Slow and steady, coffee and fudge.

Slow down, you move too fast
You got to make the morning last
Just kicking down the cobblestones
Looking for fun and feelin’ groovy
Ba da da da da da da, feelin’ groovy

For those of us who remember the lyrics of
Paul Simon’s (Of Simon and Garfunkel fame) 57th Street Bridge song.

EDIT: and one NEVER turns down fudge!!!

Cute story. We are always been slow and steady even back in our thirties. BUT -- we were both in education (public & university) and education tends to have its own flow built around a nine month calendar. Hard to speed it up or to slow it down. We were never forced into a two week vacation period. We could take as much time as we need with money being our controlling factor. At 80 we are traveling a hair slower than in our 40s, 50s but we are also traveling children free and that provides more flexibility. It works for us and that is the primary importance.

Ya --- if you have been around here for a while, you will recognize that Allan likes to throw up these "discussion" questions when things are slow. Your choice to participate.

do you wish you could still still break the sound barrier on vacation, or are you happy with slow and steady, coffee and fudge?

There are places I visited the first time at the speed of sound and would like to go back to for coffee and a pastry. For now, though, I'm too busy having coffee and pastry in new places!

Very nice, Allan - thanks! I'm going to send it to my brother who is a pilot for Delta and is retiring this year. I'm sure he will appreciate it. :)

Allan, this sounds like a version of that age-old saying: "if Youth knew; if Age could". Few young people could understand why old folks recommend slowing down - it's human nature. I don't envy the stamina of my youth in traveling, I just wish I had been paying attention when the lines for time & money, and stamina and curiosity were at their crossing point.

but we are also traveling children free and that provides more
flexibility.

It sure does make a difference. We've been travelling child free for 8 years now and it has been the biggest factor in our changing travel style. I still move at a frantic pace but I'm like that at home as well. But what we see and how much time we spend at a site and how much we absorb has increased. And not stopping every 45 minutes to feed a teen is a bonus.

Maybe I should not admit how little pre-planning we do for trips. We have a broad outline but little details. We will reserve the first couple of nights for lodging but little after that and always the last night before we return IF we have a return date. Many times we don't have a return date since we are winging it for a business class return. So we are never in a hurry. It works for us but for others probably not.

VERY funny Allan, and a harmless entertainment that I really enjoyed, so thank you! (I've always been a slow down & enjoy where ever I found myself, having said that it often seemed to be in adventurous places.)

Maybe I should not admit how little pre-planning we do for trips. We
have a broad outline but little details. We will reserve the first
couple of nights for lodging but little after that and always the last
night before we return IF we have a return date.

Sometimes I'm envious that a person can be wired that way, and then there are days that I'm glad the way I am. My wife wants to 'pre-plan' a day at the beach when we're in Sorrento in April. I'm already miserable about it. A day of sitting still and doing nothing is not my idea of fun. I'd rather she just said it was an open day in case we discover something new that we want to do, and then that morning she could spring the beach on me. Now I have about 100 days to not look forward to that day.

3 or 4 years ago we were staying in Laguna Beach, California and I had mentioned to someone that we sat on the beach all day. My wife looked at me with her best death glare and said we were there for 2 hours. It sure seemed like all day.

"There Is More To Life Than Increasing Its Speed." - Mahatma Gandhi.

....Sometimes I'm envious that a person can be wired that way, ..... I don't know if I am wired different or if it just the situation. There is lot of pressure in the academic community during the school year at least at major research oriented universities. So -- when major breaks and especially summer rolls around it is critical to be able to relax, reflect, and recharge for what I know is coming in a couple of months, couple of weeks, tomorrow! A whole afternoon at the beach might be problem because no one will serve me a coffee or a beer but whole afternoon at a sidewalk cafe or bar would totally enjoyable especially if I was able to find an English language newspaper or I have my Ipad with access to the news of the day. Some of our best experiences have been when we had nothing planned and just stumbled into something. Our friends often ask how is it that you can find these great experience and they cannot. But --- it works for us and I don't begin to suggest that it works for everyone.

Some of our best experiences have been when we had nothing planned and
just stumbled into something.

That sounds like the opening sentence of a post you should start. I love unexpected discoveries. I think my favourite might be Hampton Court Palace near London. It's not unknown, and we didn't stumble into it, but we had no plan on visiting and no expectations when we went, but it ended up being one of the highlights of the trip. It was plan B after we canceled our trip to Windsor because it was raining.

My favorite was reading a church flyer and discovering the Eel Pie Island artist’s Christmas Open House. Afterwards strolling along the River path and coming upon Yorkshire House and Gardens.

2nd favorite was the hidden bar inside Penn Station in the 90’s

3rd the pedestrian tunnels under downtown LA

4th from my college days Specs in San Francisco’s North Beach

Love this post by Allan and all the replies! Thank you. Claudia, I remember Simon (and Garfunkel, too) very well and still have most of their music on my phone. I don’t have a lot of choice these days but to slow down a bit from my earlier traveling days and in doing that, I have found I enjoy slower travel more that I thought I would. That said, whenever we travel together, I can still easily keep up with my kids and my grandkids on the RS tours. There is no “right” way to travel.