Students in Seattle, Tacoma and elsewhere in western Washington head back to school next week. Chances are at least some of them will spend time talking to friends about what they did over their summer vacations. KNKX travel expert Matthew Brumley took his family to the United Kingdom and Taormina, Sicily. Over the summer, he was also nice enough to send us updates from both England and Italy.

If you live in Seattle, you’ve seen a lot of infrastructure pop up to accommodate bikes: Bike racks, then bike lanes, then bike traffic signals. Now there are bike sharing programs in the city. Getting around on two wheels is often more common outside the United States. KNKX travel expert Matthew Brumley says it can give people a new perspective when they’re visiting foreign cities.

Editor's note: An earlier version of the audio on this segment misstated the size of the state ferry system. Washington State Ferries is the largest ferry system in the country. KNKX travel expert Matthew Brumley was on a ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge Island when he heard something from a couple visiting from Kansas. "Sure is pretty around here," Brumley remembers one of them saying, "but wouldn't want to live here with all of this water."

The art museum in Chicago is often hailed as one of the nation’s best. But many of the city’s biggest works of art are along the river. The buildings of Chicago tell a story that spans the city’s history – from squat warehouses that once held goods for mail-order catalogs, to gleaming skyscrapers made of glass. The Chicago Architecture Tour has multiple departures each day from a dock on the south bank of the river, just beneath the Michigan Avenue bridge. The Chicago Architecture Foundation

We’ve all seen the books: An author picks up and moves to Europe, simple as that, rediscovers himself or herself, and then, after the book is out … so are they. Maria Cannavo, on the other hand, moved to Sicily about a dozen years ago and is still there. She spoke with Earthbound Expeditions co-founder Danna Brumley about why she stayed: “It was always in my mind and it was certainly always in my heart,” Cannavo said. In 2000, her family rented a villa in Tuscany. A good visit, she said, though

KNKX travel expert Matthew Brumley loves visiting Italy. In Taormina, Sicily, he was walking down a narrow street when he found himself drawn into a bakery full of cannoli.

In the heat of the British summer, many families escape their busy city lives for a calmer, cooler time near the sea. This week on Going Places , we find KNKX travel expert Matthew Brumley doing as the British do, in Cornwall.

Bastille Day, July 14, marked a turning point in the French Revolution in 1789. These days, it’s marked as a day of national celebration. We’re using it as a good reason to talk to our friend Elise Morin, who was born and raised in France and moved to the United States just a few years ago, at age 16, when her family came to open La Parisienne bakery in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood.

This story was originally published Jan. 16, 2014. So, you're planning the next big family vacation. There are a lot of questions to consider: Where to go, what to do, who to invite. In this encore presentation of Going Places , KNKX travel expert Matthew Brumley shares advice for families looking to travel together.

What does an experienced travel guide do when he's on vacation? Why, he signs up for a guided tour, of course. That's what KNKX travel expert Matthew Brumley did in Oxford, England, where he and his family have stopped on their summer vacation. He met Luke Makay, with Footprints Tours, who was nice enough to share some of his insights about Oxford and its famous university. It's hard to ignore the history of this place. Certainly the architecture transports you back in time. So too does the list