Willkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome! Fremder, Etranger, Stranger Gluklich zu sehen. Je suis enchante. Happy to see you. Bleibe. Reste. Stay. Willkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome! Im Cabaret, Au Cabaret, To Cabaret. Cabaret The famed Broadway musical Cabaret starts with this greeting. Based on the Christopher Isherwood novel Goodbye to Berlin, Cabaret confronts the realities of the huge Berlin…
Sitting in the Music Room, I find myself moved to tears, and not for the first time today. A small circle of seats and a projection on the wall are the sole features of the room, but it an emotional sensory experience. Beethoven’s beautiful Moonlight Sonata is playing over a speaker, and the projection shows…
He is to German what Shakespeare is to English: the master, a writer who transcends mere language to become a cultural and national icon, spoken of with reverence. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is considered the master of the German language. And this is where he was born. The house feels out of place on a…
It is, without a doubt, a beautiful afternoon in Los Angeles. Warm - it is in the low 80s at noon on this July day - but with a gentle breeze, it is the sort of day you just want, you just need, to be outside. The sky is a deep blue, and I am…
I’ve walked these streets a hundred times or more. Probably a lot more. And yet here I am, finding myself learning about new features I had never before noticed. I am here in Old Town Pasadena for a walking tour organized through the Pasadena Museum of History. The tour is focused on “saloons and speakeasies,”…
Seattle, Washington. The unofficial capital and most important city economically in the Pacific Northwest. Or, for many who have never been, that city way up there in the corner. Well, it might be in the corner of the continental US, but Seattle is worth visiting, even though its location can make it a bit of…
Editor’s note: Vancouver is seriously one of the most wonderful places in the world. My guide, which you can see here, covers some of the same places as this beautiful piece by Sam Spector, although he fills in some important gaps. This is one of the reasons I love having other voices on The Royal…
The early 1960s were a very exciting time, especially as it pertains to exploration beyond the planet. Sputnik had launched in 1957, and with it launched the space race. So when Seattle was chosen to host the 1962 World’s Fair, it only made sense to have it with a theme of the space age. The…
There’s an excitement in the air that can only come from people hungrily waiting for food, searching rows of stalls for the next morsels on which to dine. The music is loud, just barely drowning out the sound of my stomach rumbling. It is hardly 5pm, and already the place is crowded, although the line…
Editor’s note: we are so lucky to have Hedy Maessen here at The Royal Tour. While over time she will share her world travels with us, her focus so far has been on her home: The Netherlands. That insider view is one that sets us apart! For more of Hedy’s writing, click here to visit…