Rick Steves'
Best of Italy in 17 Days
2014 Tour Reunion
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it
sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things can not be
acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."
Mark Twain, Mark Twain: The Innocents Abroad/Roughing It
Long lines for classes at the Edmonds Theater
Prague Castle Orchestra members
with Belgian bus drivers.
Tour guide Gillian Chadwick speaking
about London/England tours.
This year's Tour Reunion caught us unprepared. With the holiday season just preceding it, we waited until the middle of December to finalize our plans. A month is just not enough time as we were to find out...
The tour classes are held in the Edmonds theater, therefore, seating is somewhat limited. One of the "Test Drive A Tour Guide" presentations we wanted to attend was already full, but we did manage to reserve a spot in two others. We had
no idea the impact this event has on the city of Edmonds each year! Several thousand people attend the various activities
and area hotels get booked early. Luckily, we were able to find a room in the neigboring town of Lynnwood, a fifteen minute drive away.
Our previous tours with Rick Steves have given us a certain amount of travel confidence, but each time we've returned from a tour we've learned a new packing tip or received advice that makes the next trip all that much more enjoyable. The travel classes we took here prepared us that much more for our anticipated Rick Steves tour of Paris and Eastern France this fall.
We were having such a good time that we were, literally, the last to leave the room!
Reminiscing with our guide and
fellow tour members.
A highlight of the evening for us was listening to Rick's impassioned speech on the importance of travel. We have found that our brief travels have allayed fears and given us a much broader understanding of history, people and cultures... more similarities than differences.
What a joy to see members of our
"tour family" again! Rick's small
group tours are conducive to building friendships and we still correspond with people we met on the tours we took three and four years ago.
