and walking along the Elbe River when we saw another bridge\ncovered with lovers\u2019 locks. We didn\u2019t realize the tradition had expanded beyond\nParis. Since we were leaving the country the next day, we went and found a\nhardware store to buy a lock, wrote RG\n& LH<\/em> with a Sharpie and enlisted Patrick to hang it for us. A few weeks\nlater, he sent a photo of our lock on the bridge. (Thanks, Pat!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Hamburg-1024x1024.jpg\")
Hamburg<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n And with that, we were off, searching for love lock bridges, or creating our own, everywhere we went, together or apart. While on a five-week tour through Europe, we hung locks everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
London, England<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In London, we strolled across the pedestrian Jubilee Bridge and listened to a street musician playing Caribbean steel drums while we snapped our padlock in a spot all its own and kissed above the Thames River. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/London-1024x802.jpg\")
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<\/figure><\/li><\/ul>London<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Rome, Italy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
After a long day of sightseeing as a family in Rome, when Gavin\u2019s and my feet were aching from miles of walking, Bob trekked back in the rain to hang a lock over the Tiber River. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Rome-1024x768.jpg\")
Rome<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n Sorrento, Italy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Farther south in Sorrento, on a solo weekend trip while I\nwas off doing genealogy searching with some Italian cousins, Bob discovered an\niron fence with love locks along the Mediterranean coastline about a mile from\nhis hotel during his morning run. He spent the afternoon searching for a\npadlock and a Sharpie, but a torrential downpour forced him to wait to return\nuntil the next morning, when a break in the rain gave him time to quickly walk\nthere and fix the lock in place before heading for the train station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Sorrento-768x1024.jpg\")
Sorrento<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n Hydra, Greece<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In Greece, during a daylong boat trip, Hydra, an idyllic fishing village where bleached-white houses climb up the mountainside from the azure Mediterranean, offered herself as an entrancingly scenic host to our love lock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Greece-768x1024.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Greece-us-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/li><\/ul>Hydra, Greece<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Ludlow, Vermont<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The tradition continued when we returned to North America. First, we affixed a love lock to a bridge in Ludlow, Vermont, where we have our second home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Ludlow-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Ludlow-us-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/li><\/ul>Ludlow<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n New Orleans, Louisiana<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Then we headed down to live in Mexico for the first six months of 2019. During a two-night on break the road trip south, we took the streetcar to hang a lock on a chain-link fence in New Orleans, under a banner that read Love Locks NOLA<\/em> in front of the Eiffel Society, a club built from parts of a former Eiffel Tower eatery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/NOLA-1024x768.jpg\")
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<\/figure><\/li><\/ul>New Orleans<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Leon, Mexico<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
When we came to Mexico in January 2019, the first city we stayed in was Leon, where we found the Puente Del Amor (love locks bridge) at one end of the Causeway of Heroes, a wide pedestrian walkway that serves as the gateway into the old city. After spending an afternoon looking for ferreterias (hardware stores) to buy a padlock, we put our lock through the padlock of another lock at the top. The bridge looked down upon a highway, with mountains in the distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Leon-red-768x1024.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Leon-us-1-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/li><\/ul>Leon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Lake Chapala, Mexico<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
We never found a good spot in Tlaquepaque, where we lived for four months, or Guadalajara, the city next door. But we visited beautiful Lake Chapala, half an hour south, for a day trip and walked out to the end of a fishing pier to hang our lock on a rusted turquoise railing overlooking Mexico\u2019s largest freshwater lake. On the way, we had been stopped by announcers for a local radio station who were broadcasting live, and thus posed for the obligatory selfie in our new orange Guadalajara T-shirts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Lake-Chapala-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Lake-Chapala-us-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/li><\/ul>Lake Chapala<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Guanajuato, Mexico<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
By far the most interesting place to hang our lock was the\nmagical town of Guanajuato, where there\u2019s an alley so narrow that people can\nkiss from across two balconies. There\u2019s a tragic legend of a young man who was\nkilled for stealing a kiss from the daughter of a rich man. We put up our lock\nand kissed across the alley. (Fortunately, Bob survived.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/guanajuato-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Guanajuato-us-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/li><\/ul>Guanajuato<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Montreal, Canada<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
We lived in Vermont during summer 2019, and took a couple of trips to Montreal, Canada, hanging one lock on a bridge overlooking Gay Village and the other on a small bridge in the main pedestrian area along the St. Lawrence River, looking out at a huge Ferris Wheel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Montreal1-1-799x1024.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Montreal2-1024x759.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/li><\/ul>Montreal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n The Farm, Cascade, Pennsylvania<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
When we visited The Farm, the family homestead in the mountains of Central Pennsylvania where Lisa\u2019s paternal grandmother grew up, we hung a love lock from the rusty metal rope that secures the entrance to the old lane. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Farm-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Farm-US-768x1024.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/li><\/ul>The Farm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Thwarted<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
We were occasionally thwarted in our efforts. In the beach town of Cambrils, Spain, there was no official Love Locks bridge, so we scouted the promenade along the ocean but never found a spot where we could thread a padlock. There was an official Love Locks spot in Barcelona, but we didn\u2019t have time to visit it. We have looked several times while in Burlington, VT, but have not yet found a spot for a padlock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Part of the tradition of the Love Locks is to throw the keys into the river to seal your eternal love, but we don\u2019t do that because we don\u2019t think it’s good for the health of the fish or the river. Thus we still hold all the keys to each other\u2019s hearts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our Love Locks Map<\/h2>\n\n\n
Click on each pin to see an image of the lock in its home!<\/em><\/p>\n