[PRCo] Re: Fwd: Streetcars All Over the World - Zurich (2)

[Schneider Fred]

I always regarded what I do as a form of education.  If I win a few  
converts, then it is worth the effort.   Mark McGuire once told me  
that he wanted to go to Europe ...  so some of what I post is for  
him.   If you get something out of it, then it's worth while.
But more important than that, I have long held a global perspective  
that reads "every country does some things right and some things  
wrong and you will be unable to critically fathom what we do right  
and they do wrong and vice versa if your only perspective comes from  
the television set in your home or your neighbors.  You need more  
than just our media and our politicians telling us what we are doing  
right and someone else is doing wrong.   That should explain why  
travel can be so enriching if you permit it to do so.

I also hasten to point out that you will never totally understand by  
taking an all-inclusive guided tour that "squeezes a quart into a  
pint pot," i.e. the one that gives you 10 European countries in 21  
days including jet lag.   Those tours tell you that the American on  
the tour bus in front of your needs a hair cut.  They isolate you  
from the general public, usually giving your group a table in the  
banquet room of restaurant sequestered from the natives you went to  
see.   The only natives you see are the shop keepers who give the  
tour guides and tour bus drivers a kick back on your purchases.   You  
will never even get true cuisine from the nation you visit; the meals  
will often be sanitized for Americans if you are in a strange  
country.  Even in Bulgaria I was cheated out of the garlic that the  
natives were eating.   And the Orbis Hotel chain in Poland cooked for  
westerners and not for Poles.

The real way to understand is to find and make friends in other  
countries.   To travel on your own ... starting with a brief  
introduction to the language and building up.  I had a friend, who is  
now decased, who decided in the middle 1960s that he wanted to spend  
more time in Switzerland.   He had gone on one railfan tour.   John  
concluded he wanted to go to the places the tours didn't go.   He was  
almost 50 years old at the time and still he went out and started  
taking German lessons.   Man did he struggle with the language.   And  
for the next two decades he spent almost a vacation a year in Germany  
and Switzerland.   He would tell me about letters he got from Marcus  
Buchs or some other railfan over there that he had met.   He was  
there in the 1980s when TMI cut loose ... he read it in a German  
newspaper.   He got their viewpoint on it before he knew what was  
really happening right in his own back yard.   He proved once and for  
all that, while he wasn't perfect, he could struggle enough to get  
those tools he needed to enjoy another culture.   When he died he had  
something like 12,000 negatives, half of which had been taken in Europe.

Find groups over there that do things that interest you.   I had a  
former boss who retired and, because he hated the heat in Florida in  
the summer, he would lock up his condominium on Sarasota and rent a  
flat in London every summer.  Then he would take tours of the  
continent with the Brits.   He may not have understood Germany any  
better but at least he got a good perspective on the British.   You  
like trolleys, then make friends before you go through Light Railway  
Transport League or fan groups over there or museums over there.    
Then you get the fun of walking out of the museum at Crich on a  
Saturday evening and eating in the local pub with friends.

There are also some really strange tours.   Art departments at  
colleges may take students to European art museums and they may have  
a few extra seats at very reduced prices for other inrterested  
people.  I knew a lady from our church who wanted to get a cheap  
price for her own vacation; she would make up an all inclusive tour  
and then opened it up to everyone in church.   But she took the  
freebies ... her free room as the tour broker, and divided that among  
everyone ... She also had no profit motive.  So her tours could be as  
much as 20% under commercial tours.

This lecture isn't for Derrick because he has been in Sweden many  
times.   He knows the Gospel According to Fred.

It isn't for Ed Lybarger because he has been from Singapore to Germany.

And John Swindler's wife seems to drag him all over the landscape  
now.   I think it was Nova Scotia last but I seem to recall that she  
took him to Slovaka and Hungary this year too.   John also had the  
military send him to one of the Baltic nations as an advisor and to  
Holland once.   And he also had relatives in England.   He knows the  
lecture.   He could write it.

Bob Dietrick has been to Ireland this year.

And Dennis was in Italy this year.

I guess the discussion isn't wasted on too many of this group after all.

One caution.   Your Christmas card list will get longer and overseas  
postage is more expensive than 41 cents.








On Sep 19, 2008, at 7:05 PM, John Swindler wrote:

> Postings about other places help provide hints for future travel  
> possibilities.  But I suspect - and hope  - you already realize  
> this, Fred.
>
> John