Off Season

About the Book

“ What will you do with yourself now that you have retired?” asked my concerned wife. “ I have no idea.” (That was the reason for her concern) “Why don’t we go off and travel for a year?” “OK” I shocked her with my immediate positive response. That is how this trip came about and the subsequent book describing what we did and observed for eight months, all over Europe and the Near East. We write about the value of the longer, sustained trip with no pressure to hurry from place to place. We also extol the virtues and face the shortcomings of off-season travel. There are no crowds and you are given the opportunity to meet and mix with the local citizens and enjoy their culture. The highways are open and the train compartments often empty. There is easy access to museums, churches and castles. The down side is the closure of some hotels, cafes and sights when tourism is light. We want to encourage other retirees or those with leisure time to try extended travel and to enjoy, as we had, the time to meander instead of rushing about. There is so much more to experience and enjoy this way. We sometimes planned to visit a town for two or three days and found the place so charming, or interesting, or restful, that we rented an apartment and stayed for a week or two or more. This is the way you become part of the community. You purchase a knit shopping bag and go daily to the bakery, the cheese shop or the butchers. After a few days, the shopkeepers know you. The cleaner. begins to address you by name. The grocer begins to know just what wines you want . You are a visitor but a welcomed one and you are a part of the community. Another advantage of this off-season travel is the knowledge that small hotels, bed & breakfast establishments and private homes are available in every town and hamlet so you are not forced to make prior reservations. This frees your schedule. You drive up and are warmly greeted everywhere. As a bonus, the inn-keeper or hotel clerk has the time to explain local customs, describe local sights worth visiting, and advise on the best local restaurants. We found that the long and leisurely trip also gives you the chance to experience changing seasons and to see how holidays and festivals are celebrated everywhere. In our eight months of travel, Sandi and I visited 10 countries and slept in 65 cities and towns but it was generally unhurried and easy-paced. Travel by train brought us to almost any city we wanted to visit, and travel by car allowed us to really see the countryside on meandering roads with occasional signs like “ Beware of Wild Boars” Comparison of other cultures with today’s America are inevitable. The world is changing rapidly and becoming more and more like us, but the need to preserve the best of their ancient culture and traditions is still there among many nations. We would suggest that our readers travel soon before these wonderful traditions disappear. Everywhere are wonderful discoveries on these leisurely travels. Join us to experience the leisurely trip, off-season.

About the Author

Travel and Travel writing is the eighth career for Dick Harte. Since graduation from Columbia University in 1952, he has been a practicing Optometrist, a senior Physicist, an Aero-space Engineer, a Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences where he was considered one of the nation’s experts on drunk driving. For a number of Bio-tech companies, Dick has supervised medical clinical trials leading to FDA approvals. He has invented devices for rapid medical diagnosis, and for toxicology. Dick Harte is an inventor with seventeen patents and he is an entrepreneur who has launched four startup companies. He has traveled extensively and written both short stories and essays, lectured and taught. Here, in “Off-Season” he describes the wonders that he and wife Sandi discovered on a recent eight- month trip to Europe and the Near-East.