Monday, August 1, 2011

have you met rick steves?

preatergarten beer garden, mitte
we didn't think we'd post again for another couple of days. really, how many times would you like to read about the beers we drank or a museum we saw? tons of people go to berlin, it's not THAT exotic but...

we met up with dan and daniel again, this time at a beer garden we had targeted a long time back, which just so happened to be up the street from where we were staying. ok, if you'd like to know, the beers were 'prater pils,' 'prater lager schwarz,' and 'jever pils.' dan is seated across from me (russ) with his back to the door and all he sees is me raising my hand, looking past him and saying loudly "hey rick! how are you? great to see you!" there's rick steves walking in with a friend of his we've seen in some travel episodes. he seemed so familiar.

daniel, rick, russ, dan
as i'm sure most of you know, rick steves has been putting together travel books (take note of the rick steves book he's holding in his right hand) about europe for years, as well as tv episodes and radio spots, most of which we've seen and heard on public television and radio station kqed in san francisco. his was the first guidebook we took with us to rome in 2005.

although i think i initially confused him with my overly familiar greeting, i also thought, "he gets this all the time, i'm sure." rick was kind enough to come over after a little while, introduce himself, say hello and ask about who we all were, where we're from and what's next on our agenda. we gushed over aufsturz (see previous post regarding "freaking great beer bar") which just so happens to be in his latest berlin guidebook. rick said he'd just flown in from switzerland and was extremely exhausted which was extra cool of him to take a moment and say hello.

anyway, really great meeting someone who has provided us so much useful information over the years. and rick, if you're reading this, great to meet you!

next up: vienna. tomorrow we pick up our car at the main train station in berlin and attempt to drive out of the city and head south. should be an interesting experience and since we have three days to do so, we hope to poke around some backroads. we can add driving in europe to our small list of driving in other countries which only includes israel and japan, both pretty complicated places to drive. we have a volkswagen polo rented with a stickshift and no gps unit. wish us luck!

5 comments:

  1. how cool is that? what's funny is that just yesterday Nan stumbled onto rick steves' "Balkan Side Trips" episode and said 'Hey we have to watch this for Russ and Michelle!'. so we did.

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  2. I have watched MANY a Rick Steves program with my dad...I put on the PBS channel all the time when we were hanging out. I've learned a lot from the guy, and done a lot of armchair travel that way.

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  3. I think RS has a bunch of interesting things to say about travel. However, just found out this morning that he dissed South Wales. Not cool, Rick. Not cool.

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  4. You can google Rick Steves and Hallstatt to see the wonderful little town we were telling you about. Also we enjoyed the Melk Abbey and views of the Danube from there. RS talks about the Danube's Wachau Valley which also includes Durnstein, a town that is traffic-free and you have to walk up the hill to reach it but also has fabulous views. They claim Richard the Lion-Hearted was imprisoned there in 1193 and if you listen carefully outside the prison walls, you can still hear him composing the music to "Blondel"

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  5. thanks jan!

    we're pulling out of naila, germany this morning and heading south. since this is the walking capital of germany, or nearly that, we're looking at doing some ourselves. how much that cuts into our day will determine how far we get in the car later. i'll look at hallstatt and wachau... autobahn by way of melk is already on the list.

    russ

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