The expectations are as varied as the range of what we are willing to put up with, familiar and unfamiliar. The choice between mass and individual tourism has something for everyone – right up to the planned Oktoberfest in Dubai.

But if a journey was a real journey, the traveller comes back changed. The new experiences to which they have been exposed in the encounter with foreign people, foreign countries, foreign languages, foreign climate, have made them a different person.

We are used to travelling to every corner of the earth. At least in Europe, there was complete freedom to travel. Travelling through Berlin on the suburban railway sometimes takes longer than a trip to Majorca. The carefree feeling of being able to move around freely no longer comes so easily these days. In earlier centuries, such passage depended on the people, nation, economic area to which one belonged. Today, it is the individual who can be denied the right to cross borders on the basis of their health status.

It is possible that the freedom of movement and travel of people who cannot prove this status will remain permanently restricted. The “Doctors for an Individual Vaccination Decision” consider this perspective “frightening” – especially since it appears that equal and full social participation is only to be allowed to families with children who are vaccinated – and reject the concept of a European Covid-19 vaccination passport, in line with the WHO’s position. Whether only vaccinated children will be able to attend school is also up for discussion and promises us a hot autumn.

What gives pause for thought in this development is the dependence of legally guaranteed rights of freedom, which apply to all citizens of a country, on the individual, physical and biological status of a fellow citizen and their medical registration.

Waldorf education, however, does not only thrive on external freedoms – it is familiar with, cultivates and works with the powers of imagination – and these are unlimited – in fairy tales, fables, stories, narratives and literature – from class 1 to class 13. The “cognitive power” of the “precise imagination” here provides a wide arc from the development of the feelings to scientific analysis. With this issue we invite you to imagination-inspiring reading and conversation about places near and far – described as individually as their authors.