Should we still travel during Covid? How?
One can’t help but wonder if the age of big bus tours is over. Fifty eight people packed into a coach, going together to the postcard sites and commission-paying shops for two weeks?… Continue reading
Tag Archive: Rick Steves
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A request, during COVID
I am a lucky man. I have my health, a home, family and friends I love, and I have a great job. Okay, so I don’t have a job right now (the search… Continue reading
The benefit of an alpine lake
Today I would have taken my group to “mad” (entirely sane) King Ludwig’s fairytale Neuschwanstein Castle. Folks invariably enjoy it, albeit amazed at the tourist swam. Afterward, we sit down to a picnic… Continue reading
Gratitude for Georgia
All the Renaissance masters, Roman gods, and Golden Age heroes showed up right when I needed them, no one was grievously injured, and even the weather behaved itself (for the most part). So… Continue reading
The Grumps don’t win
The Venetians built a church specially-designed for Vivaldi. A pair of 14 year old twins can increase my hope for the future. And the reason cows wear bells is because their horns don’t… Continue reading
Feeling fine and Florentine
“The Tuscan Frying Pan,” Florence was earning its title that day, certified in sweat dripping down the backs and sides of tourists squinting in the Piazza della Signoria, and my hair felt, again,… Continue reading
A gift from a fellow traveler
It was another vacation weekend. Sitting on the beach with two of my favorite people, my telephone far away, unchecked, the madness of the modern moment unimportant before the relentless majesty of an… Continue reading
The Wizard of Oz and I
“When I was a boy, I knew what I wanted to be.” My assumption was beginning when he filled in the answer. “A cowboy!”
Romanticism, revolution, and Riesling, in Bacharach, Germany
The most interesting thing about the Hotel Kranenturm is not that a very active German railway line passes a few meters from your room, periodically shaking the building with the thunder of gargantuan… Continue reading
On the right bus, in Florence
“The Tuscan Frying Pan” had been in fine frying form all week, but at 8:00 AM the air was the sort of warmthy and goldeny and pillowy that makes so many people write… Continue reading
