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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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With Visions of Sugarplums and TV Scripts Dancing in My Head…

With the winter holidays, many look ahead to vacation travels in the next year. I look ahead wondering where I’ll take my TV production crew. Each winter now for twenty years, I’ve enjoyed sorting through my filming options and dealing with the nagging responsibility to commit to and write scripts so we can book our crew and set about getting permissions for our shoot. (The permission process is much tougher now than in past years, when we could “guerilla” just about anything.)

To choose new destinations for upcoming TV shows, I need to consider gaps in our library of episodes and places where I have new experience. Each year I shoot (on average) three shows in the spring (in Mediterranean Europe) and three shows in the summer (north of the Alps).

I have three major regrets in my last decade of TV production: Not making the jump to widescreen and high-definition until just after September, 2001, when I had a glorious 30 days of producing five of my favorite shows ever on Italy — which are now forever standard definition and clunky 4-by-3 format; not retiring my goofy-looking big “aviator” glasses sooner in favor of the smaller, more up-to-date ones I wear now (for many viewers, my shows come in two eras — with goofy glasses and after goofy glasses); and shooting a show combing the highlights of Croatia and Slovenia before I knew enough about either country to really do them justice.

This spring I’m thinking of replacing that old combo Croatia/Slovenia episode with three new ones covering Croatia and Slovenia, but also neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro. Considering the big changes in the former Yugoslav states, and how much I’ve learned there (traveling with Cameron Hewitt, the co-author for our Slovenia & Croatia guidebook), I’m bursting with ideas for this new trio.

I hope to spend three weeks this May shooting three new programs: One on Dubrovnik with side-trips into Montenegro and Bosnia (Mostar, Sarajevo, and exploring the rougher “Serbian Republic” that makes up the non-Muslim part of Bosnia). One on Croatia (with a focus on the Istrian peninsula, including my new favorite Rovinj, and the underrated capital of Zagreb, along with the dramatic Plitvice Lakes National Park). And a third show entirely on Slovenia (with its cute little Adriatic coastline, bloody, high-altitude WWI battlefront, mountain resorts, charming capital of Ljubljana, and dramatic caves).

I just got a report from a friend after his third visit to Albania, and I’m tempted to travel there to scout for script purposes. Albania requires no visas of Americans and is wide open to travelers. Remember, it’s the place that gave President Bush such an enthusiastic welcome a couple years ago. Albanians absolutely love Americans for how we supported their ethnic brothers and sisters in Kosovo with their recent fight to separate from Serbia.

In order not to make the same mistake I made earlier about Slovenia and Croatia, I’ll be patient with Albania, travel plenty there first, and then — with a top-notch script — return with our public television crew and make that show.

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Top Travel Memories of 2008

Just for fun, I thought I’d gather my favorite little travel moments of the last year (in no particular order):

Eating cod cakes at the bar with locals in Lisbon.

Being set up in Amsterdam for five days with a classy canalside hotel and my own bike.

Falling in love with Bruges again (and gaining an appreciation for Belgian beer).

Being stuck in a Tehran traffic jam and hearing my driver suddenly shout, “Death to traffic!”

Hopping on a water taxi to slam like a hydroplane around the Greek island of Hydra before getting off in the middle of nowhere to hike through fields of flowers for a grand Greek isle view.

In the Cinque Terre, meeting with “the Pharaoh” (megalomaniacal director of that national park) and debating and brainstorming ways to make that stretch of Italian Riviera better for American travelers.

Touring the Greek ruins of Paestum (south of Naples) with a guide who made it come to life for me after many visits when it left me cold (and distilling that wonderful tour into my new Italy guidebook for my readers).

Being with mourners at a martyrs’ cemetery in Esfahan, Iran (as they remembered their lost loved ones among the 250,000 Iranians who died fighting a US-supported Saddam Hussein and Iraq), and realizing it would be dangerously naive for America to think we could “shock & awe” those people.

Splashing with happy children in the warm water out at the spit on Denmark’s Ærø Island as the late summer sun set before sitting cross legged in the sand to enjoy a picnic dinner with the Ærøskobing mayor. Then he brought out his guitar and we sang Danish shanties.

Near ecstasy in my car, surrounded by cork trees and the vast beauty of Portugal’s Alentejo, as I headed for Évora and a fado concert.

Watching an imam call much of the old center of Istanbul to prayer at the base of a Blue Mosque minaret. In a dirty T-shirt, he held two circa 1970 mics to his face, closed his eyes, and warbled like an angel.

Having an excellent private guide for the day to better understand the prehistoric sights in and around Avebury, England.

 

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Researching restaurants with my Italian-speaking son Andy (who was studying in Rome) in a Roman neighborhood he knew better than me…and having him help me interview the chefs in Italian.

Ordering 12 different pizzas, each cut into 12 slices, for my family and Andy’s schoolmates as we enjoyed a 12-course pizza meal and lots of great red wine one night in Rome.

Being lectured by Eddie the Verger for telling tourists how to sneak into Westminster Abbey without paying (and then befriending him and enjoying a private tour of the generally-closed-to-the-public room where the scholars translated the Bible into the King James edition).

My son Andy trying to teach me to appreciate a fine cigar (on our deck, looking out at the Olympic Mountains).

Being shown special rooms (not open to the public) by the curator at Anne Franks House in Amsterdam that were still furnished as they were during WWII.

Interviewing a coffeeshop owner about intricacies of making your living selling marijuana in Amsterdam.

Discovering London’s new “Manhattan” at Canary Wharf, and having a drink surrounded by what seemed like a million English yuppies.

In Reutte, getting a private tour of the Ehrenburg castle complex by the archeologist in charge before being knighted by the town’s humble glitterati for sending Americans to their otherwise unknown corner of Tirol.

Wandering home late at night in Monterosso (in the Cinque Terre) after the restaurants were closed. I was exhausted after a great day of research and noticed all the best chefs in town, each in a solitary space, looking out as the Mediterranean, just as exhausted as I was. Each was enjoying a drink and a cigarette after wowing their customers with an evening of great dinners and I realized that we were all in the same game…working hard and happily for the travelers — thankful for gratifying work that we enjoyed.

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Tweaking Iran

I’m midway through an eight-cities-in-eight-days pledge drive tour (Seattle-SFO-LA-SD-Chicago-St.Louis-Boston-Cincy-Portland). I just got to talk to an enthusiastic crowd of travelers here in St. Louis, and then we did a little four-episode travel marathon on TV.

Watching the shows, I was so thankful to have the chance to actually finish the programs. In our early days of production, there was never the time or money to really lovingly polish the shows. That was back in the analog days, when it was closer to literally snipping and taping bits of footage (back when “footage” was actually measurable that way), rather than the economic and efficient editing of our digital age.

Each TV program we make has a rewarding final process. I get to take home a “fine cut” and suggest tiny fixes before we “lock it in.” My routine is to relax and watch the show with Anne. Then I stay up late and watch the show again with my finger on the pause button and a pencil in hand. Before going to bed, I transcribe my scribbles into an email to my editor (Steve) and director/producer (Simon). The next day they do the best they can with what we shot to get the show as I envisioned it. We review it in the editing room, and I am generally thrilled with the final version. Those teeny tiny tweaks make the show so much more satisfying for me.

Just last week, we finished our upcoming Iran special. I ran across my comments to Steve and Simon that might give you an insight into this part of the production process. These are my little gripes and wishes (keyed into script sequence numbers) as sent to the crew:

Did we use man and child on cart at Shiraz citadel? — great faces

.3 Should we lose the first sentence (Like most Americans, I know almost nothing about Iran.)?

.4 Are there any loose concepts we should write into the opening montage? (perhaps it’s an opportunity to make complex issues more clear)

.4 Let’s use the goofy pink girls and me at end of montage (with sound up)

.7 Is there a better clip of crew working at the start?

.10 Better example of “traffic direction ignored”…footage of someone actually driving upstream?

.10 Better shot of me on motorbike in traffic?

.14 Consider saving the shot of the beautiful women (first clip) to use later. We don’t need to spend that one here.

.17a Confirm that Farsi is actually a different script than Arabic.

.17 What about the clips of the girls outside the Shah’s palace?

.20 The music here is distracting to me.

.24 At “emboldened,” I don’t like the tight on the European vase — show something in the Shah’s palace that is Persian?

.28 Tighter on “Death to USA” mural with script more explicit and thorough…see new script.

.36 Stay on my snap shot a moment longer?

.39 Was there an interaction with women in bookstore that we could use? I remember her demonstrating how the book reads backward.

.46 Must we have a drive-by revealing the road sign that means nothing in our script?

.47 Do we have a shot of reflective roofs for that line (when I talk of how they insulate in the heat of summer)? I wouldn’t want to lose the clip we have here…it just would be nice to see reflective tops from above rather than looking up at eves.

.55 Can you finish the diplomacy painting with a tight on the watermelon, please? Also, for the last line (invaded India), I had hoped we actually shot a battle scene to cover that, not more banqueting.

.73 Where we say “blessings,” do we have another clip of teens on a date in the paddleboats? Also, I think we should not use the quick clip to paddleboats later, but move that later one to the first.

.75a Can you cut out my voice to hear “we love them” better from girl in the back? (Sorry I kept stepping on people’s lines.)

.76 I’d love a couple more Esfahan-at-twilight shots. This is so different and magically beautiful.

.80 Add just a beat to the end of the on-camera.

.81 Finish bakery sequence with the guy pulling away with fresh bread on motorcycle?

.89 Man on cell phone is a great shot, but not ideal when we say “meditative.”

.90 Can we show a bit of fish in the pond, then dissolve into bird tile after showing woman kneeling with lover at pond?

.91 First shot of two women at table is mediocre. They look in pain. Any happier alternative?

.93 Rick taking photo is a good shot but here it seems unmotivated and fakey. This could be used to introduce a series of snapshots at the end if we need a way to get into photos.

.96 Flip the tilt down of cuneiform in three languages with the close-up of the cuneiform to better fit the text.

.104 Do we have a good take with “May” proceeding the last line in the on camera? May peace be upon us. That’s what I intended to say.

My wishes were generally doable, and Steve and Simon have made the show just gorgeous. It’ll air through the USA in mid-January. I hope you can see it. For more on our Iran project (including a four-minute video clip), see our Rick Steves’ Iran website.

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A Thankful Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving I’m considering our work, the world, our health and our blessings. While times are tough economically, and our future comes with impressive challenges, we have lots to be thankful for. This morning my neighbor told me that, having saved diligently for years, her retirement account took a big hit this month. Yet she doesn’t regret having spent money on leading a full life, saying that every memory she’s built through travel and embracing a life with experiences still enriches her life.

I know fewer people will travel in 2009. We’ve been at this since the late 1970s, and there have been plenty of ups and downs. One thing I’ve learned is that while some people are hell-bent on travel and will take a trip regardless of an economic downturn, for many, travel will have to wait. And for those who wait, they spring back and we see travel booms following every downturn.

My philosophy as president of our tour company is to offer the very best tour value possible every year. We make the most out of every dollar invested, take good care of every minute spent and take full advantage of each opportunity to learn and experience our world.

Our staff of expert guides is thankful to have work in 2009, and we are thankful to have lots of great tours filled to capacity, and to be able to promise piles of travel fun. (I expect we’ll be about 25 percent down from the 400 tours we led in 2008.)

My business team just asked me if it wouldn’t be prudent to scale back our Christmas party for this year. (We’re renting the local senior center and employing a local caterer.) I said no. We will be lean and mean…but we won’t pull the rug out from those businesses. We’ll enjoy the holidays, work harder than ever, and share in the discovery and learning of a great year of touring in 2009.

While our tour department is excited about new itineraries, I am feeling the breeze of a torrent of new productions: Our country guidebooks now have great built-in maps; I’ve made exciting improvements to the tenth-anniversary edition of my Postcards from Europe book (due out this spring); we’re putting out new books on Athens, Vienna and Budapest; my new Travel as a Political Act book is nearing completion; our new TV series hits the airwaves this month and our Iran special will come out — with great national prime-time carriage — in January; our radio program now airs on about 110 public radio stations for an hour each week; and an exciting new leader on our staff (who came to us from Nike and Amazon) is about to take our website to new levels. And I’m still speaking out: Two days ago I was in Spokane’s Bing Crosby Theater working for the ACLU and talking about ending the prohibition of marijuana to 600 caring people (law professors, bar association people, doctors and ACLU types from eastern Washington, Idaho and Montana).

Tomorrow I hit the road, visiting eight cities in as many days (San Francisco, LA, San Diego, Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Boston, Portland). My personal approach to our economic challenges: Work hard, produce and be thankful for what we have. And, as I say to end each of my shows…”Keep on travelin’.” Have a thankful holiday.

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Granny Smiths, Quiet Shirts, and a Tiny Little Boop

This morning I sorted through my shirts and chose a quiet one (one that doesn’t make noise when my body moves). At my regular coffee shop, they know I like a “grande latte, extra hot” but I needed it without any milk — an Americano extra hot instead. Then I drove into Seattle (to “Clatter & Din,” the recording studio we use), excited to record the voice track of our Iran TV special.

It was a great day. By the end, my head is exhausted. If you asked my brain what’s the most demanding thing I do in my work, it would be standing in a recording studio to tape the voice track of one of my TV shows.

Of course “tape” is a relic of an analog day back in the last century. Today it’s digitalized, and the engineer can edit the sounds I make as easily as I can edit this Word document. I’ve learned to stop mid-sentence, take a breath, survey the script landscape, and carry on in a way that can be edited together seamlessly.

Simon Griffith (my TV director/producer) is a master who wears a million hats in our production. My passion (the words) coincides with his least skillful area (transcribing the fine edits we make in our last loving “script scrub” with managing editor Risa Laib into the final version of the script). So I bring my penciled-up last copy as a backup for his “ready to record” printout of our script. Every word matters.

Eric, the sound engineer, is excited about a new “rock ‘n roll” mic (a U-250 or something). He loves the way it “picks up the complexity of the mid-range and makes the bass rich yet not tubby.”

I’m excited about this last step in the production of our Iran show. As it’s an hour long (compared to our regular half-hour Europe travel shows), we’ll be working the entire day to record the 14-page script. While my legs get tired, I stand up and even clip the script to the top of the fully extended music rack to open up my body and get the most energized sound. Granny Smith apples — which the Clatter & Din people know I like to keep my voice crisp — are lovingly sectioned in a dish in the booth. I’m confident my voice will make it through the day (yet always a little nervous, because when it goes, it’s gone).

Simon and Eric analyze and time my work as slowly, one paragraph at a time, we work our way through the script. Simon (who’s timed everything to the finished video editing) will say, “I need it half a second faster.” I do it again a bit too fast and he’ll say, “Give me a Goldilocks.” We all know that how each word is hit is critical in making the meanings clear. Saying something worded harshly with a smile can make the point clear without being off-putting.

The mic really is good. It sounds great in my headphones. During one read, I passed a little gas daintily yet audibly. We listened again, and sure enough, it was there. (We left it in — like a builder leaves some fun graffiti under the drywall on the frame of a house he’s building.)

Many pronunciations are debatable. We need to live with whatever pronunciation we choose. Consistency trumps correctness. Mooz-lim, Muzz-lim; ahm-bee-ahnz, am (like yam)-bee-ahnz.

The work drags on. It seems I can always do a paragraph a little better. I’m driven to communicate not words…but ideas. While it’s a nice to be done early enough to beat the miserable Seattle traffic, we didn’t make it. And driving stop-and-go home, I was very excited about having perhaps our best production yet in the can.