Rick Steves's Blog, page 61

When you get the perfect storm of Sirocco wind, a full moon, a high tide, and high barometric pressure, Venice floods. And St. Mark’s Square is the first place where the water invades. One of my magic moments in Venice is to be on this glorious square after dark during a flood.

you’re only paying double what you should be… rather than triple.

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

P.S. I’m on a Best of Europe in 21 Days Tour.

My Best of Europe in 21 Days tour has left Austria and crossed through the Alps to Italy. Our first stop: Venice. During some of my free time, I’m taking the opportunity to spruce up my guidebooks. And organizing our travel information on Venice is one of my favorite challenges. Even after a lifetime of visits, this magical city of canals remains one of the great thrills of European travel.

It often seems that the city of Venice has abandoned itself to tourism. The resident population is shrinking, and those remaining have turned old buildings into various kinds of hotels — some slick and modern… others old and funky. A big part of my work is finding good-value hotels to recommend in my guidebooks. Here, from the top of a friendly little B&B, I can imagine calling this room home, stepping out onto my balcony, and enjoying the view of the back lanes and canals of this great city.

Each year, as Venice sinks and the sea rises, floods are more common. [Flooded St Mark moors]The lowest part of the city — St. Mark’s Square — floods first. And tonight, it became a delightful reflecting pond.

You know you’re eating in a characteristic place that’s a good value when you share a rustic table with gondoliers in their striped shirts. This is exactly the kind of eatery I seek out for my guidebooks.

When I first hiked up to the Ehrenberg Castle ruins, it was overgrown with trees and entirely desolate. Today, it’s more welcoming for adventurous travelers thanks to a local archaeologist, Armin Walch.

Standing atop the Ehrenberg Castle ruins and surveying the valley, which two thousand years ago was the Via Claudia upon which Roman trade crossed from Germany south into Italy, you can appreciate the strategic importance of a castle erected right here.

Armin Walch — who I think of as the Indiana Jones of Tirolean archaeologists — has endless energy to make his dream of turning Ehrenberg, an ensemble of four castles from four different ages, into a meaningful historical experience. Even in a driving rain, he took us to the highest castle to proudly show off his work in progress.

On my last visit a few years, ago I was “knighted” by my medievalist friends here in Reutte. Coming down off the mountain, having surveyed the castle ruins with Armin, we were met by the “Holy Roman Emperor Maximillian” and his entourage for a fine dinner where I was presented with my own sword (which now resides in the little castle museum).

The next day, we dropped by the castle museum with our group and enjoyed letting our imaginations off their leashes. Here, tour guide Reid sets tour member Malcolm up in a suit of mail. Very stylish…but kind of heavy.

P.S. I’m on a Best of Europe in 21 Days Tour.

Hiking to the Ehrenberg Castle ruins with our group brought back memories of the 1970s, when I was a college kid taking gangs of eight through Europe in a minibus on our very first tours. Over years of experimentation, we discovered the fun sights that distinguish our tour program to this day. From this video clip, you can imagine how fun it is for me to share this amazing sight with our tour members 35 years later.

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

P.S. I’m on a Best of Europe in 21 Days Tour.

Way back in my student travel days, I discovered a handful of completely offbeat sights and experiences like the Ehrenberg Castle ruins in Reutte (in Austria’s Tirol), just across the border from the extremely popular and commercial “Mad” King Ludwig’s castles. To this day, we carefully balance the sightseeing on our tours, mixing the famous must-sees with undiscovered “Back Door” sights like these.

The Ehrenberg ruins are an example of the countless castles ruins rotting away on hilltops all over Europe. They’re free to enter and offer lots of medieval wonder to anyone hardy enough to hike up to the top. Imagine: You’re all alone in your own private castle ruins in the Alps of Austria.

A tour guide has to be careful not to exhaust the group. An experience like this is optional for our tour members. We’ve already had a full day of regular sightseeing. Those who are ready for a break are dropped off at the hotel. Then, the rest of us storm the castle.

Assistant tour guide Trish Feaster helps tour guide Reid Coen surprise our gang of thirsty knights by serving beer at the summit of our little mountain. By the way, many of the photos on this series of blog entries were taken by Trish (for her travel blog, see www.thetravelphile.com).

P.S. I’m on a Best of Europe in 21 Days Tour.

It’s important to balance a bus tour itinerary with both serious sightseeing and flat-out fun and exhilaration. And in Bavaria, that means a mountain luge ride (Sommerrodelbahn). We give a careful safety talk and, invariably, someone still drags their elbow on the side of the course and takes home a ripped coat or a nice long luge scab with which to ornament their trip journal. This little video clip gives you a peek at why this ride is a favorite with our groups — and why travel reminds me that it’s never too late to have a happy childhood.

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

P.S. I’m on a Best of Europe in 21 Days Tour.

Tour guides love to refer to Bavaria’s Ludwig II as “Mad” King Ludwig for building his three extravagant castles in the foothills of the Alps, here in the deep south of Germany. Every tourist seems to have his ultimate fairy-tale castle, Neuschwanstein, on their list.

Ludwig was a romantic king with artsy friends like the composer Richard Wagner. Ludwig, whose dream castle comes with rooms inspired by Wagner’s operas, ruled in an age of Bismarck and “Realpolitik.” Sadly, but perhaps not surprisingly, before he even finished Neuschwanstein, Ludwig was found dead, face-down, in a lake just south of Munich.

This hardy group of travelers started our Mad King Ludwig sightseeing with a group selfie from Mary’s Bridge, overlooking his castle.

Mary’s Bridge — quite an engineering accomplishment in its day (1866) — provides a commanding view of the castle (from where this photo was taken) and the idyllic Bavarian countryside.

After touring a couple of Romantic 19th-century castles, it’s time for a more thrilling 21st-century travel experience: the luge ride. Across the Alps, you can find various ski lifts jiggered to give travelers a few summertime thrills (and generate a little extra income). The luge ride is always a hit with our groups.

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.

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.