for the vast majority of the ten years i’ve been traveling europe, i’ve been an absolute rick steves fan. scratch that, disciple. on my very first europe trip, which took place in august 2004, i and a couple friends went through a local travel agency. and why not? it wasn’t very common at the time to plan your own trips and i was pretty green to the whole backpacking thing. she turned me on to the books of the local (washington state) hero and fellow UW alum, rick steves, and for many years i followed his itineraries absolutely by the book. on some trips, if rick (yeah, i feel comfortable…