Edmonds

A highlight of our annual tour guides’ summit is our international talent show, which turns our living room into a jam-packed theater. In this skit, one by one, our Spanish guides debate which of the many delights of España are the most important for their travelers. From music, art, and wine, they finally reach consensus…with a beloved dance.

The annual Rick Steves’ Tour Reunion has dominated our work for the last ten days. The event is a twofer: a huge party celebrating tour members who joined us in Europe last year, and a “guide summit” with lots of strategic meetings for more than a hundred tour guides.

Last Friday and Saturday, we welcomed nearly 2,000 alums who had joined our tours in 2014. We filled a big room for six parties over two days. And with so many guides in town from Europe and across the USA, we took advantage of the opportunity to huddle before and after the parties. During the big all-guides business meeting, our homebound staff invaded the conference center and serenaded our guides with Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” (the national anthem of the EU). We also met with our guidebook research team, which includes many of our tour guides. And I took the opportunity to interview several guides for upcoming segments on my radio show and podcast, Travel with Rick Steves.

In case you missed it, here are some photos to give you a flavor of the event.

Photos via The Travelphile and Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli.

Today, January 25, is the birthday of the great Scottish poet Robert Burns. Robbie Burns was one of the Romantic Age poets who stoked Scottish national pride in an era when there was much pressure for Scotland to be absorbed into Britain. To celebrate his country’s national poet, our newest tour guide, Colin Mairs (who I just met as my private guide to his hometown this summer in Glasgow), recites the beloved “Ode to a Haggis,” capped by all of us drinking to bonnie, bonnie Scotland and Robbie Burns.

If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.

With over a hundred European guides filling my home last weekend, we threw an impromptu, multicultural talent show. One of the smallest national contingents was Portugal…and both Portuguese guides present were named Cristina.

The party took place just before the big Seattle-San Francisco playoff game, so all of the guides are now honorary Seahawks fans. In this clip, the Portuguese Cristinas remind us that the San Francisco 49ers may have been tough to beat, but the real matchup will come on June 22, when the USA soccer team faces off against the Portuguese team in the World Cup. More typically, our Portuguese guides would have sung a lovely and lilting fado love song. But for this occasion, it was an almost aggressively proud rendition of the Portuguese national anthem.

If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.

With over a hundred European guides filling my home last weekend, we threw an impromptu multicultural talent show. I simply took volunteers, made the list, and called the party to order. Here, Irish guide Stephen McPhilemy (from Derry in Northern Ireland) sings a rebel song dedicated to our English guides.

If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.