Why I sometimes like guided tours

I've travelled a little bit. A good bit according to some, but just not enough if you ask me. I'd like to travel more. Much more. And differently - be less touristy and more like them snooty "travellers". But that's not exactly my style.

I'd love to randomly go some place (various restrictive factors aside), and then what? I'm usually at a loss about what to do, where to start. No matter how much I research - and THAT I do, trust me! - all that goes out of the window and I'm left lost, not knowing what to do next.

I'm a creature that loves the familiar. I'd rather be told how a new software/program works instead of playing and discovering for myself. I preferred being taught the lessons in class instead of reading the books. And I'd rather someone shows me around a new place, tell me what to see. Basically, just get me going. Also, I do tend to get lost a little - but that's a whole different story.

I like taking tours cause I like stories. I like to know what I'm looking at. While I know that I can get this information by reading about it, I really like to leave everything behind when I travel. I like to carry a free mind - have as little to think about as necessary. Art, I can get engrossed in. People, culture - I'd love to be a part of. Shopping - you can't stop me! But with architecture, I can appreciate only so much. I get dreadfully bored when I don't know the whos and whys.

It is true that I have slept on every bus tour I have gone on (yes, I've gone on a few). But I would put that down to having unskilled guides - or in this case, a really boring droneful recorded voice. What I love are small group tours, tours which are personalised and intimate. Tours on which you get to know your guides and become friends with them.

Like Inez in Cairo. She was a young woman. A student of archaeology. She told us her stories and history from her point of view.  Since it was just two of us and her, it was a nice and at our pace. We booked the tour locally, with the hostel we stayed (they had a deal we made use of) and Inez and a car with a driver were ours for the next couple of days. She was also our guide on a day trip to Alexandria we booked with them. This was just perfect since we had already built an amazing rapport with her. 

Tanya and Inez

Another of my favourite tours is Brightside in Barcelona. It was a tour on a bike with a sidecar. The tour was tailored based not just on what we'd already seen, but also on what the guide perceived to be our interests from our interaction. Joao, our guide, was charming and knowledgeable and made you feel thoroughly comfortable. The ride itself was soooo much fun that when we went back to Barcelona, we took another tour with them. I have to thank TripAdvisor for finding these guys.

Joao, Vidya and Me

For someone like me who is so not a social person and has no clue how to make friends or even start conversations, leave alone find fellow travellers to hang out with in a new place, personalized tours totally rock :-)

Larger-than-life Art

I have always loved art that is loud, bold, big and bursting. Everyone knows that. I'm all about loud colours, kitsch, quirky. That is so me.

Recently, I realised that I was also fascinated by artists took things/stories that are larger than life and made them human. Stories, fables and legends we grew up with, Gods and demons, villains and heroes - and made them relatable. Made the stories believable. Like they really could have happened.

I have always had a fascination for renaissance artists, but this time, when I visited the Louvre, these particular works caught my attention. They got me thinking, turned the light bulb in my head that did not question the stories on and made me smile.

My favorite was Bartolomeo Vivarini's The Virgin nursing the Child. I was very excited about this.

La Vierge allaitant l'Enfant
Bartolomeo VIVARINI

It made me think of my mother (a pediatrician) and breast feeding awareness and how powerful this image would be in such a campaign. What was particularly striking was that both Mother Mary and the Infant Christ have halos, indicating their divinity. Jesus may be God, but this portrayal reminds us He was human. And if despite being God, if He needed mother's milk, you can imagine how important it is for mortal children.

Then there was Daniele Ricciarelli's Battle of David and Goliath.

Le Combat de David et Goliath
Daniele RICCIARELLI, dit Daniele da VOLTERRA

For the very first time, it occurred to me that Golaith is not this inhuman or mythical giant. Just a large man. Maybe like my baby brother - 6', broad shouldered... Very human.

Another painting that made me stop was Luis de Morales' La Pieta.

La Pietà
Luis de MORALES

It was the eyes. The circles under the eyes. The dark circles under His eyes, the gaunt face - all natural for a man with His injuries (from the crucifixion). And Mother Mary's - the face of a mother filled with pain. This stood out, in my mind, more than Michelangelo (one of my all-time favourite artist AND ninja turtle)'s Pieta at St. Peter's, for it's humanity.

In complete contrast, I found the Christ in Paolo Caliari's The Marriage at Cana completely unrelatable.

Les Noces de Cana
Paolo CALIARI, dit VÉRONÈSE

The painting itself is festive and full of life, with the characters interacting with each other, like guests at any feast, interested in the wedded couple, the musicians, the food and drink. All except Christ.

Les Noces de Cana - detail

Christ in this, to me, looks stoned (with no disrespect) distant, not part of the scene - almost as if He were painted in by a different artist. His face reveals no expression and stands out from the rest of the celebration.  And it's not just the expression, even the colours seem to stand out. It's not as if He is looking at you - He looks through, without touching you. Despite the rest of the painting, this one detail puts a sea of distance between you and the work.