Steven Weinberg, who are you?
If you had asked me the question for “KACHEN,” I would have said: mushrooms and oysters! But for “REESEN,” the answer is: land and sea. With my doctorate in marine biology, I have dedicated most of my life to underwater life. However, I am also interested in other things: travelling, photography, writing… I love sharing with my books and articles what I experience.
The slogan “On the road again” seems to fit you perfectly. What excites you about travelling?
To be honest, I don’t know! Like many others, travelling is an opportunity for me to discover the world: wonderful landscapes, interesting cities, but also the people I meet along the way.
Why do you travel in a small, old car? There are certainly more comfortable options available?
With this car, which barely goes faster than 60 km/h, I have enough time on small roads to admire the surrounding landscape. This slow rhythm encourages reflection and contemplation. Thanks to my “old crate,” which is over 90 years old, I meet people I wouldn’t have encountered otherwise: they are curious and approach me. If I were travelling in a modern SUV, that probably wouldn’t happen! And then there are my “co-pilots” who accompany me occasionally. These moments are incredibly enriching.
Your next trip, which is set to start as soon as the crisis allows, will take you through twenty European capitals. In a time when cooperation in Europe must endure some tensions, does this journey carry a message? Are you at heart a European, even though you are a thorough globetrotter?
No, there is no specific message! But it is true that at the core, I am European: born and raised in the Netherlands. As a teenager, I went to school in France, and after my studies and a research period in Holland, I was a biology teacher for twenty-five years at the European School Luxembourg, where I had the opportunity to teach and evolve in a fantastic multilingual and multicultural environment.
You are 74 years old, but you don’t seem tired of travelling at all. Even for young and experienced travellers, a Europe tour in a small car would be a challenging feat. How do you manage to stay in shape?
Haha! “Young and experienced” doesn’t seem to go together! I certainly draw a large part of my energy from my long travel experience. At fifteen, I rode my moped alone from Nice to Amsterdam. 1,500 km in three days, my baptism of fire. Two years later, the two of us crossed Italy, Yugoslavia, and Greece on a scooter. And since then, the journey has never stopped… In 2007, I drove from Luxembourg to the Gobi Desert in a tiny Renault 4CV from 1959 nicknamed “The Little One.” A challenging journey, but a real test: would we (the car and I) endure? This uncertainty, which brought a certain adrenaline rush, kept me in shape.
How do you finance your travels?
Poorly! Sponsorship is no longer fashionable today, unless it’s for very large projects. It is difficult to find financial support. There are a few, but it does not cover all the costs of such a project. Just preparing the old mechanics of my “Charming” for a 20,000 km journey is very expensive. I mostly pay out of my own pocket and hope to raise some money with my articles and photos.
What is on the agenda after this trip? And what is your biggest travel dream?
I am a realist. At my age, most of my future lies behind me. I wanted to start a Europe tour in 2020, but the pandemic literally stopped me in my tracks. And unfortunately, it is still uncertain whether I can start the tour this year! This will be my swan song because after this trip, I will take it a bit easier. I fulfilled my biggest travel dream in 2010 with “The Little One” when I travelled over 33,000 km around the world, experiencing temperatures of +45 °C in Death Valley in August and -45 °C in Siberia in the middle of winter. A wonderful experience that shapes life.
