finished my trip with a sprint — updating Bruges and Brussels in a frenzy and using the flight home to input my notes. Getting home was wonderful — seeing family after nearly two months away…finally catching up with Anne…enjoying the last days before empty-nesthood as Jackie, our youngest, is heading off to Georgetown University in three days…and Andy is heading back to Notre Dame in a week.
Our last nights with Andy were particularly fun, as he shared photos from his semester abroad. (I was envious of the fun he had — which we’ll be sharing in a series of entries here shortly.) He’s so excited about the experience, that he’s building a website to share and organize information for other students making weekend trips from their European study home bases.
Travel has gotten Andy into the ritual of appreciating fine cigars. It’s both strange and fun having a 21-year-old son sit on the deck and teach you how to appreciate a good Cuban cigar. Sophisticated as he was in explaining the qualitative differences in cigars from various Latin American countries, he admitted it was un-cool to smoke it right down to the very end. (And sophisticated as he was, I was struck by the fact that this 21-year-old cigar aficionado with the burny fingers had never heard of a roach clip.)
Andy’s youthful sophistication intrigues me. When we met up in London, I took him out to dinner and squirted oil all over my shirt while ripping the head off a shrimp. Andy looked at me and said something like, “Not staining your shirt when you’re eating out is a lifestyle.” Then he shared a highlight of his London stay with me — a cigar lounge. He took me into his favorite, and together we shopped for the best cigar money could buy. (He also showed me how willingly cigar salespeople can slip the ring off a Cuban cigar and slip the cigar into a tin from a country not weathering an American embargo, and suddenly you have no way of knowing where that tobacco actually came from.) Andy knows how to make that effete scene and feel like it’s not forced.
One great thing about doing my work in Europe is that I’m out of touch with the day-to-day challenges back in my office. My first few days back home are always spent getting briefed on things. Tim, my radio producer, announced that (in just our third year on the air) our radio show is now carried weekly by 99 stations. He gave me CDs of new shows (with guests like Salman Rushdie, David Sedaris, Lord John Alderdice, and others) that are just better than ever. We must have a party when we crack 100 stations.
The best news of my homecoming was about our Iran show. The network offered our one-hour special to the public television system and well over a hundred stations responded enthusiastically, saying they’d run our show. Only seven said, “No, thanks.” This means this January, we’ll have our Iran show running in nearly every major city in the USA. Now we set about finishing the show, and I am busy turning my Iran blog and photos into a companion booklet.
Within days of my return, our staff enjoyed a sunny, annual office picnic. It seems like just a couple years ago when there were 20 of us and only a few little kids. Now there are 70 — with probably 30 kids old enough to toss water balloons and whack a piñata.
We’re off to Europe in a month, and we did buy a Rick Steves guidebook as we’re breaking new ground – Croatia and Slovenia. It feels like pioneering in a way, setting off for new lands without knowing the language, the culture, etc. I look forward to reading Andy’s comments about travel experiences. A related comment – Rick, you posted a few years ago the account that you wrote after your first trip to Europe, accompanied by a school friend, I believe. Where can we find that account now?
I took my 24 year old son on a run through London, Upsaala, Helsinki, Tallin, and Riga in May. The best part of the trip was spending time with my son – bonding time for both of us. I am only sorry that I did not do this with the other five older kids before we all grew up. I does not matter where you go, just that you go.
Great comment, brian. The important thing is to just go. To me, travel is not just about the sites, food, etc. It is also an opportunity to challenge myself, my pre-conceived notions, my predjudices, my fears, etc….learning to take comments without offense to my person or my country. “Just going”, especially where I haven’t been before frees me of my old patterns, so I can form newer and more mature ones. My simple goal is to make new friends as close as old friends. Rick, I’m with you. Cuban cigar laws deserve to be broken, however, I read an article not too long ago that customs agents now test cigar dna. They know cuban cigar dna. Seems about the best example of government silliness, but it appears to be true. btw, fish and game guys now dna “gut piles” in their efforts to stop game poaching. If the have cause, they match a guys freezer meat with the gut pile and they have their man.
Welcome home, Rick! Thanks for another adventure!
Dear Rick, Could you give us an idea when the new TV shows will be available for purchace? Also, will they be sold as one package (hint, hint)so I don’t end up with doubles of shows I already have? Thanks.
Welcome back to Seattle, Rick. :)
Rick, you posted a few years ago the account that you wrote after your first trip to Europe, accompanied by a school friend, I believe. Where can we find that account now? Junelee – You can find Rick’s 1973 trip report at http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/destinations/europe/gutter.htm
Could you give us an idea when the new TV shows will be available for purchase? Also, will they be sold as one package (hint, hint)so I don’t end up with doubles of shows I already have? Thanks. Jimmy – Season 5 will begin airing around the country in October. DVDs of Season 5 will be sold separately initially, beginning in January.
One Granddaughter is spending a year in China teaching school. She has already spent a year teaching in Indonesia, and another year in China. The other Granddaughter, who has been to Europe several times with her parents (her first spoken word was “Ciao†in Italy), will be attending college in London for a year, and that includes a visit to Ephesus, Istanbul, and other places in the part of the world. When I was their age, Europe was still filled with W.W.II damages, and China was not a place for an American to visit, or work.
I am off to the United Arab Emirates in two weeks and I can’t wait. I will be mixing pleasure and business during Ramadan in a wonderful country with wonderful people! Rick, please know how much I (we) appreciate this blog of yours. It provides an escape from the daily grind of everyday living. As I have gotten older I have learned that where I spend some of my most happy moments is traveling and meeting people. I pass through a world of such incredible people, vibrant colors, and fascinating cultures; it always leaves me humbled and grateful.
Hi Rick- We’re off to brugge in 2 months- any chance some of your updated information will make it onto the “guidebook updates” site here?
Rome’s Colosseum was built from 69 to 80 AD; St. Mark’s Basilica was completed in 1073; da Vinci finished the “Last Supper†in 1497; Michelangelo’s Statue of David was commissioned in 1501; it took 634 years to complete the cathedral in Köln, Germany. By the time of our last visit to Europe in 1995, about the only thing of interest to us that had changed since our first visit in 1970, was the removal of the Berlin Wall, and the Iron Curtain.
Welcome back to Edmonds….. Rick !
Rick, does the possibility of tongue , lip or throat cancer from cigar smoking enter into any of your discussions with your son?
Bob, don’t be such a prick.
Travel has gotten Andy into the ritual of appreciating fine cigars. It’s both strange and fun having a 21-year-old son sit on the deck and teach you how to appreciate a good Cuban cigar. Sophisticated as he was in explaining the qualitative differences in cigars from various Latin American countries, he admitted it was un-cool to smoke it right down to the very end. (And sophisticated as he was, I was struck by the fact that this 21-year-old cigar aficionado with the burny fingers had never heard of a roach clip.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ terrina http://www.cigarsdirect.com
The Red Wings were just more aggressive with the puck, they had better positioning and they played a smarter game. ———— Raaj http://www.cigarsdirect.com