TRAVEL

In a globalizing world, with a career of international service, a family scattered in the far corners of the earth, and the Bahá'í Faith providing a global perspective and commitment, travelling is inevitable, and I have spent much of my life in airplanes and airports, trains (in Europe), and other less conventional forms of transport like dugout canoes. I must balance the severe impact of this aspect of my ecological footprint against the services I can render, and have for many years not taken travelling vacations for my own pleasure. In any case, a chance to stay at home for a while is a real vacation, and my chalet gives me a place for a change of pace. I only drive when there are no reasonable alternative forms of public transport, or more than I can carry.

In the early years, I took hundreds of photos on my trips as a way of recording them, and some day I may scan the best for this site (see 1960s below). Then I stopped carrying a camera at all because it got in the way of more important things, and I try to travel with as little as possible.

With digital photography, and the Internet as a way of sharing pictures, it is now easy to record many of my trips illustrated in the photo albums below in chronological order by year, except for the album on my home country, Switzerland.


Travel 2024
My first trip was to Madrid in January to work on drafting a Second UN Charter; on 12 March I went to Madrid for a meeting of the European Center for Peace and Development Council; I was in the Netherlands from 29 March to 7 April, first to give the opening keynote and workshops at the Justice Conference, then spending a week with Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen and family giving several talks in local communities and at Wageningen University where she teaches; I attended the ebbf-Ethical Business Building the Future annual conference in Lisbon on 16-19 May, giving a keynote on "How do we replace competition by cooperation and reciprocity?"; on 7-11 July I was in Berlin for another working meeting on a Second UN Charter; I attended the Intergenerational Forum at Caux on 22-27 July; my farthest trip was to Brasilia on 18-23 August to contribute to the G20 Interfaith Forum on Religion and Sustainable Development where I spoke on the history of religious advocacy on the environment;

Travel 2023
Trips to Lisbon for the ebbf-Ethical Business Building the Future annual conference; to Toledo while attending a meeting in Madrid;
Romania for the Bahá'í Summer School; Acuto, Italy for an ebbf retreat;
a short trip to Belgrade for the ECPD Conference and Youth Forum;
Lucknow, India for the International Conference of Chief Justices of the World;
finally Paris to give the closing keynote at a colloquium on global ocean governance.

Travel 2022
Trips to the Justice Conference in the Netherlands; the ebbf - Ethical Business Building the Future annual conference in Lisbon;
the Stockholm+50 International Meeting and 26th International Environment Forum annual conference;
the UN Ocean 22 Conference in Lisbon; the Danish Bahá'í Summer School; a family reunion in Mexico;
the ebbf retreat at Acuto, Italy, the ECPD Youth Forum in Belgrade;
and an intensive ten days of lectures in India for the Global Governance Forum.

Travel 2021
With the continuing pandemic, I only travelled to Acuto, Italy, for an ebbf retreat, and to Stockholm for a New Shape Forum.

Travel 2020
A research meeting in Bristol, UK; another in the Netherlands;
an advisory group meeting in Madrid with an excursion to Segovia;
then travel shut-down with the pandemic.

Travel 2019
Porto, Portugal; some events in Geneva including climate marches; IEF conference in New Zealand;
Justice Conference in the Netherlands; Baha'i teaching trips through Scotland and Malta
Baha'i summer schools in Belgium and France; Bulgaria, Italy, Serbia

Travel 2018
Netherlands Justice Conference 2018; Hawai'i for conference on Humans and Island Environments;
Quebec and Czech Republic for family visits; Bonn for Talanoa Dialogue; Stockholm for the New Shape Forum
France for Triglav Circle; New York for UN High Level Political Forum; several visits to France; Athens; Hamburg

Travel 2017
Netherlands Justice/IEF Conference; March for Science in Geneva; ebbf event near Geneva; Basel and Mark Tobey show;
Italy (Pontedera and Venice); France: Nievre department for Triglav Circle, Puy de Fou park, and Paris, including the Louvre

Travel 2016
Italy; AIESEC Presidents Meeting in Morocco; Justice Conference in the Netherlands;
UNEP writers' sprint in Arendal, Norway;  ebbf spring event in Milan;  Vision Gulf Business Conference in Kuwait;
French Baha'i Summer School in Angers; Czech Republic; IEF conference in Bolivia; Baha'i temple dedication in Chile

Travel 2015
France: Baha'i Winter Camp at La Chapelle d'Abondance; and PERL/IEF conference in Paris;
Paris again for International Resource Panel meeting; my Mother-in-Law's funeral in Brittany;
week on spirituality and nature in Bourg-en-Bresse; French Baha'i Summer School near Angers;
The Justice Conference in the Netherlands; Baha'i Shrines and gardens in Haifa, Israel; German Baha'i Summer School at Tambach;
ebbf - Ethical Business Building the Future spring event near Lisbon and fall event in Barcelona;
UNEP Workshop in Baku, Azerbaijan; UNEP "book sprint" in Nairobi, Kenya; meetings in Belgrade, Brussels and Vienna;
UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris, France; Shanghai for a research meeting; Swiss Baha'i Winter School in Leysan

Travel 2014
The Netherlands; India; Ireland; France: Baha'i Spring Camp; ebbf events in England and Spain
Meetings in Shanghai, China; Mantua, Italy; Belgrade, Serbia
California; Quebec, Canada, including Quebec Baha'i Summer School
Switzerland: biodynamic farm and Triglav Circle meeting; Peace seminar in Walenstadt; Baha'i Winter School in Einsiedeln

Travel 2013
France: the Bahá'í Winter Camp in the Alps, Marseilles, Montpellier, Paris, Reims
Bulgaria, England, Germany, Serbia, Denmark
IEF/ebbf conference in Barcelona; Quebec and its Baha'i Summer School
Monterey Peninsula and Yosemite in California
Swiss Baha'i Winter School in Einsiedeln

Travel 2012
France, snowshoeing in the Alps, a visit to the Riviera, and the Bahá'í Summer School; rural life in India; London meetings; Brazil for Rio+20;
California, including the High Sierra; Quebec, and Quebec Bahá'í Summer School; conferences in Portugal, Serbia and Azerbaijan;
Samoa for my brother's funeral; Swiss Winter School

Travel 2011
France, including Stanford-in-France III 50th reunion; Quebec; California; Germany; Portugal; Montenegro; Budapest; Netherlands
Of special interest: Gorge of the Devil's Bridge and Budapest museum visited by 'Abdu'l-Bahá

Travel 2010
Israel, Czech Republic, India, Bulgaria, Quebec, Netherlands, France, Croatia, England
Of special interest: Bahá'í pilgrimage to Israel

Travel 2009
England; Copenhagen; Delft; France; Bornholm (Denmark); Bulgaria; Washington, DC; Quebec; Croatia; Malaga, Spain
Of special interest: Wedding of Sylvia Karlsson and Onno Vinkhuyzen
Windsor Castle celebration of religious action plans for climate change

Travel 2008
Estonia; Quebec; Portugal; Italy; Montenegro

Travel 2007
Bulgaria; Canada; France; New Caledonia; dePoort, Netherlands
Of special interest: Queen Marie's summer palace in Balchik, Bulgaria
Monastery at Ganagobie, France

Travel 2006
Italy/Netherlands; Bulgaria/Macedonia; Oxford, UK

Travel 2005
Acuto, Italy; Carmel, California; Cyprus; Monaco; Quebec; Sweden; Taiwan

1960s
Stanford-in-France 1961-62
1966 Trip to Hawaii, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Germany
Bahá'í Youth Pacific Conference, Apia, Samoa, 1969


Switzerland
Geneva; Grindelwald; Walensee; Caux; Joux; Einsiedeln
Of special interest: Palais des Nations, Chateau de Bossey


cities
I've visited 800 cities in over 80 countries