Slow Travel - The art of taking your time...
Tourism is a deadly sin.
(Quote: Bruce Chadwin)
Tourists always have to fulfill implicit expectations . If you go to Paris you have to climb the Eiffel Tower, if you go to Venice you have to go to St Mark's Square, etc. Of course this has to be documented photographically . You go somewhere and look for something that you already know is there. A travel plan created ends up feeling like a straitjacket ...
Experience a country in quick succession so that you can put a tick under the list. Seen it, took a photo. Completed! ???
Why all the rush? Instead of manic sightseeing and obligatory photo-taking, it's more about perceiving a place, its residents and their culture more actively . It's about the art of taking your time and enjoying ...
A concrete example is the Wieskirche
Wieskirche in front of the Alpine backdrop
Marvel at the Rococo architecture in perfection . On average , around 1 million visitors and pilgrims come every year to admire this building on the green meadow. To find out why this is so, you should take time to marvel at the architecture and interior, listen to the "Bach"-style organ , reverently look at the breathtaking ceiling frescoes ... - and get goosebumps. (https://erlebebayern.com/das-traenenwunder-wieskirche/)
"It is more valuable to experience a place in detail ,
as many impressions of an incomprehensible whole."
So the slow thing about slow travel is basically not a time factor. It's about your own openness, which determines the intensity of the experience .
Follow the rhythm .
Perceive , understand , enjoy .
Next example: The Blue Land
Source: The blue country.com
In the Blue Land , nature, art and culture form a special connection . The view over the lakes, the moors and into the mountains all the way to the Zugspitze characterizes this region between Munich and Garmisch -Partenkirchen.
The unobstructed view of the mountain backdrop and the picturesque color and lighting atmospheres clear your head - then as now...
Gabriele Münter once said in summary: “I have that After a short ordeal, I made a big leap : from painting nature - more or less impressionistically - to feeling a content, to abstracting, to giving the extract. “
Take your time, enjoy the peace and quiet and look closely at the play of colors in nature - it has a very deep effect...
And another example - the Goaßlschnalzen
Goaßlschnalzen in the mountains
In earlier centuries, many carters cracked the whip when entering towns or on various occasions - just as the horn is used today ...
But shepherds also clicked their “Goaßl” from mountain pasture to pasture over long distances in order to be able to communicate with one another. This signaled that they were doing well on the secluded mountain pasture and that they were still alive.
Be it on the Alpine pasture in the mountains or at a festival in the valley, just be there when a whip cracks , i.e. the end of a string is accelerated to supersonic speed by the blow. Like a jet , breaking the sound barrier creates a shock wave.
This custom is now part of the UNESCO cultural heritage .
Slow travel describes the search for new horizons . Open senses to the experience , the spirit of the place, the genius loci ....