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
A big part of any tour experience is the hotels. Rather than modern comfort, we go for location, character, and memories. This little video clip shares the fun of waking up on the Rhine River in Hotel Kranenturm, as our groups have for 20 years now. Our bus and driver are ready. And just beyond the bus are the brooding war monument and the churning Rhine River.
If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.
I’m enjoying tagging along as a tour member on the Rick Steves Best of Europe in 21 Days tour. We’ve left the Netherlands and have arrived in Germany. Here I’m reminded that a hallmark of our tour program is the gang of beautiful friends and teachers that meet our groups throughout Europe to share their heritage and culture. For 20 years, my dear friend, Rolf Jung, has taken our groups around his hometown of Bacharach, on Germany’s Rhine River.
Herr Jung (literally “Mr. Young”), while well into his 80s, is as frisky as can be when it comes to sharing his story and town with our groups. While he was long the headmaster of the town’s school, today his students are visiting Americans. After a harrowing childhood under Hitler and through WWII, he has amazing stories to tell that vividly bring that chapter of tumultuous German history down to a very personal level.Gathering together under the medieval arcade of our hotel in Bacharach — with the half-timbered town on one side and the churning Rhine River on the other — Herr Jung kicks off the morning with a song. If it’s sunny, we sing “Oh What a Beautiful Morning.” If it’s rainy, it’s “Singin’ in the Rain.”A challenge for any tour organizer is the smart choice of overnights in each region. On our Best of Europe in 21 Days itinerary, we start off in the Netherlands; rather than overnighting in Amsterdam, we sleep an easy half-hour train ride away, in cozy Haarlem. On the Rhine River, it’s the historic town of Bacharach.Another important choice when putting together a tour itinerary that wrings the most travel experience out of each minute is which castle to visit. For us on the Rhine, it’s the mighty Rheinfels Castle. Here our group has just survived the tunnel system (built 800 years ago to reach out from the castle — secretly and underground — to plant explosives in order to blow up any approaching enemy)…and is happy to once again see the sun.A big castle needed to house and feed literally thousands of people during times of siege. This huge room, under the biggest unsupported stone arch of its kind in Europe, was where the food and wine were stored.Medieval river towns like Bacharach were generally T-shaped: a long main street running parallel to the river, and another street running up the perpendicular ravine. By the way, many illustrious Jewish people came from families named for their village, from Irving Berlin to Burt Bacharach.
Part of my ethic as a tour organizer is that everyone in the group should know everyone else’s name. The best way I know to facilitate this is to play the Name Game. I know, I know — many people don’t like it. But I’m the leader of the guides. This is “tough love”… and a required part of the tour. Here’s how it works: We stand in a circle, and each person reviews the names out loud, gradually working their way up from just a few names until the last person, who gets the biggest challenge: remembering the entire group’s names. Here, at the end of the circle, 12-year-old Annalise nails the challenge, correctly getting every name (with a tiny bit of help midway) in our group.
If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.
I’m dedicating three weeks this month to fully experiencing our flagship tour itinerary — The Best of Europe in 21 Days — just as our tour members do. This year, we’re taking over 18,000 travelers on more than 750 Rick Steves tours guided by about a hundred wonderful tour guides. And I feel a responsibility to make sure we offer the maximum experience, fun, and learning for every precious vacation minute and dollar our tour members invest in us.
Our guides learn from each other on the road. We huddle each winter at our annual tour guide summit. And I get to meet up with many of them in Europe. For this tour, my guide is Reid Coen, who can move 25 travelers through the greatest hits of Europe with a stress-free efficiency that gets me all excited as a tour organizer.Occasionally on this tour, Reid lets me grab the mic. It’s funny how after being a tour guide for 25 years, I can pick up that mic and feel like Alexander Haig (“I am in control here”). Then I come to my senses and take my seat with the other tour members…and let Reid carry on. I really miss tour guiding. But I’m so thankful that we have a team of a hundred guides who routinely exceed our tour members’ very high expectations.Whenever approaching Germany’s Rothenburg, I have a déjà vu. I remember the stress I felt for two decades of arriving with my bus, hoping to find a place to park. The city is routinely jammed up with tour groups at midday, and very often, there’s no space in the parking lot just outside the city walls. When that happens, the bus needs to park much farther away. And at night, when I pop out to see our bus, it’s the most beautiful sight in all of Europe: our tour bus literally all alone in the parking lot. Why? We’re the only group in town tonight… enjoying the after-dark magic of an otherwise very touristy and congested medieval gem, all to ourselves.My passion as a tour organizer is to have a group of 25 travel as efficiently as a family in a station wagon. And with our well-organized guides, we do. Each day so far on our tour, I’ve marveled at how punctual and mobile our group is — clear communication, packing light, bus standing by, great travelers. Typically, ten minutes after dropping our keys at the hotel desk, we’re having a “buddy check” on the bus and are on the road.I’ve long been enthusiastic about keeping our tours open to families — providing parents understand that it’s an adult tour and kids can wear out their welcome in a hurry if not parented well. (For years, I’d take my own kids out of school each May for the education of a bus tour through Europe.) On this tour, we have two wonderful kids, and tour guide Reid (ignoring Europe’s child labor laws) enlists them to pass out goodies and tickets on the bus.On our tours, about half the dinners are included. A favorite part of the meal for me is when the chef and the kitchen staff step out for a round of applause. After a long meal of enjoying local beer or wine, the applause can be particularly raucous.Evening activities are an important part of any European experience. One of my favorites anywhere is the amazing “Night Watchman Tour” in Rothenburg. Throughout the summer, Georg gives the tour in English each evening at 8:00 p.m. and in German at 9:30 p.m. I’ve taken his tour for two decades now, and I laugh my head off each time. An hour with the Night Watchman is a great way to cap Day Five of our 21-day Best of Europe tour.
Climbing into a working windmill when the wind is strong, I feel the wonder and excitement industrious people must have felt a thousand years ago when the technology to harness wind and water power with mills helped Europe come out of the Dark Ages.
If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.
