Never too ___ to travel

A lady who lives in the neighborhood of the restaurant I work in just came back from the Netherlands, and I had a chance to chat with her yesterday over a glass (hers, not mine) of Seis de Azul y Garanza, a Cabernet/Merlot blend from Navarra. She raved about the train ride from Amsterdam to Leiden, about watching the tulip fields drift by her window. Same for the art: Vermeer, Rembrandt, van Gogh. Seeing Girl with the Pearl Earring, she said, made her to wonder if the unnerving looks from portraits such as that and the Mona Lisa and several by van Gogh were caused by one of the eyes being painted slightly off-center. It made me wish I had studied visual art.

She told me she hadn't started traveling until after she retired, and she seemed exhilarated by this as much as she was about the actual trip, that she was able to begin something "at my age," she said, laughing a little wildly, clearly delighted.

I told her about riding the train from Cologne to Koblenz, the sun setting along the Rhine, down past the Mosel and the Main. We talked about bicycling, how many bicycles line the canal bridges in Amsterdam, and she told me that in Leiden, cyclists have right of way even over pedestrians. She said one can bicycle along northern Europe from France to Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark, and I told her about the horseback riding tour of Ireland my sister had gone on and on about as a teenager. I barely mentioned St Petersburg and Buenos Aires, though I did mention them, because this was her story. She was the one who had just come back from an adventure that leaves one feeling as though they must convey the experience but aren't sure how to because who could understand except someone who's been there, someone who travels too.

And getting to talk about those trips, even though I can't go on any right now, can't even let myself think about it more than a million times a day, I still felt the thrill of it. I have a giant fortune cookie fortune on one of the maps on my wall that says, "If you do not know where you are going, any road will do." A quick Google search suggests this is either a Chinese proverb, a variation on something by Socrates, or a Lewis Carroll quote. Either way, it's a great saying for travel. However, the converse is nonsensical: If you know where you are going, only one road will do. There are an infinite number of ways to get to where you are going. Sometimes they take you away from your original destination, sometimes back, sometimes they lead you to decide on a new endpoint. That's why we go on the journey.

Anyhow, living in New York City, every day feels like travel, even when it's work - not so much when it's work, but all the same. But these are musings for another post. Right now it's time to go. Buen viaje.