Travel Ideas Number 01: The Anabasis To Corinth Of Kudakwashe Kanhutu

I have not yet made this trip but when I do, it will involve two big ideas as templates; 1. visiting all the places it is said Apostle Paul visited after the Ascension and, 2. tracing all the places where the major battles of the Peloponnesian War took place as recounted in The History of the Peloponnesian War by the Athenian General - Thucydides. This kind of trip will involve a lot of Island hopping by ferry - something I have already done - but I will also need a vehicle so as to drive from point A to B at my leisure.

 

To psyche myself for my expeditions, I normally like to quote military passages as they tend to focus on the essence of the matter. But not this time around, this time around my inspiration for the trip will come not from Thucydides’ The History of the Peloponnesian War - the greatest book of all time - instead, it will come from Apostle Paul’s message to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 13, he said:

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” - Apostle Paul, Epistle To The Corinthians.

Island hopping by Ferry in Greece (2012)

1 Corinthians 13 

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Piraeus Port, Athens (2012)

Boarding The Flying Dolphin at Piraeus, Athens for my first Greek Anabasis (2012)

What Lessons From The United States For Our Discerning Person?

It would be interesting to tour a few select successful companies in the United States in 2017, and study them scientifically in the process. Asking oneself; “what has made them this successful, is it something in the water?” Quite naturally, of course, the Boeing Company in Seattle would be the first stop.

Executive Biography of William E. Boeing

William E. Boeing. Boeing Airplane Company, Founder and Owner, President and Chairman of the Board.

William E. Boeing left Yale University in 1903 to take advantage of opportunities in the risky and cyclical, but financially rewarding, Northwest timber industry. That experience would serve him well in aviation.

The Boeing 777 - 300 Extended Range.

Under his guidance, a tiny airplane manufacturing company grew into a huge corporation of related industries. When post-Depression legislation in 1934 mandated the dispersion of the corporation, Boeing sold his interests in the Boeing Airplane Co., but continued to work on other business ventures.

Boeing 777 Interior.

He became one of America's most successful breeders of thoroughbred horses. He never lost his interest in aviation, and during World War II he volunteered as a consultant to the company. He lived until 1956, long enough to see the company he started enter the jet age.

Boeing 777 Interior 2.

William E. Boeing was a private person, a visionary, a perfectionist, and a stickler for the facts. The wall of his outer office bore a placard that read: "2329 Hippocrates said: 1. There is no authority except facts. 2. Facts are obtained by accurate observation. 3. Deductions are to be made only from facts. 4. Experience has proved the truth of these rules."

Boeing 777 300ER

According to his son, William Boeing, Jr., Boeing was a fast and avid reader and remembered everything he read. He was also a perfectionist. While visiting his airplane building shop at the Duwamish shipyard in 1916, Boeing saw a set of improperly sawed spruce ribs. He brushed them to the floor and walked all over them until they were broken. A frayed aileron cable caused him to remark, "I, for one, will close up shop rather than send out work of this kind."

Boeing 777 - 300ER

Trip Ideas For The Discerning Men: Factory Visits

Under construction: the Airbus A380 - 800 at Airbus's Toulouse Factory. Picture Credit: Adaptable Travel.

I am a bit of an anachronism, for all my immersion and engagement in the so-called "modern/western values," what was inculcated in me as a youth in my own culture still abides: namely, a demarcation of the different roles, responsibilities and interests that should occupy women and men. Society is so much better if there is no confusion over this (we can debate this on a different day - the point is; I have chosen the title for this post very deliberately). For example, in my own youth, men sat around the fire at night - the much vaunted Dare or Council - and discussed the most pressing issues of the day. The trips in this post are really an extension of the Dare. Make no mistake, one of my female friends is a Senior First Officer on the Airbus A320 and would be a more knowledgeable companion than the men who are going with me to the Toulouse Airbus Factory Tour. Still, it is the principle that matters: the Dare or Council is for men only.

Toulouse Airbus Factory, France. 

This trip idea was copied wholly from the United States Military's 18th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - General Martin Dempsey. He visited the Boeing Factory in Seattle 2 years ago and took some truly imposing pictures while there. As you very well know, Boeing makes most of the United States Air Force's advanced air assets. I have no plans to visit the United States for now, so Boeing's European peer competitor makes a very good substitute. My friends and I have a background (and continued interest) in Civil and Military Aviation, so this trip is most logical.

Stuttgart Daimler-Benz Factory, Germany.

The Stuttgart factory tour will be a hard sell even for me - its proposer - because I am NOT a car person! The only thing that could make such a trip appealing is if it is included with much context and other things of interest. Let me suggest a few. Obviously, under the overall theme of "Factory Visits," Mercedes-Benz, one of Germany and the world's top companies, must appear in the Top 10. But there are car factories everywhere in the world. So, a trip to Stuttgart can only be made more appealing by first flying to Munich to watch Bayern Munich in their forbidding Allianz Arena. After that, the discerning men can then take the early morning ICE Train - Germany's answer to Japan's MAGLEV Train - to Stuttgart for the whole day. The day in Stuttgart can then include the Mercedes Benz Factory and Museum tours among other things.

The Daimler-Benz Factory, Stuttgart. Picture Credit: InsideEvs.

The Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart. Picture Credit: AutoWeb.

Travel Ideas For The Discerning World Traveller

The Bernina Express on the Brusio Spiral. Picture Credit: Wikimedia

 The Bernina Express

The Bernina Express is Europe's most scenic rail trip and runs from Chur in Switzerland to Tirano in Italy. Its selling point is its panoramic windows which gives passengers the best views of the Swiss Alps, Glaciers, and Lakes. This is a 4 hour, 90 mile journey and the most famous sights on this route are the Brusio Spiral (pictured above) and the Landwasser Viaduct (see picture below). Either side of the trip you can visit Milan (Italy) and Zurich (Switzerland) which are the closest metropolises.

This trip is best taken with your girlfriend or wife sans kids. In later instalments, I will tell you about the trips for the guys, trips for the girls and trips for the family.

The Bernina Express in Winter. Picture Credit: RHB.

The world famous Landwasser Viaduct. Picture Credit: RHB. 

Your train awaits!