With all the restrictions on travel this last year, it was good news that a few countries are starting to allow visitors from other countries to visit. While I don’t have any plans for travel overseas anytime soon, there were a few occasions where the conversations were reminiscent of previous travels. My wife and I were eating out one evening and started to recall some of our trips overseas. While we discussed any number of things that seemed to stand out from the various trips there was one point that caused me to look at the places we visited a little more closely.
Looking back at several of the trips, it seemed that wherever we stayed, we were always having to walk up hills. I am not sure how our trips always seemed to have hills to climb. I need to do a little more research on the reservations for our stays. When we visited Athens, Greece, for the purpose of visiting the Parthenon site for a look back at very early history, we discovered that it is at the top of a very big hill. There are no elevators or welcome wagons to get you to the top to see all the ruins. The only path is a series of switch-back trails that take a certain level of fitness to negotiate. At the top, we did notice that the number of visitors and sight-seers that were overweight was very few. The viewing of the ruins and structures and the view overlooking Athens was worth the climb up the hill.
We visited some small, out-of-the-way Greek islands on a sailing trip one year. I am not sure if the Sea Scape sailing owner did this on purpose or if all small Greek islands are situated on either a high hill or a small mountain. It just seemed that at every stop there was some reason that we had to climb a hill to visit the shops, restaurants, or scenic site. We had the option to stay on the sailboat and sunbathe, or go for a swim in the very clear waters of the ocean. But when you travel that distance, you feel a bit obligated to see the area. We chose to walk up the hills and steep pathways to visit our destination.
