rick steves

For a person filled with wanderlust, such as I, Seattle is a great place to live, if only for the fact that Rick Steves and his travel posse are headquartered in Edmonds, WA. Several times a year, the Rick Steves folks host a daylong travel festival where you can attend several hour-long sessions on topics of your choice -- from mastering the rail systems in Europe, to the scenic wine country of Italy.

My first experience was last spring when I was doing all of my research for our Eastern European trip to Prague, Budapest and Croatia. An hour and a half slide show that not only helps you visualize the places you will be seeing in a few shorts months, but also tips and tricks for not being bombarded by all of the other American tourists who happen to be in Paris or London at the same exact moment you are.

With Eastern Europe in my rear view mirror, I have my sights set on an Scotland and Ireland itinerary to complement a trip to Manchester, UK in August for a high school friend's wedding.

Today happened to be another Rick Steves travel festival, and so at the crack of dawn I got up so that I could make the drive over to Edmonds and get a seat for the 9 am session on Ireland. I have a pretty good idea of what my itinerary will be, but am left to the availability of travel dates to and from Europe based on my frequent flier miles.

If I have a few days before the wedding, I could fly into London, then head up to Manchester, followed by two weeks of train tours through the Scottish Highlands and then over to the Irish coast hitting Belfast, Dublin and Cork along the way.

So knowing that I wasn't going to get deep into a three-week car trip around all of Ireland, I knew that much of what I would hear this morning would not be beneficial for my upcoming trip. But after seeing all of the amazing towns, landscape, and culture, I do think that I will have to plan an Ireland countryside vacation in my lifetime.

There was a few hour break before the next session on Great Britain began, and so I killed some time in quaint Edmonds looking through mom-n-pop shops, lunch at a Mexican restaurant, capped off with some tea at Starbucks.

For the Great Britain class, I was was more focused on hearing about Scotland, as I wouldn't really be spending much time checking out the English countryside or discovering Wales this time around. And so I was a little disappointed when the lecturer allotted only a few minutes at the end of his prepared talk to call out a couple of bullet points on Edinburgh and Glasgow. What about the Scottish Highlands? I've done so much research so far on Scotland and even have a seven-day train itinerary cooked up. Not even a mention. Seems to me that they need to break out Scotland from the rest of the session and really dedicate some time to the diverse towns and hidden gems.

Still, all in all, time well spent. I am a guidebook junkie, and so had to buy my Ireland and Great Britain guidebooks, along with pocketmap guides for Edinburgh and Dublin. I should find out next week the exact wedding date, and then I can really start planning the trip when I lock in my frequent flier airline ticket over there. And so starts the travel bug's project -- researching every train, bus, B&B and hostel recommendation known to man. Ah yes, the reason I earn a paycheck.