Finding a hill to climb at every turn while traveling abroad
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.
In Cortona, Italy, our tour guide (a member of our family) chose a nice bed and breakfast location near the market area. Our host took us over to the side of the yard and pointed to a “short, uphill” path that led up to a tree, told us to make a right turn and that the market was just a short distance from there. Our host’s definitions of “short, uphill” was much different from my “long, uphill” viewpoint. Even when we reached the market area, all the streets were uphill leading to the center of the market. We got to the point where we really enjoyed finding a small café for a cup of espresso to recover from the walk before we went shopping.
When you mention a visit to Switzerland, the image is mountains everywhere. It is basically a true statement when your hotel is halfway up a steep switchback road. We did have the opportunity to take a bus ride up and down to the city, but anywhere you walked to nearby shops was uphill. And even a gondola ride up to the top of the mountain only got you part way. If you wanted to see the peak of the mountain, you had to walk. And at 15,000 feet elevation, a lot of people found that there was not that much air to breathe when you try to recover your breath.
On our visit to Leros, Greece, I can blame my wife for reserving our bungalow on that trip. She had read somewhere about “Windmill Resorts” as being very scenic and comfortable. We found out that if you wanted to visit the town and beach area we had to walk down 110 steps. And that meant when we wanted to return to our room carrying gifts or groceries, we had to walk up 110 steps. It took a few trips to get the legs in shape but after a few days, our legs were in awesome condition. A few of our group that were on the trip must have been there before as they all had rooms near the beach. One nice thing about our room was that we didn’t have to worry about anyone walking up to visit us.
If the opportunity to travel overseas in the future arises, I will use the advantage of living in San Marcos to get ready for the trip. I have several routes near my neighborhood that include some nice hills to walk. A few weeks of hill climbing will be a prerequisite for any trip we schedule. If our trips are like any of the trips from the past, they will involve walking up hills.
