Research shows that traveling is very useful for people. Traveling keeps your brain flexible, increases your ability to put things into perspective, dispels prejudices and increases your creativity. Traveling people also live longer on average. But what to do in these times full of travel restrictions? That planned safari to Tanzania is not happening for the time being. But that doesn't mean you have to stay homebound. Draw a circle of, say, 400 kilometers around your hometown with your old compass from high school (four hours by car, just over three by train), and you will see that there is a wealth of places left. to visit: Liège, Antwerp (Middelheim Sculpture Park!), Münster, Bonn (the Museumsmeile!), Nancy, well, plenty to choose from.

Anyway, what do you, as a modern man, take with you on such a city trip? Since a man is not a woman, he always travels as light as possible, so one jacket is sufficient. Nice and light, unlined, it is summer after all. No sooner said than done, you would say, but unfortunately, it requires a little more precision. You want a jacket that you can wear during a walk through the city center, but also to that hip new restaurant near the old port. How about a summer tweed jacket? Cool and stylish. And then with sewn-on patch pockets, not with flap pockets – they make your jacket too formal. Replace your wallet with a money clip or, even better, with a card holder. You can use the breast pocket on your jacket to store sunglasses (with one leg out, très dandy). If you really want to carry more stuff in your jacket (cigarettes, car keys, etc.), then you're in luck. Safari jackets are completely en vogue again, and they often have multiple pockets. A crucial tip: whatever jacket you wear, always hang it up when you sit down.

Just as you only need one jacket, you can get by just fine with one pair of shoes. A city trip involves a lot of walking, so you choose shoes with an orthopedically sensible view. Make sure you bring extra pants. It's summer, so your pants are light in color (beige chinos, white jeans) and the traveling man is prone to a spot. If you are wearing white trousers, stick to this one piece of clothing in terms of white color. Don't also wear white shoes and a white coat, unless you have to go to Wimbledon (which is 395 kilometers from Vlissingen, so it still fits within the travel distance)

Finally, whether I'm away from home for a short or long period of time, I never leave without something readable in my luggage – a book, just made of paper. What could be better than reading Molière's The Misanthrope when you go to Paris? What better way to get in the mood for London than by reading Absolute Beginners by Colin MacInnes? I like to tailor the reading material to the destination. Now that we are going to travel less far for the time being, I would advise getting the literature from far away. Research shows that long-distance travel gives you the most benefit. The greater the culture shock, the more actively your brain will operate. Now that this is not physically possible, we have to do it in our imagination. We can't fly to Osaka, but we can read Shogun by James Clavell. That's all a person needs. But as the French writer Stendhal, who has an excellent novel about the Chartreuse of Parma (1,169 kilometers from Utrecht) to his name, said: 'Only a great mind dares to have a simple style.'