Comments on: That sense of slowing down… http://www.slowplanet.com/blog/2008/12/02/that-sense-of-slowing-down/ Just another WordPress weblog Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:19:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Gunnar Rundgren http://www.slowplanet.com/blog/2008/12/02/that-sense-of-slowing-down/#comment-15 Gunnar Rundgren Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:57:53 +0000 http://www.slowplanet.com/blog/?p=35#comment-15 Hi, I just returned from a 2 month bicycle trip through Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine (gunru.blogg.se - mostly in English but parts on Swedish) . During that trip I thought about a Slow Travel concept, perhaps a manifesto or something. I believe there are many reasons for us to travel slowly. Some are about the environment and others are about the quality of the experience as such and how we are affected ourselves by how we travel. Hi, I just returned from a 2 month bicycle trip through Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine (gunru.blogg.se - mostly in English but parts on Swedish) . During that trip I thought about a Slow Travel concept, perhaps a manifesto or something. I believe there are many reasons for us to travel slowly. Some are about the environment and others are about the quality of the experience as such and how we are affected ourselves by how we travel.

]]> By: ecoescape http://www.slowplanet.com/blog/2008/12/02/that-sense-of-slowing-down/#comment-9 ecoescape Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:50:52 +0000 http://www.slowplanet.com/blog/?p=35#comment-9 Weirdly, I too was on the ground in Paris on that day - we were heading to stay at the hotel located next to the crash but missed getting caught up by about 15 minutes. We were a bunch of young people in an orchestra touring in Paris and got hounded by the press for a week for our close encounter(!). And I'd never taken a flight before. It kinda put me off a bit! But also, I used to love going to Heathrow and watching the concordes taking off when I was very young. There was something quite exciting about it. Now though, I've gone slow through and through! I haven't flown for nearly 3 years, and I'm doing just fine exploring places closer to home and running my holiday business with these ideas in mind. Happy slow travels! Laura www.ecoescape.org Weirdly, I too was on the ground in Paris on that day - we were heading to stay at the hotel located next to the crash but missed getting caught up by about 15 minutes. We were a bunch of young people in an orchestra touring in Paris and got hounded by the press for a week for our close encounter(!). And I’d never taken a flight before. It kinda put me off a bit! But also, I used to love going to Heathrow and watching the concordes taking off when I was very young. There was something quite exciting about it.

Now though, I’ve gone slow through and through! I haven’t flown for nearly 3 years, and I’m doing just fine exploring places closer to home and running my holiday business with these ideas in mind.

Happy slow travels!

Laura
http://www.ecoescape.org

]]> By: Carl http://www.slowplanet.com/blog/2008/12/02/that-sense-of-slowing-down/#comment-8 Carl Wed, 03 Dec 2008 11:57:20 +0000 http://www.slowplanet.com/blog/?p=35#comment-8 I was actually there on the ground in Paris a couple of hours after that Concorde crash in 2000 - covering the disaster back in my days as a foreign correspondent. It was an eerie, horrifying scene. Even then, as I wandered among the screaming firefighters and ambulance crews and the dazed airport officials, I remember thinking it felt like the end of an era somehow. And so it proved: as Ed says, the first time in history that mankind gave up on a faster form of travel. Earlier this year, on a family holiday in Scotland, we saw a retired Concorde at an aviation museum. There is no denying the grace and beauty of its silhouette - it makes other planes look brutish and clumsy. But what really struck me was how cramped the interior was. The seats were narrow; the ceiling low; the aisle pinched; the legroom stingy. It made an EasyJet cabin look capacious. I felt the first twinges of deep-vein thrombosis just walking through it. Of course, Concorde passengers could drown their sorrows in endless champagne and cordon bleu cuisine but it did make me wonder how much discomfort people are willing to put up with for speed. If Concorde offered the same space as a standard Business Class cabin, would someone have found a way to put it back up in the skies? Or are there other reasons that it remains mothballed? Either way, I'm delighted that Slow Travel is on the rise... I was actually there on the ground in Paris a couple of hours after that Concorde crash in 2000 - covering the disaster back in my days as a foreign correspondent. It was an eerie, horrifying scene. Even then, as I wandered among the screaming firefighters and ambulance crews and the dazed airport officials, I remember thinking it felt like the end of an era somehow. And so it proved: as Ed says, the first time in history that mankind gave up on a faster form of travel.

Earlier this year, on a family holiday in Scotland, we saw a retired Concorde at an aviation museum. There is no denying the grace and beauty of its silhouette - it makes other planes look brutish and clumsy. But what really struck me was how cramped the interior was. The seats were narrow; the ceiling low; the aisle pinched; the legroom stingy. It made an EasyJet cabin look capacious. I felt the first twinges of deep-vein thrombosis just walking through it. Of course, Concorde passengers could drown their sorrows in endless champagne and cordon bleu cuisine but it did make me wonder how much discomfort people are willing to put up with for speed. If Concorde offered the same space as a standard Business Class cabin, would someone have found a way to put it back up in the skies? Or are there other reasons that it remains mothballed? Either way, I’m delighted that Slow Travel is on the rise…

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