Years ago my wife visited her sister who lives in Vienna, Austria, and I got to tag along. It would be my only trip to Europe, and I learned something important. Europe is seen best on foot. That is, we traveled by plane, train, automobile, bus and riverboat, but the sites I remember most I accessed by walking.

Our first stop was Oxford, England, a town of not one, but 43 colleges, the first dating back to 1249 AD. We saw most of them walking up High Street where one also can visit the Eagle and Child, the pub where C.S. Lewis and his pal JRR Tolkien first shared their stories. We dined in the Rabbit Room where I had the bangers and mash.

Lewis’ office at Magdalene College (the Brits pronounce it “Maudlin”) is also on High Street. Inside its grounds near the deer park is Addison’s Walk, the path where a young professor Lewis heard Tollers (his name for Tolkien) say that the old myth of a dying God actually came true in one Jesus of Nazareth. It would be a turning point in Lewis’ search for God.

In Vienna the locals told us the best way to experience the Inner Stadt (old downtown Vienna) was on foot and at night. That’s when all the landmarks are beautifully lit (some from within, others without), and to say the experience was magical is an understatement.

We walked along the Ringstrausse (Ring Road) which encircles most of the 1.1 mile area and saw the Hofburg Imperial Palace (where the Hapsburgs ruled for over seven centuries) the state opera building (where the likes of Amadeus Mozart and Richard Wagner once performed) and more cathedrals and museums than I have space to mention.

I especially was taken by Maria-Theresian-Platz, a public square where we began our tour. In the center of this open space is a huge monument (standing six stories high and rising from a 2,000 foot base) in honor of the Austrian empress. Maria is not the only figure carved out of the granite rock. Several military leaders and their horses appear as do composers Mozart and Haydn.

My last walk came near the end of our trip when a friend arranged a couple of nights in a 16^th century chalet in the foothills of the Alps above Lake Geneva. One afternoon I took a long hike further up the mountain where I shared a well-marked, narrow path with locals of all ages (everyone hikes in Switzerland) and large, dairy cows coming down the trail. All were fitted with a bell latched to a leather belt hanging from their necks. In my mind I can still hear the tinkling bells, which contribute to my surreal memory of the experience.

I wish I could say more about the landscape, but words escape me. Think “The Sound of Music” meets “Heidi” (the Shirley Temple version). I’ve never seen anything more beautiful.

And I saw it all—on foot.

**I’m going to take a short break to catch up on my walking research. I’ll let you know on Facebook when this blog resumes.