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As a child growing up in Germany, Hannelore Rimlinger remembers pouring over the pages of her father’s books.
"My father had a wonderful library,” she recalls. “Even before I could read, I saw pictures of the pyramids, Petra and Timbuktu. Through those books I developed a natural curiosity for the world.”
As her small hands flipped the pages, Hannelore determined to visit all the places she’d read about, even when the war years made that possibility seem more and more remote.
Those exotic pictures of the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China would lead Hannelore to pursue a degree in hotel management in hopes that she would one day get to work around the world. Later, her marriage to an international businessman would take her to the four corners of the globe. Today, she says that her thirst to see the world is far from being quenched and she continues to travel.
“My neighbors think I’m nuts,” she says. “When I visited Lebanon, Syria and Jordan they questioned my safety and my sanity. I thought it was an adventure.”
From the Coliseum to the Eiffel Tower, the Pyramids of Giza to Hagia Sophia, Hannelore has seen most of the world’s wonders. Lining the walls of her family room are photos from her travels—a line of elephants in the desert of Namibia, an aerial shot over the Himalayas and the colorful rooftop of a Buddhist stupa in Tibet.
“People are always amazed to see where I’ve been. I guess in a way, I am too,” she says. “These pictures help me to relive my adventures.”
Wherever she goes, from the villages of Botswana to the mountains of Peru, she always makes time to stop into a local market or grocery store.
“As a child, I used to go the market with my mother every Saturday,” she recalls. “It was part of everyday life. Perhaps that’s why I like to watch the people in the market—to see if they haggle over the price, what vegetables they buy and if they buy food for the week or just the next meal.”
Hannelore says each market is different, a reflection of the uniqueness of each culture.
“The colorful spices of India are like no where else,” she says. “In China, you can buy a live chicken or carry home fresh fish in a bag full of water.”
Despite their differences, there is also a sense of familiarity in the daily goings-on of market-goers around the world.
An awe-inspiring view from the Great Wall of China
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The ancient ruins of Machu Picchu
“Sometimes it breaks your heart to see the children without shoes or the way a mother will buy only a single egg to feed her family,” Hannelore said. “Yet there is still the same love and the same sense of family that I shared with my own mother.”
Such experiences, Hannelore claims, are the hallmarks of travelers— not tourists.
“A traveler sees beyond the monuments. He goes places not everyone goes. He doesn’t rush by, but takes time to watch the people,” Hannelore says.
According to Hannelore, “a traveler knows you don’t always have to stay in a five-star resort; and a person on a journey doesn’t complain if the food is different. After all, if all you wanted was a hamburger, you could just stay home.”
On what was perhaps her favorite journey, this world traveler visited Machu Picchu — her vote for one of the new Wonders of the World.
As the early morning fog lifted off the top of this hidden Incan city, Hannelore sat by herself and pondered how such a thing came to be.
“It was overwhelming to see it,” she says. “You could never build something like that today. People don’t invest that kind of time. There is not that kind of ingenuity.”
Removed from the masses of tourists that would eventually converge upon the site, Hannelore felt a sense of awe as she wandered around the ancient buildings with only a llama for a companion.
“I wondered how they managed to get those rocks up there,” she said. “You have to admire the fact that this ancient civilization built such a place without cranes, or bulldozers, or drills. It makes you wonder if we are really all that advanced.”
While Machu Picchu is a man-made wonder, Hannelore claims you don’t get the same feeling from it as you do from other man-made monuments like the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty.
“It’s almost as if you can feel the spirits of the people who lived there,” she said.
Maybe that’s what makes a wonder of the world. Perhaps it is more than just a fine building or an impressive statue. Perhaps it is about connecting to people—those who came before us and those across the room from us.
“To travel gives me such joy,” Hannelore says. “It helps me to appreciate other cultures and peoples, it creates a sense of wonder and it reminds me that life is indeed wonderful.”
For Hannelore, such travel is a privilege, and a chance to bring to life a dream that was born from the pages of old books. |
