Time flies when you are having fun! The past few weeks, time has whizzing past us! Trying to slow down is like trying to hold in a fart, futile :p (very classy Ms.K, very classy)
The past few days, despite being knackered after the kids are in bed and sleep deprived, we have been packing in some time with our new found best friend, Rick Steves. Mr.C had not heard of him before and I have see his website for some travel info without actually ever seeing what he looked like. I imagined a early 30s backpacker with short, jet black hair, perennially donning a pair of Ray Bans and tattoo adorned arms, totally rocking his way through Europe. I did not imagine Rick Steves to be such a lovable chap killing the nerdy professor look!
Rick (because we are on first a name basis now) has a series of 25 minute videos on YouTube about European destinations (his geographic passion) that feels like the history lesson you wished you had in school. We’re completely enthralled with the videos, learning so much about the destinations we are interested in and giving us an idea of how much time we want to spend there and opening our eyes on how to enrich our travels. He infuses travel with cultural and historical tidbits that really gives destinations that much more depth.
Our biggest takeaway is to invest in a local guide that will give us more context to the history and the local culture. Walk us through the streets and engage in conversation. Reading guidebooks can only do so much. We don’t want to just see the sights whilst slow travelling and absorbing culture (we will have days for that), we want to widen our minds and deepen our appreciation for the places we visit. We want to understand the history behind the place, such as knowing that a lavish “hospital” commissioned by an English king was actually built for retired naval officers (the name hospital used in its’ original sense of providing hospitality vs. medical care) or that a famous park wasn’t actually intended to be a park but instead a high-income housing development project that flopped (Greenwich Hospital, London and Park Guell, Barcelona respectively).
Travel without appreciation for the history and getting immersed in the culture is like going to a 3D movie and deciding against the use of the 3D glasses or having the most delectable meal on a day you are having a bad cold. Your senses are muted.
Alas, I’ve been that kind of traveler! I watched Rick Steves’ video of London and felt some anger mounting up within me. I have been to London before (on a tour to boot!) however we whizzed past the sights on a bus with not very much information about the place. I didn’t even get my head around the local orientation. This was no way to travel, in a rigid and fleeting manner! To quote Anthony Bourdain, who has been making the news last week for all the wrong and sad reasons :
“I’m a big believer in winging it. I’m a big believer that you’re never going to find perfect city travel experience or the perfect meal without a constant willingness to experience a bad one. Letting the happy accident happen is what a lot of vacation itineraries miss, I think, and I’m always trying to push people to allow those things to happen rather than stick to some rigid itinerary.”
That tour I had in Europe left a lasting impact on me, to never again go on tours (with the exception of Beijing!). Over the years, we built our own travel style. We crafted our own itineraries and explored at our own pace. We still did the main sights in a location however at a pace we wanted, with enough time to take it all in visually. This then gravitated towards a more gastronomic experience in addition to the sights around amazing meals that we seek out – our travels thereon were always planned primarily around locations of great eats!
We’re on the brink of our next step of travel evolution, one that is digging our heels in to enjoy a much slower pace than 14 days of annual leave would allow with the deliberate focus on history. Hence the idea is to engage a local guide for a day or so in each city and also to do some groundwork beforehand to have some good meet-ups whilst in the travel destinations – this could be through forums / meetup.com / friends of friends / special interest groups / our readers / FIRE enthusiasts in Europe!
This does tie in with what I have spent some time thinking this week and last ~ what do we hope to gain out of our travels and what do we hope for the kids? How do we make the best of our travels to come back with a fuller appreciation of our world. One that humbles us further and stokes the fire of curiosity. Back in our 2016 Europe trip, we recalled how much we enjoyed the tour of Neuschwanstein Castle and how our lil’ man was front and center of the tour, all through. If we are going to be student of the world then we need to get plugged in on the lessons of the world.
On that note, I was thinking of curating some short 1 minute videos of our travels that I can share here. I’d like to capture our travels succinctly destination by destination and to keep the memories fresh, especially on the wonderful encounters or points of interesting conversation. Ambitious with 2 kids however it’s good to have goals! Yay or nay?
Author: Ms.K
Ms.K is everything that Mr.C is, without the natural interest in investing and company financials! The activity planner for the family, the driver of random ideas and soon to be ‘retiring’ in to full time motherhood – Ms.K has no idea what she’s in for but remains super excited!
Yay. Would love to watch the travel video to inspire us. Just stumbled across your blog and I am reading through the past posts slowly. Amazed by the FIRE goal.
Thanks for dropping by and for commenting NR! I’m glad the concept of FIRE resonates with you. I find that people tend to get the idea straight away or not at all. 🙂
Btw, do subscribe to our blog! That’s where we share more details of FIRE strategies and where we get our core readers to give feedback on new ideas that we have.
Definitely a yay! I always enjoy reading your blog, and I’d love to see your travel videos. Perhaps get a little inspiration from it too 🙂
I have a dislike for tour packages as well. I find that they pack too much into the itinerary, and leave very little time for us to explore the places visited. Tip: you can check out some free local walking tours as well – they exist in most major European cities and are run by local volunteers passionate about sharing their own city’s history and culture. Just google for “Free walking tour + city you are going to”.
Yeay to your yay! Haha 🙂 I’m being very ambitious to even suggest travel videos but then again, it sounds exciting and I think we might just be able to pull it off 🙂
Ditto re tour packages. Perhaps in some circumstances it can be good and for those who really like everything well planned and taken off their plate. We just prefer a different type of travel!
Thanks for that tip on walking tours, I came across it last year when I was researching how to explore the European cities we went to but have never really tried any. Have you tried? I think it’s a fabulous idea, I’ll write that down as I want to remember that as an avenue to explore a place. Thanks for reminding me!!