Tourism based on TV and pop culture is an odd bird, but I have to admit that Game of Thrones is making me a believer. While its story and settings are brilliantly fictitious, many of the filming locations have their own historic, cultural, and eye-catching charms that can be worth a visit for even non-GOTContinue reading “Becoming a Stark: Archery at Winterfell”
Category Archives: Videos
Game of Thrones: The Touring Exhibition Hits Belfast
Belfast is hosting Game of Thrones: The Touring Exhibition until September 11, 2019. And it is awesome!
Men at Work in Salzburg’s Old Town
?Travel provides so many opportunities for cultural insights. It’s easy to find them via the historic, artistic, and culinary experiences that most people encounter. But how much do you pay attention to the stuff of everyday life in a town you’re visiting? ?Let yourself be mesmerized—like I recently was in Salzburg’s Altstad, or Old Town—byContinue reading “Men at Work in Salzburg’s Old Town “
Italian Experiences with Rick Steves
It’s been more than Rick Steves has led one of our Rick Steves’ Europe Tours, but you’d never know it. His enthusiasm, energy, stamina, knowledge, and love of Europe seems only to have increased with those passing years. Along with 28 happy tour members, my guide colleague Ben Cameron and I (we’re Rick’s assistants onContinue reading “Italian Experiences with Rick Steves”
Scenes from a Guide Summit
Name 20 countries from the European Union. Imagine the “typical” citizens of those countries–their features, their demeanors, their gestures, their accents. Now picture a collection of 120 people from those countries who are passionate aficionados on the history, art, culture, politics, and people of those motherlands all descending on a small town just north ofContinue reading “Scenes from a Guide Summit”
Right Place, Right Time: Visiting the USS Missouri
With our moving experience at the USS Arizona Memorial completed, Odile and I have just enough time for a blitz visit to the USS Missouri before scooping up her little cherubs from preschool. As we drive onto Ford Island, the tranquil solemnity I felt on the Arizona quickly gives way to mild panic about havingContinue reading “Right Place, Right Time: Visiting the USS Missouri”
A New Way to Travel
This summer, I escorted two Rick Steves’ My Way Tours–it’s a new kind of tour, geared towards independent travelers who want the freedom to customize their own itinerary but don’t want the hassle of figuring out how to get from point A to point B or where they’re going to stay. I escort the groupContinue reading “A New Way to Travel”
Contemporary Egypt
On our trip through Egypt, we hit most major historical and architectural sites in Cairo, Alexandria and Luxor: the Pyramids of Giza, the new great library Biblioteka Alexandrina, the temples at Luxor and Karnak, and the tombs in the Valley of the Kings. Stunning and powerful, one and all. But equally fascinating to me wasContinue reading “Contemporary Egypt”
Before You Travel, Why Not Check Out a Travel Show?
When you think of winter, you might imagine trees enveloped in velvety white snow, marshmallows slowly dissolving in molten hot chocolate, scarves wrapped twice around the neck in defiance of the wind, or the crackle of reds, yellows, and oranges in a just-what-I-needed fireplace. Lately, when I think of winter, I picture immense convention centerContinue reading “Before You Travel, Why Not Check Out a Travel Show?”
Mayhem and Courtesy in Chicago
Tribal beats of ancient druid drums thumped and reverberated in my chest, and the ringing in my ears seemed to be in perfect pitch with the wailing music. Flashes of colored light hauntingly illuminated the gathering of devotees who swayed and swarmed in feverish rapture. I had never been to such a gathering, and myContinue reading “Mayhem and Courtesy in Chicago”