Almost an exact repeat of guidebook research in 2018, I knew updating the next edition of Rick Steves’ Portugal would be a big job. I’d already shown my friend John around a few places in May & seen big changes. No choice but to dive in!
Read More »portugal: guidebook research 2022
After a two year break, I’m on the road again! The book department —as Rick Steves himself put it— has a herculean task ahead of themselves this year: update each & every guidebook the company publishes. We all have our work cut out for us. In fact, this is just the first part of my schedule. I’ll be updating the entire Portugal book in June & July. But let’s not jump the gun…
Read More »spain: guidebook research 2022
Oh, what could have been. After the Rick Steves reunion in January, the book department & I began working on my research schedule for this year. I’d expressed a desire to do more book work in 2020… although not as well paid as guiding tours, I love the flexibility + the opportunity to add my own text (when approved!). Rick has the final say in all his guidebooks, but the collaborative publishing effort every year is great fun. COVID-19 put an end to those plans. However, I’m not one to break tradition, so I thought I’d share what might have been an incredible research year.
Read More »guidebook research 2020?
Back to Buenos Aires! Not literally… but I just realized I hadn’t reposted a popular series from the previous version of this blog. From 2007 to be exact. Back when my only internet presence was line of sight, I wrote one of the most widely read, English-language blogs about Buenos Aires. While I researched early housing projects in the city, I also began looking up & paying attention. I saw more domes than I’d ever noticed before…
Read More »buenos aires: domes
The ongoing book research saga continues, but this time with an all-new destination: Italia! That’s right… a country where I don’t speak much of the language & to places I’d never visited before. Uh-oh. My mood often ran between excited & apprehensive, so to laugh about the day’s events I tweeted once daily as I tend to do. Really anything to maintain a bit of connection with the real world. Come along as I relive those crazy two & a half weeks.
Read More »italy: guidebook research 2019
Why would someone from the southern USA who grew up in a non-religious family decide to write a guide about Catholicism in Lisbon? A good question that begs to be answered…
Read More »writing: catholic heritage, lisbon