EL SEGUNDO HERALD December 16, 2021 Page 15
Santa’s Sleigh from front page
Travel from page 3
secure in the smug knowledge that everyone
is being so nice because you’re the only
tourist game in town. Probably not logical,
but it feels like a peculiar kind of power.
We didn’t set out to travel in the offseason—
it just worked out that way. Our
Not the usual Amalfi paradise: Struggling for vertical in a winter storm. Street jazz in Paris: Yes, they’re as cold as they look.
employers crowded holidays into the Christmas
weeks, and that coincided, not surprisingly,
with our slowest personal workloads. Our
children were grown, so there were no school
vacations to match up to. The result: For a
good twenty-five years, we took off the three
The better part of valor in Cornwall: Hogging the fireplace in freezing Porthleven. Mutters in the Austrian Tyrol: As good a place as any to be stranded.
weeks from Christmas through mid-January
to go a-wandering.
And yes, the off-season in Telluride or
Salzburg, much less in Hawaii or southern
India, doesn’t match up to the off-season in
Stockholm or London. But generally, our
winter migrations have produced cold weather
travel in out-of-the-norm circumstances. And
those circumstances have included:
Crowds:
As in an utter lack thereof. You hardly
need an appointment for anything, including
hotel rooms and especially restaurants. The
line into the Louvre or the British Museum
evaporates. And when you do find tourist
crowds, they normally consist of locals taking
advantage of the shortage of foreigners
to visit their own capitals and monuments.
There’s something truly refreshing about being
jostled around the Trevi Fountain without a
word in any language but Italian.
Clothing:
Silk and cashmere long johns and underwear.
Cashmere sweaters and scarves. Ski jackets,
hats, and hoods. LL Bean and Meindl boots
(from Maine and Germany respectively) are
a godsend. So are Uggs and Mephistos. Lots
of thin layers are the secret, easily peeled off
when necessary. After a while, you hardly
notice the weight, and when you shed them
at night for bed, it feels soooo good. You
sleep like babies.
Closings:
Any vendor who depends entirely on the
tourist trade closes in the off-season—and
good riddance to them! Anyone who remains
open has to deal with the same customers
year-round. They can’t throw a bad, overpriced
meal or service at you just because
they know they’ll never need to face you
again. And with fewer customers hounding
them, the staffs are more than happy to make
everything perfect. Just for you, of course.
Conversation:
People have time on their hands, even
people in the restaurant trade. They’ll explain
what that odd purple sauce is on your
fish (understanding them is another matter,
of course—’tis the season where languages
might come in handy). They’ll explain why
you want the chicken dish today, rather than
the lamb or the veal. Civilians and police
will sometimes even walk you to your next
museum, instead of just vaguely pointing
off into the ether.
Snow:
We can’t deny that there are drawbacks.
One winter night in Bruxelles, the blizzard
grew so fierce, that the city closed down
not just the roads and buses, but the entire
underground Metro. Around 11:30PM, we
still had four miles to go, when the guards
apologized profusely and booted us out into
the empty streets anyway. Fortunately, we’d
dressed for the worst (see above). But the
best thing was, by the time the authorities
got around to kicking us out, the storm had
nearly vanished.
So if you’ve ever walked through a major
world city when it’s utterly shut down—when
every sane human being has already taken to
bed—when the packed mountains of snow
drown out the slightest peep of urban life—
when the white, high-rise streets resemble
vast, empty canyons of silence—then you’ll
understand the meaning of “magic in the air”.
Strandings:
No, we can’t deny there are drawbacks. But
in twenty years, we’ve been stranded exactly
once—in a storied village called Mutters on
the slope of a postcard-perfect Austrian alp.
Three days of wandering about from spa to
Bierkeller to spa to sumptuous country cooking
from our lovely hostess. We probably
could have escaped sooner, but who wanted
to take the chance? The working world was
still there when we got home.
Next up: The Thing About French.
Ben & Glinda Shipley, published writers
and photographers, share their expertise
and experience of their many world travels.
If you have any questions or interest in a
particular subject, please email them at web@
heraldpublications.com. •
Your pick of Venetian gondolas: Yes, it’s as cold as it looks.
groups, sports teams, scout troops, and all
things intended to better the lives of El Segundo
youth. “Basically, we launder money
for kids,” he jokes.
Though he was not involved in every night
of this year’s event as a volunteer, Gribbon
participated and enjoyed coming together as
a community to enjoy a simple happy event.
He describes one night that he was not meant
to volunteer, but came across the sleigh on
the other side of town and joined the crowd
anyway to socialize, have fun, and hang out.
This, he says, is his favorite part of Santa’s
Sleigh Ride every year. While most events
are intended to raise money, Santa’s Sleigh
is purely a gift to El Segundo. He loves getting
to spend time with his fellow Kiwanis
members and watching the event unfold.
Gribbon also describes repeat visitors from
year to year. Volunteers get to see kids who
know the drill and have talked to Santa on
this tour before. Older kids sometimes coach
younger kids on the process of meeting
Santa, and many love to tell stories of their
previous years’ experience.
Because Santa rides the fire truck at the end
of the Christmas parade each year, Gribbon
is able to welcome Kiwanis members and
families to ride the sleigh before Santa brings
up the end of the procession. Kids all over
town took pictures and said their requests to
the man in red, and now all there is to do is
wait. In the meantime, Gribbon offers this
wish for the children of El Segundo during
this special season: believe that good things
can happen. •