Rick Steves

A few years ago when we decided to take our first trip to Europe, a friend recommended the Rick Steves Guidebook. It was excellent, and since then we've accumulated several of them and swear by them. Over the years, when social conversations turn to travel, we have had many people tell us, "I don't know if you've ever tried a guidebook but ..." which in every case the person recommended Rick Steves. There are many on the market but none that I've heard about that is evangelized as much at Rick Steves. And in our travels we've had several "Rick Steves moments" from eating where he recommends, sleeping in the hotels he recommends and getting his discount, to seeing the distinctively colored guidebook in people's pockets to actually sitting beside one of his tour groups in a restaurant. But this one tops them all.
The Friese shop in Rothenburg Germany has Rick Steve's picture on the door. (see above) That is Rick with his arm around the owner. I walked in the door looking for camera batteries and the owner , Anneliese Friese, saw the book in my pocket and kept up a constant stream of stories about Rick. She met Steve when he was 17 traveling with his Dad, and has a picture of him as a kid. She actually drew the map of Rothenburg in Rick's book. She gave us a 10% "Rick Steve's discount", a map of the city, and a cloth shopping bag. She was so sweet. It was great!
While here in the UK, we are using the "Rick Steve's Best of Europe" as our guide, slowly checking off every country and major site in the book. The sites we saw in Germany, Switzerland and Amsterdam on our most recent trip were the 'must see' sites for those three countries. Interestingly (at least to me), I went through the whole book scoring every city based on the number of 3-star, 2-star, and 1-star sites to see, and the city that came out on top in all of Europe was ... (drum roll please) ... London. I never saw that coming.
My friends and family, if you are ever going to Disney World or Europe and need a guidebook ...