Hi from Rick: Sharing a Wee Dram
 |
Dear Traveler,
At the top of Edinburgh's Royal Mile there's a touristy whisky-tasting experience that even includes a ride in a big whisky cask. I think of it as Malt Disney. At the bottom of that same street, there's a man I recommend in my Britain guidebook who bottles whisky (the Scottish drop the "e", the Irish keep it) for local connoisseurs. As I step into his shop, he points to a rack of famous-name whisky bottles. He tells me the distillery owners who produce these — with their names on the bottles — dearly love their whisky. But they don't drink it from those bottles. ("It's all been purified, colorized and standardized for the mass market.") Walking me across the room to a shelf of aged wooden casks, the big, tough Scotsman explains, "They drink it in the rough, out of casks like these. It's like getting your milk straight from the farmer."
He draws a wee dram for me, and I taste it. Whoa! Then he becomes suddenly gentle as, together, we pour a little spring water on it. He coaches me along: "Look at the impurities gathering in a happy little pool there on top…the water is like a spring rain on a garden…it brings out the character…the personality." Sipping this whisky with an expert, I see how Scotland's national drink can become, as they're fond of saying, "a very good friend."
A smoother, better-planned trip really helps you savor the "being there" pleasures of Europe. For example, along with my whisky experience this past summer I…welcomed exhausted-yet-exhilarated pilgrims at the finale of the Camino de Santiago in northwest Spain…cheered Lance Armstrong and all those behind him at the finish line of the Tour de France along the Champs-Elysées…had my favorite map eaten by an aggressive goat near one of Britain's otherwise friendly Cotswold villages… and was shamed by a French woman for not eating the ugly guts of a crab at a fancy restaurant.
After your next trip, would you rather be telling stories like these…or complaining about how expensive and stressful it all was?
At Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door, all sixty of us are eager to get your next trip off to a smart start, with this month's Travel News, freshly-updated guidebooks, a thrilling lineup of 2006 tours, and a new globe-trotting radio show with 26 hours of fresh new programming available everywhere free through podcasting.
Like that refreshing spring shower, we're here to help your travel dreams blossom into reality.
Happy travels,
Rick