The Way We Travel

Terri thought it might be interesting to tell others the how and why of our traveling, since we seem to approach things a little differently. So, this blog post is mostly Terri with a little bit of me.

It occurred to me, while relaxing in our Lisbon apartment on a rainy afternoon, that the way we travel may seem quite odd to most people.

After checking out every travel book available at the library for a particular destination, and making a rough list of things to do, the goal is not scratching those 'must-see' tourist attractions off the bucket list. Many times, the most important and famous monuments, like the Rialto Bridge in Venice, the Leaning Tower in Pisa, and the Trevi Fountain in Rome, for example, wind up being the least memorable experiences. They are crowded with tourists and kitschy souvenir kiosks. They aren't real. Walking around Venice at night is real -- you have this quiet magical place to yourself after all the day-trippers have left.

It's important to stay long enough to get a sense of place, to know a city and figure out how to get around via public transportation. (Deciphering bus and subway and tram schedules and fares and how they interconnect is far from easy, but being able to use the public transportation system is essential for understanding a city.) We aren't early risers, so we take our time and usually head out to explore around 11 a.m. With a detailed map and usually the Rick Steves and Eyewitness travel books, we start out on foot and walk around and take in the sights. Then stop somewhere for lunch, depending on where we end up. Then head in a different direction, exploring a different neighborhood, and so on. The next day, figure out how to ride the bus/subway, go a little further and get home in time for dinner at a neighborhood restaurant. Then another neighborhood, church, museum. And so on. There's no time for day trips to nearby cities -- that comes later, once you have a sense of place. What's left undone on your list becomes the starting point for the next trip. By the third trip, we know the city pretty well and venture out even further, with day trips to nearby places.

I realize that our independent style of traveling is quite different -- by being perfectly content walking around the neighborhood, eating lunch at the restaurant across the street, going to the grocery store, buying pastries at the bakery, buying a bus pass from the amiable guy in the shop next door, and sitting at scenic overlooks and taking in the view. And when it starts raining, going back to the apartment to listen to fado and to plan the next day, and maybe even the next trip to a new city.

I'll add a few things. We've traveled a lot but haven't been to that many places: UK, only London, once; France, only Paris, twice; Spain, only Madrid twice and Barcelona once; but Italy nine times, month-long escapes to Buenos Aires six times, and Portugal three times and planning more. We always go in the off-season. We don't buy travel books, we borrow them from the library. We plan ahead but often make last minute changes depending on weather, our mood, and new information. We go back to places we like but try to add at least one new destination every year. We prefer apartments to hotel rooms. We can't hide the fact that we're tourists but we work very hard to be as unobtrusive as possible.

And that's the way we travel.