My New Travel Memoir Is Here! — The Temporary European

I have some exciting news to share: I wrote a book!

OK, I write a lot of books…but those are mainly Rick Steves guidebooks. This one’s special: It’s more personal, more vivid, more fun. It’s a memoir of my 20-plus years of working alongside Rick and the rest of our team, spending 100 days each year all over Europe, getting to know wonderful Europeans and learning from them. It’s called The Temporary European: Lessons and Confessions of a Professional Traveler. And it’s now on sale at Ricksteves.com (and will be available on Amazon.com and at bookstores nationwide, and as an e-book, on February 1).

Many of us found creative ways to make the most of the pandemic. In my case, by the summer of 2020, it was becoming clear that I wouldn’t be going back to Europe anytime soon. Facing a long, gloomy winter of trying to stay busy with not very much to do, I decided to take a sabbatical from the Rick Steves’ Europe home office and finally pursue a dream that I’d been mulling over for years.

And that’s how, last winter, I spent several months fully focused on my manuscript. It was a strange time: On my first day off work, I awoke to news of successful COVID vaccine trials. But in the several weeks it took those vaccines to arrive, the US saw a grisly winter surge that kept us feeling more isolated than ever.

In my case, being in pandemic limbo was just fine — maybe even ideal — for reliving my European travels since I first spent a semester abroad in Salamanca, Spain, in 1996 (a story I recount in the book). Many of us who love to travel found that having to stay home for a while was the perfect opportunity to reflect on why we have this inexplicable urge to go out and experience the world. As my book took shape, I wrestled with those questions.

Most of The Temporary European is drawn from many years’ worth of my blog posts, some of which you may have already read. This was a great opportunity to revisit those stories — some of them typed out in the middle of night in a dreary European hotel room — and make them sharper and more focused. And as those chapters firmed up, I realized I also needed some connective tissue. So I finally got around to writing down many stories that have lived only in my memory until now. As I organized all those stories — old and new alike — themes emerged that tied them all together. Through that exercise, I learned a lot about myself as a traveler, about travel in general, and about how I want to travel even more mindfully in the future.

The Temporary European is two books in one. First, it’s a travel memoir — a “greatest hits” of my favorite travel tales from a quarter-century of exploring Europe. Many of the stories focus on Europeans who have made a big impact on my travels (and my life): Tina, the Slovenian tour guide who has made me a part of her family — and gets me thinking about how I interact with my own. Fran, my host-brother in Salamanca, who taught me how Spaniards eat acorns but never corn on the cob. Alma, who transforms the simple act of sipping a cup of Bosnian coffee into a cultural and philosophical epiphany. Siniša, who is determined not to let the rising tide of international tourism spoil his home island of Hvar. Isabella and Carlo, whose idyllic Tuscan agriturismo perfectly embodies Europe’s marriage between traditional and modern. And many others.

The stories capture the giddy excitement of simply experiencing Europe: Spending a drizzly day at an endearingly small-town Highland Games in rural Scotland. Hiking high in the Swiss Alps, entirely alone with grazing cows. Trekking across a mysterious moor, past wild ponies, to an ancient stone circle in Dartmoor National Park. And — because I’m a travel teacher at heart — many stories also sneak in some Trojan-horse practical advice for your next trip: How to find the best gelato in Italy, navigate Spain’s tapas scene, select the best produce at a Provençal market, and survive the experience of driving in Sicily.

The Temporary European is also a behind-the-scenes look at the life of a professional traveler. I’ve included “inside look” chapters giving in-depth, warts-and-all insights into what it’s like to research and write guidebooks, guide bus tours, make travel television, and work with Rick Steves and his merry band of travelers. If you’ve ever wondered what a guidebook writer is looking for when checking out endless lists of hotels and restaurants; what tour guides do during their time off; why it takes six days, and a lot of hard work and good fortune, to film a 30-minute television show; and what it’s really like to work in an office that shares a (lightly soundproofed) wall with Rick Steves’ office…these chapters will fascinate you.

There’s one other important character in the book: Mildred C. Scott, the great-great aunt of my wife Shawna. In the 1960s — when she was already well into what was then considered “old age” — Mildred used her inheritance to travel the world. She made up for lost time, eventually touching down on every continent on earth and visiting more countries than the rest of her Ohio hometown combined. In her later years, Mildred penned a travel memoir — sort of the spiritual ancestor of The Temporary European — with a title that has become my travel motto: Jams are fun. I’ve peppered my book with quotes and wisdom from Aunt Mildred, plus tales of my own memorable misadventures — which, after all, make for the most vivid travel memories. There’s the time I became embroiled in the Gelato Wars of Corniglia, in Italy’s Cinque Terre. Or the time my cruise ship weathered a hellacious storm in Norway’s North Sea. Or every time I check into a crummy hotel and realize that it’s gonna be a noisy night.

By the spring of 2021, I was wrapping up my manuscript. I was very fortunate to make contact with Larry Habegger at Travelers’ Tales, a travel press in the Bay Area that specializes in publishing just this kind of thoughtful, experiential travel writing. I spent the summer and fall revising and finalizing the book with Larry’s guidance (and with insights from many friends who generously donated their time to critiquing my manuscript). And Rick, who was wonderfully supportive through the entire project, generously wrote a Foreword.

It’s funny when you write a book and then send it off to the printer. Weeks, even months go by, and this thing that you poured so much of your soul into gradually fades into the background. You even start to forget about it. Then, one day, you get an email that the shipment is on its way. And you feel that rush of excitement (and terror) all over again.

Now that it has finally arrived, I hope you’ll consider buying a copy of The Temporary European, hopping into my rucksack, and joining me on a couple of decades’ worth of European travel experiences and epiphanies. If you’ve enjoyed reading my blog, I promise you’ll have fun on this journey, too.

For now, you can buy The Temporary European exclusively at Ricksteves.com. And, because our holiday sale is still going on, it’s 30 percent off through January 2. If you order now, you may just get it in time for a stocking stuffer. But even if it comes a day or two late, it’s perfect for post-holiday travel dreaming.

Soon — on February 1 — The Temporary European will also be available as an e-book, on Amazon.com, and at bookstores nationwide. (If you prefer to support your local bookseller, ask them to order you a copy.) And over the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing excerpts from The Temporary European along with some new posts as I look forward to 2022 travels.

Thanks for everyone’s support over the years. I’ve loved getting to know you thorough the Comments on my blog…and I’ve even bumped into several of you, either in Edmonds or while on the road in Europe. It’s truly an honor to be a part of this community of great travelers. And I hope you enjoy joining me on the trip of a lifetime as I tell the story of The Temporary European.