Editor’s Note:  Although now retired, Dennis Carnes has a lifetime of world travel under his belt. In his first column for Bayou City Press, Dennis reflects on the pleasures of taking one’s time while traveling.

Many believe that it was Ralph Waldo Emerson who first said that life is a journey, not a destination. That is never truer than when it comes to travel. The best kind of travel is slow. Slow travel allows you to see, smell, and feel our world. You cannot experience that when you fly high above it at 35,000 feet while traveling at 500 m.p.h. or when you whiz by it at 70 m.p.h. in a car.

To walk through a country is to feel the soil, gravel, and grass beneath your feet, to take the time to hear and see the cows grazing in their pastures as the bells around their necks clang. It is to marvel at the goats who climb up the cork trees in Sicily, or to dodge professional bicycle racers as they startle you whizzing by on a road in Spain. It is to take the time to slog and slop through the muddy pastures in the Cotswalds—who cares if it rains! It is to walk on a Roman road in Sardinia, to wander among the ancient Greek temples in Turkey, to approach the amphitheater in Spain following in Marcus Aurelius’s footsteps.

Slow travel is to amble on the tow path adjacent to the magnificent Canal du Midi, perhaps the greatest engineering achievement of the seventeenth century, which links the Atlantic to the Mediterranean south of Toulouse, France. Authorized by French finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert in 1666, the canal was begun to facilitate the developing wheat trade.

Slow travel is to trace the steps of the ancient and modern-day religious pilgrims who travel the Camino de Santiago, the Way of St. James, in northern Spain, which was popular in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries and is once again popular. Marvel as you stroll through the Sacred Valley in Peru. Approach Machu Pichu on the steep trail the same way the Incan kings and their retinues did.

Walk among the astonishing rocks of Australia’s Uluru, which some call Ayers Rock, and you will understand why it was and remains sacred to the Australian aborigines. Uluru juts mysteriously out of a plain, surrounded by nothing. It is a silent, ancient paean to the gods. Experience it at sunset, when it is most inspiring.

Even better, discover your own routes and adventures.

While you need not be an extreme athlete to tour by walking, if you develop a modest level of fitness you will enjoy your walks more. You can control whether you walk five kilometers or thirty kilometers each day. Prepare beforehand, taking modest walks. Build up to a distance you can travel in comfort.

Carry a daypack in which you can stuff your baguette, sausage, and wine so that you can take a mid-morning break and slow down even more. Sit alongside your route and just listen, look, and smell. Put a change of clothes in your daypack. You can wash the day’s clothes when you arrive at your lodgings. During your pre-travel preparatory walks, wear your packed daypack to test out its weight and feel.

If you prefer not to camp, walk from village to village. Dogs will follow you, and the villagers will marvel at an American who actually walks. They will shower you with their appreciation and admiration. There is no better way to meet people who live differently than you.

Plan carefully so that you arrive in the next village when the restaurants, pubs, or bars are open so that you can eat when you arrive after your day’s walk. This is critical in the rural areas of France and Spain which adhere to the midday siesta.

Stay in modest places, such as in a bed & breakfast, a room in someone’s home, or perhaps an English pub.

If the rains drench you, you can pull out your raincoat and soldier on. You will soon forget your discomfort when you change into dry clothes and sit in front of a mesmerizing fire as you sip an English Bitter or taste a wine produced from grapes harvested from the fields you just walked by.

Is walking just not your thing, or beyond your capabilities? A variation on slow travel by walking is to take a repositioning cruise. Cruise ship companies move their ships from Houston, Miami, or South America to Europe when the seasons change. The ships are going anyway, so they reduce the cost to entice passengers. You will spend 14 to 20 days crossing the Atlantic depending on your departure port. If you prefer warm weather, book a crossing from South America. Rio de Janeiro offers several attractive options. Crossings from Houston or Miami traverse the northern Atlantic and tend to be cool, or even cold.

The cruise lines probably will offer you an upgrade for a modest price as your departure date approaches. Take it. There is nothing more invigorating and delicious than sleeping in your stateroom with the sliding glass door to your veranda open to the ocean. Fill your lungs with air you have never experienced. Think of Odysseus travelling across the sea as he struggled to return home from the Trojan War to Ithaca and his beloved Penelope.

As always, do research before you book a cruise. Do you prefer night life, with the ship’s night clubs open until the wee hours, or a more contemplative crossing so you can read the books you’ve been waiting to read? Do you want frequent stops? Do you like to take shore excursions that the cruise line arranges, or do you prefer to explore on your own? How important are wonderful food and wine to you?

You cannot be bored on a relocation cruise. The cruise lines offer nightly live shows in the auditorium, macramé, ballroom dancing classes, bridge games, fascinating lectures, sports, well-stocked libraries, daily trivia contests, and enough bingo to satisfy anyone. Chat with your barista and fellow travelers every morning when you buy your cappuccino. Your barista will soon look forward to your visits. She might be from Ventimiglia, Italy, while her boyfriend might be from Syria, quite possibly a navigator on another cruise ship.

These are experiences you cannot have unless you embrace slow travel. As Ralph Waldo Emerson might have said, life is a journey not a destination.

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