A Bus Load of Americans

For the past 20 years I've been taking Americans (mainly high school students aged 15-18, but also sometimes adults) around Europe on educational tours.  I sit at the front of the bus, with my microphone, take them to Versailles or Neuschwanstein Castle, and do my bit for the European tourism industry.  I therefore thought I'd blog about it a bit!

Supporting European Travel in Pisa

Travel Free in Europe and Get Paid for It

So how on earth did I get in to this? I saw a poster at college: "Travel free in Europe, and get paid for it" it announced.  As someone who speaks 5 languages, loves Europe with a passion, and who was at that point prepared to cycle 3 miles to save 20p on a can of baked beans, this sounded pretty alluring to me.  I went for the interview, did the training, and got the job.

ZOMG I still remember the moment my first group arrived.  There were 48 of them.  I was at Frankfurt airport.  I nearly shat myself.  This was *seriously* scary stuff. I was just 20: some of the kids were 18 years old.  We were going on a 10 day tour ("Bavarian Spring") of Rothenburg, Munich, Innsbruck, Lucerne, and Heidelberg.  I'd been to erm, Munich once, for 2 hours.  The rest I'd spent ages swotting up on, learning maps, learning history, preparing notes.  In most places I got the chance to dash round before giving a city tour.... in Innsbruck I had to do it straight off, reading my encoded notes in Dutch (which I knew no one would understand...) "Turn right at the Golden Roof, that must be the Hofkirche in front of you."  I pulled it off though, and the buzz was enormous.

One of my groups at Hohenwerfen Castle, Austria

We'd been out on a coach during training, but the first time I picked up the microphone I descended into a cold sweat.  Their little faces were watching me.  I was welcoming them to Germany: there was no escape: we would be together for days.  Anything could happen.  And oh, the things that have happened on these tours.

After my first two tours I moved company.  The new one is much better quality, much better organised, and they were far less likely to send me to places I didn't actually know.  I've been with them since 1993, over time moving on to interviewing and training people to become tour managers, representing the company at PR weekends, working for a time in Atlanta, being part of a tour manager focus group, actually designing new tours, - this all through my career as a City Solicitor and my current job.  I just *love* it.  It's my part-time thing: I squeeze in tours and commitments when I can, but I don't think I'll ever stop.  It's the most challenging, exciting, enjoyable thing I've ever done.

Musicians of Bremen: a group of young kids from Harlem

What's the Job Like?

So what IS it like being with a group of young Americans?  Well they're up for it.  They're up to have a good time, they're up for learning about the places you're going to,  they're fun, they can be loud, they are confident, warm, lovely.  I adore them.  They aren't cynical and whiny as I imagine British teens might be.  They want to have fun, and they will tell you when they are doing so.

Me and my mike on the coach!

I must have taken around 2000 Americans on tours of Europe: small town kids from Mississippi, street-wise New Yorkers, laid back Californians, Bible Belt Ohio kids who held a church service on the bus - I've had them all.  Any "Anti-American" feeling you have vaporises in seconds.  You realise just how stupid prejudices about a nation of 300 million individuals can be, and indeed are.

I've been to 18 countries and a grand total of 160 cities, towns or places with my kids, from Bergen in the North, down to Rome in the South  They're not "rich" kids, but they're the ones who place an importance on travelling: at 16 they could just have had a new or fancier car: instead they or their families choose to spend $2000 or $3000 on a trip to Europe.  Some have worked years flipping burgers for the trip.  This will be the only time they leave the United States in their entire lives.  A staggering estimated 80% of Americans do not even have a passport.

Goofing round on Mount Titlis... appropriate :)

I know I'm only in effect seeing the "good ones" - but my impressions of US kids genuinely give me a lot of hope for the future.  I'm a passionate believer in the value of travel: it opens eyes, changes perspectives, builds bridges and literally can change lives.

 Education, Education, Education!

These are educational tours.  The kids are capable of going to Versailles, having a group photo and leaving again.  Alternatively, you can fire them up, interest them about where they're going.  You can stand there and say "I talked to you about the French Revolution... the cause of it? In large part it's behind me!"  You can bring to life Gothic architecture by building a church out of kids at Salisbury Cathedral to show them how flying buttresses work.  Try enthusing them about this back in a classroom in Kansas - I have a church right there and one of the kids will be my gargoyle.  They'll never forget the fun of being part of the demonstration in a place they don't know.

Education, but also chuck in some fun!

You have a *captive audience* to tell them about 19th century bastards: Napoleon, Metternich, Bismarck- you can enthuse, excite, share your love about European history and places with kids, many of whom have never been abroad and possibly never will travel again.

You can talk about European socialised medicine (it's not -actually- evil you know)...  point out that people on the other side of the Iron Curtain were as afraid of us as we were of them...  that history and politics are nuanced... and you can deftly run through 2000 years of architecture, politics, art and history in 10 minutes with the aid of Euro banknotes.  You can tell them why the Holocaust matters and what we can learn from it.  What's more, they're stuck on the coach as you talk, so there's NO escape. Mwahaha.

Making Mozart Chocolates in St Gilgen

We do all sorts of "cultural connections" too - they actually take a class in waltzing in Vienna, learn how to paint in Cezanne's style during a class in Provence, do a theatre workshop in the West End, or take a 20s style Berlin cookery class.  You get to be part of this very "hands on" experience.  It is magic, and I love it.

Logistics and Emergencies

Education is one part of the job; the other aspects are logistics and emergencies.  The company makes all the bookings: we stay in lovely 3 or 4 star hotels in superb locations and eat excellent local food.  However, I have to make sure we arrive at all the places, I double-check all the reservations, and I'm in charge of all the timings.  If I'm doing my job correctly they won't realise it, because it will all run smoothly.  If we turn up for our visit to the Pergamon museum in Berlin and the doors are shut that day, though, I've got egg splattered all over my chops.

The dreaded "Train Experience" with a big group

Emergencies can be mental.  Anything can happen: I've had lost kids, lost passports, lost suitcases, an adult who had a heart-attack, problems with coach drivers, home-sick kids, broken limbs, 22 hour days - on my last tour I had to on my own book train tickets from Warsaw to Cracow for the entire group of 30 with one hour to go because our driver was out of action and the tour had to go on, get them on the train with all their luggage, make sure they'd visited a supermarket for lunch, get them from the hotels to the stations without a coach, and all without speaking hardly a word of Polish.

You're a teacher, a diplomat, a problem-solver, a friend to the students and a sergeant major all rolled into one.

One of my lovely students @lilplushy on Herrenchiemsee

Music As Well

I also take music tours - my single highlight of 2010 was a Californian choir who on the way back from a concert outside Bratislava sang *me* (yes, little me) "Don't Stop Believing" as we drove along the Danube at night.  (Coincidentally) fire works were going off to mark the opening of the new Hilton Hotel.

IT WAS A WALKING SINGING REAL LIFE GLEE EXPERIENCE *passes out*

My "Glee" group on a boat in Prague <3

My choirs and orchestras have performed in the Haydn room of Esterhazy palace, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Tosca church in Rome, St Stephen's Cathedral in Budapest - these are world class venues.  What an amazing experience for the students.  The music tours can be huge: the largest group I ever took round was 167.  There were three of us tour managers working together.  I had 67 on my bus alone.  We ate in the same restaurant every night - imagine how long it takes just to get them from A to B and the loudness of your voice to try to "herd" them from place to place.

Recruiting Now

If you know anyone who wants a challenging, rewarding, amazing, fulfilling and fabulous job - the company I work for is looking for new tour managers for 2012 currently.  It's the best student job imaginable and is also superb for part-time freelancers who have a couple of weeks available a year. You can apply here.  You get your travel paid for, your hotels and food provided, and the remuneration is actually extremely generous (Americans take tipping very seriously, and the strictly adhered to amount is $5 per person per day. Do the maths on a big group on a 14 day tour).

Cracow, Poland: LOOK at their little happy faces!

Imagine a job where you can have a profound effect on the way a young person will relate to their surroundings outside the comfort zone of the world they know.  Imagine the fun (and terror) of having a microphone in your hand.  Imagine explaining Impressionism to people who have never even heard of it, sending them into the Musée d'Orsay to look at the paintings, and asking what they thought of it afterwards.  Imagine an 18 year old New Jersey boy called Nick writing you a note at the end of the trip that simply says "Thank you, Peter.  This has been the best week of my entire life".  Don't know about you bunch of hard sods, but I cried.

I'm not even getting a kick back for this blog - I just recommend it as the best job I have ever done, by a mile.  If the above has interested you, give it a go!  People from all backgrounds do it: it is extremely challenging, but that is the reason the rewards are so great.  Again, I love it.

Lolz: Visegrad Castle in Hungary