interview
If you only have five days, how can you use that time?
Steves tells you how. That’s what he does as a travel writer.
going beyond Orlando,” he says, pointing out to the one
travel guidebook in the United States that outsells his Italy
guidebook: the Disneyworld Guidebook. He knows he can’t
compete with that because as he says, for many Americans
travel is just la la land. “If you want to go through la la land
your whole life, and not get to meet the other 96 cultures of
humanity, that’s your choice. But, I think you’ve lost some-
thing.”
Now, is it safe to travel to Europe right now? I ask and
Steves chuckles, as he’s been getting that same question for
thirty years. When somebody tells him, “Have a safe trip!”
He replies, “Have a nice stay at home.” He feels that where
he’s going is safer than where you are staying. “We lose more
people per capita to murders than Europeans do. And sadly,
what Americans are doing is helping the terrorists do what
they want to do: bring fear to our cities. So, we owe it to
ourselves to not confuse fear and risk. Of course, it is scary.
But, what’s the risk?”
So, he’s trying to inspire Americans to reach out a little bit,
and for him Europe is a waiting pool for the world explo-
ration. So, that’s why he focuses on Europe, even though his
favorite country is India.
Steves takes 20,000 people to Europe every year. And while
some may consider the “safety question” and everything
going on over there, his ready reply is for them to consider
what’s going on here. So, yes, twenty people got killed in
Europe last month, he recalls. Well, there’s 400 million of
them. Twenty died. What about the United States?
A thousand people a month are killed on our streets.
When you travel, you get to see and experience other
cultures. I lived in Madrid, so I got to do things like a temporal
Spaniard. I got out and did the paseo [walking about] and
went to the Tapas. In essence, I experienced the culture. Be a
culture chameleon, Steves writes in his guidebooks. “In
England I drink tea, in Belgium I drink dark shaky beer made
my monks. In Czech Republic I drink a pilsener lager. In
Spain, I have a nice red wine and I’ll eat dinner a little later
because the locals eat dinner around ten at night,” he says.
Steves communicates just fine with the locals even though
he only speaks English, which is the world’s linguistic
common denominator.
The biggest part of his work is his tour program, taking
tourists throughout Europe every year through 900 different
tours. As he tells it, Europe is efficient, friendly, and safe.
“The big challenge we have is uptight Americans that watch
too many commercial news. And powerful forces, frankly, in
our society that would find it convenient if we are all
dummied down. It is easier to make money off of people
who are dummied down.”
For Steves, life on the road is gratifying. He feels like he is
contributing to mankind, and fundamentally he is teaching
people how to travel. How to pack light, how to catch a train,
how to get a good dinner, where to find affordable
accommodations, how to avoid the crowds… But more
importantly, he’s helping them appreciate the history,
culture, cuisine, and then on the pinnacle of travel needs is
finding those transformational ways, where people come
home probably more thankful than ever that they are
Americans, but at the same time better citizens of this
beautiful planet.
In his talks and in his books, he clearly states that you don’t
need to speak another country’s language to enjoy traveling.
But you do need to use what Americans call simple English.
Imagine if you are talking to a Spaniard who barely speaks
English, you would want to speak very slowly and enunciate
[a skill everyone could benefit from practicing] every letter
and assume he is reading your lips, wishing it was written
down, hoping to see every letter as it tumbles out of your
mouth, robotically, using internationally understood words,
no slang, and no contractions. “I have been traveling for
three decades and have noticed that this generation speaks
more English than ever,” he says. “If you are young and well
educated, you probably speak English.”
In keeping with La Posada tradition of
enhancing lives through exceptional cultural
experiences, the senior living community on
Monday, April 3 held the event, The Art of Living
Well Speaker Series – “Europe Through the
Back Door: Travel as a Political Act,” as part of
the exclusive series by Rick Steves, America’s most
respected authority on European travel.
La Posada is located at 11900 Taylor Dr. in Palm
Beach Gardens.
La Posada is a family-owned and -operated
community, providing exemplary service to their
residents, associates and partners delivered with
integrity and compassion, all in a warm, secure
and friendly environment.
To travel in a way that’s transformational, where you get
out of your comfort zone, is a beautiful thing. You get an
empathy for people who struggle, which you probably never
appreciated before. “My mission is to talk Americans into
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2017