Longtime Readers will be very familiar with my penchant for travel, especially to the U.K. and parts of Euroland.
However, as I’ve been paging through my travel pic folders to find landscapes and cityscapes to post on Thursdays, a feeling of gloom and melancholy is starting to make its appearance.
I’m not sure I want to travel internationally again.
There are several reasons I make that statement, but let me deal with the easier one first.
I’m getting old, and while my overall health is pretty good (according to my doctor, not just for my age but for just about any age), I’m not sure how I’d feel about, for example, climbing up the steep cobbled street from the ferry dock at Meersburg to the town itself on top of the hill.
Hell, it was tough when I last did it — in 2004 — so now, over two decades later… you get my drift. And I loved Meersburg, with a passion.
Also, when strolling around cities like Paris or London, I thought nothing of walking all day — I mean, for those who are familiar with the cities, from Notre Dame to Sacré Coeur and back to our hotel next to the Sorbonne; or from the V&A Museum to World’s End at the other end of Chelsea, and back.
Either of those little jaunts would take me two days, now.
Which brings me to my second thought.
Even if I could do those walks, I’m not so sure I’d want to because of the crime that seems to have overtaken most of Europe’s cities. It’s not that I’m afraid of becoming a victim of some Rolex Ripper on Bond Street or Rue Royale; I’m not a fearful person by nature — but I can be an aggressive person when faced by thuggishness of that kind, and I don’t want to deal with the possibility of having to explain to an unsympathetic bobby or gendarme why some little scrote is lying there screaming with a broken arm or, for that matter, having to deal with the NHS or its French equivalent when said little scrote hacked at me with a machete because I had the effrontery to refuse his attempt at property redistribution.
And we all know how the Filth in Britishland regard the matter of self-defense Over There. Nothing puts a damper on the travel experience like having to explain to some judge why you didn’t want to just let the little choirboy take your property and shake your head sorrowfully at your loss. That you applied your walking-stick to the little shit’s cranium (in lieu of having the old 1911 at hand) would no doubt land you in Serious Trouble, just as your attitude to the cops being more or less on the criminal’s side rather than on yours might also result in the cop’s uniform being ruined by the flow of blood (his).
Altogether, not a prospect worth spending thousands of dollars (which I don’t have) just to visit their poxy paradise.
And then there’s this little nugget, from one of my most-favored places on the planet:
Most famous districts in Vienna are in the heart of the city and during summer or at Christmas season they become overcrowded, which can lead to pickpocketing, mugging and even terrorist attacks. In these areas frequented by tourists, bus and train stations, people around you need to be carefully watched and your possessions should be kept close to you.
WTF? Now add to that the chance that some “migrant” takes offense that your female companion doesn’t have her head covered to his satisfaction… do you see where I’m going with this?
Fuck that for a tale.
One might think, given all the above, that the places to visit in Europe would be those which haven’t allowed untrammeled African- or Muslim incursions. We’re talking here of Poland and Hungary, for instance.
But here’s my problem. I would love — love — to visit those two countries, but I’m completely unfamiliar with both their languages, and honestly, I’m not sure that my old brain can handle learning even a smattering of either with the facility that used to be one of my strengths.
This really sucks.
So it may be that at long last, I’ll have to trim Ye Olde Bucquette Lyste of the travel items therein, sadly and regretfully.
I think I’ll just go to the range, assuming my eyesight is still up to the task of seeing the sights of a gun instead of the sights of a foreign city.
Bah.
With regards to Poland, just go: English is widely spoken. Just take a pocket phrasebook with you.
You might also look at Georgia: I understand that their wine is quite something.
When I last visited Gettysburg a few years ago at the end of July, I ran into the same fatigue you mentioned. The Missus and I took breaks. When walking the battlefield was too hot and we needed a break, we went back into town to find an air conditioned restaurant to cool down and hydrate.
The part of traveling that I avoid is getting into an airplane with the great unwashed and getting rubbed down by an 8th grade drop out working for TSA.
Sad is it not? Have been an international business traveler since 1979 and took new wife to UK and Ireland as the “welcome to my world” tour.
Have observed the slow (then fast) steady decline of the EU and UK since. Much as I too would like to return for visits in retirement, it is obvious that we will never re-capture what it was in the past. Lately I am loath to travel by land anywhere without “personal protection” on hand. For some reason I suspect it would be difficult to bring a Beretta or 1911 along, which frankly are now a necessity an ever growing list of cities (including in the U.S. – am about 100 miles east of south Chicago (cough!).
I lived in Germany for 3 years and always thought I would go back someday.
Someday has come and I know I’ll never go there again.
That doesn’t set well but I guess I’ve gotten used to it.
Just be happy you can still go to the range without the thought of being surrounded by thugs and criminals (cops “the government” and fudds “cocksuckers who would put the cops on you”) who may force you into defending yourself and your stuff rather that pleasantly shooting paper or steel.
No matter where you are, its coming.
I know from whence I speak as its already here. >:-[
I guess that leave travel within the US for you and your wife. I’ve crawled all over most of the lower 48 on 3 different large touring bikes (rolled over 100,000 miles on each of them, all GoldWings, all three black, hence the ‘net moniker) with my wife, and we’ve seen pretty much everything everywhere. We’ve given that up now since we retired to one of our favorite places we used to travel to, NW Wyoming.
If I may be so bold, I’ll recommend the biggest rest stop on the way to Yellowstone, the tourist town of Cody. While there are one or two things to actually do in Cody itself (the firearms museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, aka, “Bee-bee-cow” is incredible), the town should be mostly used as jumping-off point for day-trips. There’s stuff to do in any direction. To the north is the Chief Joseph Highway and the Beartooth Pass, and also the NE Gate to the Park. To the east are the Bighorn Mountains, and at the south end of them is the beautiful Ten Sleep Canyon. To the south are the Carter Mountains and the trail head that John Colter pioneered to get over to Jackson (yech) and the Wind River Range. To the west is the prettiest drive into the Park through the East Gate and Sylvan Pass.
You’ll have to ask the locals (hey, you’ve got my e-mail) about other nifty things. The walk from the west side of Clark up the Clark’s Fork valley following the Morrison Jeep Trail is spectacular, and while it turns into a somewhat rocky trail you can spend as much or as little time walking as you like. There are a large number of motels, Cody’s got a WalMart and a decent grocery store, and if you only stay for less than a week you can check out the rather limited number of restaurants in town.
I recommend coming in mid-September, since the tourists are mostly gone by then, but the colors of the aspens and cottonwoods are starting to really kick in. We can get snow here any month of the year, but it’s not that common in September, and it’s blazing hot in the summer (we are in high-desert sagebrush country until you’re actually on the side of a mountain here). It’s a beautiful drive to get here, the natives are friendly, and we’re a constitutional-carry state (non-residents must open-carry for some reason, unless you got a permit with reciprocity).
I’ve been to Cody a couple of times now. You could spend the better part of a week at the BBC, just looking at the guns and history part. Not far from there is the Cody Dug-Up Gun Museum with firearms that have been dug up or found all over the country.
I’m slowing down, too, we’re about a year apart in age, I think. Fortunately, like you, I’ve traveled extensively, on Uncle Sam’s dime, having lived and worked all over Asia and Europe in the Air Force, plus some cruising and vacations after. In addition to the slowing down you mention (in spades), the old places don’t hold the same appeal to me any longer.
Unlike you, I don’t miss the ability to travel, however. Travel was about “seeing” things, but also experiencing things—the culture, the food, the museums and historic sites. As you mention, that experience is no longer, or at least much less appealing that it once was due to Europe having become so changed by the influx of Muslims who not only do not assimilate, they have no desire to assimilate.
In 2016 the Pew Research Center estimated the Muslim population of Europe at about 5%. Currently, France is 10% Muslim, Austria 8.3%, Germany 5.7%, Italy 4.8%, Liechtenstein FFS is 5.4%, Netherlands 5%, Norway 3.2%, Sweden 7.1% (God help them), Switzerland 5.2% (that shocked me), UK 5.8%. You get the picture. Future projections are not good. And although hard to find statistics on it, being Streng Verboten by the powers that be, Muslims appears to be WAY out of proportion to their representation in the population in terms of consumption of public services and welfare and their commission of crimes, especially against women and girls.
Because virtually ALL of the studies I can find on teh Googlz are by open borders fanatics, all the reporting is about crimes against Muslims, not committed by them, and of course Islamophobia (oh noooooes!). But I’d be willing to bet that those small percentages of the population account for 25% to a third of welfare consumption and violent crime. Poland, God bless them, is only at 0.02% Muslim! And a place I’d consider visiting.
Now, though, I’ll probably stick to CONUS travel and maybe the Caribbean. I’m down 15 pounds in a month on Ozempic (I’m diabetic, but switched from Rybellsus a month ago) and if I get down to 190 or so and hit the gym again, I might even consider SCUBA diving again. It’s not too stressful. Fall in the Northeast, the Caribbean, and a few American cities I have not yet visited will satisfy my wanderlust for the rest of my days, though. I also get a lot of enjoyment out of Rick Steves travel shows, believe it or not. They are very enjoyable, and I enjoy watching them like you do car shows.
Know the feeling well. I too am in relatively good health (for a geezer), can afford the trip, but like you, have no desire to go.
For me the decider was the acquired gimp leg which makes the kind of walking you describe impossible. Then there’s the inability to defend myself and companions with anything resembling an effective weapon.
We can console ourselves with knowing we saw Yurp when it WAS Yurp. (1977-1980 for me.)
I have only visited Yurp once, in 2016. Two weeks in Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands. It was glorious, and a lifelong dream, going back to my German classes in high school.
But my first evening in Munich was in a hotel between the train station and old town, and I left my girlfriend at the hotel and walked to Aldi to get wine and dinner. I hoped to see friendly German people along the way to and from the store.
What I found instead was a bunch of dirty Muslims in man dresses lounging on the corners, speaking some gibberish language. Not a German in sight.
It took the rest of the trip to wash that out of miy mind. Salzburg, the Rhine, Mozart, the Loreley, the Van Gogh museum, etc. I left with, on net, fond memories.
I have enough credit card based frequent flyer miles to go back, business class, for free. And I didn’t get to see so much on my list, including Vienna and Tuscany.
I’m actually in better physical shape now, at 70+ years old but 50 pounds lighter and fitter, but from what I’ve read, the Islamization of Yurp has proceeded apace.
If I go, back, it will be to Poland or Hungary, and I’ll avoid flights that even land in (formerly) Great Britain.
This is what they took from us.
I’m two years your junior and have all but tapped out on international travel. Fresh back from my 2nd trip to the UK this year, with a side stop in Oslo and Bergen for 12 days, I’m gassed out. My BIL, a boon traveling companion two years MY senior, is good for 15km a day, minimum. He damn near broke me in Porto a couple of years ago; making the trip from our hotel (the very lovely Infante Sagres) down to the port docks a couple of times a day took damn near a year for me to heal up. Same in Oslo.
We’ve committed to a final pub crawl in Ireland in September, both agreeing that we’ve seen, if not all, most of it all. He and the dear SIL are moving from The Oldest TK Maxx in UK (Wales) to Northampton (just outside London). He’s also agreed to see more of the US and we both agree that it’s no longer necessary to go to Paris to be rudely treated in French, we can just go to Montreal for that.
I have one 5-day trip to Rotterdam in September to serve as male escort for the Fetching Dr. Bruno, then I am pulling my international card and limiting destinations to those I can drive to in a day or two.
The only possible exception is one final trip to Vienna. My wife has people in Berlin and Switzerland who promise us a good time and a free place to stay, so the temptation is there. Still, not much lust left for the wander.
Geezerness eventually gets to all of us, and along with Mrs GFL we just don’t do the hiking and walking bit like we used to. Even an uber is usually accompanied by some moron mumbling into his cellphone in some primitive language.
We do like cruising, though. So if one has buckets of unused cash, a high-end transatlantic cruise is great for us. We’ll do another this coming November. Fly to Euro (nasty as that might be), spend just one night in Barcelona, board the ship and head back. On board, we meet all sorts of international folks, mostly among the shipboard staff who I find infinitely more interesting than the passengers. Almost zero of them follow the muzzie line, too, as serving others is a trait not common among that breed of humanity.
So I can get my dose of interacting with foreigners without these other hassles to which you refer.
(Except when I return, I’m faced with Miami Airport — but that is a moan for another time.)
I visited Europe and traveled a bit in Italy on my own. I don’t speak Italian, but I could read signage and make out enough to get by (for instance, “Stazione” is fairly obvious).
Later I thought of visiting Japan. Then I realized that not only would I not know the language, I would be illiterate. (Though in fact Japan has lots of signage in “romaji”.)