Watching this little video clip puts butterflies in my stomach. But I’m determined to go the full distance for my travelers — and here, on the windy cliff at Beachy Head, I’m a human suction cup learning a little geology in an unforgettable way. I’m just wrapping up two weeks of research in South England for both my England guidebook and our upcoming South England Rick Steves Europe Tours bus tour, and it’s been a very rewarding trip.
Here you can browse through my blog posts prior to February 2022. Currently I'm sharing my travel experiences, candid opinions, and what's on my mind solely on my Facebook page. — Rick
Portsmouth
Portsmouth — the historic home of Britain’s muscular naval fleet — is adapting to a future with a smaller navy presence and more pleasure craft and tourists. Most people pass through Portsmouth because it’s the major port on the south coast of England, busy with ferries heading for France’s Brittany. But the city also has amazing maritime history, plus enough candy-floss-on-the-beach fun to make going to Brighton or Blackpool unnecessary.
In London, billboard ads show an exotic harbor skyline with the question: Dreaming of Dubai? Then they break it to you: This is Portsmouth, 90 minutes away by train. Comparing Dubai and Portsmouth is a stretch, but its iconic Spinnaker Tower stands like an exclamation mark above a once run-down military port that is morphing into a pleasant people zone. Just last month, the Dubai-based Emirates airline paid £3.5 million to change the Spinnaker’s name to the “Emirates Spinnaker Tower.” (Unfortunately, they didn’t realize that the plan to paint the tower red and white — the airline’s colors — would infuriate local soccer fans, as those are the colors of the archrival Southampton team.) Locals tried to convince me to bow to their advertising agenda and add the new “Emirates” name to the listing in my England guidebook. I resist.
Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard is one of the best maritime sights anywhere. This ship is one of many on display. The HMS Warrior was the first ironclad warship — a huge technological advance. The Warrior was unbeatable, and the enemy knew it. Its very existence was sufficient to keep the peace. But that only lasted for a window of about ten years, until stronger steam engines made ships without sails smarter, and guns on turrets could outshoot anything previously on the sea. The Warrior is in amazing shape because it became obsolete shortly after it was built. The only action it’s ever seen are the tourists climbing through it 150 years after its heyday as the most awe-inspiring ship afloat.
The English are experts at enjoying dreary beaches in dreary weather. In Portsmouth, there’s a nice beach — but with the blustery weather, its best feature is what’s called “the Hot Wall.” This embankment provides a shelter from the breeze, and absorbs what heat there is and radiates it to those gathered (like this group of school friends).
Definitely not Dubai: While many areas of Portsmouth are becoming gentrified, deep down it’s still a hardworking port town.
Enjoying England with the Help of a Great App
I’ve worked long and hard and spent piles of money on a pet project of mine: our free Rick Steves Audio Europe™ app. I’m most enthusiastic about the more than 40 self-guided audio tours it offers. But I’m also very keen on the radio interviews we’ve collected for our app — conversations with our very best guests, organized in country-specific playlists so you can just download topics that matter to your trip.
For years, I’ve bragged of my radio interviews, “These are great for filling time productively during long flights and long drives on your trip.” Then, yesterday, faced with a five-hour drive from Penzance to Portsmouth, I decided to practice exactly what I’ve been preaching. On my Rick Steves Audio Europe™ app, I downloaded a playlist of our England-related interviews. Listening to three solid hours of interviews made the drive a complete joy. (And by plugging my phone directly into the USB port of my rental car, I was able to take advantage of the car’s fine speakers and keep my iPhone charged up.)
In this photo, you can see some of the great topics I enjoyed: ancient stones, Bill Bryson, British banter, Madhur Jaffrey’s Curry Nation, Doc Martin’s Cornwall, the ins and outs of high tea, and so on. This really is a boon for anyone faced with a long drive, train ride, or flight wanting a special insight to the region they’re exploring. I hope you can download and use the Rick Steves Audio Europe™ app in your travels.
Have you tried this? What are some other ways to pass a long drive in an entertaining and educational-for-your-travels way?
Pointless Grooveways
All over Europe, well-meaning grooved lanes, designed to help guide the canes of blind people, slice through sidewalks. But invariably, these paths are blocked by bollards, public art, giant potted plants, café tables, parked cars, dumpsters, and all manner of other barriers — making them pointless. And in all of my travels, I’ve never actually seen anyone using these grooved lanes.
Accessibility is an important dimension of a caring society. But breaking up a sidewalk for a grooved path no one will use seems to me a feel-good token measure with no honest interest in actually helping those who can’t see. I’ve observed this across Europe, but it bothers me the most in drab urban zones like Athens, Glasgow, Naples, and here in Cardiff — where a stretch of nice, clean, uninterrupted sidewalk would be a calming visual relief.
How is it that towns in painful need of visual charm cut up their sidewalks at great expense, lay down these grooveways, and then — realizing no one is using them anyway — ignore them? What drives this waste of public funds? Can someone give me the backstory on these? Have you ever seen anyone actually using these grooves? Or please set me straight if I just don’t understand how these are really helpful. Thoughts?
Coastal England’s Climate Is Changing – And That’s Not All
In my travels, I keep seeing examples of how our aggressive, high-powered, corporate-driven society is just accepting the reality that the climate is changing. Flood gates (like this one in Portsmouth) are being built on streets that never needed them before, in anticipation of storm surges becoming more common and more damaging.
Last month, Germany — a land with very little air-conditioning because, until now, it hasn’t been needed — suffered through record-breaking heat. It’s been sticking around: They’ve had 30 days in a row of 90-to 100-degree weather. I’ve been told that river cruise travelers are angered that, with rivers so low in Germany, they are abandoning parked boats and bussing three hours to promised sights. Gardens in Italy are being ripped up by freak hailstorms. In my personal world, the Iditarod dog race in Alaska that my sister participates in has become an annual rocky slog — even with a course that has been relocated to find some snow. And my family’s cabin retreat in Washington’s Cascade Mountains is threatened by persistent forest fires.
When it comes to global climate change, we travelers — who burn fossil fuels with every intercontinental flight and bus tour — are contributing to the problem. I am determined to grapple with the consequences of climate change by finding a way to make those who travel with Rick Steves’ Europe Tours in 2016 carbon-neutral…or better.
Assuming you care about climate change, how can a jet-setting traveler explore the world in a carbon-neutral way? I’d love some advice.