Rick Steves’ trip to Europe in 1973

My second trip to Europe was in the summer of 1973 for 5 weeks. This was the trip I first visited Paris , which I knew I would obviously return to on subsequent trips, Prague, Frankfurt, and Nürnberg. Except for Paris, it was a solo trip.

RS postcard is dated 8/7/73, by which time I had been back in SF 2 days before.

Thank you, Marvelous Mardee! Good stuff.

Fred, that's interesting - I wonder if you ran into him at any point. Was your hair as long as his? :)

BigMike, you're welcome! I think I'm going to have my siblings start calling me that. :)

Awesome 👍

They couldn't look more like a couple of Northwest kids! And Steve's already has his trademark writing style.

I'm surprised that a long line of posters haven't already stepped in to tell him to slow down, he's missing the real Rome and not enjoying himself with an agenda that packed ;)

BigMike, you're welcome! I think I'm going to have my siblings start
calling me that. :)

Just out of curiosity, is Mardee Irish? I share my backyard fence with a friendly neighborhood Maridee who is decidedly Irish including her name.

Just out of curiosity, is Mardee Irish? I share my backyard fence with a friendly neighborhood Maridee who is decidedly Irish including her name.

Hank, I'm not sure of the origins. I do have a bit of Irish in my on my mother's side but just a small amount. My real name is actually Mary Margaret and when I was 3 months old, my mother saw an article in the paper about a local high school girl named Mardee, and decided to call me that. So I've never been called Mary outside of that first 3 month period. :) Well, there were the nuns in grade school who refused to call me that - one of them told me the name was heretical. She was the same person who also told my class that "Laugh in" was a Communist plot to overthrow the country. As you might be able to tell, my grade school experience was not the best, lol!

@ Mardee....Most likely not in running into RS during the 1973 trip. Except for Berlin , stayed in all hostels. His postcard was sent from Italy. I wasn't there as my trip concentrated on France, Germany and Prague, ie first time in a Communist country.

Fred, that must have been quite an experience. I graduated from high school in 1973 and wanted so badly to travel overseas, but I just did not have the resources.

Great Catholic school anecdote Mardee, those nuns could really be something back in the day :)

@ Mardee....."...but I just did not have the resources." I've been there too, admittedly, an awful feeling.

Doing this second trip in July 1973, I was 23, a backpacker, with just barely the resources in practical terms re: buying power (Kaufkraft) since the US $ had dropped ie, weaker relative to the German DM compared to two years prior. Being in Prague in 1973 meant it was 5 years after the Soviet invasion of the country in Aug. 1968.

Visiting there meant mandatory entrance visa for Czechoslovakia, (I got that in Paris), mandatory daily exchange for the duration of your visit in the country itself, an intense border check in Cheb, the former Eger in the Sudentenland, which was the first station across the West German border, with armed troops in their ill-tailored uniforms and dogs, milling about on the platforms...lovely and just as seen in the movies.

Signs were tri-lingual, Czech, Russian , and German. The Czechs used German as the lingua franca, demonstrating their linguistic utility, as did the other east-bloc countries.

I didn’t make it to Europe until 1977. Things have definitely changed. Rick emulating the Do Dah man.

Rick Steves at the age of 18 in 1973 was obviously destined for his career. I am not sure about the rest of you, but I can't imagine at the age of 18 thinking about let alone going to an opera, let alone two. I just wonder how he planned his trip and how long the planning took. Based on his postcard he broke every rule in his book he would later write about pacing yourself and expecting to return.

Rick's father owned a piano store; I think he was also trained as a piano tuner. Rick taught piano lessons for a while; I think that was his original career plan. (The things you learn during PBS pledge drives...)