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Rick Steves’ Travel Blog

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

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ABBA — The Museum

I’m cruising Scandinavia and Northern Europe to update our new, hot-off-the-press Northern European Cruise Ports guidebook. And it’s fun to be sure not to miss any new sights that need assessing and writing up. For instance, for years, Sweden has been trying to find a place for its long-awaited ABBA Museum. Now it’s finally open, in Stockholm. Here’s how I wrote it up after my visit, plus a quick virtual visit by video:

ABBA the Museum — This Swedish pop group was, for a time, a bigger business than Volvo. They’ve sold more than 380 million records, and the musical Mamma Mia! (based on their many hits) has been enjoyed by 50 million people. Now the long-awaited ABBA Museum has finally opened, conveniently located just across the street from Skansen open-air folk museum and next to Gröna Lund amusement park on Djurgården. Like everything ABBA, this is aggressively for-profit, with pricey tickets and slick promotion. The museum is high-tech, with plenty of actual ABBA artifacts, recreated rooms where the group did its composing and recording, lots of high-energy video screens, everything explained in English, and plenty of interactive stations. Included in the ticket is a “digital key” that lets you record a music video karaoke-style as a fifth member of the group, then pick up the production from their website. To control the crowds, only 75 people are let in every 15 minutes, and tickets come with an entry time. You can buy your ticket online or at the TI to choose your “slot time,” or just drop in. If they’re busy, you may need to come back in an hour or two, but you can generally go right in. The ticket is expensive, and you’ll need to pay 40 kroner (about $6) extra for the audioguide, in which Agnetha, Benny, Björn, and Frida share their own memories. A small wing features the Swedish Music Hall of Fame, but apart from that, it’s all ABBA. If you like ABBA, it’s lots of fun (195 kr — that’s about $30, daily 10:00-20:00, on Djurgården at Gröna Lund, bus #44, tram #7, www.abbathemuseum.com).

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Wonderful Copenhagen

I’m kicking off the next phase of my summer research rounds, taking our brand-new Northern European Cruise Ports guidebook out for a test drive. My cruise starts from Copenhagen. But, because I enjoy the city so much, I arrived a couple of days early to squeeze in some sightseeing.

Some cities lend themselves to bike touring better than others — and Copenhagen is the best of any. The first thing I did upon checking into my hotel was to rent one of their bikes. That was my mode of transportation for our entire stay, and we also booked a city tour by bike (with Mike, recommended in my guidebooks) that was thoroughly enjoyable. The tour finished at the ever-popular Little Mermaid.

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Researching my guidebooks, I am determined to do as many of the activities we recommend as I possibly can. On this trip, I spent a delightful hour on a Bike Mike tour of Copenhagen. A fun part of taking a small, local, independent tour (walking or biking) is that you feel like you get to know a local who is generally a fun and opinionated character. (Mike Sommerville, at http://www.bikecopenhagenwithmike.dk/, offers a good three-hour guided bike tour of the city daily at 10:30.)

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Copenhagen’s beloved Little Mermaid is 100 years old…but she’s only been beloved for 60 years. She sat on her rock basically ignored for four decades until Danny Kaye sang “Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen” in the Hans Christian Andersen movie, and the Danish tourist board decided to make her the symbol of the city. Today, while kind of underwhelming on her rock, she draws a steady stream of tourists to the pier at the edge of town to snap photos.

Later on my visit, I crossed paths with one of our tour groups. I can recognize our groups out on the streets by the fun-loving nature of the tour members and the ease and joy they seem to exude as they follow their guide across town. It just happened that their guide had arranged an ambush on the way to their dinner by none other than good old Hans Christian Andersen.

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I was walking my bike with the group, chatting with Åsa (our Scandinavia tour guide), when this wonderful gentleman interrupted us and invited us to sit on the steps of the old city hall so he could tell us his story. And he is a wonderful storyteller.

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Watching the faces of our group enjoy the surprise visit from Hans Christian Andersen on their first evening walk across Copenhagen reminded me how much I enjoy my work. To be part of a team that brings so many travel memories to so many good American travelers makes working fun. (Photo by Trish Feaster. Read her blog at The Travelphile.com.)

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Copenhagen’s Hans Christian Andersen is Richard Karpen, whose friendship I’ve enjoyed for over a decade. He’s one of those guides who simply love to share their passion for history and culture…and that’s a perfect fit for our groups. After his half-hour street theater monologue for our enthralled group, he bid the group farewell and walked off into the city. Then I got to join HCA for dinner. Richard’s tours are a great value — for details, see Copenhagen Walks.com (Photo by Trish Feaster.)

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Dinnertime for the Hounds of Cheverny

While filming our new television episode on palaces near Paris, we had one critical appointment on the day we shot the Château de Cheverny: At 5:00 p.m., for the feeding of the dogs. What we got on camera will be great TV. Here’s the text from the script, along with a bit of video:

Barking dogs remind visitors that the marquis still loves to hunt — he goes out twice a week in season. The kennel is the scene of a unique feeding frenzy each day at precisely 5:00. The hounds — half English Foxhound and half French Poitevin — get worked up knowing that red meat is on the way. The dog master corrals the dogs and spreads out the feast. They’re fed just once a day, so the excitement is palpable. The trainer, who knows each of the 70 dogs by name, opens the gate and maintains discipline as the dogs gather at the concrete table. It’s an exercise in control. Then he gives the signal…and it’s chowtime.

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

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The Very Best Classroom

I love the thought of a tour guide being a teacher, with the greatest classroom imaginable. I also love the thought of little students sitting cross-legged in an Old Regime palace like Fontainebleau and being inspired by creative teaching right there on the spot.

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

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More than Just Versailles: Grand Châteaux near Paris

While the Loire Valley (two hours south of Paris) is home to the best variety of French châteaux, there are also impressive palaces much closer to Paris. Two years ago, on my scouting trip, I learned so much about the châteaux near Paris and along the Loire Valley that I came home not with the expected one television script…but with two. Of course, one script was “The Châteaux of the Loire Valley.” The other was “Side-Trips from Paris: Kings and Nobles Gone Wild” — a show dedicated to Versailles, Vaux-le-Vicomte, and Fontainebleau.

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A fun way to get exercise is to run around a vast royal or noble estate and “scout” for a good camera angles. The challenge involves the light, which dictates what is useless, do-able, or wonderful. Scouting the backyard of the palace at Fontainebleau, we came up with this perfect place to film a bit where I talk directly to the camera. Below are the three “on cameras” I did at this palace: #76 (in front), #79 (inside), and #85 (in the back, where this photo was taken — this was the close of the show). By the way, along with just visiting these lavish palaces, it was fun to work a little meaning into the scripts as, in #84. The wording is not final (since it’s not “on camera,” we can tinker with the language before I record it), but it sums up the message I’m hoping to share:

[76, on camera] Shifting from medieval piety back to royal excess, it’s time for one last palace. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Paris’ booming elite class made this area Europe’s château heartland. Most of these lavish getaways began small — as hunting lodges — and then grew.

[79, on camera] It seems every king, queen, and emperor since has loved this palace. Louis XIII was born here, Louis XV married here, and after the anti-monarchy chaos of the French Revolution, Napoleon reigned as emperor right here.

[84, montage of people frolicking] All this royal, noble, and imperial excess and the resulting political upheaval is not necessarily a bad thing. I see it as the growing pains of democracy. Ponder these symbols of excess — once so out of reach, and today the playground of the public. Why are today’s French so hell-bent on defending their freedom? Perhaps it has something to do with their heritage of struggling under the thumb of abusive power.

[85, on camera] Whatever the case, when you travel here, it’s clear: The powerful of France’s past have left today’s visitors with some amazing and thought-provoking sights. Thanks for joining us. I’m Rick Steves. Until next time, keep on travelin’.

p19-crew-at-ftnblu It takes six pretty intense days of scrambling to film a 30-minute episode. I grabbed this shot of our crew (producer Simon Griffith, photographer Peter Rummel, and me) at a happy moment when we had just shot the last bit to complete our first program. Next up: Châteaux of the Loire. Keep on travelin’.

p20-steve-rick-cheverny Steve Smith and I have been working together on our France guidebook for over 20 years. We wrote the first edition when Steve lived in an apartment in Paris and I slept on the street in the old VW Westfalia van we co-owned (back when eating and sleeping included lots of picnicking and camping). While Steve is the guiding force when it comes to France at ETBD, I try to join him for a week or two of research each year. This shot was taken just after the hunting dogs were fed at Château de Cheverny.