I am drawn to your wonderful metaphor here! Long ago, when I did more of that travel where you get into a metal tube to fly high across the land, I stared out the window at the patterns. You can see swaths of homes, but not really the people. There’s so much to see, but at the same time, I am so removed from the details.

So in a car, you are much closer and can see details not visible from high above. You see people, animals, flowers, signs. But it’s still removed- you pass relatively fast, you cannot smell the flowers or hear much. With the windows up, you are in a bubble.

Walking is offers the richest experience like zooming in a painting and seeing the brush strokes, you see, hear so much more rich detail, the delicateness of the flower, the smile on a face, the sound of a playground that you miss while moving much faster in a vehicle.

And perhaps it’s not that one mode of transport is best but that we experience multiple ones (if possible).

When I did travel to a new city, my favorite thing to do was to wander on foot, to escape the sterile hotel, without a destination in mind, and see as much detail and variety as possible. it brings to mind a favorite memory, when I got to meet Kate Bowles the first time in Fredericksburg, VA, and we did a wander walk out a trail of a Civil War battle that I knew from my time living there. We spotted flowers but I also learned of her husband’s interest in that part of American History. And it came full circle when I had the opportunity to visit her home in Australia, and we walked the small town she lives in and on the beach.

Seeing the earth from above is a treat, but a walk is my preferred way to move and be.