35 Burst results for "Rick Steves"
Travel with Rick Steves
"rick steves" Discussed on Travel with Rick Steves
"Just been fascinating talking to you. You've seen a lot of relics in your work, finish off with just a thought of the most powerful personal experience you had in your research on relics. I was up in Kashmir in northern India and as I went there, I was aware of it as a dangerous place as a lot of sectarian violence that happens there, and I went to see a contested relic. There is a hair of the prophet Muhammad that certain Hindu nationalist groups have started to claim as their own, saying it's not, in fact, a Muslim relic but a Hindu relic. I spent some time with a family that for 8 generations has been the guardian of the relic. And what was most touching to me was meeting this old gentleman who grew up as the watchkeeper, the safe keeper of the relic, when he heard what types of traveling I was doing. He wanted desperately to know about other relics around the world. He wanted to know about Christian relics and Buddhist relics. Because it gave him some indication that his life had so much in common with those around the world whom he would never meet, but they did have this one article of faith in common. I love it. Relics can help us connect with God and at the same time they help people connect with other cultures and other people. Peter man so, author of rag and bone, thanks for joining us. Thank you, Rick. Travel with Rick Steves is produced at Rick Steves, Europe and Edmonds, Washington. By Tim Tam, kasma hall, and Donna bardsley. Our website is managed by Andrew wakelin, our theme music was written in performed by Jerry Frank. Affiliate relations are by Sheila guers off. You can find links to our guests and search the show archives at Rick Steves dot com slash radio. We'll see you next week with more travel with Rick Steves. The Rick Steves guidebook to Italy has long been America's bestselling guidebook to any destination in Europe. We've just updated it and it's in its 27th edition and its ready and rare and to help you turn your travel dreams into smooth and affordable reality. Pick up a copy at your favorite bookseller or at Rick Steves dot com.
Travel with Rick Steves
"rick steves" Discussed on Travel with Rick Steves
"Gaelic. Oh yeah, yeah. Well, and then there's I think there's another language of the islands as well that may be lost now, but the challenge they are nearer Norway than Glasgow. Right. So they would have that mix of cultures and then one island that's really quirky and really proud with its own sort of heritage of course is the Isle of Man between Ireland and England. Talk about the alaman. Yes, that's so curious that the island, it took a big hit when cheap travel to France and Spain. The charter flights came because a lot of people who like to go overseas would get the ferry over to the Isle of Man, which has lots of lovely beaches and had lots of sort of old peers along there. And then it took a real pounding, suddenly nobody went. And they reinvented themselves as a sort of banking I didn't understand how these things work, but a sort of banking center, a huge sums of money being filtered through there, not always with the best of intentions. Well, I guess you got to roll with the times. I get the sense in Blackpool also and in Brighton, those were very popular when there weren't cheap flights down to this coastal solar Spain. But now working class people can take their vacation and find some sunshine. I was always impressed how English people could go to Blackpool and sit on the beach in a drizzle and act like it's sunny. That's fun for us. Soft weather you say, don't you? But the island has a special kind of quirkiness. Martin klum's is best known in America for his starring role on the Doc marten television series. It aired its final episode on Christmas 2022 on ITV in Britain. Martin is also hosted ITV documentaries about dogs, horses, lions, and lemurs. He lives on a farm in Dorset. After filming the islands of Britain, Martin also hosted travel documentaries about the islands of Australia, America and the Pacific. They should be available on British TV streaming services or on YouTube. He's pointing out some of them remarkable, smaller islands he's visited that surround Great Britain right now on travel with Rick Steves. Martin, when we think about all these islands that surround Britain, what do they have in common? What did you sort of take away from the documentary you may? By the way, you can watch the documentary if you just go to YouTube and search it. But what do you take away from the people here and the communities and maybe what can we learn from them? They're I learned because I grew up in a sort of bland suburb not bland really nice leafy suburb of London called Wimbledon where the tennis happens, but it doesn't really, you know, oh, those guys from Wimbledon there, so, you know, there's nothing to us really. But the identity of the communities on those islands. That's what they all have. They all stand tall and they stand together. Through thick or thin. Because they could have the wherewithal to leave, they could go to London and try to find a job there, but you know is easy for them at all. Yeah, they put up with inefficiencies and hardship in order to eke out an existence on these rocks out in the sea and their communities. What do you think the reward is for them? I think that's a reward in itself. I think belonging to that community, because they know that it's a strength they have over other communities. They know that it's sort of mighty with them, I think. And there's probably sort of a loneliness and lack of community in a big city fast material world that they might embrace and appreciate in their small town island worlds. Yeah, I bet. All right. Chris is on the line in Valencia, California, Chris, thanks for your call. Hello, thank you, Rick. Thank you, Martin. I'm a bit of an anglophile. And I enjoyed your island of Britain series, Martin. And often, when planning vacations, we tend to look to destinations abroad and something he mentioned in the series was we have a hidden gems closer to home and often we tend to plan to take our vacation somewhere else and just curious the places that he's yet to travel to is there one beyond Britain and one within Britain that some day he'd like to visit. Oh, that's interesting. Nice. Yeah, I'd like to do a lot more Scotland. I'd like to see a lot more of Scotland. I don't really know the eastern side of Scotland. I know the west. I know the western islands and I know a lot of the islands now. But I've got a couple of Scottish horses and I find myself spending more and more time in Scotland and we love it for holidays and trips. And it's an amazing place to drive through. It's really empty and wild. That will do me. And wow, the rest of the world, I'm fascinated to go to Japan, and I'm hatching a plan to get myself there. I used to say my number one destination that I hadn't been to as Madagascar, and then a couple of years ago I went and I made a program about the Lima is there and I got to go there. It's still one of the my favorite places I've ever been. And I would recommend anybody to go there while it's still there. I'm waiting for Doc Martin does Japan. I think that sounds fascinating. Chris, thanks for your call. Great. Thank you, Rick and thank you, Martin. You guys to speak to you, Chris bye. Goodbye. Well, Martin, thank you so much from all of your fans in the United States for the work you've done with doctor Martin. And thank you also for taking us on a little tour of the mini islands that are a part of the British islands. Well, thank you. Thanks very much for talking to you. I visit to Italy includes that tasty bonus of endless local food specialties wherever you wander. We'll explore Italy for food lovers with Fred plotkin next on travel with Rick Steves. As an honor for promoting Italian culture around the world, the government of Italy awarded Fred plotkin with its highest honor in 2015. In a rare move for a non Italian, Fred was named a cavalieri. It's like a knighthood there for being what they called one of the most admired and esteemed experts on Italy. Fred potkin has also been one of our favorite guests over the years on travel with Rick Steves for his knowledge and appreciation of all things about Italy. And for revealing the regional specialties that make eating anywhere in Italy such a delight. It's been my honor to work with Fred as we co authored a remake of his landmark guide, Italy for the Gourmet traveler. Friends with us right now from his home in New York City to rouse our appetites and to celebrate the release of our new collaboration, Italy for food lovers. Fred, bonjour. Calorie car though. I'm doing great and it's always fun to talk with you and Fred. A lot of people don't have the joy of thumbing through a book that they've written for the first time. When you received Italy for the food lovers and you thumbed through it, you put a lot of work into this thing. I mean, what were your thoughts? Well, you know, to my knowledge, I'm not the father of any baby that I know of who would now be an adult, but I am the father of a number of books, and when the book arrives in the mail, it really is like being presented with your child. Because you have invested all of your love and passion and care and nourishment into
Travel with Rick Steves
"rick steves" Discussed on Travel with Rick Steves
"It. People put a decal on a sliding glass door, you know, so you don't walk into it. Thomas is on the phone in Colorado Springs, Thomas thanks for your call. Well, thanks for having me on, Rick. My family and I had an opportunity to visit the northern Spain and went to the small city of komiya, Spain along the northern coastline and had a chance to see an antoni Gaudi home. And of course Gaudi is known for all of his structures and architecture, but really in Barcelona, especially with the cathedral there. We just fell in love with the small home there in come yesterday that we weren't even familiar with. And so my question really is one other hidden gems of architecture or art that we should be made aware of that are hidden in dispersed throughout the country of Spain. I'm going to give that question to Federico Barroso because I am challenged in Spain just by the marketing difficulty that some architects will have just by how do you say their name. We can say Gaudi. In the Art Nouveau movement, there were other artists that should be household names, but I just think there's a practical reason there, and also I'm wondering, are there other architects outside of that era from Spain that Federico would like to share? Federico, what's your take on that? Well, actually, what we're going to go do is I can see that Julie's cover capriccio, the capabilities, because Gaudi was mostly sponsored by the Qatar nobility, and then we occasionally find some of his buildings in other places like Leon, astorga occasionally, some small towns in northern Spain, a Gaudi is in mos emblematic one, and we have to consider that in those 1800s Spain had a big social, political and economic decline, and the only people who really did something new, those transgressors were Gaudi and his two friends, Portugal, Falk, and Dominic Montana, complicated names. We usually call them Gaudi and his two friends. Even in Spain? Oh, that makes me feel much better. And Federico, are there other great architects that we should know? We have actually an interesting example in Madrid Antonio palacios, Antonio palacios, is the man who is making extraordinary buildings in Madrid that we find the fine arts circle el fier de Bellas artes is actually the best panoramic tower in Madrid, by the way. And then we find on the top of the tower Minerva or Athena, the goddess of wisdom. This is a modern architecture. It's a mother architecture actually. That is from the beginning of 1900s. You know, I love that in Madrid. You can take a public bus from the Prado, and you can go see a lot of the great skyscrapers in modern art, which needs to be looked at also. And can I add the man that is perhaps the best known outside of Spain right now as an architect Santiago calatrava. Now, people may not know his name, but if you're driving through Europe, you're going to go over his bridges. If you're traveling on a train, you're going to go through his railway stations that he designed. And his work is the soaring roof lines and these and his bridges are almost like ships with a mast and rigging and sails and it kind of reminds you in some ways of Spain's maritime heritage as they sail into the future. This is travel with Rick Steves, we've been joined by gene openshaw the co author of the Rick Steves Europe one O one art for travelers guidebook and Federico Garcia Barroso, who's a guy who comes to us from Madrid. Gene, one last tip for anybody going to Spain to just get a little better connected with that Spanish creative spirit. Let's take the Dali museum, Salvador Dalí, of course, with Spanish, and the Dali museum is a place not too many people get to, but it's easy to. It's just a short train ride out of Barcelona in the town of figueres, which is where he was born. And it's just what you may expect. I surreal experience. You walk through and you see some of his paintings in some of his creations, you can see a couch that looks like Marilyn Monroe's lips. You can see, you know, fruit stacked atop a column. It is a surreal experience. It's fun, anyone can appreciate it. And I think it's, to me, Spanish art is hard to categorize because there's so much to it. And in a way, Dali with his surrealistic juxtaposition of images took so many of the elements of Spanish culture threw him in a blender and then splattered him on the canvas. And I think that's a great way to appreciate the many layers of Spanish art. The Dalai museum outside of Barcelona in the town of figueres. Federico, what would your tip be for making sure people get a little better appreciation of the Spanish creative spirit. I want to share with my friends that little chapel located in Madrid next to the river, a place called San Antonio de la Florida, where we find those frescoes by Goya, something quite unusual, really unique before he became a
Travel with Rick Steves
"rick steves" Discussed on Travel with Rick Steves
"Where do you want to live? You probably wouldn't choose the blustery northwest coast of Wales for the weather. It rains twice as much as it does say in London. At the wind blows constantly. It is so beautiful. But it doesn't do you many favors. So if you live there, you've got to want to live there. And that's a great social cement. We'll get a sense of what a good day feels like in Bosnia Herzegovina. When you sit somewhere outside in a beautiful sunny day, you know, and you're done all you need to do and you're drinking your bath in coffee and having a cigarette. That's all there is. And we'll enjoy the spectacular art of Spain from groundbreaking works by Picasso and Dali to the people immortalized by Velasquez. He was a person who really thought that everyone deserved a portrait, ordinary people like you and me, come along as we explored the visual arts of Spain and what it means to be Bosnian and Welsh in the hour ahead. It's travel with Rick Steves. The ruins of castles in mind provide evidence of the one time might of the kings and industrial barons of Wales. Today, Wales is a mostly quiet part of Britain, with its own brand of Gaelic identity that hasn't faded over the years. Coming up in the hour ahead, Martin to land a bit, celebrates the Welsh national holiday, saint David's day by telling us what being a proud Welshman means to him. And guides from Bosnia Herzegovina share how their complicated ethnic heritage adds layers to what it means to be Bosnian today. Let's start the hour on travel with Rick Steves with a look at the magnificent art you'll find in Spain. Works by painters and architects who invented new ways of looking at the world. We're joined now by Madrid based tour guide Federico Garcia Barroso and by gene openshaw, my co author on Europe's top 100 masterpieces and the Rick Steves Europe one O one art and history guide. They'll take your calls at 8 7 7 three three three Rick and by email. We're at radio at Rick Steves dot com. Federico and gene, thanks for being here. Thank you, hola. So gene, how would you, how would you tackle appreciating the art of Spain? I would certainly hit the top ones. Just think about the Prado museum in Madrid. Arguably Europe's greatest painting museum. Also in Madrid, Picasso's Guernica, a monster painting that not only is a testament against modern warfare, but is so much part of the Spanish history with its horses and bulls and weeping women imagery and gets right to the heart of Spain's Civil War. I'd certainly put on that list of the Alhambra in Granada. This is 700 years of Muslim settlement in Spain. We think of this great Catholic country, but for 700 years, it was Muslim, and this lush Arabian nights Wonderland is the best place to appreciate that. And finally, I'd say Gaudi's cathedral unfinished cathedral of Sagrada Família in Barcelona. This kind of gives the grandeur of Spanish dreams in this cake melting in The Rain sort of architecture with these soaring towers that's become very much the symbol of the city of Barcelona. So there's four art treasures that could hold their own against our treasures anywhere in Europe, I would say, Federico, when we're thinking of the Prado, Jean mentioned it's got an incredible wealth of paintings. I would call it my favorite collection of paintings in all of Europe. Why would Madrid have so many art treasures? The reason that the capital of the Spanish Empire, it's an example of how important Spain was in the past, exactly, that is actually the best way to make our legacy tangible. You seem to see the history of his Spain is right there in that museum. A lot of famous Flemish paintings are in Spain. Obviously, because the Netherlands was actually a Spanish colony a long time ago, yeah. Now, gene mentioned the Guernica painting by Picasso. In a lot of ways, the painting of Europe when you talk about the struggles of the 20th century when you in your city of Madrid think of the importance of Guernica to the Spanish people, what is it? The reason why your nika is actually located in Madrid is because Picasso was the creator of the Prado museum in those travel years during the Spanish Civil War. And that is obviously his cubist interpretation about the Spanish Civil War. For many years, that painting was actually in exile, wasn't even in Spain, it was in New York City. And that's because Picasso insisted that that painting which was so much against the current government of Spain, Francisco Franco, he would not allow his painting to be in a Franco ruled Spain and it wasn't until Franco finally died and a new democratic regime came in, that that painting could be repatriated and brought back to its homeland. So Franco dies in 1975. It's the castle lived to see that. It's just a story he died two years before. He died two years before his painting went back to his homeland. Federico, when you go to a gallery in Spain and you want to appreciate Catholic Spain. What's some advice in that regard? Well, we have a master called Velazquez and then we have to remember that we also have other painters like Murillo through and Rivera. And those are actually the painters that in most of the cases we are talking about the voted man who really, really were deep believers as he and they Catholic and people who really wanted to show to you the beauty of Mary, the immaculate conception. Genus is most of this part of the counter reformation sort of propaganda art for the church. Yes, it is. I mean, if you think about that big watershed time in Spain's history, 1492, not only did Columba sail the ocean blue, but it was also the time when Muslim occupation ended, it was the time when the Jews were exiled and suddenly you had a nation state that was under Catholic kings and it became ultra Catholic. Madrid based tour guide Federico Garcia Barroso and art historian gene open cha are introducing us to the great visual arts of Spain right now on travel with Rick Steves. We're at 877-333-7425 and by email, it's radio at Rick Steves dot com. In Mandy's emailed us from Morgantown in West Virginia, and Mandy writes as a recent graduate with my bachelor and master degrees in art history, I was thrilled to visit Madrid and Barcelona a few years ago during a backpacking trip around Europe. One of my most memorable moments was viewing Diego Velazquez's Las meninas at the Prado museum in Madrid, and then going to the Picasso museum in Barcelona, viewing 44 interpretations of that same Velasquez work that Picasso painted. That's a great moment, isn't it? First of all, Jean, I think Las meninas is considered by some people to be the greatest painting ever. What is it about Las meninas and Velazquez? Las meninas, you know, some people may not know it by its title, but when you see it, you go, oh, that. It's that one where there's a little princess being attended by her courtiers and there's people in the background and so on. And the very fact that Velazquez could capture a single moment without giving that sense of these people, posing for it, that was groundbreaking in art, a certain naturalness that we now take for granted, but that at the time was completely unprecedented and Velazquez could have just earned his pay as painting the royal family looking good, but he really took it farther and capturing those intimate moments of Velazquez was an extraordinary human being. He was a really wonderful man and very ethical person who really thought that everyone deserved a portrait, ordinary people like you and me, not exclusively kings and queens, and we can see that in that meninas, I really tell people that that is a 3D movie in those days. You see, because you are part of the story. You are there. And those people, those characters, they know that you are there, they're watching you, you're watching them, I remember there was a time when there was a rope bannister in front of it. It was almost like they had to remind people not to walk into
Travel with Rick Steves
"rick steves" Discussed on Travel with Rick Steves
"That I told him from a show. Have you ever written about the world you see in a short haiku poem? Here's some examples of what our listeners are writing. They sent in their travel haiku from a link at Rick Steves dot com slash radio. Babette sallis from Springfield, Illinois, updates a haiku she sent a several years ago to mention the global soap project. It's a collaboration between hotels and an agency that promotes public health in the developing world by bringing soap to the people who need it. Her first poem read tiny hotel soap, too small to wash my body, still, I'll take you home. Now she says, tiny hotel soap, first I bathe, then you're off to global soap project. Jeffrey staley of bafa Washington paints his portrait of the view from his window seat on a flight from Boston to Seattle. Cloud pearls curl proudly above Lake Superior. Water, winks below. While Pamela wilding from San Rafael, California, turned this common flight experience into a poem. Our flying tin lands, sardine passengers await a can opener. Travel with Rick Steves is produced at Rick Steves Europe and Edmonds Washington. I'm the executive producer Tim tattan, assisted by associate producers, casm or hall, and Donna bardsley. Our website is managed by Andrew weakling, our theme music was written and performed by Jerry Frank. Affiliate relations are by Sheila gerst. Thanks to Keith stickler Meyer for reading this week's travel haiku. We'll look for you again next week with more travel with Rick Steves. My public television miniseries Rick Steves art of Europe takes you on an exciting sweep through the entire awe inspiring story of European art history in 6 hours. Watch the series from the Parthenon to Picasso on your local station or stream it on PBS passport or at Rick Steves dot com.
Travel with Rick Steves
"rick steves" Discussed on Travel with Rick Steves
"Of other books in the world. So the choice of the book is important, and you can invest many hours into it, and the potential for really having it have an impact on you is huge. And the other choice is what translation you're going to choose. And that would deserve a little bit of shopping around before you commit. It can. If it's a 20th century work, you may have only one choice, and that's fine. Or if you just, you'll hear about it. I mean, I'm also a great believer in word of mouth. I mean, a lot of my favorite books, someone put it in my hand and say, you've got to read this. And that's a good way. I also want to underscore that for me literature is a really privileged mode of access to very distant times and places. And I work a lot on ancient literature. And one of the things that I like to find is work that really makes you feel at home. And the most distant things that can speak to us, just give an ancient Egyptian example. Here's a stanza from Egyptian poem from maybe 3000 years ago. A man is saying to himself, why need you hold converse with your heart to embrace her as all my desire. Now I speaking to the girl, as amun lives, I come to you, my loincloth, on my shoulder. I think we can sort of relate to that another poem that woman sings. I found my lover at the Ford, his feet set on the water. He builds a table there for feasts, and sets it out with beer. He brings a blush to my skin, for he is tall and lean. Um. You know, I'm just curious because you're so steeped in higher education and this kind of high thinking, what do you feel like the priorities in our society are doing these days in education? Because I feel like there's a lot of pressure to have us all become well trained for a career. Vocational training basically at the expense of liberal arts and literature and history and so on. Do you feel like there's any tug of war going on in our society or are people just bailing on one value and investing in the other? Well, I think there's always been a tendency this way. Wordsworth, he talks in the preface to the second condition of the lyrical ballots that, oh, there's all this junk literature people are reading now. The works of Shakespeare being overwhelmed no one's reading Shakespeare anymore or they're just reading these sickly and stupid German tragedies that are coming over the equivalent of bad things on Netflix, I guess. There's always that worry. And I think that my responsibility is a teacher who says, look, these works are really good, read these, spend time with them. And our students really respond to it. I think people have a hunger for just slowing up, thinking a little bit, and just basking and the pleasures of a great work of literature. This is travel with Rick Steves, we're speaking with literary historian David damash, and he founded Harvard University's institute for world literature, and he's with us today to recommend some of the greatest writing about many places that he profiles in his book around the world in 80 books. It's his compilation of 80 exceptional books classics and contemporary from authors whose shape our idea of the world through literature. So David, let's just talk very briefly about these different corners of the planet and how literature might open us up to things. Let's talk about sub Saharan Africa. What a diverse and fascinating story that has been, I think, almost intentionally underappreciated. We have diminished it. And it's compounded by the challenge that there's not a lot published in sub Saharan Africa. What is a way that we can remedy that in our reading? Yes, I think to find what there is, which is already a lot and more than anyone person can probably read. And to sort of see the dialog that these writers have with each other. So Africans are quite tired of being told about their society from outside of which a classic that I discussed is Joseph Conrad's brilliant novella heart of darkness, which is a wonderful exploration of what it's like for a European to be in a totally foreign era. But then Chino achebe, great writer, mid century, writes an essay on racism and heart of darkness. And he says, you know, the Africans have no voice. His well meaning is anti imperialistic, but look, his repeating, the worst aspect of the empire that there's no human being at the other at the other side. So here he writes that. And then contemporary write it to my Monday did she wonderful Nigerian American writer, rewrites things fall apart in her story, the thing around your neck. And she gives it now a much more strong feminist aspect, and much more contemporary than achebe, but if you read achebe and adichie, you get an already a stereoscopic view. I also think that we were studying these things have to be kind of activists. One of the works I include as an amazing work by a Congolese novel called John Bautista viko with a view of the Africa or the rape of African discourse and he's very much concerned with this European perspective taking over. But it was never translated because he's making fun of the africanists in making fun of the Europeans as published in 75, but 15 years ago I said this book really needs to be translated. So finally I decided, well, no one's going to do it. I better put my timer in my mouth is so I have now just translated it coming out in the spring and to bilingual edition. And you've got 5 books that are worth knowing about in your chapter that covers sub Saharan Africa. Latin America, I think we're pretty ethnocentric in our own hemisphere. And there's lots going on south of our border. What would you recommend there? I'm a big fan of the greatest 19th century novelist in Brazil whose name is Machado de asis joaquim Maria Machado de assis. And he was a fascinating character he is mixed race part African part European descent grows up in utter poverty and is a genius. He starts publishing on his 15. He becomes the most important novelist of the century in Brazil. He found a Brazilian academy of letters, and this wonderful satirical novel, the posthumous memoirs of bras Cuba. The hero has died in his writing his memoirs after his death, and it's a satirical a solarius and as a deep dissection of the tensions of Brazil moving into independence in the 19th century. It's absolutely wonderful. And have been re translated recently very well. That sounds fascinating. Before, yeah, if you are fortunate enough to travel to any of these rich corners of the planet, it's almost a shame not to have a little context given to you by some great and thoughtfully chosen literature. Of course, China is the emerging giant on the planet. What is your advice for better understanding China through literature? There's the most important woman writer of the 20th century in China named Eileen Chong. Wonderful collection of short stories called love and a fallen city, but if a translated by Karen Kingsbury, the title story is an amazing thing set in World War Japanese occupied period in World War II. Contemporary writer mo Yan Nobel Prize winner, fantastic novel, life and death are wearing me out. He's reincarnated several times as different animals. And each time is another decade in modern Chinese history from 1950 to 2000 raised reborn finally as millennium baby in the new century can be again. It's satirical and it's moving and it's absolutely wonderful. David demers is joining us from his home studio in Brooklyn right now on travel with Rick Steves. David teaches comparative world literature at Harvard, where he's also the director of the institute for world literature. During the pandemic lockdown, David turned his armchair travels into his own literary guide. It's called around the world in 80 books. David's book is designed to help us explore some 80 contemporary and classic writers, and to make the world stay right about, come alive in our imaginations. David, I was going to go through a couple more regions about the around the planet, but what I'd like to do is instead go
Travel with Rick Steves
Exploring the Inner Hebrides
"In some ways. The traditions of scotland survive most vividly in its islands off the west coast. These are the hebrides we've invited to of our favorite scottish guides into the studio to share stories and tips on their favorite islands. Liz listener is from fife. Cullen mirrors is from glasgow. And they're both here with us now to share a little better understanding of scotland's inner hebrides. Thanks for joining us. Thank you he cullen when you Think about the hebrides. We hear that word a lot hebrides. These are the islands off of the west scotland. But there's inner and outer hebrides. What's the story there. So and our hebrides. They're basically the ones that are closer to mainland scotland to hebrides further out. So probably most people going to visit islands of scotland and are of to access lists when you're thinking of the inner hebrides which ones are your favorites in which one's the most popular with tourists. Well open which is on the west coast of scotland is known as the charing cross of the islands as the saying the air unto the lord belongs and all the it contains except the kyle's in the western isles for these are all mic planes mcleans caledonian mcleans of the fatty company. So people will come to open. And that's the jumping off point to go to the islands. So open is the charing cross. Charing cross would be the big train station in london. Somewhere you depart go to different places so open would be the jumping off point. It's the big port on the mainland. From where the ferries go absolutely so. Kyle's what is kyle's kyle's of the stretches of water so the leyland's eye for the straight and on the missiles ago everything the lord's except for the aisles and the waters and that could make prince how the the the metrolink and forwards to the islands they caught passengers. The coty fleet the cardi tourists. So this is the ferry system caledonian mcbrayer because every time i think of an island scene. There's a dramatic ferry coming across. It is just beautiful thing. And you have the jumping off point in the real terminal Open and so people coming from moscow will die sleek connect with the on out so an answer to your question. Probably the most popular are the ones closest mull. Iona we can come back to 'cause i owned is really accessible as d. Are right for a particular reason
Travel with Rick Steves
"rick steves" Discussed on Travel with Rick Steves
"It like you said Everything's in that case. It is so much. Christopher solomon thank you so much and again We can read your article in outside magazine. Thank you what's the scenery been. We've been traveling. Send us a short impression from your travels in an original haiku poem details for sending us yours are in the radio section. At rick steves dot com. Here are some interesting ones that have come in lately that we thought you might enjoy. Colin newman from portland. oregon shares. A site that has stayed with him from a visit some years ago to the desert southwest northern lights. I saw new mexico march. Three sons storms drove them south. Lynn ganor of why luca hawaii reminds us that maui central valley shouldn't be overlooked by the island's many tourists. Sunday wind gusts sugarcane sways guilt green in ephemeral blaze and marc cohn from beverly massachusetts sends us this haiku. He wrote after a visit to quebec city. How to get back up to the top of old quebec. The funicular travel with rick steves produced. Rick steves europe in edmonds washington itim tap kasmnir halt and bardsley. Andrew wakeling manages our website radio affiliate relations by sheila -gars off our theme. Music is by jerry. Frank we have studio health this week from w. f. r. d. dartmouth college and step ridge studios in santa fe. Wretched stroud read this week's listener travel. Haiku listen again. Whenever you like steves dot com slash radio. Hey i'm rick steves and i love art and in my new book. Europe's top one hundred masterpieces. I share my favorites with gorgeous photos and vivid descriptions. It's all in europe's top one hundred masterpieces art for the traveler. It's available now at rick. Steves dot com..
Travel with Rick Steves
"rick steves" Discussed on Travel with Rick Steves
"Because you. You're not sure how much you're gonna meet. The this is travel with rick steves. We're talking with christopher solomon about his adventures on a mountain bike going across a remote corner of utah. Our phone number is eight. Seven seven three three three seven. Four to five and joe's colin from new hampshire. Joe give commentary for christopher the question of why wife and i are both Have on a bucket list to do some mountain biking and listening to the conversation right there. The question is what is the best way for us to get in shape for doing a trip like that and what type of accessories would you suggest that we take with us. Yeah So couple questions there. The first one. I would suggest there's nothing nothing like doing so. I don't know how much you have the chance to. Just get out and ride your bike. And if you can't be writing. And i'm not trying to be simplistic about that. But getting out and getting in the saddle. And if you can't get on your mountain bike get an a spin class. Four days a week i. I live in the city of seattle. And i'm in the gym riding stationary bike. More often than care to admit you need that saddle time to. There's nothing worse than getting. Saddle sores about a day and a half into a into a long trip like that. It's very uncomfortable. You get a saddle probably not gonna go away for the rest of it will go. It might go away right near the end but it might not and it could get worse so you you just need you know but in the seat time just fine time to ride several days a week and even if it's at the gym would be my first suggestion the second one you asked about. What kind of accessories. A good outfitter will provide a long list of gear. That you need. I mean were you wondering about anything in particular just in general. That's all. I'm not even sure where to begin when i think about a trip like that. So probably a big deal is if you're gonna take a tour on your own. Yeah the thing. The biggest thing i would i would just out for a trip is just make sure you're comfortable with the ability level of the tours that you're thinking about i guess would just make sure you're not in over your head and really ask a lot of questions of the tour operator. I have been on one or two where people do get a little swamped bite off more than they can do physically. Yeah all right joe. Thanks for your call. Thank you very much for taking. Okay good luck on your next mountain bike trip. Laura's calling from texas. Hey laura yes hi. Thanks for your call. You have a question or comment for christopher. Yes i do. I've been reading desert solitaire. The book that edward abbey road in the nineteen sixties and i was inspired by section in which he proposes that so he was a stranger but he he proposes park rose She'd be limited to park buses or bikes Allowing people to be liberated from automobile uses. The word liberated I have experienced that. Freedom finale national park where You really can't get very far into the parking lot. You park your car at the entrance and then you take a bus in walker. Pike and so He says when plant a man on foot on horseback vice cool. We'll see more feel more enjoy more than one mile than the motorized. I can't and a hundred miles so my question is to your guest if he knew about that proposal and if that informed his desire to trust you know i i have read desert solitaire. But it's been a long time ago. I was reading some abby and preparation to go down there. Because it's sort of the body mecum right of the desert southwest and you've got to read some of him before heading into his land. Edward abbey yeah and you know he was a little bit contradictory though. You know he does say a couple of things you know people slide through this country now. What slick as greece but then he would take some back country roads for two weeks with friends in an automobile in an old truck. But i have heard about some of these proposals philosophically. I'm in favor of them. I do understand that. Some people can't move around as easily as the rest of us. So i i understand some of the pushes and pulls on on either side. But i'm certainly sympathetic. To the idea of more people getting out and seeing it by bike you slow down more. You really do you. will you. Roll down the window. As i think he says in one of the essays i was reading he. Roll down the window lady. That smell. it's the desert. So yeah i i certainly understand. I don't think realistically we're going to be able to shut all the roads in mount rainier national park and give people renna bikes anytime soon. But i like the idea of maybe trying at more than just the agreement that philosophically you know. Ideally if you get out and walk by kill experience more and even if you're going by car you can factor that into what you're able to do physically laura. Thanks for your call. thank you travel with. Rick steves talking with christopher solomon about his mountain bike ride in utah and christopher. Let's just wrap things up here with some of the the simple joys. I mean your caked in dust and you finally get to a shower. That must be an amazing nice feeling. These trips always have certain progression wreck. I find where you get out there and at first you can't almost deal with it. You're still in civilization mode city mode and you're just you're uncomfortable you're hot. You're sweaty or sticky. Because i can't go to bed at night without taking the sheriff. I'm a little bit and then but on the day and a half in you you forget about your cell phone you start to forget that. You're all hot and sticky. The food everything. You're fed tastes like filet mignon. And just something just turns to happen to you and your excellent. Forget that you're sticking you kind of doing your that. You're having to wash your hair. You don't really care you don't even remember you have hair and you do get a solar shower. Someone's hung on a juniper tree and it's been baked by the sun and some hot water about three days in and you're only able to scrub off like the top two layers of dust and it still feels just magical and then you put on a clean paris ox and you could be a king. It's really just a really any climates bed and you've got the stars overhead and you got you can watch the weather coming and going. And he got the bugs i mean. Was that like oh you kind of wonder what the rich people are doing tonight. Because because there's no one richer than you really and then in the morning a cup of coffee oh and you just sit and have a cup of coffee and watch the sun. Come up over the red rock country. There was one time we were at the edge of a place. Called the dark canyon primitive area. One of many areas had never even heard of before and i consider myself a fairly well traveled adventure writer and and we just sat there for hours. You know sipping a beer at the end of the day and a beer sitting around the campfire beer about sparks going up toward the milky way. Yeah once in a while someone would try to say something about how beautiful it was. This this mini grand canyon at the foot of us in everything we said just was so insufficient that you to shut up again and just stare some more and just try to remember it. You know the sad thing to me just kind of overcame me. People go through their entire adult lives. Never even get close to that experience. Now it's their choice. You can make that choice and you don't one thing. I would want to emphasize his. I'm reasonably fit. But i'm not as fit as my friends. Think i am not as adventurous as people think i am. People can do this stuff with a little bit a little bit of effort of little bit of an adventuresome spirit. I mean it was a guided trip. Yeah you wrote about kevin one of the guys on your trip and you see. It was the seventh and last morning he said. I never want these trips to end. That must be special comradery and a special satisfaction. When you've made the point to do this and you've been kicked industrious news. You've enjoyed sleeping under the stars and he and for a week. He was able to step away from his very busy life. With a couple of kids. And a wonderful wife and He fully escaped and just wanted to keep going like Like edward abbey's character. Hey duke okay. So you've done this. It sounds like a real triumph. How do you follow that. If you had a great dose of mountain biking in the great outdoors in in utah. What would be next for you in your mountain. Biking travel dream and inviting travel dreams. Well just in the same sort of genre where somebody else's carrying your gear and you've got one week off and you want to get close to nature and appreciate the bright vastness of the milky way. I haven't thought of a good next mountain biking trip. There's still more road. Biking related supported trips. I'd like to do what would that be There's all sorts of stuff you can do through the rockies. There supported trips through the alps. Where you eat like a king andy. Reid mountain passes through the outside following the tour de france. That must be trying to. Because i know the big deal and river. Rafting is gourmet eating and beautiful Appreciation and you earn it every day and you earn.
Travel with Rick Steves
Terry Tempest Williams on Her New Book "The Hour of Land"
"Terry tempest williams invites us to celebrate the land and the people. You'll meet at a variety of national parks across the united states in her book. The hour of land. She describes the park. She's visited as breathing spaces each with a unique personality that deserve our patronage our respect and our protection by the way our conversation was recorded before the global pandemic. Terry it's good to have you with us. Thank you read your book. The our land takes us not to the obvious parks but it takes us to some of the less famous parks. You chose about a dozen parks to introduce to us why these parks why not win at the grand and famous ones. Would you believe me if i told you that i saw this as a dinner party. You know my mother was a great hostess and she always said you know. Pick your dinner parties very carefully because who knows what will come out of them so you know here. We have fifty nine national parks in our country. How to choose a dozen. So i really did envision it as dinner party i knew who the heads of the table would be my mother park which would be grand teton national park. The other end of the table. I knew it would be canyon. Lands national park where we live closely to. I could count on them then. I thought all right who's gonna be on the other end of the table holding the space that are reliable and for me. It was a canadian national park in maine and teddy roosevelt national park. In north dakota. I had been to the many times and they were trustworthy. Then i thought okay. Who are the dream guests that i would want that. I don't know. But i know other people who do and we can bring them to the table and i thought of big bend national park. I thought of gates of the arctic national park and effigy mounds. And i thought those were my dream guests
Travel with Rick Steves
What's it Like Being a Digital Nomad?
"Imagine if your life was untethered to any particular place you had a career that was steady and well pain and traveled. All the time working remotely you are digital nomad. More and more people are doing just that and travel writer and entrepreneur. Mike's with guns ski. He's been the digital nomad working and living in about eighty countries in the last decade. And he's written a book on the lifestyle. Mike joins us today from his home. Base in the republic of georgia in cheers ideas from his book called global career. How to work anywhere and travel forever. Thanks so much for having me on. Rick excited to chat with you so mike. I'm a traveler. And i've had the same job the same phone number of the same zip code now for over forty years and i travel a lot. You're a digital nomad in. That's quite a different kind of traveler. What exactly does that mean. And just very briefly. Where have you gone in the last decade. Yeah so over the last decade. I've been to more than eighty five different countries and a big portion of that has probably been in europe asia south america and a few cents to africa. But i would say africa's kind of the next frontier for me to explore your working remotely as you travel. Yeah so i've been working remotely for more than five years now. For the previous five years. I was kind of showing up in physical locations and finding jobs that were going to advance my career and he just kind of job was kind of steppingstone to get me to where i am now. It must have been kind of a a freeing thing sort of liberation. when you realized. I don't need to look for work. Where i'm traveling can travel where i want to go and Look into the remote travel world for my employment. Yeah once. I kind of had that remote lifestyle. It was everything that i'd always dreamed of having that flexibility to build the pack up my little back back in my laptop and just kind of work from anywhere from the comfort of my home In any location that i was interested in traveling to psychologically. Are you looking for your ultimate home like the place where you really belong or is is the journey itself kind of your goal. I would say right now. I'm looking to have a travel hub. Where i can essentially visit countries and visit the world from. So maybe it's spending nine months in that travel hub and then three months traveling around the world. Whatever the breakdown is. I want to have some sort of location where i can have a little bit more deeper. Connections routes and then be able to travel from that location.
Travel with Rick Steves
A Closer Look at the Algarve Coast
"Let's start out today on the beaches of southern portugal. The all guard prejean offers one hundred miles of warm sun and a collection of charming resort towns. From land's end to the spanish border are guides are christina. Dorte and robert reich. They specialize in showcasing the highlights of portugal. And the all garb to american visitors christina robert boondi. Thank you together. So when we think of the algarve christina what does it mean to the to a portuguese holidays. Israeli go to holidays with our families knows and normally because the kids are in school until the end of june so everybody goes at the same time so july and august can be pretty crowded but if we have a chance and going out of july august it is a marvelous place to go wonderful beaches. Wonderful food very good offer of of places where to stay hotels and also houses that we can rent houses or apartments and june absolutely beautiful until the first week of july. It's quiet so that is interesting that there's a huge bell shaped curve of demand and in the summer summertime vacation. It's everybody's down there. Yes now robert When you think of the popularity among locals and you were local are the locals looking for a big resort or are they looking for the cute little little cove for the little town. That locals are looking for Just basically good nice relaxing beaches wherever they may be right because What christina was saying is it's kind of like when you go off season little bit off season You have to think that you can't go. You can't go to the beaches that are up north because the weather still not quite a good because there are good beach resorts north of lists. That if you're a little bit shoulder season he wanted to go south. Because you're guaranteed good weather down there by morocco. Now when you go to the south I'm sure that every region of portugal has some different cuisine. What do think about to enjoy the food scene when you're on the elgar food scene is fantastic. Because you're right there on the water. You'd every kind of fresh seafood you can imagine and i guess the the best expression of that in portugal is the is the dish that everybody goes there. Force the cut the planner. The planner is like just a big big mix of all this great seafood. Some potatoes juicy broth. it's just really like the essence of the
Travel with Rick Steves
What Separates Peru From the Rest of South America?
"With rick steves with an insider look at how peru stands out from the rest of south america. It's where author and journalist. Marie arana grew up before her bicultural family moved to the us. She writes about her identity in her book. American teacup read. Thanks for joining us. Thank you so much. Rik good to be here. I'm just really excited for you to be my tour guide because is country. I know very little about before we get into this discussion about the people of peru. Just give us a quick one paragraph description of your homeland you know for a country that's the size of roughly the size of california not much bigger. It's an astonishing place because it has just every kind of land form you can imagine. Rick it has the coast it has the desert it has the jungle it has the mountain has the planes. It has all of that and if you fly over peru this is amazing to me you go from one land form to another land form just in the course of a few seconds. It's it's really astonishing place geographically when you compare peru to the other south american countries. How would the people of peru see themselves Compared to the countries that surround them. Well you know we are an andean nation and the andean nations are of course colombia and ecuador and bolivia these are the the spine of the andes of course runs through the whole continent. But we are. We call ourselves and ian people because we are a mix honesty so mix of indigenous and white and black in a very different proportion. Shall we say to. The people of venezuela which are are less india less indigenous more more black and the colombians as well which has a much larger population of blacks than we do improve we do have afro peruvian along the coast who have been there for hundreds and hundreds of years but we are distinguished. I think by our indian ness. And i think that you know the people of argentina. The people of that people are why they come. They come up to peru and they're they're struck by the truly indian culture that we have okay so when you say
Travel with Rick Steves
The Complicated History of The Rhine
"Our hearts are heavy. Knowing that the romantic views of castles and vineyards and germany's rhine river valley are overshadowed by the recent loss of life and flooding devastation. In germany and the low countries just downstream. From where we're talking about the following interview with tour guides tabby and ruger and nico fava real was recorded last year hot drinks so being. Give us a feeling for the medieval ryan which really created the ryan. We see today as tourists the most important trading river the with the romans already the problems with the rhyme began. It was widely considered that east of the rhine burien live. West of the rhine was civilization. And that's i went all the way through into modern history. France of course try to make for centuries the ryan its eastern border. The germans fought back and eventually of course that ended in one thousand nine hundred eighty. It's interesting when you think about it. That the ryan would have been a huge border culturally between the romans and the barbarians and from a french point of view between the french and the germans. Yeah so when you have a border like that nickel in in europe generally what happens it's Where wars having between. France and germany divorce happen then the ryan either stopped the wars or a lot of areas on the border especially in the french part of the border for instance. The elvas as region has been taken by germany. Many many times am so. It's a war zone between countries. So also been the war zone between religions catholics. Protestants fought over as yes in that area today. Even i mean today. It's kind of the border between catholic and protestant europe. Yes you could say that. Yeah north of the ryan is definitely more protestant. Now when you have the in the middle ages there was not a lot of Paved roads there is not a love law and order. If you wanted to get your goods to the market going down. The river was was one safer way to do it. I suppose it was a safe way. But you have to be careful of something. called robber. Barons who stopped ships along their journey but big chains along or across the rhine made the ship. Stop in and steal everything or steal everything in well amount of duties to say you've gotta pay ten percent of what's on your boat to continue down. Yeah i've heard this word robber. Baron castle so maybe the rhine river fabulous is sort of the quintessential example of a robber. Baron castle zone robot. Baron is a term in particular rob nights for a particular phase during the holy roman empire. Where nights had fallen so poor that the only way to keep the status was to rob traders and so on even if it was not their right to do so and eventually the problem became so bad that you had this middle class of nights who had fallen poor and became robust that the big tradings and merchants. The city's gathered union and under the emperor thing was the second thirteenth century or so. They sent this along the rhine to clear out all the rubber nights castles and literally hung them from the trees along the rhine
Travel with Rick Steves
What Made Sweden's Asa Danielsson Fall in Love Wih Flamenco?
"It's a long way. From stockholm to seville but it never damped danielsson's lifelong enthusiasm for the fiery traditions of andalucia today. She teaches the art of flamenco dancing in between tour guiding in sweden and spain forsa welcome back to travel with rick. Steves thank you so hundred dish woman. Get all excited about flamenco. It's the opposite end of europe. It is that is for sure. I was a little girl. When somehow i picked up the flank existed. And when i went to spain for the first time with my mother i was six years old i told my mother i went to see flamenco and i saw these women and they were so strong and passionate and i decided i wanted to be flamingo as i had no idea what it meant but that dream i kept it alive through my whole childhood. I bought this little doll. You know with the polkadot dress and everything in plastic doll and headed a home. Like little alter and i knew that i was going to be a flamenco dancer. When i was big you were you. Were six year a little bit older than now. Yeah are you dancing. Or what fleming in your life today teaching performing i was the president of the swedish fleming society for some ten years of organized festivals of organized workshops. I've been tour manager of one of the most famous fleming dancers. All all that you can think of. I cannot think of any two more opposite. Cultures in a temperament kind of wave of sweden and southern spain is the heartland of flamenco. I think it's opposites attract and actually. Spain is the favourite countries of the swedes to visit to travel to. And why would that be. I think it's that got although this has. The son has the laid back Passionate lifestyle that you need a little doses of every year. Exactly exactly. maybe you don't wanna have all of it all the time. You want a little bit more structure and calm so you can go down and have it and then you go back to your normal senior regimentation efficiency.
Travel with Rick Steves
Exploring the Underappreciated Museums of Paris
"Let's talk about some of the museums that that i think are substantial but i think they're under appreciated What what is your take on the colonel fillet. The music have day is undergoing a big renovation. I actually haven't been there yet but it's going to be fantastic and it's a history museum. The history of paris and it has period rooms which are are very fun to walk through and just all sorts of of relics from hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years of the city's history and you explained in your book the littler museums of paris. That barron houseman actually had something to do with the creation of this collection. Or 'cause houseman. I think of as the guy who who brought parasol of these grand boulevards and all of this uniform architecture where you've got the same amount of floors in the in the nice Slate roofs and so on Did he recognize that. All this development is going to bulldoze some of the heritage of the of the city. You know it's it's funny because he is. He's really criticized for destroying medieval peres but at the same time was was looking to create a place that would preserve some of the history and that actually incorporated elements from some of the buildings. He took down in. The carnival has more items than the liuw actually. So they've got plenty to show off in that museum. Yeah their reserves are insane. There's no bench and that goes back to the sixteen hundred and they actually took over a second. It's actually now To urban mansions that are combined by little walkway. So if you want sort of. Just your quintessential kind of historical museum for paris carnival as a good one absolutely now. Another one is the museum of the middle ages museum to clooney and that's actually built on the remains of a third century. Roman bath reminding us. That peres was a roman town. Yes it it is also something that that started from a private collection like a lot of museums did and has just grown and grown and is a really special and unique place to visit and it's never crowded it's amazing to me. It's exquisite art of the middle ages. This is the museum of the middle ages in paris was so important in the middle ages. And it's right there in the in the left bank. You can walk to it in ten minutes from all the touristy stuff you do in the latin quarter
Travel with Rick Steves
A Tour of Turkish Markets
"Joined by turkish tour. Guide lally sermon iran. Bali thank you for inviting gets a pleasure now first of all when we're in the town of konia i know from my experience taking groups around people get a little bit like an anxious. It seems a little more conservative. Women are more covered up into town like this described the atmosphere in cornea compared to a place like izmir or ankara. Well as you just put into words. It's little bit more conservative. But what's attract people's attention is not the conservatives off the town being a conservative is not a bad thing. It's just the personal understanding of how you want to practice your life and your religion. The reason i'm saying is that muslim women prefer if they are developed. They prefer to cover up but in different religions. People don't or may or may not need to show their face with what they wear because there's a visual aspect to it. It attracts attention. Otherwise cornea is not any different than any more conservative city anywhere in the world. Okay so different Groups in different religions will have their women wearing hats and their men wearing beers visual indicator. Then you to said if there was not you would not notice. A life is not different in konya than anywhere else in turkey. It's just men have more beards and women have more scarfs. That's okay we're going to go to the market now when you step into a market like anywhere. It's sort of a cultural scavenger hunt and you have a chance to learn about the culture from the market if you were going to take one of our listeners into the marketing konia. What are some of the things you would see. That would give you a better understanding own loved the marketing. First of all. What i love is that it's was a market two thousand years ago. One thousand five hundred years ago one thousand years ago five hundred years ago and today it's still at the same place in the same layout and more or less. Probably the items carried in the market are the same.
NEWS 88.7
"rick steves" Discussed on NEWS 88.7
"At Rick Steves calm as we look for Europe in North America. Travel writer Janey Quach tells us how the Norwegian cruise ship he was on met a freak winter cyclones came close to turning into a major disaster and we're reminded what a fierce beauty camping out in Iceland can be coming up on today's travel with Rick Steves. Who says you have to actually go to Europe to get a taste of the old world. After all, many American and Canadian cities and towns were settled by European immigrants. Sometimes they've tried to re create a bit of what they knew from the old country. So even if we can't go to Europe, we can discover a bit of it right here in our hemisphere. Samantha Brown hosts that public television travel series places to love where she films from destinations both around the world and closer to home. She joins us today on travel with Rick Steves to look at some of her favorite places to find a bit of Europe in America. Samantha, thanks for joining us A pleasure to be here, Rick Boy, You know, all I do is go to Europe again and again and again, But I realized there's a lot of Europe hiding out here in the United States, you know, during Covid lockdown times, we can't travel overseas like we'd like to, But we can find little knockoffs here in the United States from all around the globe knockoffs because some of them are touristic kind of constructions, and others are honest to goodness. Immigrant communities that are still the way they were 150 years ago. When they were they were settled. Just in my state Washington We've got Leavenworth, which is a famous little German thing. It's kind of a touristy gimmick. But Paul's Bo is originally a Norwegian town and its Norwegian to this day and we have Linden up by the Canadian border, which is very Dutch and was settled by Hollande immigrants. What are your favorite slices of Europe in America? One of my favorites is a city that I had gone to my entire life. My family was brought up right outside of it. And then after doing two years of Europe came back to and it just hit me like a ton of bricks that this was a European City, And that is Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is by far the most for me, the most European city in the United States. And so then I started to, like, Do a deep dive. Like why is this? It was just a feeling I had, like, Wow, I just feel like I'm in Europe. And there were so many connections. One of the main architects was an immigrant from Leon, France. He designed the Ben Franklin Benjamin Franklin Parkway, which is now we're all the museums are lined, and he designed that off of the shamans, Elyse and along this beautiful Roadway Parkway, where there are museums, there's the rodent Museum. There's the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which has the largest collection of Renoir. In the world. Incredible and there's written House Square. They're all these not just pockets because I think you know there's places we'll talk about today. They have pockets, but this is a city that is Just so of France, and the best connection that I love about Philadelphia is that it is also it has the most mural arts I think in the world and its sister city is Leon. So if you ever go to Leon, France and the Quad Rouge is where you see those phenomenal murals and that art that is available to all and it's all over the city. That's what the to share. So the city definite of brotherly love is agreed that if you want that European and more specifically French, you know, kick you've identified actual European design elements that are just I mean, why couldn't a great European City designer come in and help plan an American city and give it what works in Europe? I think Washington D. C has a lot of that. Yeah. Pierre. Long font, Right? Wasn't he the architect of that, But yeah, So there's all these and I don't think in France they have the cheesesteak like Philly does or the steak from all shit she's picked. It's got its own food, but you know, it's definitely one of these places that give you an exact feel through architecture through art. And also public works that I think Europe is really well known for that. Also, this American city has, and there's also the dimension that will be brought to a city by a big immigrant community. I'm fascinated When I travel around the country, I can tell what the immigrant history of the town is, by. How the people I talked to in my different speaking gigs, advocate for me making a T V show And when I go when I go to Cleveland, I always get people from Lithuania and and and Estonia for some reason, saying, Why don't you ever go to the Baltics? Um, I hope we don't lose that My grandpa used to hang out in Ballard in Seattle. He came over on the boat from Norway. It was a a treasure for him to go to the Danish cafe and hang out there and have his Danish and and speak Scandinavian with his Scandinavian friends, you know, speak in his old Norwegian, and if you're an old timer, you joke about Ballard as the you know the Norwegian jokes there or something, But today it's if you went to Ballard. He wouldn't really recognized that the jokes just don't work anymore because in the in one generation things have changed quite a bit. Are and I love a good Norwegian joke. Okay, Be careful where you tread here. So you're like Philadelphia from.
Travel with Rick Steves
Finding Europe in America
"Says you have to actually go to europe to taste of the old world after all many american and canadian cities and towns were settled by european immigrants. Sometimes they tried to recreate a bit of what the new from the old country. Even if we can't go to europe we can discover benefit prayed here. In our hemisphere samantha. Brown hosts public television travel series places to love where she films from destinations. Both around the world in closer to home. She joins us today on travel. With rick steves to look at some of her favorite places to find a bit of europe. In america samantha. Thanks for joining us. Pleasure to be here rank. Boy know all i do is go to europe again and again and again but i really. There's a lot of europe hiding out here in the united states during covid lockdown times so we can't travel overseas like we'd like to but we can find little knockoffs here in the united states from all around the globe knockoffs because some of them are terrific kind of constructions and others are honest to goodness immigrant communities. That are still the way they were hundred and fifty years ago when they were there were settled just in my state washington. We've got leavenworth which is a famous little german. It's kind of a touristy. Gimmick but poulsbo is originally a norwegian town and its norwegian to this day and we have linden up by the canadian border which is a very dutch was settled by holland immigrants. What are your favorite slices of europe in america. Well one of my favorites is a city that i had gone to my entire life. My family Was brought up right outside of it and then after doing two years of europe came back to and it just hit me like a ton of bricks that this was a european city and that is philadelphia pennsylvania. It is by far the most for me. The most year of paean city in the united states and so then i started like do a deep dive like why is it so it was just a feeling i had like. Wow i just feel like. I'm in europe. And there were so many connections One of the main architects was an emigrant from leon france. He designed the ben. Franklin benjamin franklin parkway which is now. We're all the museums are lined. And he designed that off of the sean z z. and along this beautiful roadway parkway where they're abuse. There's the rodin museum. there's the philadelphia museum of art. Which has the largest collection of renoir in the world. Incredible and others rittenhouse square. They're all these not just pockets. Because i think you know there's places we'll talk about today the have pockets but this is a city that is just so of france and the best connection that i love about philadelphia is that it is also it has the most mural arts i think in the world and its sister city is leon so if you ever go to leeann france and the kuala rouge is where you see those phenomenal murals and that art that is available to all end. It's all over the city. That's what the to share so the city a definite of brotherly love is a great. If you want that. European and more specifically french you know kick
Bullseye with Jesse Thorn
"rick steves" Discussed on Bullseye with Jesse Thorn
"Before nine eleven i was i was giving travel talks europe through the back door. You know travel tips and after nine. Eleven i started giving a talk Well keep kept giving my traveled talks. But i was. I had morphed into more political speaking. And i finally said you know. I better call this beta spayed here and renamed might lead talk travel as a political act and the idea was. There's a kind of hierarchy of travel needs. I you learn how to pack light and catch the train and to get a hotel and a restaurant. Then you learn how to appreciate the history art and culture but the ultimate pinnacle of this may be rick steves. Hierarchy of travel needs would be to travel in a way that broadens our perspective that recognizes that culture. Shock is a good thing. It's the growing pains of broadening perspective and cool thing about travelers. Get to know the other ninety six percent humanity. You realize. We're not the norm and you come home with that most beautiful souvenir and that's that broader perspective. One thing we haven't talked about is marijuana and there are people sitting at home thinking what. You are an advocate for the decriminalization of marijuana. Tell us about it came. Yeah for actually most of my adult life. I've been perplexed by the fact that people are locked up in our country for smoking pot and And then some for some reason fifteen. Twenty years ago. I decided to get active in it. I joined normal the national organization for the reform of marijuana laws and I realized first of all. I'm not pro. Marijuana marijuana's a drug can be abused. It should be carefully regulated. I'm just anti prohibition. I'm pro civil liberties. I'm kind of pragmatic harm reduction. Europeans are all about pragmatic harm reduction. And i think we americans are more all about legislating morality and incarceration and bottom line. What's better for our society and with the status quo and tell a couple of years ago. Anyways marijuana was was a horrible thing with the prohibition because you got privileged guys like me who can smoke marijuana with impunity and then you've got poor people back people who get caught with joint in their pocket in totally messes up their life. There's seventy thousand people doing hard time right now for nonviolent marijuana fences and so there's that one injustice there's also just the the business end of it which bugs me but you've taken it from an illegal market to a legal one and you're recognizing people civil liberties and my hunch bringing a european sensibility to the equation because in europe joints about succeeding as a can of beer. Is that if you take the crime out of the equation Teen use will not go up road. Safety will stay the same. You know this the world won't change you'll just take a black market away and turned it into a highly wrigley highly tax legal market. And we'll be able to smoke pot at home if we want as mature adults not for kids for adults and that was our hunch we stayed in colorado where the first state to legalize texts regulate recreational marijuana not medical recreational. Just for fun in two thousand twelve and i get to. I'm not scary. I've got credibility like you said people are surprised. Rick steves marijuana and just talk about it in a common sense european kind of sensibility. And what i do. It's my contribution to my community. I see it that way. Every two years i go on the political warpath to legalize marijuana in another couple of states in two. Twenty fourteen oregon. Two thousand sixteen massachusetts and maine twenty eighteen illinois michigan last year. I was locked down. But i spent ten days here at my desk. In virtually in montana south dakota arizona new jersey and we were victorious in all of those states. Getting more far more votes than the president's are the people who win those elections that you're and We are state-by-state taking down. This prohibition I've been no elected to be the chair of the board normal and we are excited this year because it's going federal and there's a law that Are build that house. Representatives passed in the senate now which will honor states rights to have their own choice on this complicated issue it allow for expunge meant letting people whose records whose lives are burdened by a nonviolent marijuana offense to have that expunged from the records and it will de schedule marijuana so this is a big change and i just i just feel like it's. It's exciting to help tackle up prohibition that's wrong minded lots of parallels to alcohol back in the thirties. I don't think they said booze good. I think they realized the laws against jews were causing more harm to society than the drug. They were designed to protect us from and they decided. Let's do it a different way. Tax it regulate it so long story. That's my little spiel on marijuana and I just feel like i'm one guy who can talk about it. Because i don't need to get elected and nobody can fire me because my boss and i can just bring my european friends once in a blue moon. Somebody'll say rick steves. We know what you think about marijuana your guidebooks or take your tours anymore. And all i can think is europe's going to be a little more fun without you. Well i was going to ask whether you got any pushback to stay in your lane Summit counseling about reputational risk Even from pbs and other more Button-down quarters yep. I had to talk very carefully with my friends in public radio and public television. Because that's very important to me. And i don't wanna go out of my lane And i've always stressed that. I'm not a proponent of marijuana it's a drug it can be abused. I've never given a talk without starting that the people who were on our dream team to be the first state to legalize index and regulate marijuana for recreational use for adults in washington state. They weren't potheads. It was our was our republican appointed. Federal prosecuting attorney. It was our seattle city. Sheriff it was president of the bar association. It was much respected. Legislators who careers had been built on. What's good for young people. It was the was the children's alliance. It's the nwa cpi. These are all important leaders in our community in groups in our community. That really wanna have pragmatic harm reduction and We're proving it now. And i mean i look out here from my window and edmonds and you know for ten years. Marijuana has been legal and the only difference is people don't need to buy marijuana from somebody on the street You know. I mean it's a long story we could do hall interview on that but But this is so important if somebody says this is not good for your business. I wouldn't cow to that I believe in this. This is to me appalling. What's going in our country to the new jim. Crow it's it's heartbreaking and i'm principled in favor of civil liberties you know my this organization normal. It's not a lobby organization for people who sell marijuana they you know. There's a huge industry now. It's called the green rush and they want us to be a lobby for the legal marijuana industry. I'm board chair in part because we don't do that and we're never going to do that. We are defending the civil liberty in a principled. Way that if you know. I'm hard working churchgoing kid raising tax paying american citizen. If i work all day and i come home. And i just wanna smoke a joint and stare at the fireplace for three hours. That's my civil liberty now. Do i have the civil liberty. Get in my car. When i'm intoxicated or high of course not through the book at me. But there's a civil liberty issue here that that is very easy for me to frame when i'm talking on conservative. Talk radio shows in south dakota montana. I thoroughly enjoyed talking about this issue on conservative. Talk radio in the states. I was working in last october. Because it makes sense regardless of where you are in the political spectrum. If i can just have twenty minutes of people's attention they can at least respect that there is a solid grounds for questioning the wisdom of carrying on with this wrong and prohibition against marijuana in all states you named where they have rolled out and some after considerable debate in the state legislature about the the house and the and the wears and the winds of marijuana sales have any states. Learn some lessons from the rollout. Done it right done it wrong. Have we been able to adjust in mid course to make this as unthreatening a social change.
Bullseye with Jesse Thorn
"rick steves" Discussed on Bullseye with Jesse Thorn
"Break comes.
Bullseye with Jesse Thorn
"rick steves" Discussed on Bullseye with Jesse Thorn
"Second thoughts about plunging in. Don't worry just go spend some money. They needed. Patience is not an american forte. It's it's certainly not a rick steves forte and for the last year patients has been my middle name. Mice you know everybody's chomping at the bit and It from a practical point of view. I think there's a lot of haste makes waste here and if we can just relax a little bit you know. This is sort of god's way of telling us to slow down for me this is. This is the therapy for a workaholic. Very good lesson. I've had in the last year. There's more to life than increasing its speed. My life was so fast and so productive and everything was exhilarating in this last year has been walking dogs playing the piano enjoying every son said like it's a devotional End it's been a beautiful year for me People there is going to be a spring back with vengeance to travel. I think i've noticed that in thirty or forty years of doing this every time. There's a setback. Some kind of terrorist event or economic problem are volcano You know it it. It stops things. Demand doesn't dissipate But i'm just reminding people that It's gonna come back incrementally and if i could go to amsterdam tomorrow and have dinner in a bubble so i don't get somebody else's germs go to amsterdam i mean there's nothing about social distancing and rick. Steve style travel that that has anything in common. I go to paris. Have my cheeks kissed. And i go to rome to pack into the piazza's and get a gelato and stroll in the past the jot down those beautiful pedestrian boulevards and i go to the pubs in ireland clink glasses in a in a steamy crowded. Massive people people who really believe that strangers are just friends who've yet to meet. And when i when i consider what's a good trip what's a good traveler it's connecting with people. It's all about connecting. So that's going to happen. You know we're still going to be shaking hands and kissing each other cheeks but it might take a few more months than what we want. So i'm distant advising people to go slow. I ask because. I wonder if there are places that before the pandemic were kind of being loved to death that might have gotten a breather apart from the very real economic losses. And i'm not minimizing that. But they might have benefited from not having a million people trudging through. And i'm thinking of Last ramblers in barcelona dubrovnik on croatia's adriatic coast. After the game of thrones monet's g varney the charles bridge in prague. These were places that were just. You know it wasn't a it was becoming not so much of a great experience anymore because they were so patent and so over. We know that that is that amazing. Sorta odd little thing. You don't want the crowds but tourism butter your bread. You know so. And then maybe you'll your business is not tourism but all of your neighbors is tourism and you're tired of the tourist but your neighbors are employed by the tourists so it's a very poignant little Struggle going on and Yeah i've got friends who are living in rome And they say for the first time local people are going to piazza navona with their kits. It's like fallow. Land is being re-inhabited Or whatever you'd call it by the community I would imagine the ramblers. Was that way i mean. You mentioned the ramblas at grade boulevard in barcelona in my last edition i said ron bless our ip rest in peace. Because it's still there is still full of people but there's no local community along the wrong bus that kept the bird market going that kept the book. Korea market vibrant. It's now you know it's called the byrd market but there's no birds being sold because there's no grandmothers taking their granddaughters. There to buy a little parakeet. You know they've been pushed out by airbnb to the suburbs and everything's been inhabited by the tourists. So now you go to. The classic market the bow korea and instead of Older people buying their fava beans. You've got tourists buying slushy and fancy fruit on skewers and the average tourist doesn't realize it but if you've been going there for years like i have you kinda you're sad. It's still fun but it's not the same now. All not all rear but places like you mentioned ray and amsterdam and salzburg florence especially barcelona There is a little backlash against the tourist crowds and This has been a time when they realize. Hey maybe there's more to life than tourism. But i do think the hunger for the money that tourism brings. I think it's the number. One employer in europe is gonna. It's gonna trump any sort of ideals. They might have keeping their places more peaceful unless trampled by tourists. I would hope that travelers when they come out of covid well recognized that We need to travel thoughtfully and sensitively to the local cultures. We need to remember that emerging economies you know a billion people in indian china. There's a middle class in those countries of one. Hundred or two hundred million people who've always wanted to see big ben and the eiffel tower and michelangelo's pieta. these are the marquee sites of european culture dislike. The taj mahal is in india. You know what america going to. India doesn't have taj mahal on their list. You know well the same thing when somebody from china finally has enough money to go to europe so we need to remember that Yeah put on your shoulder pads if you want to visit the the sistine chapel and michael angels assist you know less judgment because it's going to be a shuffle and it's not ours to say we don't want these crowds. It's the world's and everybody's wants to see it but we gotta remember that. There is ninety percent of europe that has no crowds at all and you could lose all that great famous stuff and still have a marvelous experience. We've got more to come with. Rick steves after the break on top of being a leading expert on european travel. Rick is also an outspoken advocate for marijuana decriminalization. Maybe it didn't know that it's fun right. We'll hear more about that in just a minute. It's bullseye for maximum fund dot org and npr support for bullseye and the following message. Come from cultural cultural. Wants you to know that. An estimated forty five million americans may have ibs according to the international foundation for gastrointestinal disorders cultural ibs. Complete support is a medical food for the dietary management of ibs. It's designed to relieve symptoms like abdominal pain bloating. Diarrhea and constipation in a safe well tolerated. Once daily dose save twenty percent with promo code radio on culture l. dot com. It's time to emerge from our homes and get outside. You have no idea what you're gonna see there. You think you might know but every time there's a mystery there that you're gonna on earth all this week. Life is headed outdoors with episodes on camping. Birding biking and more. Listen to the life kit podcast from npr without coming up with movie ideas over the course of an hour. Because that's what we do every week on story break. The writers podcast were three. Hollywood professionals have an hour to come up with a pitch for a movie or tv. Show based off totally zany prompts. Like that time. We re imagined star wars based on our phones autocomplete. Luke skywalker is a family man. And it's star wars but it's a good idea. By the time we broke the story of a bunch of disney channel original movies based solely on the title and the poster fifty foot woman. Go with the time. We finally cracked the adobe photoshop feature films. Damn tool is your woody and the auto fill. Is the new buzz join us. We have a good time and matching all the movies. Hollywood is too cowardly to make story.
Bullseye with Jesse Thorn
"rick steves" Discussed on Bullseye with Jesse Thorn
"Willing as you mentioned. You've been a body in motion for a really long time. Did it take you some time to throttle back to realize that there was going to be another wave that the road predictions of in twenty twenty weren't coming true that in fact it was gonna be a while before you went anywhere where they're sort of almost shades of steps of Of the grieving process where you finally had to come to terms with the fact. I'm not going anywhere else. Well there's my woes. I'm not making any money. And i can't do my research and make my tv show. We shows all figured out for poland and iceland. We had the flights booked we had the permissions with scripts with crew lined up. I was excited about it. But i got over that in a hurry. You know this is much more important than than a privileged my ambitions as a businessman or by travel dreams. I employ one hundred people That's beautiful responsibility. That i take seriously and we have a lot of people that looked us for you. Know how to put their travel to europe together and then we have all these people that work with us indirectly in europe. And i remember ray Again we were. Euphoric were gearing up for the biggest year ever. I mean it was just a gang of travel nuts and suddenly we couldn't have our staff meeting inside and we met you know behind the extra house that we had across the street in the backyard syndrome by a white picket fence. One hundred of us. And i was standing there at saying. We don't know what's going to happen but we are not going to after today. That's our last in the office. I was not a fan of remote work. I want people there because we have the core and really loved being right there but our staff knew what was coming our way and we had scrambled people in the last or two to get us capable at home and we said goodbye and then it was that emotional day. I still remember it. Vividly and You know our our inner circle. That did the tourists we said. Well we'll have to see. We had the tours full. You know twenty five people on a on a bus. One hundred tours. That's a lot of people. Twenty five hundred people whose travel dreams. I mean i got over the lost income. It's their travel dreams. They saved they planned. They dreamed they got their friends together. And we had. Oh we have to cancel through april. We have to cancel through. May we have to cancel. Not through june through the summer we have to cancel till the end of the year. You know it just was worse and worse and worse and then i just realized we gotta hunker down. We got trim the sails and we just have to survive this thing. So it's been a year and a half with with no revenue in one hundred people on the payroll and I just met with my staff this morning and You know it's it's it's discouraging because we want to do our work and and we can't in there. I'm committed to keeping people on the payroll i've even. Yeah but my focus has been as more on our community and our roles as leaders in our community and so on. I'm paying my staff to work even if we don't have the work so i decided well. Let's mobilize people to help out in the community because older people can't do the there the normal volunteer force their nervous about covid And their people in the needs are greater than ever. So i thought well you guys i'm paying you if you can Use your company time and help out with meals on wheels and food banks and you know cleaning up the parks and all this kind of stuff so in our own little way. you know. we're doing four hundred hours a week with volunteer work on company. Time and i'm hoping this cove will cause us all to recognize that there are things more fundamental at stake here than our own travel dreams our own bottom line now. I'm not. I'm not trying to be like a wise guy but i think the brand the way the public sees you as a decent guy and you do in your work. Think about the impact of travel about the relationship of visitors to the places they go. Does the calculus change a little bit after so. Many tourists dependent economies probably had an awful twenty twenty that instead of being cautious about those things instead of having.
Bullseye with Jesse Thorn
"rick steves" Discussed on Bullseye with Jesse Thorn
"He organizes tours over the continent and since around march of last year. He hasn't been able to do any of that stuff. He's been away from europe for the longest time in his decades of covering it. So he's instead taken to finding ways to bring europe home to the united states cooking reading up on history looking back at fond memories of travels past so we decided to bring him the show and to interview him. Pair him with another public media legend. Our friend ray suarez. It's a clash of pbs. Titans before we get into that. Let's hear a little bit of a recent streaming event. He hosted called monday. Night owl. here. Rick is talking about some of his favorite european dishes something. We didn't anticipate when we started this monday night. Bumble ben was that it would evolve into sort of a shared meal. And every week i i. I'm surprising myself. I'm getting into the cooking. And i want to share with you. What i'm gonna be eating tonight. And i put the the menu on our Information so people can of eat with but look at this beautiful beautiful plate. I miss my kids. They're saying who is this man. I could this place. It's nothing betsy but it sure was it together and this is the danish meal. This is called smarter broke it. It means a butter on bread. Motorboat is open based on is in all over scandinavia. Buying these open base. Which is you go into a shop and you just choose what you like. rick steves. welcome to bullseye. Well thanks ray and listen to that. I just felt like an enthusiastic little kid who somehow just learned how to cook well. Let's be clear you weren't much of a cook before where you know this. I call it a corona bonus I'm a travel guy. I spent one hundred days a year in europe. I love my work. I'm writing guidebooks making public. Television tv shows leading tours and suddenly. I haven't been on an airplane for a year. And i just decided at the outbreak. This to play the cards. You're dealt you know i was telling my tour groups You know if it's not to your liking ginger liking and i've changed my liking were there a lot of irons in the fire. When the world shutdown things that sort of stopped in the middle. Oh yeah. I mean i had. I had one hundred tour guides from every country in europe in my living room having an amazing party the week that all the said in that Retirement homer senior center in kirkland that the first cases of covid were being reported it was just. It's just a twenty minute drive from my house. And we had just finished a week-long Celebration are annual summit of all the tour guides. We fly them into seattle every every january in february and And we have a big huddle and we're just having a big party. We were going to go home and have the best year of touring ever you know. Twenty nineteen we took thirty thousand people on fifteen hundred tours and we were already almost sold out for the next year and they flew home. We're all euphoric. And then i look at this. I'm looking out at puget. Sound here from my my window at home and is like a su- nami came in and it just submerged everything i remember. The the next couple of months was busy in reverse. We had to send back twenty four thousand deposits tours I had to keep my staff of one. Hundred employed somehow had one hundred guides in europe. That are now not able to do their work and it was. I mean know you think every time strange during this last year i just every coupla days it occurs to me. Oh that industry's been in crisis also and you know i'm focused into tourism. We lead bus tours. And we write guidebooks and you know. It's it's devastating From travel point of view are guidebooks. Ray were right up to date. These were the labor of love over thirty years of researching. I've got fifty different guide books on europe and they're all based on little moms and pops you know the the the the the entrepreneurial ventures that i think make travel so much fun to connect with these little guest houses and being bees and cafes and restaurants that are the dream of a husband and wife and It's just ski saddens me to think of how many of these works of love labours of love or are in crisis now and what's going to be a big emotional thing for me is to go back to europe. Once we get through this and see who still standing. I mean the big corporations will be standing. And they'll be the starbucks still be where we know. Starbucks is in in paris and so on. But what about the the little guys. And that's what really makes good travel so our initiative right off the bat is going to go back and sweep through and and see what's still there and put the guidebook make the guidebooks accurate. And then patronize the little guys. As if the way we consume can help shape the future. Well that means that An up-to-date book given lead time the time to run down. All these leads figure out. Who's still in business and all that We're talking about what twenty twenty two twenty three till you can sort of figure out what still here in the world and from you know people who value guidebooks. That's that's my thing is writing guidebooks to me. A guidebook at twenty dollars tool for for three thousand dollar experience if it's any good at pays for itself on the shuttle and from the airport and A lot of people are going to be traveling later in. Twenty europe's might beeped but anywhere you know and And then it's going to be almost. I'm i'm i really believe. Travel be wide open in twenty twenty two but from guidebook point of view. Anybody who's updating now is wasting their time you gotta wait till you're expect to some semblance of normalcy before you go back and find out you know who's there and who can we recommend so the workable research is only going to be possible if all goes well. People get their shots in europe and in the united states and so on in early two thousand twenty two and then it takes eight months. If it's just pedal to the metal to get it out into the bookstores so anybody traveling in twenty twenty one or two thousand. Twenty two will be using guidebooks that are either. I think dishonestly claiming to be updated because he can't update it or you're gonna be using information that was accurate in two thousand nineteen when the last of our guide books were updated for twenty twenty. And then you just. There's still much better than nothing at all. I'm going to europe. I hope later this year and be equipping. My i'll be traveling with a guidebook. Like i always do. And we'll just have to realize that you know things have changed and the only way to have information is to be flexible and use. What was accurate before covid. But what i'm committed to is by the end of two thousand twenty two. We will have what we're calling post covid guidebooks researched and updated by experiences after cova had passed. And then you know from twenty twenty three on. we'll be back back in her stride. God.
NEWS 88.7
"rick steves" Discussed on NEWS 88.7
"The hour ahead. It's travel with Rick Steves. Stay with us. Live from NPR news. I'm Giles Snyder. Republicans in the Senate have blocked legislation that would have created an independent bipartisan commission to further investigate the deadly attack on the U. S. Capitol Building. MPR's Windsor Johnson reports six Republicans joined Democrats and voting in favor of the bill, but the measure ultimately failed to get the 60 votes needed to advance. Speaking ahead of the final vote count, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer posed these questions to his Republican color. Weeks who've come out against forming an independent commission. What do you afraid of the truth? Are you afraid that Donald Trump's big lie will be dispelled? Are you afraid that All of the misinformation that has poured out will be rebutted by a bipartisan down the Middle Commission Minority leader Mitch McConnell had turned up the pressure on Senate Republicans in recent days to vote against the bill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has signaled that she would move ahead with a committee led probe if the Senate voted against it. Windsor Johnston. NPR NEWS Washington White House says it's planning to target key members of the Belarussian government over the forced landing of a passenger jet and the arrest of a journalist onboard. The White House announced a serious of sanctions. Last night. Three police officers in Tacoma, Washington, turned themselves into authorities after being charged in the killing of a black man manual. Bill Ellis from member Station K N K x lily NFL. Our reports, officers Christopher Burbank and Matthew Collins face second degree murder charges, while Timothy Rankin faces a lesser charge. First degree manslaughter at arraignment stream for the public. All three officers pleaded not guilty to the charges. Prosecutors ask Bail to be set at $1 million Judge instead said it at $100,000 Ellis died while being restrained by Tacoma police in March. 2020 videos of the encounter captured Allison. I can't breathe, sir, as an officer, wraps his arms around Alison's neck and presses a me into his body for NPR News. I'm in Indiana Fowler into coma stock market entered a long holiday weekend on a positive note. NPR's Scott Horsley reports, the Dow was up nearly 1% for the week. All the major market indexes gained ground. During the week. The S and P 500 index rose more than 1%. The NASDAQ climbed more than 2%. The Commerce Department reported Friday that personal spending climbed half a percent during April, increase spending on restaurants and recreation more than made up for a drop in goods consumption. Forecasters expect that trend to continue now that half of all adults in the U S or fully vaccinated and able to take advantage of services that were off limits for much of the past year, increased demand for services could boost prices. Commerce Department's measure of inflation showed prices in April We're up 3.6% from the pandemic depressed prices of a year ago. Scott Horsley. NPR NEWS Washington and this is NPR. Has Tulsa, Oklahoma, commemorates the centennial of a white mobs 1921 attack that leveled a prosperous black community and killed as many as 300 residents. Trotter with member station Kwg s reports, there's another historical wrong being acknowledged in Interstate Cutting through the district, Tulsa native Reuben Gant says while the Tulsa race massacre destroyed Greenwood, it's black residents rebuilt and once again became a thriving community. But what really destroyed Greenwood? Not the massacre itself. But.
Travel with Rick Steves
Why I Love Rome
"Let's start the hour with three guides from rome. Who tell us what they love. Most about their city rome. It's the eternal city to one of the most romantic and popular destinations in the whole world but many visitors met with a harsh reality when they wander rooms. Ancient streets overcrowded sites chaotic. Urban seems unpredictable transit strikes. If you're not prepared. Rome can be a challenge. But many will agree with me that it's all worth it. Bernardo francesca russo and susanna perugini specialize in guiding american tourists around italy and. They've all made rome their home because they love their city. They join us now on travel. With rick steves to share their love of rome and share with us some tips on how we might enjoy it too you know. Francesca susannah bondar. Generate one so rome. I love history. And there's history every where you look. Francesca you're born and raised in rome. What's it like just to go to work. Surrounded by all that history. Sometimes i think about it that i can wait for the bus right by where julius caesar was stabbed to death. So i'm thinking that rome is a place where history goes from printed words on the page of a book to something. That's alive every minute of every day so you can feel it. Something had happened. Two thousand years ago happened right now. And there's layer after layer after layer. I mean there's like an archaeological dig isn't it but it's right before your very eyes. He has over two thousand years of history. Front is every single moment. Wherever you turn all at once pub is living in rome shape your outlook. I would say that most romans take it for granted. I think they gain a sense of how special the city is when they go elsewhere and they always find everything else so new so you become you become aware of how what it means to live with two thousand years of history once you leave it i think if you grow in it and you see coliseum every day when you drive to work in the sense you don't even see it any more than you might make a case that if you live in a land with very little with the shallow history. You don't appreciate history quite as much. i mean. The oldest building in my town is one hundred years old building a new town twenty times that could maybe if you live with things that are two thousand years old and every day i think you forget it and it just becomes something many conversations with my roman friends who say they've never been inside the coliseum where he could for take it for granted. Yeah but once you open their eyes to one thing then they understand and appreciate as well
Travel with Rick Steves
The Simple Life: Sweet Home Croatia
"Tired of the rat race mid western mom. Jennifer wilson decided up route or young family and seek out something simpler so she moved her husband and two kids to the croatian mountain village. Her great grandparents to learn what they would have taught her about life. Jennifer makes sense of her family's adventures in her book called running away to home. She joins us right now from the iowa public radio studio in des moines to tell us what she and her family gained from living in croatia. And how it's changed them now that they're back in america jennifer. Thanks for being with us. Thank you so much for having me. So you took your family from iowa to croatia. Set up the story here. When did this happen. Why did you do it. How long you stay well. It was in two thousand eight when the economy was melting down here in america we were really feeling a lot of restlessness at the time. So we sort of collectively decided as a family to take a big risk. We decided to get rid of all of our sort of consumerist lifestyle stuff and we took our young family to the ancient croatian mountain village of my ancestors in it was. It was a pretty amazing. Right how long did you stay in. Croatia trump. We were in the country itself for about seven months. The majority of that in the village itself is your husband croatian. Also he's norwegian alsacien but he sort of adopted my ancestors for the time we were in the village. It was really like hitting the reset button for our family. They're in what way. Well jim and i have a fairly modest lifestyle here in the midwest but even a family like us sort of in our american culture tends to super size everything and we were just ready to kind of get away from the american buzz and we went back to the most basic way of living. We were living in a small pen sione in this very small village that felt like it was suspended in amber since my great grandparents left and it really gave us the time and space to connect as a family we wanted less business in our world and we thought there can be no better way of doing that than going to a place where there was really nothing going on We had heard a few things about mirka pie research and a scouting trip and indeed. It was sort of this quiet time outland. It felt like to us
Travel with Rick Steves
Making Athens Neighborhoods More Evironmentally Friendly
"Let's start today's travel. With rick steves increase hosting the olympics in two thousand four forced that famously chaotic and polluted city of athens to invest in more pedestrian and eco friendly alternatives tour guides cars and pastas doris joining us. Now to look at what you can expect when you scroll the neighborhoods their city by the way we recorded this conversation before the pandemic shutdown international borders things very much. What's it like when you hear. An american. say athens used to be terrible today. It's changed big low. We are old enough to remember what you mean. Because i grew up in the nineteen ninety s where we had these serious problem with his cloud. Above athens was pollution cloud. Yeah but then a they introduce measurement which was not. All cars are allowed to enter the city center the yukon enter Based on the you and your license plates so this improves the today. Absolutely yeah and athens benefited a lot from. That's an apostolakis. There's more sensitivity for pedestrian zones. I think from syntagma square. You can walk downhill on on. What used to be a very crowded traffic street and now it's like a park weekly unification for q logical sites so he can start working starting from sedan west and you can make your way old down to get me. Cost the asking symmetry of otherness. It's beautiful walk without motorbikes. And there's this beautiful pedestrian sort of park. That goes to me almost all the way around the acropolis also the hill that the city is built around. That just seems designed for people and it's beautiful in the evening. It's beautiful in the day.
Heartland Newsfeed Radio Network
"rick steves" Discussed on Heartland Newsfeed Radio Network
"Now why would that be your dad's favorite song it's about a lady from dingle after cabinet was watching from the window on any saudis lady walked on stony i think Unrecognized their beauty and felon over the beauty of the lady. In the song. Stephen myself have a friend who has a music store in bingol. And he actually gave you the lady's name last time we spoke but i forgot. Imagine now that is amazing. So your dad's favorite song is about. You know exactly what street it was about and actually what woman it's about your dad knows probably thousand also. Let's more. I'm rick steves travel with rick. Steves talking about average traditional folk music. I'm joined by liam overburden From county cork. Stephen philomene from the north of ireland. Stephen when you travel around ireland in your tour guide you travel a lot. Almost any town you come into has a song about it. Every river has a song about it. What's that like traveling around your country and all these places cadre favorite songs. that's brilliant. You know when i first discovered liam seven or ten years ago. He's a car. C'mon an arbor man. And when i go to listen to him sing the songs i just love it. I mean i get goosebumps and you know what i saying. The car song they sound. okay. I could never have the same passion for car song that liam would have. What is it about a cork song sung by a corkman. That gives you goosebumps this the passion for the region. You know we all have songs about ireland that we love but isn't it. Great that within ireland's thirty two counties so there's thirty two little nations within a nation. I just think that's brilliant. Just that you'll be able to keep that reasonable identity strong and at the same time when liam comes up to visit me in dairy. Because we've become very good friends. He comes up to visit me in the north and i'll sing dairy songs and he listens to austin gary songs or donegal songs and he could just see that he loves and has respect for singing our songs and i bring him at a him into my local pub in the middle of dairy and into patio donald's traditional barn. And it's like bringing britney spears and or something it's just superstar has a right from a from a different Corner of your from these up from the the wanted the better great musician. From cork in ulster. Yeah come on down to the pub. And he's bringing his songs up from the south. We know all the words of all these songs you know. We know all the words of the kark songs and he knows all the words of the northern songs put for us to have a real. I've kark man come up to the north and sing. It's britain done right a cork song. Deng right you're hearing your friends thing at the exact don with the accident and knowing that those words mean something to him because he grew up there. Okay let's liam just came to your town your favorite pub up in the opposite side of the island in the far north. And here's liam there. He's a corkman. You love cork music. But you're tired of hearing it by ulsterman s come to sing one of your favorite songs and see if you can do right at the top of his head. Let us here the goosebumps. You could see the smile exit. He knows exactly the song. I'm going to ask him to sing. Because there's an area in cork city called fair hill liam's from that area and it's a good old street volative young boys growing up in cork and so it's called the boys of firhill and he's sick and tired probably me request to sing this. What i'll ask them for that. Skunk axons is very distinctive this yeah you know they also say that you'd never have to ask a corkman where he comes from. Because he'll tell you. I very proud very proud. Gives us the ball. So here's this come mumbai. And you'll see lads and lessees fully glee fair must for all they will make your heart thrill the boys they will not hire him. You the garros. They won't charm you. Here's a kamal said. The buys of fair hill. If you come to cork he'll get chain murphy sow and pigs groupings famous for all they will make your heart thrill thousands cross from over the phone just to kiss the blarney stone that can be viewed from the grooves of fair hill an in cork city. There is no law the next lord. Marazion de gar. Here's a small set of fair hill and blarney. Girls are very rude. They go swimming in the nude. Here's up amal set. The buys off air. Their son goes on for fifteen minutes. We'll leave. That is a delight to have within your culture all those fine points that the average tourist would be oblivious to just so within ireland. It just i can see. Just turn you both on. But there's a connection there see. I've brought probably a hundred groups over the years to listen to liam aitken conceal when he's playing and when armed groups are visitors here liam sing a song and they know what to song from the south because he's introduced it as a car song and suddenly they know me as their tour guide from the north and i joined in the chorus and the barman from somewhere else joins in the chorus and we all the whole bar erupts in the chorus. There's something very attractive. And not an i can almost a magic thursday. I've had that magic and search for it as a tourist. Because i'm pretty clueless about all the fine points of irish music but i know when you get that magic. I don't care if you're carry manar. Corkman are from austria. Or if you're from seattle or florida or whatever if you're there you feel that magic. There's there's something combusting that i just. I don't feel it every time. I mean you got you. Go looking for it and it's like fishing sometimes. You really come through. Sometimes you will find at as you want. It's always saint patrick's day when the irish are with this travel. With rick steves. Stephen mcphillips was raised in dairy in northern ireland. He now operates. The middletown guesthouse dingell and a hotel. Low to burden in the swiss alps. Nemo reirden's from a musical family in county cork and his cds include sticking out a mile from blarney. There's another song called johnny. John book which was john was a that was brewed and whisky casks cork right. And it was awful steve actually. He teaches the song to the people on the tour. This is danni gaughman teaching a car song to a bunch of Tourists from the america when they get to the pope. It's the first thing they asked me to sing. And i pretend. I don't know it for you know but then it's so much fun just the chorus okay. All never own never never again. If i leave two hundred or a hundred and ten for. I fell to the ground. And i couldn't get up out the drink in core of that johnny jump up. We even got.
Heartland Newsfeed Radio Network
"rick steves" Discussed on Heartland Newsfeed Radio Network
"In. Cisco tell us more in a minute about the best country in spain and france including their recommendations for the must see sites and must eat food and in just a wee bit will raise it toast to the irish as we get impressions from the rugged aaron islands as we tap into the singing culture of ireland. We're at eight seven seven three three three rick. Hey i'm rick steves. You can experience my favorite european people places end stories in my newest book for the love of europe. Order your copy today. At rick steves dot com. We're celebrating the start of spring. Basque style right now on travel with rick steves with an intimate look and with the best country of spain and france offers as a distinctive cultural region. Our guides are proud of their best lineage and they come to us from the best country in spain. Gustav theresa lives in the coastal city of san sebastian and francisco. Gloria comes to us from pump loaner. Our interview was recorded prior to the global pandemic shutdowns augustine. We've talked about all of these sites in france and spain and we have not talked about Gernika what's the importance of gernika historically for the best people while he got really promoted with picasso painting the horrible bombing by the bombay in the civil war. One thousand nine hundred thirty seven. The german italian aeroplanes. Bombay de the city of guernica picasso made gernika famous with the wall. That was really bad bombing. Right it was on monday. Monday's weekday for marquette. So wow so. They planned to bomb when everybody was there in the market. That's right the happens day. The casa was really inspired to be involved because of the humanity of that. I think yes at that time Because i was getting ready for the expo in paris he Got the information and in three months. He painted the the clinic now. Also after remember. Grenada was was not just any town. It's very important town to the best people even before world war two. What is the importance to the best people of gernika v oaktree the oak tree the tree all the us is the symbol of the bus people. Right since the eleventh century the governor of the area have been gathering around the oak tree to sit opposite way way back or foundations of the people they would gather together in their leaders from different clans would come together under the oak tree gernika. Yeah that must be like a pilgrimage. If you're basketball oh yes. It's a must if you wanna go deeper into the of the community. The best people are things must've county and it's quite easy to visit these cities close together all within an hour of each other amaxades. This has traveled. Steve's for talking about best country joined by two friends who are guides in basque country augustine reset and francisco. Gloria our phone. Number's eight seven seven. Three three three seven four to five and linz on the line in olympia washington. Thanks for your call. Oh you're welcome. Hi rich hey. My family and i are going to be touring the basque country spain and france. And you've mentioned some generalities about places and sites that we should see but can you give any specifics about say something boston or some of those other areas. What museums and sites should we not miss. Okay well that's a good question. We should ask augustine. Because you live in san sebastian us. What one site must we see in san sebastian will You have to mountains up top of those montas. You have lucado over the city you can take the funicular to the top of the mountain and enjoy the views or year. If you wanna know your legs and not take a stroll up to the other month in. You can go through the castle into the museum of the city. If you have a nice day you have the chance to get there on a nice day. You'll enjoy very much. The views of the city and the little surrounded the city. You know augustine for me san sebastian more than any other places a place where you eat your sightseeing in tapas bars. And if you were going to take me to one toughest bar and feed me one special dish. Where would it be. And what would it be. Well there are plenty of them. The altan is full of tapas bars. And you can find pinch. Chose we call them in person. Baskets pinch oh. Yeah but what's one dish you you would have. What was your favorite because any. Yeah the four gras grill. Fog rob yeah And what bar would you have it in. Well the plenty of them. You got gone daddy. S i mean that's very popular and you have the sun talamo which is very freedom camel Does that help you in. Yeah absolutely. I was going to. The next question was how do i eat my way to the back country which i understand is some of the best cuisine in europe. Our incredible and in san sebastian. It's just like drop in with an appetite and there's plenty of friendly people to help you out. Good luck. thanks for your call. James is on the line in palm desert california. James thanks for your call. Thank you very much rick. My wife and playing a trip to terrorists and provence. And what i was looking to do is possibly add a two three day trip over to the basket area from Prevents one was best way to get there and too short visit. Where best to go so first of all. If you were in marseilles or avenue on in southern france how would you get two cents a question. Would you fly or take the train. You can take the play but it would be better to fly if you come fly to be richard dunwoody the best choice. Remember near a lot of discount airlines. And there's in so many cases you can fly cheaper than you can take. The train probably tried to find a flight to bear it. And then you're within an hour of all these places we're talking about. Are you James are you thinking mostly of french or spanish best country or or representative sampling of both. It's more really a representative sampling right. I'd say baone to start. That's the big historic capital of the french part of basque country. And then if you if you have a night in a charming little town in france it would be sunday blues for me. And then you gotta go down to censor bastion. Use that as a headquarters. If you have the energy see the guggenheim museum in bilbao and and make the historic pilgrimage to mecca. Yup that will be good option point. That sounds good. Just want to go there. Yeah you need that. You need to cut your southern france. Time a little shorter than houston of short. I mean there's not a long distance drive from place to the other. That's right good luck james. All right thank you very much. You bet you francisco gloria from pump lona and a gustin sector from sent sebastian. Our guides to best country right now on travel with.
Travel with Rick Steves
Sevilla April Fair - Pre-Covid
"The week. Surrounding the easter holiday are traditionally a big time to celebrate with the family and spain even while spain has to prevent the crowds of pre. Covid times a little longer. By cancelling the big april fair again this year. Let's anticipate how celebrate vs biggest social event of the again next year local guide. Concepcion delgado joined us a few years ago to describe how they normally like to pull out all the stops in her hometown. Concepcion thanks for being here thank you. What does april fair into who've grown up in severe well april her age like the explosion of life. No he's like the explosion of colour c k. Everybody happy and having party. What are you celebrating life. I mean is it a spring thing and there was no. There was a reason why the fibia was started. But it has nothing to do with that anymore. It was a livestock market to improve. The economy of the people were gathering there not clear whores on cows and old that but Because people had to spend a few days while they were selling out older animals they were taking some food and wine along on. Does the only thing that's a revised now actual industrial horse market that had affair with it and now the horse businesses nuts so important in the in the party survives. That's good and lucienne style for a way that all the warring stuff anti-subversion correct now an end lucia do different cities have a professor or is it always the same date in the in the big city. All of them have a fair. But it doesn't need to me in an spring fair anymore. seventy starts severe. Sat which has been celebrating a fairy for longer but the rest of an alluvia adopted that idea of having party in spring or fall and they do a federal. So you can come to on the luthier. From april winds heaviest starts to september up to get to a town. Where a ferry as going on.
Travel with Rick Steves
The Future of Tour Business in 2021 with Steve Perillo
"This is a bad year tour companies. So what do you do when you run into tour company and suddenly. Nobody's traveling today on travel with rick. Steves we're joined by steve parilla of perello tours to talk about how we who make our living in the travel industry are trying to stay afloat in these months of zero revenue during the global pandemic. Steve is joining us to discuss. How the pandemic is hitting his industry and his expectations for the future steve. Thanks for joining us. How are you holding up. Pretty good considering pretty good. Have a driving tour company. Bring about what fifteen thousand people to europe each year. You're the third generation. Ceo of your family to her company. Perello tours how was twenty twenty looking before the pandemic hit it was going to be our best year since probably nineteen ninety-seven. It was going to be a very good year. We've been through a bad time so you know it's not an essential purchase trip so Before nine eleven we had all kinds of stuff If you're in the trump is every ten years you're going to have a really bad year but you lose half your business okay. But twenty twenty It was one hundred percent a loss of business which is astounding. We were euphoric in the tourist industry. We were queued up for our best years ever. The economy was so hot. Everybody wanted to travel. Everything was coming together. You know and you ramp up for it. And then said and bam not only do you have revenue. But you've got a lot of people that have given you money and you have to give back refunds. How did you know that. That is the bane of every tour operator. That's how they go out of business. They spend the deposits before the trip. You're not supposed to do. You're supposed to Ideally put it in escrow you put in a separate account. You don't touch it and we touched it but My father taught me about the rainy day fund and It was millions and millions of dollars. We had to return. Well i we as people to postpone it to this year and a lot of them did but now we're facing march april and may and this time they really do what their money back and it's justified so Were returning all the money and We're not gonna pay taxes for a few years i assume and We're gonna be fine. I don't wanna go through this again in my lifetime though. I don't really want to go. i don't either so you're returning all the money. Meaning you're not gonna pay taxes because you've lost so much money that you'll have losses to take forward under obama two thousand and ten You could deduct losses for five years after the bat. You're right now. There's there's actually laws in some states that prohibit tour companies like ours from doing anything in where i live in washington state. We don't have that option. I mean that money is protected until the tour is actually performed and at first. I didn't like that love. But i see i see the need for it and i'm glad we have it now. It gives us a little guidance. I always think capitalism uses chaperone and. That's what good government is all about for sure sure Now when you look at the industry in general how do you think. The industry did as far as relations and respect to their clientele. There were millions of people who were more than just inconvenienced by the advent of the pandemic when it comes to prepaid to her plans and so on. Well we all wanted to. We all wanted to ask the customer. Let us hold the money and we're going to Apply to next year or the next year. We're even going to give you some money off. And sem didn't really have an option that some of the cruise lies i really You know we're going to give you credit for the future but we have whatever. The customer wanted We did in this regard so we returned the money and a lot of cases and the goodwill is amazing. And they're gonna come back to us for sure. Nancy the goodwill. I mean we made a point of just not even letting people leave their money with this. Thank goodness we had the capacity to do. We sent back. Twenty thousand deposits took months to do it. It was a lot of work. We're not geared up to send the money back but that's what we had to do because as you said we're in this together for the long term and we gotta take care of of our public What do you think about the cost of cancelling tours. You had already set up as a tour organizer did you have to. Did you take a hit. By cancelling out of buses you had arranged in hotels. you had booked on not really the The airlines were considerate. You know we're on the same boat so So they were nice. They were nice. They worked with us in after the whole Catastrophic advent of this for tourism. How did the insurance companies come out. Did they step up to the plate and help people with it. Was the public generally satisfied if they had purchased. You know trip interruption insurance or was this something that was not covered It's not covered. They were tough. They were tough. I found them really not helpful at all. The insurance companies In general they didn't their reputation. Took a hit then after that because they didn't lose much money because depending people lost money in the insurance companies did not right and we have to make up the difference. if somebody We have penalties if you cancel but this was a totally exceptional situation so I don't care where. I don't care about money. We got through it. It's all gonna come back. You know you gotta be classy in this world and then you got to be standing you can have your team together when when you come out of this and we can ramp up again. So when i think of the long term consequences of covid in the pandemic. I'm concerned about the small mom and pop businesses especially in italy. That's your forte. Big companies can get through this pandemic. They can even profit from it. But it's the little moms and pops whether it's the little museum or the the little restaurant or or the little Hotel our guest house. What is your sense about. What's gonna be still standing when when the clouds of this pandemic lift. I know a lot of restaurants are not going to be there. But the italian government european governments are a lot more generous with their citizens so People still got their paychecks. Some checks were protected. I don't know all the details of italian government law but there are a lot more A helpful than the america you know. We have our our strengths to. Yeah well they pay high taxes and part of that is they expect their government to stand by them in a in a time. Like this it's Different from country to country. But in general i think it's fair to say that small operations mom and pops and so on her have a good chance to get through this at this second year of this cova. I don't know how long they can last. But that really is what makes travel so appealing is not to have to go to a strip mall and buy from international corporation. But you have that character you got the local little entrepreneurial ventures and the people with a passion and they love their clientele and it's a joy to be part of that scene and it's a fun puerta. Tourism isn't the old crafts are still alive. And well you know the Inlaid wood is an amazing art. Mosaics are fantastic. We can around these artisans with are group's at the table and and watch that happening. This is travel with rick. Steves were comparing notes on running a tour company in the middle of a pandemic right. Now with steve. Parilla
Travel with Rick Steves
Portugal's Art and Architecture
"Let's start today's travel with rick. Steves in portugal. The architecture and the art of portugal to tell the story of that small country squeezed between spain and the atlantic ocean. You can wander through museums classical and romantic paintings to styles with the largest impact on portuguese painters or you can take in the beautiful. Blue azoulay zhou tiles. That ornament many of portugal's buildings to learn more about portugal's art and architecture. We're joined in our studio by two portuguese guides. Christina duarte and refco christina and raphael. Thanks for joining us. Average abuse here. Rick christina so often to understand the art of a country you need to understand its economy. There's money behind the art. How does money shape the art in the architecture of patrols. When you have money you want be surrounded by beautiful. Things actually is universal. Everybody wants to be surrounded by beautiful things. The thing is that you don't afford it many times and when you afford them you have them in portugal much money then because they have great art from five hundred years ago yes well. It is a combination of two major. Factors the fifteen hundreds with the discovery. Spirit that allowed us to have for the first time money enough for our trade with many places in the world so automatically the royalty had many the nobility had money and the church have many and the coincidence is that your have money and you have also religion behind it so which. She's being major catholic. Contrary in thinking that you want to give your best and you'll beauty to your your glorify gone exactly to glorify god so They were two kinds of ways of spending that money in art. Which was the private and that will be for palaces that nobody will see and to god in churches and i consider that public art so review. All you have this money coming in from the trade in fact the churches were actually nicknamed spice churches. How how does the space tie into the building of churches. Well when portugal arrived to places like india and china and we started to bring all of these new products. Back to portugal. They revolutionized portugal they revolutionized our economy and from there on the society started to change and that is one of the interesting aspect of art is that it reflects the other dimensions of society. So the spices. There were They were a major factor. For example the jeronimos monastery that began to be built precisely with the money that came from the spices. Which bases were these that were so valuable. So you had Pepper you had cinema And many others in christina. Why would people spend so much money for pepper and cinnamon app to preserve no sleaze to preserve refrigeration also to Pigments of any kind for linen. Or tying dying yes. it was something exotic. It was different. People never seen it before. So imagine the first time you are smelling coffee or you're tasting pepper or you're smelling cinema. Imagine the impact that you had imagined how it sparked your imagination so the wealthy people would want this. It would be titillating for them now. You mentioned the monastery at toronto's same just outside of lisbon b. l. e. m. I believe that was men. Welland style architecture. What is men whalen. What we're does that word come from so The men willing style is named after our kingman. Well actually the name was given only in the nineteenth century during the romantic period but kingman while he was one of the most important kings during our age of exploration so he ruled from the time of columbus until fifteen twenty began to rule in fourteen ninety five until the fifteen twenty s in the nineteenth century. They figured out that. We had a several monuments throughout portugal. That shared the same characteristics. So what are the characteristics. If you look at the front of a church what will you see and you go. Oh that's men welland from fifteen twenty so the manor line is late gothic style so you have the basic structure of the gothic and then over that basic structure of the gothic. You have a very specific declaration. You have for example. Maritime mothes you have the strong. Heraldic of manuel specially to miller rece- fear so that the coat of arms of the royal family and then themes from the sea because the money came from the see exactly like the rope the rope a rope with an art. He's a very very important symbol of maryland.
Travel with Rick Steves
Take a Trip To the Island of Crete
"Let's start today's show with a look at what you can find when you visit the largest of the greek islands crete. It's where the earliest advanced civilizations in europe were found more than four thousand years ago. We're joined by greek travel. Experts david and anastacia guy tanu. Our conversation was recorded prior to the covid. Pandemic closures david. How're cretans. The people who live on crete different from greeks and their outlook. I don't think there's a proud of person to be found in greece than creighton. Credence are extremely proud of their long history. There island and they're wonderful food. The people from crete really see themselves as being a little bit different to the people from the greek mainland anesthesia. When you think of the pride of crete people and the traditions. How does that survive in their dress. In the way the look when we travel there you can find that still worn by older people in the largest cities bad. You find it definitely in out in the country and in small villages and the further up you go on the mountains the more you find that and you have this. Very particular scoff. That they were on their head. It's black of course and usually there is also big moustache underneath definitely because that's Masculine thing and they have a black shirt in. They have brown trousers. That up. The very distinct and to create and usually black boots and i was struck when i went to crete that these traditions survive more there than elsewhere in europe. I mean everything's becoming modern in the same issue travel around more and more but increased. You do find those traditions alive David i was an increase just last june and having been there for a while i was wondering with ride. See some of these things like the old britches and the long boots and the the coach but to my great surprise they have not disappeared in fact they've now become trendy and symbols for the young symbols for the young. Would that be. Is that sort of an expression of independence. I think it's because they see themselves different and they wanted to let people know that they're proud of their traditions. There's lot of guns returned. There used to be synonymous with crate guns. But you see less of these days although when you go walking plenty of cartridges from the hunting season is that right what would they be hunting farm firm and anything that moves birds. Rabbits has if you're an athens. How easy is it to get down to create. It couldn't be more simple because there's Boats that do the trip overnight. And there's lots of lights with a gna so let's see you got five days crete. What would you do david. If you're helping me plan my very if going have five days. I would stick to the north and i would stick to iraq leo which is the capital and access point fo the famous minoan palace of knossos. And then i would go across honey. Which is the second city on crete. And it's just a beautiful Old venetian city from honey. Can't you go up to the top of the mountain in hike down the gorge of samaria. Have you ever had that. yes i have. what's it like. well you have a very long descend and the beginning. It's in kilometers about four kilometers to go down. You just go down a winding backing back inbound down and then you move through the gorge. But they're really beautiful spots at that gorge in you meet people. There are people there. There is once goal the gate in the result shepherd they who knows of course every guide and every person who goes often through that gorge unusually. He has cheese. And if you know you can well he can bring some other stuff out as well and you see. Also a lot of the very unique flora and fauna of crete and the. Raise your liking usually. You're uc wild ibex. That they have their only on crete and has a very funny name. Actually it's called click critically. Can i xe david. If i remember correctly the tourist generally catch a minibus or something up for the almost like at sunrise and then they walk switch backing down then. They have a long hike along the river with little places to swim along the way they reach a very very narrow part in the gorge where you can almost stretch your arms out and touch either of the sheer cliffs and then at the bottom you have a beautiful remote beach and boat waiting to take you to the next town from where you catch the shuttle bus back to your home. Base is still basically the routine that is still the routine la. They have come up with an alternative for the lazy person who does not want to do the whole walk. You can take a boat to. I think it's really the base of the gorge and you can do what they say. The gorge short way. When you simply walk up to the iron gates and walk back again undone to all the other stuff okay. So there is for the quick tourist and for the person wants to spend a little more
Travel with Rick Steves
Experience Traveling By Train
"Start today's travel. With rick steves. With other. Eric wanner he recommends seeing the usa from a long distance train. Ride on amtrak. Our interview with eric was recorded just before the covid shutdowns kicked in when we travel. It's fun to see the world from a different perspective eric. Winer believes travel by train offers a rare combination of expansiveness and coziness. He spent a lot of time travelling by train while reading the work of great philosophers and for him. It goes together beautifully. He writes about that in his latest book. The socrates express eric. Thanks for joining us. Happy to be here so you actually took the train from washington dc to portland that sixty four hours. You could have flown in about five hours. There's just nothing rational about that. No it makes no sense. It makes no sense from a time point of view. Obviously it makes no sense from a financial point of view It really doesn't make sense from a mental health point of view. Either but i loved it. What can i say. I love every every minute of every hour of you know. It wasn't always. It's not the most glamorous way to travel but this just something to something awfully compelling about you made a very good case of that first of all you talked about the people you should the platform with. I mean okay. You're standing on the platform with surrounded by twenty or thirty people waiting to get onto that Train who are they okay. I'm going to do this quickly. Therefore determined therefore categories of long distance amtrak travelers. Okay number. One is retired people with lots of time on their hands. Number two is people who are afraid of flying. These are my compatriots to They take the train a number three or foam irs a fomer is a real enthusiasts. Who gets very excited about. Locomotives and other things like that means. They're so excited. They foam at the mouth. That's the idea okay You care to take a guess with the fourth category. As you'll never guess mennonites mennonites lots of minute nights a matter night. You mean like Lou dates are people that don't want modern. Well they apparently they They can fly but they can travel by train long distances. So these are the four categories and then there was me and i don't fit any of those categories. I was a category into myself for your kind of the opposite. Because you mentioned you have criminal phobia which is A fear of lack of time. And and you do just the opposite. It's that some kind of therapy. It was it was sort of this. What are you desensitize yourself to it. Well i always feel that your time is valuable. And i need to be making the best use of it and when you're on the train for some sixty plus hours you're just you're forced to slow down. I mean you're either go crazy or you slow down. Those two choices and i decided to slow down. The train is going to get the portland at its own pace. And there's nothing you can do about it. It will stop occasionally for an hour to for no apparent reason whatsoever and then start up again for no apparent reason and i would ask my fellow passengers if we stopped and they've just laugh at me like We got a new one. We gotta a rookie. Here in amtrak stan. You do not ask why. He thinks he's human. Beings are more important than freight right. We do we. We wait for free trains. Because amtrak does not own most of the tracks across the country the free traits everytime i go to portland derek from seattle and the train. I think i'm doing something nice for the environment. And so on. Or it's just kind of a cool thing to do and it's frustrating. Because i have chronic phobia also and i don't know beiber waiting here and somebody reminded me freight trains get priority over humans in the united states. That's not the case in europe but in the united states. That's the case but for those of us who like you and me have a fear of lack of time where where we schedule things. Its pedal to the metal. It's interesting how a long trip on a train you mentioned. It was like you hit a mother of time. Suddenly you had this big gift. That i guess you got more time just by slowing down right. And it's it's forced right because you can't go off and say we're going to go into into town and in fire up the laptop and get some work done. I mean you're on the train and you stay on the train and it's got through. I went through an interesting cycle. I i thought oh this is great. I've got this time. This is really good. I should do something. And then i just get antsy. And i started rearranging my little room at and moving things around and i started to go a little bonkers. I needed to do something. And eventually i came to acceptance that that he was gonna take a really long time to get to portland and i needed to just go with the flow and It took me a. I think somewhere around montana. I hit acceptance in there.