If you think Griebenow (above) travels a lot, consider Margaret Zellers, author of several guidebooks, including Fielding`s ”Caribbean,” ”Economy Caribbean” and ”Discover Europe off the Beaten Path,” and many articles. She`s been at it for 20 years.
”I travel about two-thirds of the time,” says Zellers, who is single. She estimates her total last year was 125,000 miles, though she says, ”I`ve never been able to sit still long enough to figure out exactly how much or how far I travel.”
Her research trips take her all over the Caribbean and Europe and occasionally into other parts of the world. Vacations are another matter. ”My first thought with a vacation is to go someplace that is peaceful, quiet,”
she says. ”I don`t want any hassle. I want a telephone somewhere but not nearby. And I want pretty scenery and nice weather.
”I love Switzerland because everything works. If I want to go somewhere, I know public transportation can take me. If I`m up in some alpine village, even in the wintertime and there`s a lot of snow–I`ve been snowed in at Zermatt when there were avalanches in the area–I never was concerned at all. I felt the Swiss knew how to deal with all of that. And that`s a lovely feeling. Because I do travel a lot in Third World countries and in other places where everything is a challenge, I want things simple on vacation.”
Wengen is another of Zellers` favorite Swiss villages. ”Lots of times near some well-known places like St. Moritz, there are smaller villages. One of my favorite places is Mustair, way down in a valley out of St. Moritz in the Engadine area. Mustair has a tiny chapel built in 843. It`s a wonderful old village with a couple of small inns. I love that kind of place. I know the food is going to be good. I know the service is going to be good because people in Switzerland care about that kind of thing.”
Basically what Zellers seeks from a vacation is renewal. ”I like to sit and read books or go for walks in the countryside. I enjoy good food and just a nice, restful, boring time, which the rest of my life certainly is not.
”But sometimes,” she says, ”I measure my vacations in terms of hours, not weeks.”
