Rick Steves Releases Europe App; Sets 10 Free Classes in Edmonds

Edmonds' Rick Steves is probably for foremost authority of travel in Europe, so it makes sense that he's just released a free Rick Steves Audio Europe app for iPhone, iPod Touch and Android.

The app includes 30 self-guided audio tours of Europe's top museums, sights and historical walks, plus hundreds of cultural insights and sightseeing tips from Steves' radio interviews.

All are organized into geographic-specific playlists. You can watch a video and get more details at ricksteves.com.

If you want to hear—and see—Steves in person, you have that option as well. The Rick Steves Travel Festival, featuring 10 free classes, is Saturday at the and the .

Here are the classes:

Edmonds Center for the Arts

• 9 a.m. European Travel Skills with Rick Steves
• Noon Packing Light & Right with Joan Robinson         
• 2 p.m. France with Steve Smith
• 4:30 p.m. Italy with Rick Steves
• 7 p.m. 1000 Years of European Art & History with Rick Steves

Edmonds Theater

• 9 a.m. Greece with Reid Coen
• 10:45 a.m. Turkey with Mary Ann Cameron
• 12:30 p.m. Germany, Austria & Switzerland with Tara Swenson
• 2:15 p.m. Croatia & Slovenia with Cameron Hewitt
• 4 p.m. Ireland with Pat O'Connor

Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door travel store is at 130 4th Ave. N. The store is currently have a holiday sale, with 20 percent off bags and accessories, 30 percent off books and maps and 50 percent off DVDs and Blu-Rays.