rent apartment prague

hello, thank you very much. thank you so much for being here,i'm rick steves and, you know, i've spent four months a year for the last 30 years enjoying europe, and one thing i bringhome is a sense of joy. europe is so full of joy and i never gettired of it, and i'd like to take about 45 minutes sharing with you why i find europe justa great place to simply enjoy. now there's a lot of skills thatunderlie all this joy, and that's covered in our guide books, and so on, and this isnot a talk about europe through the

back door in the sense of all the practicalskills. we've got talks for each of these kindsof skill areas, but, but fundamentally, i just want to talk about how you canenjoy europe and what makes it such a great place to travel. for one thing, fundamental is finding the places that icall the "back doors." back doors, places where you're received not as part of theeconomy, but as part of the party. places that have no promotional budgets. that's really important because we areattracted to places with big promotional budgets, and that's fun,

but places like this are just goingthrough another century. this is civita di bagnoregio, two hoursnorth of rome. i'm not going to talk a lot aboutspecific places in this next 45 minutes, i'm gonna be talking about how we candistinguish our trip by going beyond the acropolis. now i love the acropolis--i'm just--i canhardly wait to go to the acropolis and i know how to enjoy it really well. i'm thelast guy on the hill when the--when the guards blowing the whistle, and it's timeto go down, and it's all mine. and i don't have--'m not going to really betalking about the obvious things like

the windmills and the wooden shoes, i love that too. but what really a lot ofpeople miss, is finding places that have somehow missed the modern boat. placesthat for whatever quickly reason are just going through another century. this is the italian riviera. distinctfrom little resorts nearby where you get a big traffic jam, this is just you andhardcore old-world italy. look at this town, it's perfectly preserved, there's no new buildings in vernazza onthe cinque terre because this is a national park, and if you're landowneryou're not allowed to get a permit to

make new buildings. that makes the town very nice, andcharming, and beautiful for a photograph, but it also means there's no comfortablehotels. and that's a beautiful thing, because it keeps away the most obnoxiousslice of the traveling public--people who insist on comfortable hotels. if you can be a rugged traveler andenjoy a little b&b or a guest house in a town like this, you've got pure old-fashioned italy inyour laps, and that's what i love. all over europe you find hill towns keepingtheir heads above that flood of the 20th

century, and i just think your challengeis to find those places. now it is a big challenge because there's a lot of verytouristy places that we want to go to, and we can be sidetracked, and our tripcan just be a pile of crowds and commercial attractions. this is salzburg. i love salzburg, butit's very very crowded. now i don't go to salzburg and complain about the crowds, i go to salzburg and celebrate thecrowds, because this is mozart town, this is julie andrews in the sound of music. a lot of people go to salzburg, complainabout the crowds, and the next morning

they take the sound of music bus tour. now that's a lousy example of gettingoff the beaten path, isn't it. they're going to be rolling through the foothills of thealps with 40 japanese tourists singing "do a deer." now that's fun, that's quirky, but it'smore japanese culture, or american culture when you look at the sound ofmusic, rather than austrian culture. what you want to do is settle into thelocal culture. enjoy the touristy places, but then get on the train, go two hourssouth, and find yourself in a little village like this. can you imagine howthat complements salzburg. this is hallstatt,

in a beautiful region called the salzkammergut lake district. and here you're communing with austrians on a littletown bullied onto a ledge between a towering mountain and a gorgeous lake. this is where you really find the magicof salzburg, and it's sad to me how many people miss that because they're stuckin salzburg shopping, all right. so you need to balance yourtrip to have that joy. this is toledo. toledo is the historical, spiritual, andartistic capital of spain. it is amazing. now any big city like this with so muchto offer is going to be crowded. those towns i showed you earlier, little towns,they can fall through the cracks for

various reasons. this big importanthistoric and artistic city is going to have its tourist crowds. whatdo we do? we don't veto it just because it has a lot of crowds, we think about how to enjoy it whileminimizing the crowds. and that's quite easy, spend the night. during the day it'smobbed with day-trippers from the big city nearby, madrid. so often, towns haverush hour. everybody comes in from the,, you know, the big hotels outside of town,or the big city nearby, or the resort, or the cruise ship, and they inundate thetown, they do all their shopping, they see all the marque attractions, and then theyretreat one hour north to the

predictable plumbing of their high-risehotels. now the local people have made their money, they push their postcardracks away, and they come out very spanish, ready to do their paseo thing. el greco would recognize toledo afterdark. simply spend the night. don't just spendthe night, spend the night and be out and about in those, what i consider, magichours, early in the morning or late at night. that's when these touristy town'sreally come into their own, and i'll tell you, it's a big issue these days becausethere's more tourists in europe than ever before.

it is, if you play it wrong, it is reallya mob scene. if you play right, it's just you, and thefloodlit cobblestones, and memories, and understandings of the middle ages,rambling those romantic ramparts. rothenburg ob der tauber, no secret, everybody who goes to germany goes to roman--romantic rothenburg. they should, it's the best-preserved medieval town in germany.but again, in the middle of the day, probably the greatest concentration oftourists anywhere, shopping those cobbled lanes. at night they're back in frankfurt,and it's just you and that romance. spend the night. venice. venice is my favoriteone of my favorite cities anywhere, but

during the middle of the day it's just,it's almost a human traffic jam. my theory is venice is sinking, in partbecause it just was not constructed to hold all those crowds all day long. butwhen you're in venice you see the boats coming in, it's like rush hour, allthe book coming in are packed, and the boats going out are bobbing empty,right. and at night it's the opposite, the boats coming in areempty, boats going out are jam packed with tourists going back to their hotels onthe mainland, to their cruise ships, and so on. spend the night, spend a little extra,stay in a hotel right downtown,

get up before breakfast, like this, andwalk around, and you can really feel the pulseof a little town of 60 or 70,000 people, instead of this giant adult kind ofmedieval disneyland. a lot of big cities have a lot to offer, and every countryjust seems to have a dominant city. this is athens. you know how they say you can see halfof all the greeks from the top of the acropolis, just right there, gatheredaround the acropolis in athens. well, see athens, but compliment the bigcity by side tripping somewhere nearby, where you've got a small town on an island. twohours from athens

you've got hydra. a traffic-free islandthat is one of the most romantic places in greece, and the remarkable thing to me, it's a simple side trip from athens. sowhen you got your big cities, think also about complementing it withthat side trip. i want to remind you, a lot of yourtravel dreams are created by media and other people's stories, and most americanstories are generated from cruise ships, or big bus tourism, and so on, and theytend to pump up the obvious, touristic clichã©s of each country.germany, castles, well obviously the rhine river. no. yourimage of the rhine river, i would bet, is

this. this is the mosel river, the littlelittle sister of the rhine that comes into the rhine at koblenz, which by theway is from the root of the latin word for a "confluence," "koblenz," reminding usthat the roman empire spread as far north as the rhine river, there's so muchhistory up here to see. when we go to the rhine river, we're going to get a lot of traffic, a lotof train noise a lot of commercialism, a lot of bus tourism. but if you go to thelittle version of the rhine, the mosel river, you'll find a spot like this. this isthe town of beilstein, and you have your

own ruined castle surrounded byvineyards in a beautiful little guest house, with wine produced right there inthe valley. it's a beautiful thing, so remember, studycarefully and make sure your travel dreams are met by where you actuallyplan to go. part of the joy of travel is connecting, connecting with locals. andthat marks a good trip. if i'm making a tv show, writing a guidebook, or taking a group around europe, if i'm not connecting people with people,i'm getting nervous, okay. you need to make a point to be an extrovert. this is a shot from back when i was astudent, and i'll never forget finding

myself in a greek town with no hotelsand no postcards, that's the goal. there's so much tourism,take yourself away. that's where you're going to find people more excited tomeet you, rather than make money off of you. and here i found myself a guest of honorat a greek wedding festival, surrounded by new friends, sitting on the frontstump, dancing and drinking with lots of beautiful people who were glad that iwas there. the town had no hotels, see that's the key.you know the local word for bed and breakfast,

"domattio." anywhere you're traveling, you'relikely to stumble into festivals. you've got to make it happen. i was in--tooling around in sicily once, came upon a village, and it had a wine--a cheesefestival. if you come upon a cheese festival in sicily, stop the car. i mean it seems, like, tooobvious, but people don't stop the car. you don't have anything more importanton your agenda today than hitting a spontaneous cheese festival in sicily, okay. stop the car, get out, eat some cheese. you're gonna make friends, you'regonna meet people, you're gonna have

experiences you remember all your life. there are certain ways you just live ineurope where you connect with more people. if you go to a bar in like thisin barcelona, or you go to a pub in england, if you sit at the table they leave youalone, if you sit at the bar you're going to make friends with people. people sitat the bar to talk to other people. i can think, all over europe, great experiencesi've had, sitting at the bar. simple idea. remember,when you're traveling you want to be there psychologically. i think i'll endup--for 25 years i've led groups around

europe and i know people, psychologically,have a tough time being there, but that's your challenge, that marks a good trip.and you want to do things that you would do as if you're at home, that areimportant to you. lots of ways to be then, there's lots of waysto put a big wall between you and what you've traveled so far to see. for a lot of peoplegoing to church is an important part of their weekly routine, every sunday theylike to worship for an hour. they go to europe, can't worship 'causeyou're not at home. that's a problem. of course you can worship in europe ifyou want to, you're gonna go to the greatest church in christendom. stowyour camera, forget about the

michelangelo, and go to mass at fiveo'clock. anybody can go to mass any day of theweek, five o'clock, right on the tomb of st. peter. don't tell 'em you're a lutheran, butanybody is welcome. and to be sitting there under that glorious dome, doingwhat that church was supposed to do is quite a nice experience, if you're so inclined. marketplaces--everytown in europe has an amazing open-air market place. i love them, it's such agreat place for meeting people, trying new things, working on your language,taking photographs, and so on.

get out there, make mistakes, you know, stepright up to the plate, connect. if you're like me you might be a little awkward, you don't speak the language, you're notgood with the metric system, you know, you just want to buy one appleand and two carrots, and the coins are new for you, and there's a long line oflocal people behind that want to do serious business, and you got a sense themerchant is just not that happy to see you. hold your ground. you're not a gawkytourists who doesn't speak--you know, who is just out of his, out of his, out of hisleague, you are one in a thousand year long line of hungrytravelers that don't speak the language,

don't know the coins, and just want tobuy an apple. you're legit. you need to be part of thescene. stop looking at it on stage, get outthere and risk making mistakes, connect. go to a sporting event. if you were a european coming to theunited states, think of what a great look at our culture it would be to go to atailgate party, and then a college football game, or any kind of sportingevent, anywhere in this country. flip it. a lot of times i think that interms of that, what would really give a european a coollook at my culture, well you can flip

flop it, and you as a visitor over there,can have the same kind of experience. go to a soccer match. doesn't need to bea big league game, there are soccer games all over the place. go to hurling in ireland, go to greyhoundracing in edinburgh, there are a lot of places where you can just get out there and getdown and dirty with the local sports fans, and learn a lot about that culture. if you have any relatives in europe, and from the looks of this room a lot ofus do, i would say you should find them. they don't need to be next of kin.

i've got distant relatives in norway whoare some of my best friends in this world, because we took the initiative tofind them. they'll be thrilled to meet you. do your your your studying now, senda few emails, connect with them. if you don't have relatives in europe, pick aculture, and make up a name, and get out of phone book. i mean--i mean, you're doing people a bigfavor to let em' know they got relatives in america, it's just a nice connection. but it isthis wonderful little family warm oasis in your travels. one of the great joys of europe, for me,is the evening "passagatta," the "paseo." in

italy they call it "the laps." the oldguys walk from the parking lot down to the harbor, and then back up to theparking lot. every night, they've been doing this for 50 years, meeting the people, seeing what's goingon, gossiping, and so on. it is such a part of them, the fabric ofthe communities, this "paseo." my producer simon, on our tv show,jokes that if i had my way i'd have a paseo in every one of our tv shows.kinda for good reason, it's where you see the people, that's where people arerelaxed, the light is beautiful, they've made their money, they don't want to gohome yet, they're just out with their

friends. it's a multi generational thing, anywherein europe you can be out and strolling. that's vienna, this is on thecroatian coast. when i get home sometimes i feel like taking a walk, i go down the street. the sun has justset, and it's desolate, and mothers are grabbing their children and taking thembehind the fence because there's a strange man on the street, you know, it'snot quite the same here, but in europe that's where people are. they're outconnecting. and again, it's multi-generational, everyone is welcome.

you'll find plenty of chances to meetpeople, you'll find plenty of chances to meet people. in fact, some places are evenbetter than other places for meeting people. i love ireland. one of the reasonsi love ireland is because, in ireland, i have this sensation that i'munderstanding a foreign language. i don't speak any other languages, nothing to brag about, but boy when i'm in ireland i take advantage of the factthat people have this wonderful little lilt and this wonderful gift of gab, andpeople love to talk. especially in the far west of ireland it's called a gaeltacht, where they stand on the bluff, and they gaze out at the atlantic, andthey say, "ah the next parish over is

boston," okay. these are gaeltachts, where thegovernment is subsidizing the traditional lifestyles, and people speakgaelic first and english second. you'll meet people who are just sitting there,and they'd love to meet you, you're doing them a favor by breaking the ice. we'regood breaking the ice, we're casual, we're informal, andthen that's a charming thing anywhere in europe. and you get into a conversation, iwas talking to these guys for a while, and throw your itinerary out the windowwhen you meet these guys, okay, this is what you're in ireland for. we're talking,

i get just charmed and caught up in theconversation, after awhile i ask the guy on the left, "were you born here?" and he thought about it, and hesaid, "no it was about five miles down the road." later on i asked him, "have you lived hereall your life?" he said, "not yet." it's the joy oftravel, that's what it is. in barcelona after mass on sunday, evenif you didn't go to the mass, gather outside of the cathedral, people aredoing their sardana dance. it's the joy of that culture, and you canbe a part of it. when you're in budapest,

you've got an opportunity to slip into atoo-tight bathing suit like the locals do, and challenge some big guy to a gameof chess. i'll tell you i've challenged a lot ofguys to games of chess in eastern europe, and it's sort of like a bigconfrontation between east and west, and it's humiliating. they are so good andthey're so fast, they've always got a clock going, and it's a--it's a kind of acourageous thing for an american rookie to challenge an eastern european to a game of chess, but try it, it's a fun memory, it's it's a real hoot. all over europe you got cultural offestivals going on. if you're up in

scotland, hey, a clan festival. you don't need aninvitation. now don't go to the famous clan festival,you'll all hear about the big two or three clan festivals, that's a super commercial thing. you'vegot all sorts of security, you've got all sorts of gates, to get sort of, you know, who can go where, just get a funky little small-town clanfestival they're all over the place, and settle in, have a beer, get to know afamily, cheer people on. it's easy to do. when youare in france,

petanque. how many people have petanque here, anybody? we have a petanque club in our town here inedmonds, it's very easy to learn. we love to teach our friends, and you can learnpetanque in about 20 minutes, and in france, this is where the old retired guys hangout, and it's just a social convivial thing. they love it, they've got the same old company all thetime, and that's fine and dandy, but if somebody new drops in they just love it.they show off, they'll take you in, they'll give you a drink, they'll tell their jokes tosomebody who's never heard them before,

and they'll teach you how to play pã©tanque.and the cool thing about petanque is you actually have a chance to win right offthe bat, anybody can do pretty good at petanque. so be bold, whatever the country is, get out there,play the game. when i'm in france that's petanque, when i'm in turkey i playbackgammon, when i'm in england i'll play lawnbowling, but get that connection. also remember, when you hire a privateguide you you're hiring a friend. this is a great way, if you're not verygood socially, to have a friend, is just hire a guide. i mean it looks like, whenyou see my tv shows, that i got friends

everywhere, doesn't it? i'm just paying them to be my friends,really. it's quite reasonable, and what's interesting is, the moreyou need a guide, the cheaper it gets for the guide. it's too expensive in england, i wouldn'thire a private guide in england generally, but you know in prague, andmorocco, and turkey, and and palestine, or or russia, it's easy to hire private guide. you'redoing them a huge favor by by employing them, and you've got a local buddy tohang out with who really knows your

language and the local culture. they cananswer all your questions and help you connect with the culture. one great joyin europe is simply the natural wonders. now we have a lot of great naturalwonders here, but the cool thing about europe's natural wonders is they're soaccessible. it's very easy to find yourself in europe tight-roping on aridge. can you imagine being high in the alps literally tight roping on a ridgefor three hours? on one side you got lake stretching allthe way to germany, on the other side you got the most incredible alpine panoramaanywhere, the eiger, monk and jung frau. cut class peaks. and ahead of you hearthe long legato tone of an alpenhorn

announcing that the helicopter-stockedmountain hut is open, it's just around the corner, and thecoffee schnapps is on. the coffee schnapps is on, i love it. it's just really a magicalexperience, you're on top of the world. now as i mentioned, you don't need to bea rugged traveler to get up there. she looks pretty rugged, doesn't she, but she's not, she paid 15 bucks to ridethe lift up, as did i. i'm standing on the edge of a revolving restaurant to takeher photograph. all you need is 15 bucks and a sunny day. have breakfast, it takesone hour for to go around once, and then get out and check out the surroundingcountryside.

you can hike or frolic all the wayacross the alps, from france to slovenia, never come out of the mountains, enjoyingtrails like this, and actually sleeping in huts like that. wow. this is called ebenalp. it's a, it's--you know, there's allthese famous places in switzerland, but there's also a lot of places just wherethe swiss go. ebenalp is a swiss sort of private zone, of course tourists aremore than welcome. you stay here with benny and claudia, youcan go milk the goats with the kids before dinner,

you know, it's in appenzell, this is, it's page 210 or so in my switzerland guidebook. just a reminder that all of the detailson this are in the guidebooks, you've got all of the specifics. when youhave the guidebook to a place like this, you'll know, hang around after dinner, thelocals would be playing the the pump organ and the spoons, you learn howto play the spoons, and you'll know that the heli--the the piano was broughtin by helicopter, and you know the guest book goes back to the 1950's,and it's fun to read through, and you're gonna be hanging out with swiss hikers.it's rustic, there's no running water,

it's just rain water, sure there's no showers,but for 25 dollars a night, you can find huts all across the alpsgiving you that wonderful, wonderful experience. and the good news, traditional culture survives, i find, themost vividly in those high corners. all over europe, up in the high corners,traditions survive beautifully. what's impressive to me whenit comes to the joy of europe is, i can never exhaust europe of what it has tooffer. i've been trying to for 30 years, four months a year, and every time i comehome it seems like i've got just as long as a list of places i want to see

that i've yet to discover. europe is a lifetimeof fun. and this is plitvice national park in croatia, and look at this place,is a watery wonderland, a dreamy grand canyon of terraced lakesconnected by countless waterfalls, and it took me 20 trips to find this. i had never heard of it before. and justlast summer i was finding places that were just about as dreamy. all overeurope, you've got great sites, and i think, for you, it's a wise idea to nottry to exhaust europe of what it has to offer. in fact that will take the joy out ofyour trip, if you try to see everything.

celebrate the fact that you can't see itall, be thankful you're going home with a list of things that you want to see onyour next trip, and just focus on what's reasonable, otherwise you'll get spinning and goingtoo fast. europe has endless attractions. the dordogne river valley, what a greatplace to connect with nature. rent a canoe and glide gracefullyunder these ruined castles in the, in the luscious french countryside. imagineexploring tuscany or umbria from a home base which is a working farm, an agriturismo, beautiful thing. or exploring the french countryside in burgundy, all thesegorgeous towns, each with their own proud

produce and heritage. cultural wondersare a big part of the joy in europe for me. man oh man, when you go to europe it'simportant to be open to different cultural thrills and culturalexperiences. now i know from my experience of 25 years as a tour guide, a lot of americans are actually a littlebit put off by people who are more sophisticated about something than theyare. stinky expensive cheese? are you telling me our cheese is not goodenough? i grew up thinking cheese is orange and in the shape of the bread, here you gocheese sandwich, and now you're telling

me that's not good enough? we fought and died for your way of life,and i'm not gonna stand for this. get over it. they're not better than you,they're just excited about cheese. it's like show-and-tell. remember in thirdgrade in show and tell, monday morning you go to school and you're all excited toshare with your friends this and that? that's what it is, it's cultural show andtell. so the french are into sophisticated cheese.you step into a cheese shop, it's a festival of mold. and they're evangelical about this stuff,i mean, the cheesemonger sees a gawky,

wide-eyed, overwhelmed tourist, "oh monsiuer, come here, come here, you must smell this cheese, goat cheese, smells like zeefeet of angels." zee feet of angels? it smells like the feet of baseballplayers to me but whatever, it's expensive stuff. you don't have to go home and lovestinky cheese, but it is nice to know that certain people are really intoit, and who knows, you may really gain a taste for it. so have that positive attitude about it.you know in europe they really are into liberty.

we've got our statue of liberty andthey've even got a double one here. so remember they've got their liberty, thisis in the hometown of salvador dali, the great surrealist, cadaquã©s innorthern spain. and all over europe they love their traditions, they're embracinglife, they may not do it the same way we do,but nobody could ever say they don't love life every bit as much as we do, andthey're pretty darn good at it. i'm inspired by how europe embraces life. i'm inspired by europe's family values.i'm inspired by europe's social ethic, and when i travel it really is a joy. littlethings are joyful. in a town in italy,

every summer they have a festival wherethe older kids teach the younger kids how to make a good ravioli. it's kind of important to be able tohand down these lovable features of the culture from one generation to the next. in a little town in france, in winecountry, the humble chamber of commerce scraped together its financial resources,and produced a beautiful exhibit where there are these beautiful glass orbsthat contain the aroma of each of the wines that they produce in that valley. so the visitor can check out the bouquetand gain an appreciation of their

produce, and in this town, i guess a goodnose is a life skill worth having. i think it's interesting in europe tofind that people eagerly spend more than they have to for their loaf of bread, in order to buyit from the person who baked it. it's just a beautiful thing. of course weamericans would aspire to have a big freezer in the garage so we can only goshopping every 10 days, but in europe they might aspire to have a smallrefrigerator under the sink so they have to go to themarket every morning, because that's where they check in with their neighbors,and that's where they buy from the

community, and that's where they're surethey've got seasonal and fresh produce. they really believe as you spend youshape your community, and i'm inspired by that, and i find it a joyful thing to goto the market and to see people around me living out that ethic. europeansreally appreciate their fine wine. boy do they ever. and they know how tofill it up really cheap. it's so fun to think that the cheapestliquid you could buy in much of spain and italy is actually table wine. and acouple times a year, locals will load the car up with all the empty jugs, take em' down to the filling station, andfill up their jugs. the culture in europe

is something that i just find acelebration, and every country has open air folk museums. now realistically, youknow, the modern world has bulldozed a lot of the traditional ways, and it's hardfor small villages and old-fashioned lifestyles to survive in arough-and-tumble aggressive global economy. europe recognizes that, andthey've done a remarkable job of preserving their culture in open-airfolk museums, this would be in norway. but every country has open air folk museums,and your guidebooks will talk about these. this is where you get to see folkdancing, this is where you get to hang

out with fiddler's on the back porch. andi want to remind you, there are actually places in europe that don't needopen-air folk museums, because they're still living in the streets. you'd have to go to the fringes of europe,but this would be romania here, and it feels like an open-air folk museum, butno, it's just a village down the road. so if you take the initiative to get wayoff the beaten path, you can find communities that arefeeling like open-air folk museums in themselves. high in the swiss alps, it's not unusualto have everything grind to a halt when

the shepherd's decided to bring thecattle down or bring it up. it's just, they keep it a secret, and justone morning bam everything shuts down as the roads are filled with the cowsheading for the high country. you go to the bars in germany, and thebeer halls in the oktoberfest, and so on, you got local people wearing lederhosen,not to be dancing on stage for tourists because that's just how they like todrink their beer, with shiny, old-fashioned lederhosen. you want to find yourself in thosesituations. get out of the hotel restaurant, and getdown the street where the local people

are having their beer. of course you cansee the flamenco on stage, and i would say from a practical point of view thereare cases where it's nice to see the flamenco on stage. it's before your bedtime instead of oneo'clock in the morning, and it is giving you the whole array of differentflamenco styles, and, you know, it comes with the comfortable seats. but youshould also know that flamenco combusts spontaneously in bars all over town, if you're up and out after midnight withlocal friends and nowhere to go. the traditional culture is so vivid, anda lot of it is musical, and every country

has its musical joy. pubs in ireland, some of the most magicalevenings of my travel career have been in ireland, in the pubs, late at night, lubricated by a little extra beer, localpeople who love to make music with their friends. all over europe, from a touristpoint of view, there is entertainment, and this entertainment is just, just fun, it'sflat-out fun, and it is historically rooted, and culturally rooted. inrothenburg, they've got the night watchman's tour, and he's a very big hit.every night he's got a hundred people following himaround town. he plays the role of a

medieval watchman, and he takes you backa thousand years ago in rothenburg. your guidebooks, the web, thetourist information office, the people at your hotel, the othertravelers you meet out and about, they've all got tips on what to do after dinner. and if you're in bath and you likecomedy, and you like to laugh, and you like street theater, and you don't knowabout the bizarre bath walk, you're missing one of the greatestopportunities that europe has for fun entertainment in the streets. it is a hoot, bizarre bath, and it's justone example of many, many ways that you

can join 20 tourists, give the guy 10 bucks, and just runaround for a couple of hours and have a good time. so they're not always these sternhistory lectures, you know, under the eaves of the gothic cathedral. there's a lot of that and those are fine,but it's just entertaining. ghost tours, night watchman tours, street theater, check it out. the art and the history can make yourtrip really meaningful. the art history

can also ruin your trip. i mean, i know it's exhausting, and i knowthat a museum can can can take the wind out of your sails. i know that tourists are good for just acouple of hours in a big obligatory museum, and we work very hard on thatin our program to help people find, actually find, joy in the art, and theculture, and the history of europe. one key is for you to have some sort ofbasis to understand what you're looking at, and a good way to do that is to doyour reading. after 25 years of tour guiding, i wrote a book called europe 101: history and art for travelers, and this

is a fun and practical sweep throughstory of europe, from the pyramids to picasso, with your sightseeing in mind. it'sdesigned for smart people who were sleeping in their history and art classesbefore their knew they were going to europe, who want to remember who theetruscans were, and what came first, gothic or romanesque, and why does thatmatter? you read ten pages of information inthis book about gothic cathedral, you can step into a gothic church, excitedlynudge your partner and say, "isn't this a marvelous improvement over romanesque?"imagine being excited about gothic. you don't need to be a sophisticate, i'mcertainly not, but i know enough to get

turned on by the history and the art, andthat's my goal with europe 101. that's a practical book so you can enjoyyour sightseeing. i produced about five hours of lectures,just like this right here, covering the story of europe from the middle ages upuntil today. it's very practical, it's veryfast-moving, i think it's just a delight, if you're going to europe, to review this,and you can simply go to our website at ricksteves.com, click into the section where we have thetravel talks, and sit down with your travel partner, and get up to speed onthe history and the art for your trip.

i know as a tour guide it makes a hugedifference, because i know when you come to burg eltz on the mosel valley ingermany and you don't know what feudalism is, you're not going to get thefull joy out of that experience. you should understand the context in whichthis was made. 800 years ago, when there were 300 independent countries in whatis today germany, burg eltz. built back in a day when 300 independent countries, ina country the size of montana today, and each had its own weights and measures,customs, crown jewels, castle, and so on. if you know feudalism, stepping into burg eltz becomes much more rewarding. if you know your history, you know madludwig's castle properly. now for many

trips i went to mad ludwig's castle, andi thought it was medieval. its pointy, i thought pointy was medieval, and then ilearned that the pointiest stuff is actually over medieval, it is neo-gothic neo-renaissance, neo-romanesque, it isromantic, that's the "ism" of the 1800's. believe it or not, mad ludwig'scastle was made the same generation as the eiffel tower. when you look at thethings that are over the top, big ben, and the house of parliament, thepointy church in prague, the skyline of bruges, the castle in segovia, here mad ludwig's castle,

you're looking at romanticism. late1800's, after the intellectual enlightenment when everything wassubjected to the test of reason, now they want under to underline their christianand their christian-- their christian and their europeanmedieval heritage, and they're rebuilding things in a medieval-style. mad ludwig's castle, it's no wonder the guy who built it waskind of a hippie, poet king. his favorite buddies were wagner, and operacomposers, and poets, and so on. understand what you're looking at andthen the ruined castles come to life. this is a one hour outside of lisbon, it'ssintra castle, a ruined castle.

imagine here with a little imagination, you'reunder attack a thousand years ago in portugal. i do want to remind you, some of thegreatest sights and europe are free, and the problem with that is when they'refree, nobody promotes them. you need to--becauseyou're all consumers people want your money, every information that comes to you ismotored to you by somebody who wants your money, believe it or not, i'd like your money, okay,and you as consumers have to decide, "is

this good for our trip, is this a good value?" nobody makes anymoney off of you when you go to sintra, in fact they lose money because you'renot going to something nearby where you pay admission. so they keep it a secretand they certainly don't promote it. as a consumer, you've got to take the initiative andfind these places, and you're richly rewarded when you do. that's one joy for me, is writing thesebooks to explain these options that are free and really worthwhile, that get nopromotion otherwise. you'll get a lot of

joy in your travels if you understand themeaning, and the history, and the context of the great sites, you see. this is the famous aqueduct insouthern france, the pont du gard outside of avignon. everybody knows about it.actually, it's not an aqueduct, it's the mostscenic bridge in a 30 mile long aqueduct, engineered by romans to bring water intothe great city of nã®mes, losing one inch every hundred yards for 30 miles, imagine that. built 1,800 years ago. nowwhen you look at that, you realize, "hey i understand the context," and a completevisit would be going down to nã®mes, the

city where it was all heading, and to see theplace where the water gushed into the city, and imagine the jubilation on thatday, 1,800 years ago when peasantsdidn't have to carry water into the town anymore but it just flowed in. wasn't it great that we were beat by theromans? now we have stability, we got the roman corps of engineers, wegot roads, we got aqueducts, yeah. so understand the context of thisstuff and you'll enjoy it more. looking into the eyes of david, you'relooking into the eyes of renaissance man, sizing up the darkness of the middleages and stepping into the modern age.

you're looking into the mascot offlorence that was competing with other city-states, and you're wondering, andlearning why david would be the appropriate mascot for florence. becausedavid the boy slayed the giant, that symbol of evil, not because he was stronger, but becausegod was on his side. and florence was competing with its other brute, bullyneighbor states, and god was on florence's side. if you look at david's statue, the handis way too big and developed. that's the hand of god that did the slaying. just likeflorence is able to rise above its bully neighbors because of its, of itsgoodness. understand the context of the

art, understand why people did it, it cost alot of money, understand what was going on. here's to women from two successivegenerations, one in the baroque age and her daughter was from the neoclassicalage, before and after marie antoinette's head was cut off. here we have a portrait of an emperor,napoleon, painted by a guy who's really nervous about painting the emperorlooking good on a horse. he's paid to make the emperor look goodon a horse, that's propaganda. here we have a painting done by a guywho wants to make the revolution in

france feel like a noble thing, and youcan't imagine a more noble liberty at the barricades than this, and that's, to this day, a beloved paintingin france. here we have a statue commissioned by afascist dictator in italy, mussolini, and it says, "fascism is the answer, eitheryou're with us or you're against us," it's a monolithic, violent, superpatriotic society, get on board or get out of the way,fascism. it says it in the architecture, it saysit in the sculpture, and if you're a tourist,

you gotta understand who made it and why.what's the agenda? counter-reformation art, very heavenly, very heavenly. baroque.if you're going to a town or a society that has no king and has no bishops, thenetherlands that broke away from spain and left the church, and left the king,and had their own protestant society with merchant rule, you've got art that makes merchants feellike good loving husbands, and you've got art that rewards people for hard work.you don't have a preachy saint on the wall you've just got a nice still life makinghard-working, protestant ethic people feel good about their values.

it's so exciting when you enjoy the artto be able to understand it in its context, and the museums in europe arejust better than ever to let you survey all of that great art. it's veryimportant when you go to the museum's that you know how to enjoy them, that youknow how to understand the context of the art, and also that you know how toavoid all the crowds at the museums, all that can be done, and that's yourchallenge if you want to enjoy the art of europe.i'll tell you there's a lot of fun sights that we don't think of when we think ofgoing to italy, or france, or paris, or spain, and you've got a lot of thingsthat that might be interesting to you

that don't come up on the on the top tensights in each town. it's important for you to understandwhat sites are available and then study aggressively before your trip so youknow where they are. sometimes they're little private littlefancies, i mean, you don't go around saying you love human bones but justbetween you and me, you'd love to see thousands of bones stacked neatly in acrypt. well then you need to know word "capuchin,"because when you go to the capuchin crypt, and there are several, you'll findall the bones you'll ever want, okay. if you're into the beatles, if you'reinto dogs, if you're into thimbles, if

you're into shoes, you know, if you're into chocolate,there's a museum for you, and that's the fun thing in your travels. find thosemuseums, the museums are excellent and they really, really make your trip sparkle. i'll warn you, the typical tourist comesinto a town without a guidebook, and their top sites are what's advertised onthe main street. here we are in amsterdam. the majority ofthe visitors to amsterdam think of these sites as the must-see sights, why? becausethey're right there, advertised at the train station, in the hotel lobby, on themain drag. what do you have?

madame tussaud's, body works, the ice bar, the dungeon, and the heineken experience. where's the rijksmuseum, where's annefrank, where's the dutch resistance, where's van gogh? those are not big commercial ventures,these are commercial ventures. no cabbie, no concierge, no hotelier, nono nobody gets a kick back when they send you to anne frank's or therijksmuseum. you get a huge kick back when you talk people into spendingtwenty bucks to see this. so remember, the information that comesto is not always the information that you want. again,

we work very hard, i've got 100people that work with me at rick steves europe, and our whole mantra is content,content, content, generate great content, there's more than enough information outthere, we want to curate that information, design it, and make sure that you knowhow to get the best, the very best out of every mile, minute, and dollar, in yourupcoming vacation. that's what our guide books are for. when you travel, it's important to be into europe today. ilove europe today, and oftentimes that's missed. this islondon, this is paris, and this is berlin. you owe it to yourself to spend a day in a big city everywhere you go.

i'll remind you a big trend in europethese days is second city's. the chicago's of europe, you know, there's theantwerp in belgium, there's marseille in france, there's liverpool in england,and there's hamburg in germany. they're renovating and revitalizingformerly derelict dockyards, and they have a certain energy that they don't--you don't find in the other cities. these were the industrial age powers thatreally got into a rust belt time and now they're coming out. so when you go toedinburgh, you got three days in edinburgh, one of those days, i think, should bespent 45 minutes away in glasgow. so don't underestimate the less glamoroussecond cities of europe.

all over europe they're building newmuseums. this is the new acropolis museum in the shadow of the acropolis in athens. even with all their economic hard times theywere able to crank out a beautiful, new, state-of-the art museum. in munich yougot the new bmw showroom and museum which is just a dazzling place. and remembereastern europe is the new frontier for european travelers. there's so much going on in easterneurope, it's been 25 years now since the end of the cold war, and eastern europereally is, you know, just think of it as an integral part of europe as a whole. weamericans, older americans especially,

think of it with the iron curtain and,you know, the communist world and the free world but it'sreally not that anymore, that's old news, that's in the history books. it'sreally slavic europe, that's what it is, slavic, formerlycommunist, europe. but for 25 years they've been capitalist, they've beenscrambling to catch up. prague is the gateway to eastern europe. i loveprague, it's the golden city of a hundred spires. it's the most enjoyable city ineastern europe, but think of it as a springboard for going deeper intoeastern europe. i want to remind you of the people yousee in eastern europe, half of them have

no living memory of communism, okay. communism is now in the museums, theparks are filled with children, the economies are gelling, it's afestival of pent up entrepreneurship spirit. and if you want to learn aboutthe difficult times under communism, you need to go to the parks wherethey've gathered together the old statues that used to keep people down inthe squares, and you need to go to the museums. and there are a lot of verypowerful, fascinating museums in each capital city in eastern europe, and ifyou're like me and you like cold war history,

these are some of the most interesting,impactful museums you'll find anywhere in europe. if youwant to spice up your trip the most important single word is turkey. i cannot get enough of turkey. iabsolutely love turkey, and remember istanbul is one of the great cities onthis planet. if there's four cities in europe that deserve a one week break, aone-week vacation london, paris, rome, and istanbul. for 400years, the leading city in christendom, where asia and europe come together,where islam meets christendom, so much in this thriving city. i can'tsay enough about istanbul, and to walk in

the street for three hours, a wholeafternoon or into the evening, it's this thriving, really is a lot of fun. i do want to warn you there's a lot ofclichã©s in europe, a lot of cutesy stuff, but europe is reality, and for every giant wooden shoe for a photo op, you'vegot some trashy lingerie, you've got red light districts, andbrothels, and you've got people selling marijuana in coffee shops, all right. andone fun thing about europe is to remember that that's a society of 400million people just like us, sorting through all their socialchallenges and dealing with them in a

creative, and productive, and positive way. we've got our immigrant problems, we'vegot our climate change issues, we've got our drug policy challenges, so do they. and when you travel in europeyou can think about that, you can talk to people. i've spent a lot of time dealingwith that in my travels because i'm committed to the value of americansgaining an empathy for the other 96% of humanity, and comparingnotes with other good societies. i've written a book called travel as apolitical act that talks about that, and there's a lecture just like this,

featuring my thoughts on travel as apolitical act, that you can watch in the travel talk section at ricksteves.com. europe is crowded with people who livethere, and i want to remind you europe is a big trading zone. a big free trade zonenow, of four hundred million people, producing about what we produce here inthe united states with 300 million, people, 15 trillion dollars of stuff ayear. when you think about europe, it's the same coin in most people'spockets. there's an efficiency, you hardly cross borders anymore, and there is somuch variety in spite of that uniformity of a free trade zone. here at rick steveseurope

we are so committed to helping peopletravel smartly. i've got a beautiful staff, a very hardworking andcommitted staff of a hundred people here, along with 100 guides in europe,and together we're working to bring you europe in an efficient and economic way.i, for 25 years, was leading our tours, for the last 10 years i've realized myguides do a better job than i can, so i've just decided to take the tours.it's a lot of fun, every year i take one of our tours and a lot of times i just cross paths with our tours and hang out with them for a day or so, and i'll tell you, our toursreally are something we're very proud of. the biggest part of our business, as amatter of fact, this year we took twenty

thousand americans on 800 differenttours, 35 itineraries, my favorite statistic--about half of those travelerswere return travelers, they've traveled with us before, they have highexpectations, and we meet them. if you're interested in the tour, we havea tour that true to our values, tapping into the built-in economy andefficiency of organized travel, while maintaining the adventure, and thelearning, and the beauty of going on your own. super efficient, great guides. thedeal about our tours is, half as many tourists on the bus. 25 people or so ona 40--on a 50 seat bus, rather than 50 people on a 50 seat bus. right there is ahuge difference.

and, just as important, our guides arefully paid up front. they can't make another penny off of you,they're the best-paid guides in europe, whereas the other guys are paid a tokenwage or sometimes no wage at all, and have to make money off of you by sellingyou things over the course of your vacation. keeping you in the dark, parking yououtside of town, and selling you your sightseeing, or taking you shopping forkickbacks, and angling for tips. no tips on our tours, no shopping forkickbacks, and all of our sightseeing is included.

i'm so proud of the way we do our tours,and if you're looking for a tour please check out our program. again, wehave 30 different itineraries all over europe, you can learn about it on ourwebsite very very easily. i want to also remindyou i've got a series of talks that cover all the practical skills. we've been talking about the joy oftravel, well you can't really have the joy of travel if you don't know how to pack light, orcatch the bus, or find a good hotel and a restaurant. that's the theme of theseother related talks. my fun in teaching

travel is stoked by the feedback i getfrom people who use this information and enjoy it. i'm so committed to the fact that allyou gotta do is recognize that you are your own guide. equip yourself with goodinformation, expect yourself to travel smart, and you will. now a lot of peoplethink, "can we really do this," and one of mygreat joys is to hear from people people whose grandchildren said, "youshouldn't be doing this," going over there without a lot oflanguage skills, without a lot of experience, or reservations, or money,having the time of their life, and coming

home with money in the bank for nextsummer's trip. if you want to travel this way you certainly can. the most grueling thing about europeantravel if you're wondering, "can we really do this," are the heat and the crowds ofsummer. and we talked about how to avoid that in our other talks, but you cantravel this way if you want to. i've learned that age only matters ifyou're a cheese, and if you want to travel with a youthful spirit, you certainly can. and europe is betterequipped than ever to share its beautiful culture inthe palaces, in the mosques, in the

churches, in the museums, in the ancientruins, that with a little background and help, can come to life before your veryeyes. and i've learned you don't need to throw a coin in that fountain to return,okay. you can go back to europe for the rest of your life and enjoy a lot of joy,especially if you know where to find those traditional corners, and thoseoffbeat back door nooks. i hope you've enjoyed this look at thejoy of europe, and i want to wish you all happy travels. thanks a lot.