Rick Steves - Rick Steves Postcards from Europe: Travel Tales from Americas Favorite Guidebook Writer

Avalon Travel

a member of the Perseus Books Group

1700 Fourth Street

Berkeley, CA 94710

Text copyright 2009 by Rick Steves

Maps copyright 2009 by Europe Through the Back Door. All rights reserved.

Second edition. Second printing May 2009.

Printed in the United States of America by R.R. Donnelley

ISBN-13: 978-1-59880-361-7

The Library of Congress has cataloged the previous edition as follows: Steves, Rick, 1955

Rick Steves Postcards from Europe: 25 years of travel tales from Americas favorite guidebook writer / Rick Steves.

p. cm.

1. EuropeDescription and travel. 2. Steves, Rick, 1955JourneysEurope.

1. Title: Postcards from Europe.

D923 .S82 1999

914.0455dc21

98-45399

CIP

Europe Through the Back Door Managing Editor: Risa Laib

Avalon Travel Editors: Madhu Prasher, Kelly Lydick

Production: Jane Musser

Cover Design: Kimberly Glyder Design

Interior Color Insert Design: Rhonda Pelikan

Interior Design: Janine Lehmann

Color Insert Photography: Rick Steves, Dominic Bonuccelli, Gene Openshaw, Laura VanDeventer, Robyn Cronin, Rob Unck, David C. Hoerlein, Katherine Karnow

Other Photography: Rick Steves, unless otherwise noted

Map: David C. Hoerlein

Distributed to the book trade by Publishers Group West, Berkeley, California

For the latest on Ricks lectures, guidebooks, tours, public radio show, and public television series, contact Europe Through the Back Door, Box 2009, Edmonds, WA 98020, tel. 425/771-8303, fax 425/771-0833, .

While some names, characters, and situations are fictitious, this book is accurate in spirit.

TRIP ITINERARY

I was exploring an idyllic bay in a remote chunk of the Mediterranean coastlineit could have been just about anywhere. According to legend, local fishermen saw St. Mary in the reef and began a ritual of dropping a stone on the spot every time they sailed by. Eventually an island was created, and upon that island, the people of that bay built a fine little church.

Curious, I hired a guy with a dinghy to ferry me out and was met by a young English-speaking woman who gave me a tour. In the sacristy hung a piece of embroiderya 25-year-long labor of love made by a fishermans wife. It was as exquisite as possible, lovingly made with the finest materials available: silk and the womans own hair. I could trace her laborious progress through the line of cherubs that ornamented the border. As the years went by, the hair of the angels (like the hair of their devout artist) turned from dark brown to white. Humble and anonymous as she was, she had faith that her work was worthwhile and would be appreciatedas it was today, two centuries later, by a traveler from a distant land.

Ive been at my work, collecting anecdotes like this from my travels, for over 35 years now. I also have faith that, like the fishermans wife, my work (if not my hair) will be appreciated. Thats perhaps being less humble than the woman, but, in that wayshe reminded me of me. Her devotion to her creation (as well as to her creator) has helped inspire me to do both good and lasting work. While traveling, Im often struck by how learning the story of other people and cultures inspires and gives meaning to life.

I didnt take a photograph of the embroidery. For some reason, I didnt even take notes. At the moment, I didnt realize I was experiencing the highlight of my day. The impression of the womans loving embroidery neededlike a good red winetime to breathe. That was a lesson for me. I was already mentally onto the next thing. When the power of the impression opened up, it was rich and full-bodiedbut I was long gone. If travel is going to have the impact on you that it should, you have to climb into those little dinghies, you have to reach for the experiencesthe best ones wont come to you. And you have to let them breathe.

Postcards from Europe is a travel guidebook in disguise. Rather than listing good hotels and tips on museums, its a collection of stories designed to demonstrate the importance of connecting with magic moments in your travels and then letting these experiences breathe.

Before bringing out a tenth anniversary edition of Postcards from Europe, I reread it to consider its timeliness. It became clear to me: The lessons and stories in this booktravel experiences from the days before ATMs, euros, cell phones, and taking off your shoes at airport security linesare still vivid and applicable. While the world has changed since I wrote this book in 1999, the value of travel has not. In fact, I believe its become even more important to gain a broader perspective through travel. And now that my college-aged children are backpacking on their own through Europe, its affirming to see the positive impact their travels have had on their young lives.

Squinting at the jam-packed postcards I mailed home on my early Europe Through the Gutter trips, I realize that even as a teenager, I was bursting with a desire to bring home the lessons learned from my travels. Those postcards morphed into journals, then guidebooks, then public television and radio shows. With the amplification brought by digital-age technology and my hard-working staff of 80, my travel writing is reaching a wider audience than ever. My hope is that the 12 million Americans who venture to Europe annually can learn from my experience and travel smarter.

Im working enthusiastically to bring home a broader perspective and appreciation of our world. We made a public-television special on traditional European Christmas celebrations to inspire a simpler, more thoughtful holiday season here. We produced a TV special on Iran to help humanize that country. Im a busy spokesman for advocating a more pragmatic drug policy that, like Europes, treats drug abuse as a medical rather than criminal problem, and focuses on harm reduction instead of imprisonment. My weekly public-radio program is aired by more than a hundred stations, bringing thought-provoking snippets of our world to countless people who dont have passports. I still step out of any of Europes train stations like a novice, looking for a cabbie to rip me off so I can learn that scam and take the lessons home to share. And I am continuously inspired by people I meetpeople with nowhere near the freedom, affluence, and opportunity Im blessed with as an Americanwho wouldnt trade passports. They dont have the American dream. They have their own dream. Life is more meaningful, fulfilling, and flat-out fun when you celebrate rather than fear the diversity on this planet.

Europe is the wading pool for world exploration. Splash around with my favorite friends, encounters, and experiences collected in this bookdistilled and woven into a dream trip covering what I think is the most exciting introductory loop through Europe. Then, its my hope that youll be confident and inspired to push off into the deep end for adventures that bring your life as much joy and meaning as my travels have brought to me.

Rick Steves

January 2009

In Holland, being ordinary is being prudent. If you grow above the grain, youll get your head cut off. We dont have a Michael Jackson or Madonna. Even our queen prefers to do her own shopping.

Im flying Seattle to Amsterdam over the pole. No matter what concerns and troubles fill my workaday life, my plane leaves them grunting and tripping over each other on the hometown runway.