I have itchy feet. I’m ready to pack and head somewhere. Alice Steinbach’s Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman entices me to travel to Paris or Ireland or Lisbon, Portugal, the  places that beckon to me. If you’re an armchair traveler, Steinbach may encourage you to pack as well.

In 1993, Steinbach was a reporter with the Baltimore Sun. She was a single mom, but now her sons were grown, and she was wondering who she was. Steinbach identified herself as a mother and a reporter. Who was she outside of her job? The newspaper agreed to give her a leave of absence, and Alice Steinbach headed to Europe. She started in Paris.

It’s hard to do justice to Alice Steinbach’s book. It’s an introspective travelogue. Chapters begin with postcards she wrote home to herself. In writing the book, she can look back and remember where she was, people she met, and, most important, the Alice Steinbach she found when she was in each of those places. She says she was learning about herself as she travels.

Alice Steinbach felt at home in Paris. But, she questions herself in the book, and she asks questions about other women. Are women alone independent or living in solitude? And, although she loves Paris, she meets a man there who changes her feelings about her own independence. She’s always eager to see him, but she worries about his feelings for her.

It’s impossible to separate Alice Steinbach’s travels from her feelings about this man because she meets him throughout the trip. But, she also manages to find female friends along the way. She spends time in Paris, London, Oxford, England where she takes a course, studying English villages. She travels to Milan and Venice.

I admire Alice Steinbach, her independence while she travels. This is a book that doesn’t dwell on food or shops or sites. It’s an account of people she met in those cities. As a traveler who appreciates the people I spend time with on trips, I loved that. I’m envious of her independence. At the same time, one aspect of this book bothers me. And, this is just my feeling. At times, she seems too eager to meet and please a man. However, for Steinbach, I think that was part of the romance of the trip itself, the romance she found.

I will say, now that I’ve been to Paris and Giverny, I appreciated those parts of this book. I loved, and are envious of, Alice Steinbach’s independent traveling in Without Reservations. I’m just not sure Steinbach and I would have traveled well together.

Note: The book cover is a little blurred on the blog. I read the hardcover from the library, published in 2000. The paperback is the one on websites now, and it’s the one that is actually more photogenic now.

Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman by Alice Steinbach. Random House, 2000. 280p.

*****
FTC Full Disclosure – Library book