Running into Rick

My brother and his wife did, in Zurich a week or more ago, (they were not on a tour) they had to send me a picture with him. Seems he never tires of chatting with people on his tours or recognize him on the street.

I was of course a bit jealous, never happened to me in 26 years of travel (came close in Rome once I think), though on our trip in May, we had a Stanley Tucci sighting (or a spot on doppelganger) in Catania, at a restaurant, then afterward on the street. We let him have his peace though.

Not this summer but it can happen unexpectedly. A few years ago we were waiting in an Omaha airport for our Denver flight when my son very quietly asked, "Isn't that Rick Steves?" It was. He was sitting directly across from me -- almost bumping knees. He was in conversation with someone next to him that I assume was a staff members. From bits and pieces of their conversation, I think he had just finished a public appearance at the local Omaha PBS. I was very very tempted to thank him for his work with PBS and his travel guides but then thought I should let him have his privacy. I am sure he didn't wanted to make small talk with a passing stranger. We boarded a few minutes later and lost him in the mob a couple hours later in Denver.

Patty your are correct in that most people around him gave no indication of recognizing him. I am never sure of the proper protocol in that situation.

Our Sacramento Travel Group has manned the phones at our local PBS station during pledge drives a couple of times. Rick was actually there for one of them and was very friendly, answered some questions and took a picture with us.

I have never run into Rick. However, driving early one Saturday morning, during the former "Test Drive a Tour Guide" events held in Edmonds, Rick very nearly ran into me. On that morning, The Travel Guru must have left his driving skills at the breakfast table. A very close shave, as my Uncle Augie would say.

I met him years ago on a TSA line at Seatac, we chatted briefly, I thanked him for his work and asked if he had any tips/tricks for getting through TSA (he didn't). He was with a staff person, heading to Europe presumably. I didn't worry about disturbing him since we were both just standing in line. He was perfectly cordial. Anyone who's seen his shows knows he's an extrovert, and if he were sensitive about his privacy he wouldn't be on TV every week or putting his name and face on his company and all the gear it sells.

Not this summer, but once on the Edmonds fishing pier. Seemed he and Shelley were doing the same thing my wife and I were doing, an after dinner stroll. Chatted with him a few minutes. Oddly we seemed to be the first to recognize him and we were near the end of the pier.

The closest we ever got was running into his tour groups in Prague, Granda, and this past May in Rome. I have read that sometimes he takes a tour but no luck.

I was a few steps behind him crossing Market Street in San Francisco several years ago. He was wearing a beautiful leather coat. I noticed the coat before I noticed who was wearing it! He was in town for a PBS event.

I saw him back in 1989 when he was just starting out. I lived in Seattle for a year, was going to travel in Asia after that, and he gave a talk about “Asia Through the Back Door” in a random U of Washington classroom. I remember that it was an interesting talk, and the dirty look he gave me when I said I wasn’t going to buy his Asia book as I had already checked it out from the library.

This wasn’t a completely random run-in, as we were attending a scheduled talk thru one of our Denver PBS stations. This was shortly after 9/11, and Rick was doing a speaking tour, encouraging Americans to travel after the horrible event. Sitting next to a slide projector that was on a stand way down the aisle from the stage up front, Rick came over to check/adjust the projector, and so I was six inches from him. He was working, so I didn’t say anything at the moment.

He’d laid out a table before the stage with guidebooks and maybe other travel materials (we didn’t go up to check it out). At the beginning of his presentation, he asked the people who’d walked off with books to please return them to the table, as they weren’t free samples, just examples.

Towards the end, he asked for questions. I asked what he thought about Morocco, a destination we’d been thinking about for a year or two. He said, “Morocco? Hmmm … I’d maybe wait awhile on that.” So he was advocating for travel despite the uncertainty, but not just to anywhere. We eventually reached Morocco in 2019.

In Poland last spring, we were staying at a B&B in Warsaw along with a Rick Steves tour … the first time we’ve knowingly run across any, anywhere.

Seen and spoken to him at various Wash DC travel shows back in the late 90s/early 00s, but never "ran into" him as his talks were a big reason we going to the shows in the first place. He's definitely an extrovert, so never surprised to hear he is out chatting folks up.

ran into him about 25 or so years ago coming out of a cheese shop in Rue Cler

Never run into Rick but then we travel less than most on these boards.

We did accidentally crash an RS tour breakfast in Madrid. We exited the elevator on the way to breakfast and a woman got on and said "breakfast is to the right", so that's where we went. It was a very strange room, obviously not the real breakfast room, and everyone seemed to know each other. We weren't alone in the crashing; several other people found their way there. Not until we left did we see the sign indicating it was a tour breakfast.

I've also heard he occasionally takes a tour. We've done one RS tour and I couldn't decide if it would be awesome if he was part of it or if it would change the dynamic for the worse. And we had an amazing dynamic in our group.