December Tour News
Hi from Rick: Europe’s Timeless Cities
Isn't it a delight to revisit a timelessly engaging city…only to discover how much it's changed?
I returned to London earlier this year to update my London guidebook and prepare to film a TV special next year. My takeaway: It's impossible to be truly "up to date" here. London is a perennial work-in-progress; it's changing all the time.
"The City" (the one-square-mile financial center) — once a ramshackle slum of Cockneys, Charles Dickens, and Jack the Ripper — has sprouted a forest of glittering skyscrapers. Twiggy and the Beatles wouldn't recognize a single shop on the "Swinging '60s" artery of Carnaby Street…but they might love how the Millennium Bridge has become a wobbling path of quirky art, with finely painted wads of chewing gum trampled into the walkway… Read more
