This post was originally inspired by Jayne's post here. However since then Jayne has posted with more adventures and some of her commenters have added very much to the discussion. Jayne has also added a post Going it Alone. which is a guide to travelling by camper-van alone.
All in all the whole question of travel is so significant in many of our lives that books rather than simple blog posts have been written on the subject.
It made me realise that we travel for different purposes: work (when I was a young man the 'commercial traveller' was often the most-travelled person I knew); relaxation and exercise (YP and my Munro-bagging son immediately come to mind); to visit friends, family, second homes and so on; to go on holiday to (often far-away) places for rest and relaxation; and then there is travel undertaken for the pure pleasure of being a tourist.
When I was a youngster most of my travelling was to spend a fortnight in a country cottage somewhere in Wales or The English Lake District to go walking and visit anything of interest that we could find in the area. Generally most people were not well-travelled unless they were wealthy. Most people when I was young had two or at most three weeks holiday a year. In the UK that would generally be considered derisory today.
Much of my 'travelling' as an adult has simply been driving or flying from home to Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Balearics or Canada and Australia to stay with friends or stay somewhere on holiday. Ultimately I flew between my home in Scotland and my home in New Zealand for 9 years. In the grammatically correct use of the word all this was travelling.
However, in reality, the journey was not the point of the exercise. It was simply a means of getting from home to where I was staying. On the other hand I have travelled to and around some of those countries and California, Australia and New Zealand as a tourist a well.
When I was a young man I read the Russian novels with ardent enthusiasm. A friend and I (he became a Church of England priest) planned to go to Russia but I met my wife and got married instead. I never did get to see Russia although I got a taste of what it might have been like when I visited East Germany before the fall of The Berlin Wall.
I'm conscious of the fact that this has been rather a waffle but I'm genuinely interested to know what makes people travel and who travels simply for the experience of travelling rather than, say, business or visiting family.
A few photos of me being a tourist in South Island, New Zealand:
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| Hele-hiking on a glacier |
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| From a helicopter above the glacier |
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| Flying over whales. |
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| The Chain sculpture, Stewart Island (the most southerly inhabited Island in the New Zealand chain) |
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| Fjordland |
You are not waffling - I do not think you could ever waffle. Thanks for the mention, my Going It Alone blog has had lots of visits but not many comments, I suspect telling people not to bother if all they wanted to do was say that could not may not have gone down well! ha ha.
ReplyDeleteI travel in order to see things which interest me and experience other parts of the country. Your photos are wonderful and I am completely in awe of how many places you have been to.
I am conscious that the view out of my window is one that millions of people travel a long way to see, which might be why I don’t feel the need to leave home very often. 🤭
Jayne, you're very kind to say that you don't think I can waffle but some have told me that I have a degree in the subject!
DeleteYour Going it Alone blog post will, I'm sure, have been noted by many and, hopefully, they will remember your practical words and advice when they need it - for at some time most of us surely will.
Like you, when I look out of my window when sitting at the breakfast bar which is my home base, I too, know why I have so little desire to wander these days. Apart from the fact that I can't get insurance and I now hate airports!
Great photos! Lovely post, something to think about
ReplyDeleteI'm not a well traveled person. Mexico once, never been to Canada (an hour away) or any other location outside the lower 48. I've never owned a passport. When I am on the move, it is to visit relatives, go to a funeral, errands or see the countryside.
Maywyn, my brother has never owned a passport nor travelled outside England, Scotland and Wales. His view is that his life could never be long enough to see all he wanted in this country so why go anywhere else.
DeleteThe travels I've made in my life have been either to see new places, or to visit friends or family, or a combination of both. (With a tendency to travel-sickness, I've never been overly keen on the transportation as such - even if that is of course part of the overall experience as well.) In my childhood and teens, my parents liked going on road trips in the summer holidays - mostly within Sweden (staying at hostels), but also to Britain (staying at small hotels/B&B). As a grown-up, I never had a car of my own, but a few times I did rent or borrow one for summer holiday trips within Sweden (back in the 1980s/90s), either alone (visiting friends) or with a friend. I haven't been on a plane or a big boat (ferry) since going to Britain in the 1970s. (My very first experience of flying was to Spain in 1967 - a trip that for my dad was part work, part holiday, but for the rest of the family just holiday. My last was a flight up to the north of Sweden in the late 70s, and then travelling by train back down.) A train journey on my own to southern Germany and back in the early 80s; and one tourist trip by bus to Germany and Austria in 1990 (with a group of friends). In between (but not lately), I've travelled by train within Sweden to visit friends or family, or attend summer courses of various kind (for fun, for learning, and meeting new people). In later years (as you know) my brother and I have made some short road trips with him at the wheel. Those have included both re-visiting places from our past, and some new ones. I've never really felt a longing to see "the whole world" - but I'm thankful for the trips that I have been able to make.
ReplyDeleteMonica, the majority of my travelling has been to see people rather than places although seeing where friends have lived has often been very enjoyable. Most of my European trips (except Spain) have been by car. I'd never been on a plane until I flew to Lewis in 1975.
DeleteSometimes it's nice just to have a bit of a waffle.
ReplyDeleteAt the age of eighteen I flew to Fiji via New York, Los Angeles and Honolulu. At the time, none of my peers had ever boarded an aeroplane and this was my first time. As you indicate - back in the late sixties/ early seventies ordinary folk tended to have little experience of travelling far away. I used to find flying an exciting experience, now it makes me feel like a steer boarding a cattle truck.
I am lucky to have seen quite a lot of the world but satisfying travel can happen ten or twenty miles away from home. It's how you see it and absorb it that matters.
YP, I agree wholeheartedly with you last paragraph and, indeed, its preceding sentence.
DeleteHello, Graham: It will probably not surprise you when I say that I travel primarily to explore the world's natural wonders and have been fortunate to have done so for most of my life. In the process, however, I have learned a lot about other cultures, realized that language is only a barrier if you permit it to be, and had many a fine gustatory experience by trying foods in other lands. In fact, our kitchen is now a haven of ethnic cuisine. I may be paraphrasing here, but Rudyard Kipling famously said, "What can he know of England knows?" - and I have found it enriching to be able to see my country through the eyes of others, sometimes in surprising ways. I have been ( and continue to be) a lucky man,
ReplyDeleteWhat can he know of England who only England knows?
DeleteHaha. I was going to update the quote but you have done so. Kipling may be out of favour these days but I have a great admiration for a lot of his work. I agree absolutely with your language as a barrier comment. I always wanted to be multi-lingual but I, whilst I have a reasonable ability to get by in the principal European countries in their languages I am nowhere near fluent in any (except, I hope, English!) but, as you say, the art is in not letting that be a problem. Most of the countries I've visited have not had wildly different ethnic cuisines which are not eaten in Britain already.
DeleteI enjoyed the photographs. Like you, I have travelled a lot for work, mainly around Europe, and have done a lot of walking around the UK. But I seem to be unusual in that I have never been bothered about going any further. I am content with holidays here and my garden. Why go thousands of miles when you can sit in the sun at home. Television and the internet make distant places accessible without the hassle.
ReplyDeleteTasker, apart from my Californian visit (a friend was going and his travelling companion had called off) all my visits firth of Europe have been primarily to visit friends and family (which was why I spent 9 years in New Zealand.).
DeleteIn a car or train, I enjoy the travelling part of travel. Not so flying and not much by ship, especially 'days at sea'. I've not thought about it by my generation is the first to travel around the world. Two of my three siblings have travelled overseas more than once. My mother only flew in a plane once and that was not even interstate. She had to have oxygen for the whole flight.
ReplyDeleteAndrew, although I regularly travel on 2½ hour sea ferry journeys the idea of, for example, going on a cruise is completely abhorrent to me. My parents never flew in an aeroplane.
DeleteI no longer travel far due to age and Bill's ill health. However in the past we travelled a lot. Back in 1970 we travelled around the world for our honeymoon spending a year on the go but most of it in Switzerland Bill's homeland. we didn't travel much when we started a family with only one of us working. But we had to make regular trips from Australia to Switzerland to visit Bill's parents because he is an only child and our two girls were their only grandchildren. When the girls grew up we travelled extensively overseas and around Australia and yes NZ quite a few times. We travelled for the experience of other cultures and amazing landscapes. Now I'm happy revisiting our trips through my photo albums. i'm happy not have the the stress at airports these days.
ReplyDeleteDiane, the stress of airports even when travelling within Scotland as I still do for hospital visits is a pain. It's just not a pleasant experience and that's what travelling used to be.
DeleteI have done a lot of travelling since I was 17. I include in this when I left home and went to live in a hostel in London. I cannot explain myself in a short comment really. The Cold War influenced where I wanted to go and I have mostly covered Eastern Europe and Russia and they are the areas of my principal interest. I nearly always travel alone. The journey is part of the experience for me be it aeroplane or train. My travel experience starts the moment I leave my house.
ReplyDeleteYes, Rachel. You came to mind when I thought of this post because you are one of the few people I know who travel primarily for the experience of travelling and, of course, the resultant experience of other cultures and peoples.
DeleteIf I got started on this subject properly, my comment would be longer than your post, and so I shall let it suffice to say that I travel rarely (if ever) for the sake of travelling but mostly to get from A to B. A is home, and B can be a work place, or O.K.‘s for the weekend (obviously the two most frequent reasons for my travels), and then there are other places such as Yorkshire to see family and friends, or regions in Germany, Italy or Austria for hiking and walking.
ReplyDeleteIf you count walking as a form of travelling, I actually do a lot of travelling for travelling‘s sake.
Meike, I wasn't thinking of walking as a form of travel simply because almost all my walking these days (and it was probably always the principal purpose) is for exercise. The enjoyment of the surroundings is, of course, a consideration but, basically, walking is good for the body and soul.
DeleteI have travelled to see my mother's family in NZ and my husband's in Malaysia. I have travelled to Thailand as a tourist and the US to meet blogging friends. I have travelled all over Sydney for work and of course Sydney is my home city but there are many parts of Sydney where I would never have cause to visit. I have travelled to a few cities doing flood relief work and sometimes for weddings or funerals, retirements or other big events (which i guess is in the visiting people category)
ReplyDeleteIn summary, I travel for people: to celebrate or mourn with them, meet them, hear their stories, or just share a new experience as a tourist.
I wanted to travel much more than I have but I've gained something from all that I've done
A lot of your travel has been for worthwhile purposes though. If I knew, I had forgotten that your mother's family was from New Zealand. Certainly some of my most important travelling has been to meet blogfriends - within New Zealand though.
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ReplyDeleteAs a child, I always read the National Geographic and I just hungered to see the places featured in that magazine. As an adult, I did travel a little while I was in the military, and I was glad for it. I had orders for Germany when I received the ultimatum. I could get married or go to Germany, but I could not have my cake and eat it too.
I chose to get married, and although that was probably the greatest mistake in my life, I have my children, and raising them put paid to any travel plans I might have. Now they are grown, educated, and on their own. It is my time. I got to travel to England where my daughter lives. Seeing all those things that I had read about for years and year...I'd be a liar if I didn't say sometimes I found my eyes teary at the joy of seeing those things with my very own eyes.
This year, I could not travel because of Tim's situation. Next year is looking kind of dicey too. But it will happen again. I've got the bug. Don't you think that our reasons change as we age?
Thinking of it, not so much as we age, but as our circumstances change.
ReplyDeleteDebby, up to a point age and circumstances are related because our circumstances very often change with age. Perhaps more time and less money or more money and less good health. The combinations are endless. I do hope that you fulfil your dreams in due course.
DeleteI travelled because my husband was in the army and that rather put me off - we went where he was posted. Then, later, he travelled all over the world for business and had no desire to repeat it in his leisure time. I enjoy seeing where others go, though. I suppose you could say that I live life vicariously - well, someone has to ;-)
ReplyDeleteJabblog, it is so easy to travel vicariously these days: I frequently do it via my television screen - there's no airports to be navigated.
DeleteSounds like you have done a lot of traveling, Graham! Your photos show lots of exciting adventures.
ReplyDeleteI traveled to China and Africa for family weddings there and when I retired, I took my daughter to Italy. So I have had a bit of travel but most of my vacations have been in the USA. Now I'm feeling like it would be too much for me to travel to faraway places. I wish I had traveled more in my youth to places around the world.
Ellen, you have been to China and Africa where few people I know have been and I've only been to Michigan (a few miles over the border) and California in the US so for our memories we can both talk of our very different experiences and compare notes.
DeleteSeems like you've had an eventful life Graham. Were the ice photos taken at Franz Joseph or somewhere else? Speaking of travelling alone, my youngest has just arrived in Ayrshire to spent a month there with a friend, I can't believe he travelled between various airports by himself.
ReplyDeleteAmy, my life has had it's moments but on the whole has been pretty mundane. It was on Franz Joseph. A truly amazing experience. I hope that your son enjoys Ayrshire. It has some interesting places including the hospital (Ayr Hospital) which has looked after me for the last 20 years despite it being so far from where I live on Lewis. I hope that he doesn't have to go anywhere near it 😂.
DeleteDropped over from Debby's blog, and found your post thought- provoking. I haven't traveled much, and mainly it has been for family or work. A few trips to England to see my mother's family (cousin John writes By Stargoise and Hanglands blog), and many, many trips here in the States to visit sons, ferry grandchildren back and forth, to see parents and siblings in Virginia. Add in work conferences, storytelling gigs, and three trips to Ireland purely as a tourist, and that's about it. But I do love to explore, and if I had the means would be zooming off at every opportunity.
ReplyDeleteHello, Sue, and welcome. It's interesting that you love to explore and would like to do more.
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