WWRD?

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Today I ventured up to Edmonds to the Europe Through the Back Door Travel Store. (The fact that EBTD seem to be steadily rebranding themselves to be Rick Steves' Whatever is kind of too bad, but it's going to save me a lot of certain people's snickering whenever I talk about them.) I bought my German Railpass there last month and scored a coupon for 20%!o(MISSING)ff merchandise, so after some deliberation and comparison-shopping I came away with:

• Germany & Austria 2005 guidebook
  
• Prague & Czech Republic 2005 guidebook
  
• Clean Kit: 2 microfiber washcloths and 2 oz. of Travel Wash in a handy carrying case
  
• Continental Europe plug adapter
  
• The infamous moneybelt
  
• Yet another free planning map
  

I spent some time last year being a hard-core Rick junkie. I even twisted my itinerary into a pretzel trying to accommodate Rothenburg ob der Tauber before I realized I don't care about it, nor the Romantic Road really, nor the whole stereotypical Bavarian half-timbered lederhosen-clad thing which Rick often treats as the end-all-be-all of a German vacation. (He also couples Germany and Austria very tightly with Switzerland, although thankfully they've split the tour books apart as of this year.)

Thus began my journey of Rick-questioning and Rick-doubts. Basically I've figured out that he values different things in travel than I do: he's into meeting locals, particularly small-town and rural locals, and he's way into art and art museums. I'm most interested in history, architecture, monuments and ruins (all but the latter being concentrated in large cities), I'm only slightly more outgoing abroad than at home (which is to say, not at all), and I like some art but barely tolerate the rest. Rick urges travelers to take a deep breath and get extroverted; I'm not sure to what extent I'll take that advice. Fortunately, I have a built-in native friend with whom I'll be traveling for most of the journey!

I picked up the guidebooks despite my Rickian misgivings. I do think the lists of personally-pre-screened mostly-English-speaking family-run pensions and Zimmern will make those purchases well worth it. Besides, now that I know how to filter his "must see" and "don't bother" advice for myself, even the descriptions of sights will be helpful.

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