Travel – Just take it easy!

In 1969 a movie came out called If It’s Tuesday It Must Be Belgium. It is an enjoyable satire of “packaged tours” where tourists rush from site to site  and landmark to landmark with no time “to smell the roses” as it were.

When I was a concierge, my very favorite story relating to running breathless from place to place to tick off some imagined list came from a super-hyper couple who informed me that they had seen everything in San Francisco and wanted to do something else. The fact that they had only been in San Francisco for one day did not seem to be a relevant factor, so I made suggestions for them to visit the Napa Valley. The next day, I saw the couple in the lobby and inquired as to how they enjoyed their time in Napa. They said and I quote, “We loved it, we went to Santa Cruz too!” Just as a point of reference, Santa Cruz is an hour and a half south of San Francisco and Napa is an hour and a half north. Their answer has always astounded me and made me realize that I want to be the exact opposite type of traveler.

I love to travel and have personally visited over 50 countries. The best travel lesson I have ever learned, and it is one I learned from my husband, is to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you will never see all there is to see when visiting a place that is far from home. Once, when Bill and I were traveling, I said at breakfast, “What are we going to do today? What are we going to see?” Bill replied, “We’ll do what we do and see what we see.” I loved his response and have made it my mantra ever since. That doesn’t mean when visiting Siem Riep, for instance, I wouldn’t make plans to tour Angkor Wat. Instead, it just means since I know I can never see it all anyway, I enjoy the ride, carpe diem and experience the freedom of the moment.

One of my favorite things to do is to simply take a stroll and just do what we do and see what we see. Bill and I did just that in Vienna recently. The experience reminded me of the lyrics from one of my favorite songs by Billy Joel, oddly enough referring to Vienna.

“Where’s the fire, what’s the hurry about?
You better cool it off before you burn it out
You got so much to do and only
So many hours in a day (Ay)

But you know that when the truth is told
That you can get what you want
Or you can just get old
You’re gonna kick off before you even get halfway through (Oooh)

When will you realize… Vienna waits for you?”

 The following photos by my talented husband, Bill Apton, show you the Vienna that had been waiting for us to relax, discover and simply enjoy a Sunday stroll. (All photos copyright Bill Apton)

Bumped into a film festival

Hung out in a rose garden. Even though the old song says I never promised you a rose garden, we found one in Vienna.

You never know what you might see

It could be a sculpture

Or a courtyard

Or a museum

Or … what you might hear

Or maybe you might find something magical like we did while visiting St. Stephens. There was a traveling international orchestra performing one concert only and we happened upon it. WOW! Could never have planned it without hours of research and then planned the whole day around it. So much better to simply be open to the magic.

Don’t plan every minute, don’t have a schedule with rushing from point A to point B to attempt to see it all. Just realize (song lyrics by Billy Joel)

“You got your passion, you got your pride
But don’t you know that only fools are satisfied?
Dream on, but don’t imagine they’ll all come true (Oooh)
When will you realize… Vienna waits for you?”