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<p>Hamburg is one of the great "undiscovered" cities in Europe. Wi ...
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<rss xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0" version="2.0"> <channel> <title>Rick Steves' Europe</title> <language>en-us</language> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/rss/tms_articles</link> <managingEditor>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</managingEditor> <webMaster>webmaster@ricksteves.com (Webmaster @ Rick Steves)</webMaster> <pubDate>2025-07-10 00:28:49 UTC</pubDate> <lastBuildDate>2025-07-10 00:28:49 UTC</lastBuildDate> <ttl>15</ttl> <description>Rick is now offering his weekly travel column, "Rick Steves' Europe," to media outlets for free!</description> <copyright>copyright (c) 1996-2025 Rick Steves' Europe</copyright> <generator>Builder::XmlMarkup + Rick Steves Syndication (RSS)</generator> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">1926</guid> <title>Discovering ‘Undiscovered’ Hamburg </title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/hamburg-germany-undiscovered</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2025-06-26</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p>Germany's second-largest city, <a href="/europe/germany/hamburg">Hamburg</a>, is awash with history — and played especially key roles in the stories of 19th-century emigration, World War II, and the Beatles. It's also a thriving 21st-century metropolis with an inviting harbor boardwalk, avant-garde architecture, and Las Vegas–style nightlife. Every visit here makes me wonder why so many Americans skip it. I love this city.</p> <p>Even though it's about 60 miles from the North Sea, Hamburg's seaport on the Elbe River was the world's third largest a century ago. But World War II devastated the commercial center, and during the Cold War trade to the east was cut off. Port traffic dwindled, and so did the city's influence. But Hamburg's been enthusiastically rebuilt, and, since Germany's reunification, it has gained back its former status as a leading trade center.</p> <p>Hamburg's port has evolved with the city's needs and changes in shipping technology. One example is HafenCity, a huge development project that enlarged downtown Hamburg by about 40 percent. </p> <p>The northern part of HafenCity is occupied by Speicherstadt, the old warehouse district. The city preserved the area's massive red-brick riverside warehouses as part of the urban landscape, and some of them now house museums, including the <a href="https://www.imm-hamburg.de/en/" target="_blank">International Maritime Museum</a> and <a href="https://www.miniatur-wunderland.com/" target="_blank">Miniatur Wunderland</a> — one of Germany’s most visited attractions — featuring a sprawling model railway and miniature versions of the Alps, Scandinavia, Italy, and the US.</p> <p>HafenCity's centerpiece is the striking <a href="https://www.elbphilharmonie.de/en/" target="_blank">Elbphilharmonie</a> — a combination concert hall, hotel, and apartment complex that welcomes visitors to ride its escalator to a spectacular city and Elbe River view. Its daring design and huge size fit in well with the massive scale of the surrounding port.</p> <p>Water seems to be everywhere in this city of nearly 2,500 bridges. Hamburg's delightful lakes — the Aussenalster and Binnenalster — were created in the Middle Ages, when townsfolk built a mill that dammed the local river. Back in the 1950s, a law guaranteed public access to the Aussenalster, and today, peaceful paths and bike lanes are a hit with locals. Along with plenty of downtown parkland, the lakes provide Hamburg — one of Germany's greenest cities — with an elegant promenade, the Jungfernstieg, which comes complete with top-of-the-line shops.</p> <p>Just a block away, Hamburg's magnificent city hall, built in the 19th century, overlooks a lively scene. It's flanked by graceful arcades and surrounded by plenty of commerce. With its bold architecture and salty waterfront atmosphere, Hamburg feels nothing like Germany's inland cities to the south. And at first glance it's hard to believe that it was one of the most heavily bombed cities in World War II.</p> <p>With its strategic port, munitions factories, and transportation links, Hamburg was a prime target for the Allies. On July 27, 1943, they hit the city center first with explosive bombs to open roofs, break water mains, and tear up streets — making it hard for firefighters to respond. Then came a hellish onslaught of incendiary bombs: 700 bombers concentrated their attack on a relatively small area. The result was a firestorm — a tornado of raging flames reaching horrific temperatures. In three hours, the inferno killed over 40,000 people, left hundreds of thousands homeless, and reduced eight square miles of Hamburg to rubble and ashes.</p> <p>Somehow the towering spire of St. Nicholas' Church survived the bombing. It and the ruins of the church itself are now a <a href="https://www.mahnmal-st-nikolai.de/" target="_blank">memorial</a>, left to commemorate those lost and to remind future generations of the horrors of war. In its museum, you'll see scorched and melted fragments demonstrating the heat of the firestorm.</p> <p>Though Hamburg is mostly rebuilt, many WWII-era bunkers were just too expensive to tear down. So they survive, incorporated into today's cityscape. In Florapark, a green space in the Schulterblatt ("shoulderblade") district, one old bunker is now a climbing wall covered with street art. This trendy neighborhood hosts a squatter-building-turned-arts-venue and a strip with so many cafés it’s nicknamed "Latte Macchiato Boulevard." <!--A bunker in the St. Pauli neighborhood is filled with concert venues, recording studios, and dance clubs — and heavy metal rock bands here never draw complaints from their neighbors. GS cut to keep word count down after bringing in text from older article--></p> <p>Hamburg's Reeperbahn thoroughfare has long been the heart of Germany's most famous entertainment zone. Named after the rope makers who once labored here to supply Hamburg's shipping industry, it gained notoriety as a rough and sleazy sailors' quarter filled with nightclubs and brothels. But, as the city's changed, so has its entertainment district. Today this street — where the Beatles launched their careers back in 1960 — is a destination for Broadway-style theater and live music (and still many strip clubs).<!-- Considered the Broadway of Germany for its many musicals, the boulevard attracts theater-goers from all over the country. GS cut to keep w/c down, but inserted "broadway-style" in previous sentence--></p> <p>Outside the city center, another popular destination is the <a href="https://www.ballinstadt.de/en/" target="_blank">BallinStadt Emigration Museum</a>. For German Americans, Hamburg has a special meaning, because their ancestors may have sailed from this harbor. Millions of Germans and other Europeans emigrated to the US from this city between 1850 and 1930. A German counterpart to Ellis Island, the museum tells the story of emigration through Hamburg from the mid-19th century through World War II.</p><!--<p>An unforgettable capper to your Hamburg visit is its harbor tour — the best of its kind in Europe. You'll see plenty of Hamburg's bold new architecture as well as its more established beach communities. But mostly, an hour-long cruise gets you up close to Hamburg's shipping industry — all those enormous container ships, cranes, and dry docks.</p>OLD VERSION OF THE NEXT GRAF, WHICH GS CUT DOWN FOR WORD COUNT AND BECAUSE THE HARBOR TOUR IS JUST NOT THAT EXCITING--> <p>An unforgettable capper to your Hamburg visit is its harbor tour, which gets you up close to Hamburg's new architecture and still-bustling shipping industry — all those enormous container ships, cranes, and dry docks.</p> <p>Hamburg is one of the great "undiscovered" cities in Europe. With its trading heritage and a strong economy, a visit here showcases a wealthy city that rose like a phoenix from a terrible recent past.</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/039/398/medium/0f9be527bd241da970b29509e61f755d/article-germany-hamburg-speicherstadt.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Speicherstadt, Hamburg's old red-brick warehouse district, now houses museums and chic residences. (photo: Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/023/170/medium/475ae00e9065eeb3f7d11382f847479c/germany-hamburg-schanzenviertel-bunker-120717-rs.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>This graffiti-covered WWII bunker is now the city's largest climbing wall. (photo: Rick Steves)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/023/169/medium/2c5de075ddef718e8004e6f1458be3c9/germany-hamburg-landungsbruecken-120717-rc.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Hamburg's historic port is still one of Europe's busiest. (photo: Robyn Stencil)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">1003</guid> <title>Sevilla: A Perpetual Fiesta</title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/sevilla-a-perpetual-fiesta</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2025-06-19</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p><a href="/europe/spain/sevilla">Sevilla</a>, the capital of Spain's southern <a href="/europe/spain/andalucia">Andalucía</a> region, is as soulful a place as I've ever been. It's a wonderful-to-be-alive kind of town, where the color of flamenco dresses, melodies from guitars, click of castanets, and heat off the streets combine into an exhilarating hum.</p> <p>The gateway to the New World in the 16th century, Sevilla boomed during Spain's golden age. The explorers Amerigo Vespucci and Ferdinand Magellan sailed from its great river harbor, discovering abundant sources of gold, silver, cocoa, and tobacco. For a time, these New World riches turned Sevilla into Spain's largest and wealthiest city.</p> <p>Today's Sevilla has its share of impressive sights, including the world's largest Gothic cathedral (with the tomb of Christopher Columbus) and a fantastic Moorish palace and garden (the Alcázar). But the top thing to experience here is the hum of street scenes and the city's unique traditions.</p> <p>Sevilla swings easily from the sacred to the secular. Holy Week (between Palm Sunday and Easter) is celebrated with intense devotional fervor here. Over the course of the week, about 100 floats depicting some aspect of the Passion of Jesus are paraded over the cobblestones at all hours by the faithful.</p> <p>As the religious holiday wraps up, the mood shifts to party mode. A week or two after Easter, much of Sevilla packs into its vast fairgrounds for the April Fair. Countless tents line the lanes, each one a private party zone of a family, club, or association. Hold on to your castanets: It's a week of all-nighters, with the focus on dancing, drinking, and socializing.</p> <p>On opening day, the cream of Sevilla's society parades around the fairground in carriages or on horseback. Men wear traditional suits with fitted pants and a short jacket, and women turn out in brightly colored flamenco dresses.</p> <p>Because the party tents are open only to members and their guests, invitations are coveted. If you're not lucky enough to have a Sevillian friend who can get you in, make your way to one of the seven public tents. The sherry is dry and plentiful, and the food is fun, bountiful, and cheap.</p> <p>Sevilla is the birthplace of another kind of party: flamenco. It's still the best place to experience this emotive dance-and-music form of snapping fingers, stamping feet, and clicking castanets. Many of the concerts in town are designed for tourists, but they are real and riveting. If you stay up to the wee hours, you might be lucky enough to catch a late-night set in a casual bar. In these cases, flamenco is a flamboyant happening, with bystanders clapping along and encouraging the dancers with whoops and shouts.</p> <p>Even food is a theatrical event in this town. The colorful tapas tradition got its start in Andalucía, and Sevilla is the region's noshing capital. Classic, old-school tapas bars are everywhere, but nowadays gourmet places, with spiffed-up decor and creative menus, are the rage. If you want a good "restaurant" experience, your best value is to find a trendy tapas bar that offers table seating and sit down to enjoy some <em>raciones </em>(shareable dinner plate-size portions). As the tapas scene goes from early to very late and it's the standard way for locals to "eat out," the adventurous traveler will find it the most memorable and fun way to "eat local."</p> <p>I always learn something new when I travel. This time in Sevilla, my tapas guide demonstrated how quality <em>jamón</em> (cured ham), sliced thin, will stick to a plate when you upend it. I'm not sure what that has to do with quality, but one thing I am sure of: When in Spain, life's too short to eat mediocre <em>jamón</em>. At least once, pay extra for the best ham on the list <em>(ibérico)</em>.</p> <p>For a different twist on tapas, look for an <em>abacería</em>, an old-time grocery store that doubles as a tapas bar. The combination isn't completely unexpected, as many tapas chefs rely on Spain's high-quality canned foods in composing their tasty tidbits. Squeeze into the back room of one of these spots, and you're squeezing back in time. Rubbing elbows with local eaters in an <em>abacería</em>, surrounded by tinned sardines and canned peaches, you'll feel like you're in on a secret…almost as if it were a kind of Spanish speakeasy.</p> <p>To walk off a meal on a balmy evening, wander into the Barrio Santa Cruz, Sevilla's once-thriving Jewish quarter. This classy maze of lanes is too tight and tangled for cars but perfect for meandering among small plazas, tile-covered patios, and whitewashed houses draped in flowers. Getting lost is easy…and recommended. Orange trees abound, and when they blossom for three weeks in spring, the aroma is heavenly.</p> <p>Rhythms change quickly in Sevilla, from the intensity of flamenco's beat to the quiet of its back alleys. It's street theater that everyone can both enjoy and be a part of.</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/039/404/medium/d9d74e2c4eb128f289d01d37ad3ccd34/article-spain-sevilla-abaceria.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>An "abacería" — part grocery store, part tapas bar — is the ideal place to rub elbows with locals. (photo: Rick Steves)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/004/756/medium/ca79ca68440c408c82a1c5094de2dbaa/696_Flamenco.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Sitting in the front row of an intimate concert venue is the best way to experience an intense flamenco performance. (photo: Rick Steves)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">1818</guid> <title>Bucharest: Romania’s ‘Little Paris of the East’</title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/bucharest-romania-little-paris-of-the-east</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2025-06-12</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p>Still haunted by the legend of a vampire count and the legacy of a communist dictator, Romania is complex — with an epic history, a multifaceted ethnic mix, and an unusually rich cultural heritage. It may not be the easiest place to travel, but for adventurous souls, it's exceptionally rewarding.</p> <p>If you go, start in Romania's capital, Bucharest. With about two million people, it's a muscular and gritty tangle of buildings. It can be hard to like at first glance, but with a thoughtful look, it reveals its charms. Between the dreary apartment blocks hides an impressive architectural heritage.</p> <p>The foundation of this jumble dates from the late 19th century, just after Romania became a unified country. After a building spree, it was called "Little Paris of the East." Later it was brutally disfigured by the communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, who left behind a starkly Socialist-style residential zone and the city's main landmark — the Palace of the Parliament. In recent years, its citizens have rejuvenated the once-derelict Old Town — transforming it into one of the liveliest nightlife zones in eastern Europe. Taken together, Bucharest is a fascinating place to grapple with for a day or two.</p> <p>For a glimpse at Bucharest's genteel past, go for a stroll along Victory Avenue (Calea Victoriei) — with grand belle époque architecture that has recently been scrubbed of its communist-era grime. Pause by the horseback statue of King Carol I, across the street from the Royal Palace. Under King Carol, Bucharest blossomed. He imported French architects to give Bucharest the romantic allure visitors still enjoy along this avenue.</p> <p>Life changed in the 20th century. From communist times through the early 2000s, Bucharest's Old Town was deserted, dilapidated, and dangerous. But now it's being systematically rejuvenated. Grand, glittering buildings (including several bank headquarters) have been scrubbed and polished. Once-abandoned shopping galleries are newly inviting. Historical monuments — like the delightful <a href="https://www.hanulluimanuc.ro/en/" target="_blank">Hanul lui Manuc</a>, an early-19th-century inn — have been painstakingly restored. And an al fresco dining and drinking scene enlivens the traffic-free streets. The lanes of the Old Town are a revelation after dark (especially on weekends), when the entire neighborhood feels like one big, sprawling cocktail party.</p> <p>Thriving as it is today, Bucharest's Old Town was lucky to survive the communist period. In the early 1980s, after an "inspiring" visit to North Korea, Ceaușescu ripped out 80 percent of the historical center — 30,000 houses, schools, and churches — to create the Civic Center district, with wide boulevards, stone-faced apartment blocks, gurgling fountains, and a Pyongyang aesthetic. (Urban planners managed to save a few churches by secretly relocating them inside city blocks, where you can still find them today.) This area, just across the neglected little Dâmbovița River from the Old Town, is worth a stroll to better understand the scale of Ceaușescu's ambition...and his ego.</p> <p>In the core of the Civic Center, rows of fountains lead from Unity Square to the massive Palace of the Parliament — the largest building in Europe (nearly four million square feet, with more than a thousand rooms). Ceaușescu built this monstrosity as a symbol of his power. Today it houses the Romanian Parliament, three skippable museums, and an international conference center — and is still about 70 percent vacant space.</p> <p>Ceaușescu, throwing resources at his pet project like a crazed pharaoh, literally starved his people to build his dream. It finally opened in 1994 — five years after Ceaușescu was executed in a bloody revolt. The Romanian people, whose food had been rationed for years to help pay for the palace, were both wonderstruck and repulsed by this huge and opulent edifice.</p> <p>Traveling through countries that spent 45 years in what locals here call "the Soviet Club," it’s fascinating to see how a dogma that preached "equality for all" bred megalomaniacs who pursued the "cult of personality." They built gigantic monuments that took bread out of the mouths of the workers who their ideology was supposed to serve.</p> <p>While Bucharest has plenty of fine museums, on a short visit I find it more interesting to simply explore Old Town and tour the parliament. But to dig deeper into the story of Romania, visit the <a href="http://www.mnir.ro/" target="_blank">National Museum of Romanian History</a> (right in the Old Town) and the <a href="http://muzeultaranuluiroman.ro/en/" target="_blank">National Museum of the Romanian Peasant</a> (folk-life artifacts near Victory Square).</p> <p>Today, Ceaușescu feels like ancient history, and Romania is proud to be part of the European Union. Joining local families on a Saturday morning in a Bucharest park, you can't help but feel optimistic. While Romania's challenges are significant, it's clear the country is moving in the right direction. Love it or hate it (or both at once), Romania presents a powerful and memorable travel experience.</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/021/693/medium/8457182bc081b43e0e38383a1966b9b5/romania-bucharest-nightlife-030917-ch.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Bucharest's Old Town after dark has a vibrant party vibe. (photo: Cameron Hewitt)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/021/694/medium/760e8fb8bb76d7ed022ccb7726634602/romania-bucharest-parliament-030917-ch.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Bucharest's Palace of the Parliament — the largest building in Europe — is a monument to one dictator's megalomania. (photo: Cameron Hewitt)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">1216</guid> <title>Aarhus: Denmark’s Biggest Little Town</title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/aarhus-denmarks-second-city</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2025-06-05</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p>Aarhus, Denmark's second-largest city, calls itself the "World's Smallest Big City." I'd argue it's more like the world's biggest little town: easy to handle and easy to like. A pleasant three-hour train ride from Copenhagen, <a href="/europe/denmark/aarhus">Aarhus</a> is well worth a stop.</p> <p>Aarhus is the lively cultural hub of Jutland, the part of Denmark that juts up from Germany — a land of windswept sandy beaches, inviting lakes, and fortified old towns. It's also one of the oldest cities in Scandinavia. When its Viking founders settled here in the eighth century, they were attracted to its strategic location, where a river hits the sea.</p> <p>Today, Aarhus bustles with a buzzing port, an important university, a bursting-with-life pedestrian boulevard, and an adorable old quarter filled with people living well. This "second city" enjoys a friendly competition with <a href="/europe/denmark/copenhagen">Copenhagen</a>, whose sophisticates sniff that there's no need for intercity rail connections in Denmark because there's only one city — theirs. But modern Aarhus is elbowing its way into the itineraries of tourists with some notable attractions and a thriving street scene.</p> <p>The Aarhus art museum — called <a href="https://www.aros.dk/en/" target="_blank">ARoS</a> — is a must-see sight, thanks to a statement contemporary building and a curatorial staff who have a knack for making cutting-edge art accessible and fun. One of the biggest draws is a work by Olafur Eliasson, <em>Your Rainbow Panorama</em> — a 360-degree walkway that perches on the rooftop like a rainbow-colored halo. My favorite piece in the collection is one very big <em>Boy</em> by the Australian artist Ron Mueck. This superrealistic crouching figure, nearly 16 feet tall, always stops me in my tracks.</p> <p>If modern art isn't your thing, check out Aarhus's more traditional fare, including a fine open-air museum known as <a href="https://www.dengamleby.dk/" target="_blank">Den Gamle By</a> (The Old Town). With 80 historic buildings carefully moved here from throughout Denmark, it gives visitors the best possible look at Danish urban life in decades past. Don't be afraid to open doors or poke into seemingly abandoned courtyards — you'll likely find a chatty docent inside, dressed in period attire eager to describe the artifacts, answer questions, or demonstrate a craft such as blacksmithing or beekeeping.</p> <p>You can travel even farther back in time at the town's <a href="https://www.vikingemuseet.dk/english/opening-hours/" target="_blank">Viking Museum</a>. In 1960, when a new bank was being built in downtown Aarhus, local archaeologists had a chance to excavate the site. Working their way down through the layers of time, they uncovered a section of the long-ago Viking town, including the remains of houses, wells, streets, tools, and pottery. Most curiously, they discovered the headless skeleton of a man — possibly Aarhus's oldest murder victim. The artifacts are now on display in a basement museum just off Cathedral Square.</p> <p>Aarhus has another famous corpse — the Grauballe Man, the world's best-preserved "bog man." Archaeologists think he was a sacrificial victim, killed more than 2,000 years ago and tossed into a peaty swamp. Because of the oxygen-free, acidic environment, he looks like a fellow half his age. He's displayed on the outskirts of town at the <a href="https://www.moesgaardmuseum.dk/en/" target="_blank">Moesgård Museum</a>, which is dedicated to prehistory and ethnography.</p> <p>The city also has a fascinating exhibit about life under Nazi rule during World War II. Aarhus's police station, used by the Nazi occupiers for their Gestapo headquarters from 1940 until 1945, now hosts <a href="https://www.besaettelsesmuseet.dk/the-occupation-museum/the-occupation-museum/" target="_blank">Occupation Museum</a>, telling the story of the Danish resistance. <span data-contrast="auto"><span data-ccp-parastyle="Normal (Web)">Each visitor receives an ID card and follows that person's life through the war as they grapple with </span></span><span data-contrast="auto"><span data-ccp-parastyle="Normal (Web)">sticky situations and moral dilemmas</span></span><span data-contrast="auto"><span data-ccp-parastyle="Normal (Web)">.</span></span></p> <p>But there's more to Aarhus than museums. As you wander the streets, the city just entertains. The higgledy-piggledy Latin Quarter, encompassing six or eight square blocks, is the oldest quarter, built in the late 14th century after the city knocked down the old Viking fortifications. This area is great for shopping, cafés, and strolling. Its streets have historical names like Klostergade (Convent Street), Volden (The Rampart), and Badstuegade (Bath Street) — from the time when the riffraff visited public bathhouses for their annual "Christmas bath" (finer folk bathed monthly).</p> <p>Another fun people zone stretches alongside the town's canal (Aboulevarden). In the 1930s, Aarhus covered over its river to make a new road, but in the 1980s, locals decided to remove the road. They artfully canalized the river, creating a trendy avenue that's now the town's place to see and be seen. Lined with modern eateries, the street stays lively even after the short Danish summer fades away.</p> <p>With its vibrant mix of youthful energy and respect for the past, Aarhus is a dynamic place. As the locals like to say, "Aarhus" is Danish for "progress."</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/039/391/medium/c94f755002ccc784dccbd75276eb758b/article-denmark-aarhus-aros-rainbow-panorama.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>The "Your Rainbow Panorama" walkway atop Aarhus's art museum is experiential art at its best. (photo: Cameron Hewitt)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/036/561/medium/af400abc62c807fbbd65b55425422cb1/article-denmark-aarhus-canal-neighborhood-visitors.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>The pedestrianized canal zone in Aarhus is an always-lively place to get a bite to eat. (photo: Rick Steves)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">2124</guid> <title>Glasgow Surprises with Art, Design, and Culture</title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/glasgow-scotlands-second-city</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2025-05-29</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p><a href="/europe/scotland/glasgow">Glasgow</a>, astride the River Clyde, is a surprising city — and Scotland's most underrated destination. Just an hour from Edinburgh (making it an easy day trip), Glasgow offers an energetic dining and nightlife scene, fanciful architecture, and top-notch museums — most of which are free. Today, this once-run-down city feels revitalized, and Glaswegians (sounds like "Norwegians") are eager to give visitors a warm welcome.</p> <p>Locals here are some of the chattiest people in <a href="/europe/scotland">Scotland</a> — and have the most entertaining (and impenetrable) accent. One once told me he was "British by passport, and Scottish by the grace of God." Their unpretentious friendliness makes connecting with people here a cinch. You don't find an upper-crust history or people putting on airs. In Edinburgh, people identify with the quality of the school they attended; in Glasgow, it's their soccer team allegiance.</p> <p>In its 19th-century heyday, Glasgow was one of Europe's biggest cities and the second-largest in Britain, right behind London. It was at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution, and is said to have produced a quarter of the world's oceangoing ships. After World War II, the city was hit with tough times, giving it a gritty image. But modern Glasgow has rejuvenated itself with a thriving cultural scene and its trademark knack for design and artsy edge.</p> <p>Glasgow tells its story throughout its vibrant streets and squares. At the heart of the city is George Square, decorated with a "Who's Who" of statues depicting great Scots, from top literary figures Sir Walter Scott and Robert Burns, to James Watt, who perfected the steam engine that helped power Europe into the Industrial Age. On the same square, in front of the City Chambers, stands a monument to Glaswegians killed in the World Wars.</p> <p>Architecture buffs flock here to appreciate the unique Glaswegian flair evident across the city's Victorian facades, early 20th-century touches, and bold and glassy new construction. Most beloved are the works by Glasgow-born architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Mackintosh brought an exuberant Art Nouveau influence to this otherwise practical, working-class city with his stimulating blend of organic shapes and Japanese-inspired design.</p> <p>Glasgow offers several opportunities to experience Mackintosh's work in situ. The <a href="https://www.mackintoshatthewillow.com/" target="_blank">Mackintosh at the Willow</a> tearooms, dating back to 1903, are an Art Nouveau masterpiece where you can have a meal or tea, or pay to browse exhibits about the history of this place. During the industrial boom of the late 19th century, Victorian morals prevailed and the Scottish temperance movement was in full force. Tearooms like the Willow were designed to be an appealing alternative to pubs — places where women could visit unescorted, without risking an undesirable reputation.</p> <p>Across town, the Mackintosh exhibit at the <a href="https://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/museums/venues/kelvingrove-art-gallery-and-museum" target="_blank">Kelvingrove Art Gallery</a> hosts a collection of the architect's works. Housed in a grand, 100-year-old, Spanish Baroque-style building, the Kelvingrove is Glasgow's best museum — like a Scottish Smithsonian, with everything from natural history exhibits to fine artwork by the great masters.</p> <p>Glasgow's artsy vibe extends beyond its museums, permeating city streets with eclectic mural art. City officials have cleverly co-opted street artists by sanctioning huge, fun, and edgy murals around town to prevent tagging. This creative problem-solving is typical of Glaswegians — taking counterculture energy and turning it into something positive. There's even a city map available that traces the city's best mural art.</p> <p>To feel the pulse of the city, head to busy Buchanan Street, nicknamed the "Golden Zed" (Brit-speak for "Z"), for the way it zigzags through town. And as home to the top shops in town, it's also dubbed the "Style Mile." This is the place to people-watch, gaze up at the elegant architecture above the storefronts, and enjoy the talented buskers that bring the boulevard to life.</p> <p>Live music is a major part of Glasgow's personality, and one of the best places to experience this is in the city's West End. On a recent trip I bellied up to the bar at the Ben Nevis Pub, expected to hear traditional Scottish music. But as the session got going, I was surprised to learn that the entire UK was represented in the band, with musicians from Northern Ireland, Wales, England, and Scotland. My Glaswegian friend pointed out that this is the fun reality of Glasgow, where tribes come together to make music. And that (as a microcosm of our world in general) is a beautiful thing.</p> <p>The more time you spend in Glasgow, the more you'll appreciate its edgy, artsy vibe and quirky, laid-back personality. The city's earthy charm and the Glaswegians' love of life make it one of my favorite stops in Britain.</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/039/390/medium/21fcadd4a25d34727c9208a3ccaf23a7/article-scotland-glasgow-mural.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Glasgow's striking murals enliven its streetscape. (photo: Jessica Shaw)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/025/304/medium/f5a002717eb020e54b5edd4c8af7eaae/scotland-glasgow-kelvingrove-museum-022819-gs.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>The Kelvingrove Art Gallery houses everything from Mackintosh's Art Nouveau designs, to stuffed elephants and a natural history exhibit, to medieval armory. (photo: Gretchen Strauch)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/025/305/medium/1c5bba4fce0d6f4a8146cfd1889349e8/scotland-glasgow-buchanan-street-022819-ch.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Buchanan Street is the heart of modern, commercial Glasgow — and it's a fascinating place to people-watch. (photo: Cameron Hewitt)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">541</guid> <title>Paris Shines in Summer</title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/paris-when-it-sizzles</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2025-05-22</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p>Few cities can even come close to Paris when it comes to cultural, artistic, and historic heritage. And few residents are as confident as Parisians in their expertise in good living. While that uniquely French <em>joie de vivre</em> can be enjoyed throughout the year, Paris kicks it into high gear in summer.</p> <p>An old travel mantra tells you to avoid <a href="/europe/france/paris">Paris</a> in summer, when its citizens traditionally go on vacation. Sure, it's hard to schedule an appointment with a dentist or accountant…but when you're on vacation, who cares? It's the tourists' Paris that the tourist is looking for — and the Paris I'm after is in full swing in July and August.</p> <p>For the benefit of Parisians who do stay in town — and the countless tourists who visit through the summer — France's ministry of culture sponsors plenty of action, including an entertaining <a href="https://www.parislete.fr/" target="_blank">Summer Festival</a> for three weeks in July. Its diverse programs — dance, theater, concerts, acrobatics, and installations — take place all around the city, and many are outdoors and free.</p> <p>During the summer, the Seine River — where the busy arterials that once lined it banks have been replaced with a green and inviting riverside park — is filled with life. Landscaped promenades, tailor-made for strolling and biking, rather than traffic jams, now line the river banks. I love spending a balmy summer evening just downstream from Notre-Dame, where there's an engaging people zone with an open-air art gallery, music, and salsa dancing.</p> <p>Parisians have a habit of spilling onto the river's bridges and embankments to enjoy the early evening hours. It's the perfect time to share a simple picnic with friends. Join in — for the cost of groceries and a bottle of wine, you can enjoy a gourmet spread with ambience that no restaurant can touch.</p> <p>If you'd rather toss a Frisbee than ponder the river's reflections, head to the one-mile stretch of the Right Bank (just north of Ile de la Cité) where the city government trucks in potted palm trees, hammocks, and lounge chairs to create colorful urban "<a href="http://parisjetaime.com/eng/event/paris-plages-e013" target="_blank">beaches</a>" in July and August. With climbing walls, "beach" cafés, stylish swimsuits on parade, volleyball courts, and trampolines, it's an ideal place to see Paris at play — and to play along with Paris.</p> <p>July is also enlivened by two big events — first on the 14th, the country's national holiday, when <a href="/watch-read-listen/read/articles/bastille-day-france" target="_blank">Bastille Day</a> is celebrated in towns big and small all over France. And Paris goes all out: There's a big parade down the Avenue des Champs-Elysées, concerts galore, and fireworks lighting up the sky over the Eiffel Tower. Later in July, the <a href="https://www.letour.fr/en/overall-route" target="_blank">Tour de France</a> culminates in the center of Paris, with cyclists crossing the finish line, with much fanfare, on the Champs-Elysées.</p> <p>Summer also means sightseeing after dark: Some sights and museums — such as the <a href="https://www.toureiffel.paris/en" target="_blank">Eiffel Tower</a> — keep longer hours, and others host special summer-only events. In nearby Versailles, summer Saturday nights offer a cool array of gushing fountains, lighted displays, and fireworks. King Louis XIV had his engineers literally reroute a river to fuel his fountains and feed his plants. Even by today's standards, the fountains are impressive.</p> <p>Paris' many lovely parks work overtime in summer as playgrounds for all ages. The sprawling Esplanade des Invalides is just right for afternoon lawn bowling <em>(boules)</em>. Puppet shows, pony rides, rental toy sailboats, and a merry-go-round enliven the Luxembourg Garden. A temporary amusement park pops up at the Tuileries Garden, complete with a huge Ferris wheel. An open-air cinema at <a href="https://parisjetaime.com/eng/event/open-air-cinema-e017" target="_blank">Parc de la Villette</a> screens films in their original language with French subtitles on many summer nights (no charge if you sit on your own blanket).</p> <p>While the big formal music venues such as the opera go on vacation in summer, the city keeps making music. The <a href="https://festivalsduparcfloral.paris/programmation/paris-jazz-festival/" target="_blank">Paris Jazz Festival</a> swings its hip beats among the spacious lawns and gardens of Parc Floral in July and August (and in early September the <a href="https://jazzalavillette.com/en/" target="_blank">Jazz at La Villette </a>enlivens Parc de la Villette). The city's many old churches do double-duty as venues for chamber-music concerts.</p> <p>I like seeing the City of Light after dark, lacing together the iconic floodlight sights on a self-guided taxi tour, or on a boat cruise — or even by bike. While Paris is enthusiastically bike-friendly, for tourists, the easiest option is to join a bike tour (try <a href="https://www.fattiretours.com/paris/" target="_blank">Fat Tire Bikes</a>). Seeing the Eiffel Tower sparkle in the night sky is an unforgettable way to cap any Parisian day.</p> <p>Sure, summer in Paris requires patience and flexibility. It's peak tourist season, and it's hot. City buses are like rolling greenhouses. If you neglect to make advance reservations, you'll swelter in <a href="/watch-read-listen/read/articles/eiffel-tower-visiting-tips">lines at the Eiffel Tower</a> or Louvre. But for the thoughtful and well-prepared traveler, summer can be a fine time to enjoy such a great city so in love with life and expert at enjoying it.</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/039/384/medium/c78a01f0362e545989222651f01cd1be/article-france-paris-seine-promenade.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Paris' riverside promenade is fine for strolling, biking, or just soaking up the summertime ambience. (photo: Rick Steves)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/001/878/medium/eb5aa076bbb27bc8f9c457bafe46fc64/683_ParisParkBench.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Parisians make good use of their handsome parks in the summer months. (photo: Carol Ries)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">1055</guid> <title>York: A Time Travel Experience into Old England</title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/york-old-england</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2025-05-01</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p>We may have New York, but England has old York, one of the country's top tourist destinations outside of London. The town offers a captivating tour of historic sights mixed with an easygoing pedestrian ambience — all lassoed within its formidable medieval wall.</p> <p><a href="/europe/england/york">York</a> has a rich, long history, serving as a Roman provincial capital in AD 71, capital of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria after the fall of Rome, and as a trading center called Jorvik from the 9th through the 11th century. Like counting the rings in a tree trunk, you can count the ages of York by the different bricks in the city wall: Roman on the bottom, then Danish, Norman, and the "new" addition — from the 14th century.</p> <p>Later, Henry VIII used the city's fine cathedral as the northern headquarters of his Anglican Church. The huge <a href="https://yorkminster.org/visit/" target="_blank">York Minster</a> is still a power center of the Church, and easily the town's top sight — but much more lies beyond. The minster's stately Gothic towers serve as a navigational landmark as you explore the town — or you can follow the strategically placed signposts, which helpfully point out all places of interest to tourists.</p> <p>While only traces are left of most Viking settlements, "Jorvik" was an archaeologist's bonanza, the best-preserved Viking city ever excavated. When the archaeologists were finished, the dig site was converted into the <a href="https://www.jorvikvikingcentre.co.uk/" target="_blank">Jorvik Viking Centre</a>. Visitors ride a "Pirates of the Caribbean"-type people-mover through a re-created Viking street, complete with jabbering animatronic characters. The ride then rolls through the actual excavation site — the time-crushed remains of a once-bustling town. While innovative in 1984, Jorvik seems gimmicky today.</p> <p>For straightforward Viking artifacts, beautifully explained and set in historical context with no crowds, tour the nearby <a href="https://www.yorkshiremuseum.org.uk/" target="_blank">Yorkshire Museum</a>. Built into the ruins of what was once northern England's wealthiest abbey, the museum includes exhibits that tell the story of life here for the monks, how that all ended, and much more. The ancient Roman collection includes slice-of-life exhibits from cult figurines to the skull of a man killed by a sword blow to the head — making it graphically clear that the struggle between Romans and barbarians was a violent one. York soldiered on, amassing a large collection of weaponry throughout the ages. One of the museum's highlights is an eighth-century Anglo-Saxon brass helmet.</p> <p>Nearby, the <a href="https://www.yorkcastlemuseum.org.uk/" target="_blank">York Castle Museum</a> is an old-school, sedate Victorian home show. English memorabilia from the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries are cleverly displayed in a huge collection of craft shops, old stores, and bygone living rooms.</p> <p>As towns were being modernized in the 1930s, the museum's founder, Dr. Kirk, recognized the need to preserve elements of English heritage before they disappeared entirely. He collected entire shops and reassembled them here. On Kirkgate, the "street" that's the museum's most popular section, you can wander through life-size recreations of a Lincolnshire butcher's shop, bakery, coppersmith, toy store, and barbershop.</p> <p><span style="font-size: 15px;">The shops are stocked with the actual merchandise of the day. In the confectionery, I once eavesdropped on English grannies giggling and reminiscing their way through the mouthwatering world of "spice pigs," "togo bullets," "humbugs," and "conversation lozenges."</span></p> <p>Just outside the city walls, near the train station, is the <a href="https://www.railwaymuseum.org.uk/" target="_blank">National Railway Museum</a>, showing two centuries of British railroad history. In the Industrial Age, York was the railway hub of northern England — and when it was built, York's station was the world's largest. The museum hosts an array of beautifully preserved historic trains fanning out from a grand roundhouse. A steam engine is sliced open, showing cylinders, driving wheels, and a smoke box in action. Exhibits trace the evolution of steam-powered transportation from very early trains like an 1830 stagecoach on rails to the aerodynamic Mallard — famous as the first train to travel at two miles per minute, a marvel back in 1938.</p> <p>The focal point of York's half-timbered town center is the medieval butchers' street called The Shambles, with its rusty old hooks hiding under the eaves (the street's name is derived from "shammell" — a butcher's cutting block). Six hundred years ago, bloody hunks of meat hung here, dripping into the gutter that still marks the middle of the lane. This slaughterhouse of commercial activity gave our language a new word. And what was once a "shambles" is now a busy Tudor lane of tourist shops.</p> <p>To get away from the bustle, linger at one of York's fine upscale bistros or elegant teahouses. Or try the two-mile walk along the Ouse River and over the handsome Millennium Bridge. If you follow the riverside tow path back into town, with your sights set on the mighty Minster towers, you may find yourself contemplating how a better understanding the story of this intriguing city makes it even more rewarding to visit.</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/032/765/medium/e3db2ea50bdf781d6821f98428a31b87/article-england-york-shambles.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>York's atmospheric old butchers' quarter, The Shambles, hosts tipsy medieval buildings. (photo: Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/032/144/medium/3bdab7eb8234bbdefd4cedeb75226a1f/article-england-york-castle-museum-sweet-shop.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>The "Kirkgate" section of York's Castle Museum includes an old-fashioned sweet shop (photo: Rick Steves)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">1215</guid> <title>A Crossroads of Civilizations in Istanbul</title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/the-many-layers-of-istanbul</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2025-04-24</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p>Some of my most vivid memories from my first visit to <a href="/europe/turkey/istanbul">Istanbul</a> in the 1970s are of the colorful locals. Scruffy kids sold cherry juice, and old men would grab huge cucumbers from wheeled carts, then peel, quarter, and salt them, and sell them for pennies. While the Old World magic in many parts of the city has been plowed under by modern affluence, today's Istanbul is every bit as rich and rewarding as it was back then.</p> <p>For thousands of years, Istanbul has marked the point where East meets West — a true crossroads of civilizations. Once known as Byzantium, it was named Constantinople in honor of Constantine, the Roman emperor who, around AD 330, as ancient Rome was falling, moved the capital to the less chaotic east. In 476, Rome and the Western Empire fell to invading barbarians. The city, so layered with rich history, was officially named Istanbul in 1930 with the founding of the modern Turkish Republic.</p> <p>Plenty of traces of the Roman capital remain. In the heart of the Old Town is the Hippodrome, a racetrack like Rome's Circus Maximus. Completed in the fourth century, this square was Constantinople's primary venue for chariot races. Its centerpiece, a 3,500-year-old Egyptian obelisk, was originally carved to honor a pharaoh. What you see today is only the upper third of the original massive stone tower.</p> <p>The best look at ancient Constantinople is <a href="https://ayasofyacamii.gov.tr/en" target="_blank">Hagia Sophia</a>. Built as a church in the sixth century, it marked the pinnacle of the Byzantine glory days, boasting the biggest dome anywhere until Florence's cathedral was finished 900 years later. After the Byzantine Empire collapsed in the 15th century, the Ottomans turned it into a mosque, adding minarets and plastering over Christian mosaics. The prayer niche was shifted a bit off-center so it would point toward Mecca, rather than Jerusalem. (Long technically classified a museum, it was redesignated a mosque in 2020 and still welcomes non-Muslim visitors.)</p> <p>Facing the Hagia Sophia is the Blue Mosque. The area in between is the historic center of Istanbul, with blossoming trees, refreshing fountains, and a mix of strolling tourists and locals. On my last visit, I had to just sit on a bench and marvel at the elegance of the scene.</p> <p>Architecturally, the <a href="https://sultanahmetcami.org/k/15/english/" target="_blank">Blue Mosque</a>, with its six minarets, rivaled the great mosque in Mecca — the holiest in all Islam. More than 20,000 ceramic tiles with exquisite floral and geometric motifs fill the 17th-century interior. As is the custom in mosques, you park your shoes at the door and women cover their heads. If you don't have a scarf, loaners are available at the door.</p> <p>Services are segregated by gender: The main hall is reserved for men, while the women's section is in back. While some may view this as demeaning, Muslims see it as a practical matter: Women would rather have the option of performing the physical act of praying in private. One time, I visited in the evening, when once again it was the neighborhood mosque in action — not a tourist in sight. (A window was open for ventilation. I peeked through to find it was the ladies' prayer zone. I drew back, suddenly feeling a twinge of peeping-Tom guilt.)</p> <p>To get a full appreciation for today's Istanbul, you must leave the sightseeing core and explore the lively, more cosmopolitan neighborhoods. Istanbul's contemporary heart is Taksim Square, circled by endless traffic and highlighted by a statue commemorating the father of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The square marks the start of bustling İstiklal Street, lined with shops and eateries.</p> <p>İstiklal offers an enticing parade of taste treats. Carts and hole-in-the-wall restaurants sell traditional foods like <em>simit</em> (sesame seed bread rings), <em>gözleme</em> (flatbread folded over cheese, potatoes, and other fillings), and <em>döner kebab</em> (meat grilled on a revolving spit and served in flatbread). Windows display towers of honey-soaked baklava and Turkish delight, a sweet chewy treat. At stalls, you can sample a local favorite: <em>kokoreç</em> (sheep intestines, grilled and served with tomatoes, green peppers, and fresh herbs).</p> <p>Strolling this mostly pedestrian boulevard from one thriving end to the other is a joyful ritual for me every time I'm in town. And it changes with each visit. As <a href="/europe/turkey">Turkey</a> becomes more affluent and Western, the action here becomes more and more vibrant. This is today's Turkey: a melting pot of 20 or so ethnic groups (Turk, Kurd, Armenian, Jew, Greek, and many more) and styles from the very traditional to the very latest. The city is a huge draw for visitors — still a crossroads of humanity. And according to the Turkish proverb, every guest is a gift from God.</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/039/160/medium/895f35cc8d18452024edf94d2b806946/article-turkey-istanbul-hagia-sophia-interior.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Built by the Byzantine emperor in the early 500s on the grandest scale possible, the Hagia Sophia was later converted from a church into a mosque by the conquering Ottomans. (photo: Carrie Shepherd)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/015/293/medium/40dfbe56a0dee748e87178bdd373fca1/2014-7-10_IstanbulIstiklalStreet.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>İstiklal Street, one of the city's main pedestrian thoroughfares, boasts a nostalgic tram along its nearly one-mile stretch. (photo: Dominic Bonuccelli)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/015/292/medium/bce9e631d85ce6012a3c1c0fe02763ab/2014-7-10_IstanbulHagiaSophia.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>At the heart of Istanbul's Old Town the Hagia Sophia stands near the Blue Mosque, Hippodrome, several museums, and pleasant Sultan Ahmet Park. (photo: Rick Steves)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">124</guid> <title>Feeling Barcelona’s Creative Pulse</title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/barcelona-a-visual-feast</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2025-04-17</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p>If you're in the mood to surrender to a city's charms, let it be in <a href="/europe/spain/barcelona">Barcelona</a>. Life bubbles in its narrow old town alleys, grand boulevards, and elegant modern district. While Barcelona has an illustrious past — from Roman colony to 14th-century maritime power — it's enjoyable to throw out the history books and just drift through the city.</p> <p>A stroll down Barcelona's main pedestrian drag, the Ramblas, is a good place to start. This grand boulevard takes you from rich (the elegant main square, Plaça de Catalunya) to rough (the port) in a one-mile walk past plenty of historic pieces of this great city.</p> <p>The street, whose name comes from the Arabic for "stream," is an endless current of people and action. For generations, this boulevard was beloved by locals and tourists alike for its parade of local charm and thriving market. But be warned that with the advent of short-term rentals, locals have been driven out of the neighborhood by higher rents as landlords choose to make more money housing tourists. And with that exodus, so goes the local charm. Today the Ramblas is a tourist trap made even more disappointing by the overabundance of pickpockets also targeting the tourists. It's still worth a look, but if you have fond memories from a previous visit, you leave thinking: Ramblas…R.I.P.</p> <p>East of the Ramblas is Barcelona's Gothic quarter, the Barri Gòtic, which surrounds the colossal <a href="https://catedralbcn.org/en/" target="_blank">Barcelona Cathedral</a>. The narrow streets that weave around the cathedral are a tangled but inviting grab bag of undiscovered Art Nouveau storefronts, neighborhood flea markets, musty junk shops, classy antique shops, and musicians strumming the folk songs of Catalunya (the independent-minded region of northeast Spain, of which Barcelona is the capital). If you visit, be sure to look up at the wrought-iron balconies whose bars barely contain their domestic jungles.</p> <p>A creative spirit is part of the ebb and flow of daily life in Barcelona. The designs of Modern artist Joan Miró, who lived in the Barri Gòtic, show up all over the city, from murals to mobiles to the La Caixa bank logo. If you enjoy his childlike style, ride the funicular up to Parc de Montjuïc, and peek into the <a href="https://www.fmirobcn.org/en/" target="_blank">Fundació Joan Miró</a>, a showcase for his art.</p> <p>The Barri Gòtic was also home to a teenage Pablo Picasso. It was in Barcelona, in the 1890s, that Picasso grabbed hold of the artistic vision that rocketed him to Paris and fame. The <a href="https://museupicassobcn.cat/en/" target="_blank">Picasso Museum</a>, in the Ribera district, offers the best collection of the artist's work in Spain. Seeing Picasso's youthful, realistic art, you can better appreciate the genius of his later, more abstract art.</p> <p>For a refreshing break from the dense old city, head north to the more modern Eixample neighborhood, with its wide sidewalks, graceful shade trees, chic shops, and Art Nouveau frills. Barcelona was busting out of its medieval walls by the 1850s, so a new town — called the Eixample ("expansion") — was laid out in a grid pattern.</p> <p>The district's original vision was egalitarian. But over time the Eixample became a showcase for wealthy residents and their Catalan architects, who turned the flourishing Art Nouveau style into Modernisme, their own brand of decorative design. Buildings bloom with characteristic colorful, leafy, and flowing shapes in doorways, entrances, facades, and ceilings.</p> <p>Barcelona's most famous Modernista artist, Antoni Gaudí, created architectural fantasies that are a quirky quilt of galloping gables and organic curves. A quintessential example of Modernisme, <a href="https://www.lapedrera.com/en" target="_blank">La Pedrera</a> (a.k.a. Casa Milà) has walls of wavy stone and a fanciful, undulating rooftop, where 30 chimneys play volleyball with the clouds. At <a href="https://www.casabatllo.es/en/" target="_blank">Casa Batlló</a>, a green-blue ceramic-speckled facade, tibia-esque pillars, and shell-like balconies are inspired by nature, while the humpback roofline suggests a cresting dragon's back.</p> <p>But Gaudí's best-known and most exciting work is the still-unfinished <a href="https://sagradafamilia.org/en/" target="_blank">Sagrada Família</a>, with its melting-ice-cream-cone spires and towers. The Nativity Facade, the only part of the church essentially completed in Gaudí's lifetime, shows the architect's original vision. Mixing Christian symbolism, images from nature, and the organic flair of Modernisme, it's a fine example of his unmistakable style.</p> <p>Take an elevator up one of the towers for a gargoyle's-eye perspective of this inspiring church. Local craftsmen often finish up their careers by putting in a couple of years working on the project. Over a lifetime of visits, I've enjoyed watching its progress, and I can't wait to see it completed — perhaps within this decade. Your admission helps pay for the ongoing construction (buy your timed-entry ticket well in advance).</p> <p>Gaudí fans also enjoy the artist's fun-loving genius in the colorful, freewheeling <a href="https://www.parkguell.es/en/portada" target="_blank">Park Güell</a>, a 30-acre hilltop garden once intended to be a 60-residence housing project. Carpeted with fanciful mosaics and dotted with sculptures (including a giant tiled lizard), this park is a great place to cap the day.</p> <p>Whether in its art, characteristic back lanes, architecture, or proud Catalan culture, Barcelona offers visitors an always colorful, always lively experience.</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/039/142/medium/255858955aaf1f1e87dc286e8e0b9726/article-spain-barcelona-ramblas-miro-mural.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Public art, such as Miró's mosaic on the Ramblas, fits seamlessly into Barcelona's street life. (photo: Cameron Hewitt)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/038/458/medium/765e7ffba194f730159f9022b8a977ab/article-spain-barcelona-park-guell-overview.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Beyond its often-crowded walkways, Gaudí's Park Güell offers fanciful views at every turn. (photo: Addie Mannan)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">3536</guid> <title>Where Jane Reigns: England Celebrates Jane Austen in 2025</title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/england-jane-austen-2025</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2025-04-11</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p>Jane Austen turns 250 this year, and to mark this milestone England is rolling out the Regency red carpet for throngs of ardent Austen fans. If your 2025 travel plans include Britain — Bath, in particular — you might encounter larger-than-usual crowds at Austen hotspots, with some visitors sure to be sporting high-waisted gowns, petticoats, and long white gloves.</p> <p>The author of widely adored novels (including <em>Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility,</em> and <em>Emma) </em>— Austen is one of England's most famous writers. She played an outsize role in the evolution of England's social norms by featuring strong, independent heroines whose views often mirrored her own. Though set in Regency-era England, her books' brilliant blend of realism, romance, and memorable characters still resonate with readers today. <em>Pride and Prejudice</em> alone has inspired more than 10 film and TV adaptations, not to mention countless reinterpretations, from <em>Bridget Jones's Diary </em>to<em> Pride and Prejudice and Zombies</em>.</p> <p>Austen's birthday is December 16, but England is celebrating with special events and programs throughout 2025. The biggest happenings are centered in Bath and across Hampshire — if you're heading to any of the following Austen-related places, it's good to be aware and plan accordingly.</p> <p><a href="/europe/england/bath" target="_blank">Bath</a> is the mecca for Austen devotees, with various "Austen Points" scattered across town and multiple initiatives dedicated to the city's most famous former resident. (Austen lived in Bath for five tumultuous-yet-foundational years around 1800 and set two of her novels there.) A big hit with Austen fans in Bath is the <a href="https://janeausten.co.uk/" target="_blank">Jane Austen Center,</a> which contains no historical artifacts but offers visitors the chance to try on period costumes, play parlor games the author enjoyed, and even go all-out by taking "<a href="https://janeausten.co.uk/pages/the-regency-tea-rooms" target="_blank">Mr. Darcy's Afternoon Tea.</a>"</p> <p>The center also organizes Bath's annual <a href="https://janeausten.co.uk/pages/festival-home-page" target="_blank">Jane Austen Festival</a>, which unfolds genteelly every fall with costumed promenades and parties. Beyond its primary dates (September 12–21 this year), the festival is celebrating Austen 250 with a pair of book-themed balls — complete with traditional dance training — on <a href="https://visitbath.co.uk/whats-on/jane-austen-festival-persuasion-nautical-themed-summer-ball-at-the-guildhall-p3661063" target="_blank">May 31</a> and <a href="https://visitbath.co.uk/whats-on/jane-austen-festival-sanditon-seaside-themed-summer-ball-at-the-guildhall-p3661073" target="_blank">June 28</a>, and an opulent "<a href="https://janeausten.co.uk/pages/festival-event-yuletide-birthday-ball" target="_blank">Yuletide Birthday Ball</a>" in December. Whether you fancy a dance or are merely going to be in Bath around those times, anticipate heavy crowds (and long queues at your favorite local Regency-era tailor).</p> <p>Beyond Bath, a trio of sites in southern England's Hampshire — the Jane Austen House in Chawton, the village of Steventon, and Winchester Cathedral — are the other main ports of call for Austen die-hards. Located about 1.5 hours southwest of London (on the way to Southampton), and each a 30-minute drive from one another, this triangle of pilgrimage sites can easily be visited in a day.</p> <p>The best is probably the <a href="https://janeaustens.house/" target="_blank">Jane Austen House</a>, the building where she lived her final years (and where she wrote most of her novels). The house sports a good collection of artifacts — personal letters, first editions of her books, and her (very small) writing table — and in 2025 is marking her birthday with a year-long "Austenmania" exhibit.</p> <p>Steventon, Austen's birthplace, doesn't usually offer visitors much beyond her childhood church, but this year it's hosting multiple <a href="https://steventonhants.org.uk/jane-austen/" target="_blank">special events</a>, including a fair, an art exhibition, and a handful of concerts.</p> <p>Nearby is Winchester, where Austen lived her very last weeks (and died). Her house there, at <a href="https://www.winchestercollege.org/visit-us/jane-austen" target="_blank">No. 8 College Street</a>, is opening to the public for the first time this year (tickets have sold out for now, but more may become available later). <a href="https://www.winchester-cathedral.org.uk/" target="_blank">Winchester Cathedral</a>, meanwhile, is worth a visit regardless of its Austen ties: It's the longest medieval cathedral in the world, boasts perfectly preserved Gothic architecture, and is never crowded. The cathedral is home to her grave, and also honors the author with numerous plaques and an impressive memorial stained-glass window — and will be erecting a life-size statue of her this October.</p> <p>Far from Austen's native Hampshire is <a href="https://www.chatsworth.org/" target="_blank">Chatsworth House</a>, a regal estate in the Midlands, near Nottingham, that was supposedly Austen's inspiration for Mr. Darcy's Pemberley mansion in <em>Pride and Prejudice</em> (and was the location used for the 2005 film adaptation starring Keira Knightley). It doesn't hold as much Austen heritage as the other sites, but it's still fun to visit — and will likely be popular with Jane-iacs this year.</p> <p>And throughout the country, throughout the year, multiple balls are planned, from those book-themed-bashes in Bath to a festive winter ball at Chatsworth House, and many in between. If you travel with a flowery headpiece or black top hat, feel free to join in — otherwise, you may at least get a chance to enjoy all the people in Regency attire who are sure to be flooding England's cobbled streets and rickety pubs all year long.</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/039/090/medium/609a13c82e8ff6dc1ac4aeaa6791edfd/article-england-bath-view-from-abbey.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Jane Austen lived in Bath for five years and set two of her novels there. (photo: Addie Mannan)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">1453</guid> <title>Eat, View, Save: Scenic Dining in Europe</title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/scenic-dining-in-europe</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2025-04-03</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p>I'm all about traveling efficiently — and a great way to do that is by savoring local cuisine as you soak up the splendor of the place you came to see. While view restaurants often come with a steep price tag, I've learned to find scenic places to eat where the food is delicious, affordable, and memorable.</p> <p>You might call taking in the view while you eat "killing two birds with one stone," but in Scandinavia, it's "killing two flies with one swat." On one trip to <a href="/europe/sweden">Sweden</a>, I "killed two flies" in the fascinating town of Kalmar, which has a wonderful beach at the edge of its Old Town on the Baltic Sea. On a hot summer day, I found a festive and happy slice of Swedish life, with views of the town's medieval castle, as well as of castles built of sand. With a snack-stand meal in hand, I walked to the end of a long pier to take in more views — plus some exuberant kid-leaping-into-water action. The combination Swedish beauty pageant/tattoo show on shore made for great lunchtime people-watching.</p> <p>Picnics are a smart, budget-saving strategy anywhere in Europe. Convenience stores are abundant, but while cheaper than any restaurant, they charge about double what you'll pay in a grocery store. At a European supermarket, I can get a big, cheap bag of almonds to munch on. A bag of carrots for snacking can last for days. Yogurt is drinkable, cheap, and tasty. Market halls come with great eateries, priced for local shoppers and serving the freshest of quality ingredients.</p> <p>With your favorite munchables, set up on a scenic stretch and enjoy a world of entertainment with postcard views. In Spain, the San Nicolas terrace across from the Alhambra palace in <a href="/europe/spain/granada">Granada</a> comes with great Roma (Gypsy) music nearly all day long. Pop a few euros into the musicians' hat, sit down with a yummy picnic, and enjoy an open-air concert as good as many you might pay for. In Germany's bustling Würzburg, commune with beer-drinking students on a park-like riverbank that stretches from the city's atmospheric old bridge, with the stout Marienberg Fortress looming overhead. There are plenty of benches and a long, inviting, concrete embankment to spread out your meal.</p> <p>Even in the most resorty of places, such as Italy's Amalfi Coast, you can always find a <em>rosticceria,</em> where classic local dishes are cooked up and ready for you to buy by the weight. I don't know a lot of Italian, but a key phrase I do know is <em>da portare via</em> — "for the road." Take your meal down to the beach, grab a nice perch, and enjoy a Mediterranean vista. In Paris, assemble an evening picnic in the food shops along Rue Cler, and set up on the riverside promenade for a <em>très romantique</em> meal with floodlit views of the Eiffel Tower.</p> <p>If you're willing to pay a premium, dining with a view is at option at restaurants, of course — but choose carefully. Europe's most fabled nightspots, such as Rome's Piazza Navona, are lined with outdoor restaurants that come with enticing menus and formal-vested waiters. I like the idea of dining under floodlit monuments amid a constantly flowing parade of people. But throngs of tourists and forgettable, overpriced food can kill the ambience — consider enjoying the view by ordering just a drink or dessert. If you're set on eating a whole meal at one of Europe's outdoor hot spots, circle slowly and observe the food and people carefully. Places with happy diners are your best bet.</p> <p>Top-floor dining with views can be more challenging on the wallet, but with some forethought you can find affordable options. All over Europe, towering department stores offer great cafeteria lunches — with rooftop views at no extra charge. Switzerland can be expensive, but savvy diners in Luzern head for a self-service cafeteria on the fifth floor of the Manor department store, and then climb some stairs to an outdoor terrace where happy eaters gaze above the rooftops to Lake Luzern and Mount Pilatus. <!--The terrace gets packed with locals at peak times — eat early or late, and send your travel partner up top to claim an outdoor table while you buy the food.--> Keep an eye out for scenically situated hostels, as many serve basic meals at student prices to guests and non-guests alike. The <a href="https://www.mountainhostel.com/bar-restaurant/" target="_blank">Mountain Hostel</a> in Switzerland's Gimmelwald, for example, serves reasonably priced pizzas to hungry hikers on one of my favorite alpine perches anywhere.</p> <p>Some hotel bars can be worth a splurge, especially in low-lying terrain, where tall buildings are your only way to enjoy sweeping views. In <a href="/europe/netherlands/amsterdam">Amsterdam</a>, enjoy an appetizer or drink in the <a href="https://www.luminairamsterdam.com/" target="_blank">LuminAir</a>, the rooftop lounge of a DoubleTree hotel, while you take in the best "high-wide" view of the city.</p> <p>It makes sense to savor a place's national dishes along with its national scenery. Travel makes life simply more tasty, and views can make your dining even more unforgettable.</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/039/132/medium/0d02cb260bf674d77fced4e16c7073a3/article-switzerland-luzern-dining.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>After a more affordable meal away from the views, hit Luzern's scenic spots for drinks or dessert. (photo: Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli )</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/017/053/medium/0ab80212be75f42acc6ef65560c8d682/germany-wuerzburg-riverbank-021215-rs.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Bring a picnic to the riverbank in Würzburg, Germany, to enjoy a fortress view and convivial people. (photo: Rick Steves)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">195</guid> <title>Třeboň and Třebíč: Two Gems of the Czech Countryside</title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/czech-byways</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2025-03-27</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p>If you're traveling in the Czech Republic south of <a href="/europe/czech-republic/prague">Prague</a>, you may have the famously cute town of Český Krumlov on your itinerary. While it's delightful, two nearby towns — straddling the regions of Bohemia and Moravia — feel less commercial and, for many, equally worthwhile.</p> <p>Třeboň, a well-preserved town with an inviting Renaissance square, is nestled in a bucolic landscape of rolling hills. Its claim to fame is its nearby biosphere of artificial lakes that date back to the 14th century. Over the years, people have transformed what was a flooding marshland into a clever combination of lakes, oak-lined dikes, wild meadows, Baroque villages, peat bogs, and pine woods. Rather than unprofitable wet fields, the nobles wanted ponds swarming with fish — and today Třeboň remains the fish-raising capital of the <a href="/europe/czech-republic">Czech Republic</a>.</p> <p>The city is all about fish — on the main square, the bank has a statue of a man holding a big fish over its door. Another statue honors the town's 16th-century megalomaniac lake-builder Jakub Krčín (now considered a hero, since his medieval lakes absorbed enough water to save Třeboň from a 2002 flood that ravaged Prague).</p> <p>When you come here, you must eat fish. So I ordered every appetizer at a local eatery, tapas-style (a good trick when trying to eat your way through another culture): soused (marinated) herring, fried loach, "stuffed carp sailor fashion," cod liver, pike caviar, and something my Czech friend translated as "fried carp sperm."</p> <p>As we ate, I noticed the writing on my beer glass: "Bohemia Regent anno 1379." It occurred to me that I was consuming exactly what people have been eating and drinking here for over 600 years: fish from the reservoir just outside the gate, and the local brew.</p> <p>Třeboň is also renowned for its <a href="https://www.visitczechia.com/en-us/things-to-do/places/spa-and-wellness/medical-spas/t-trebon-spa" target="_blank">spa</a>, where people come from near and far to bathe in peaty water. Soaking in the black, smelly sludge is thought to cure aching joints and spines. Envisioning the elegance of Germany's Baden-Baden, I had to give it a whirl. Besides, I thought it would make good TV.</p> <p>My attendant didn't understand why I had an entourage (local guide/translator, producer, and cameraman). She just treated me like the village idiot she was assigned to bathe and massage. She pointed to my room and mimed to take off everything. But I kept my military-green swimsuit on (afraid of a prankish combination of high-definition footage, my producer's sense of humor, and YouTube).</p> <p>Camera work is slow. She was anxious. The peat muck only flows at the top of the hour. I climbed into my stainless-steel tub, she pulled a plug, and I quickly disappeared under a rising sea of dark-brown peat broth (like a gurgling sawdust soup).</p> <p>Then, my tub was full and all was silent. My toes looked cute poking out of the hot brown muck. She kept acting like I would overdose if I stayed in too long. But we filmed our bit — one of the craziest-looking sequences we've ever done.</p> <p>After that humiliation, I was happy to escape to the nearby town of Třebíč: another Czech gem with a wonderful main square. Třebíč also has a compelling historic Jewish district. While Prague's Jewish Quarter is packed with tourists, in Třebíč you'll have an entire Jewish town to yourself.</p> <p>Třebíč's Jewish settlement was always relatively small, and of the 35 Třebíč Jews who survived the Holocaust, only 10 returned home. What's left of the quarter is amazingly authentic. The houses have been essentially frozen in time for the better part of a century. Among the 100 or so preserved buildings are two synagogues, a town hall, a rabbi's house, a poorhouse, a school, and a hospital.</p> <p>In the 1970s, the ghetto was slated for destruction; the Communists wanted to replace it with their architectural forte: an ugly high-rise housing complex. Thankfully, the land proved unable to support a huge building project and the neighborhood survived. Today, what locals claim is the largest preserved Jewish quarter in Europe is protected by the Czech government. Over the past couple of decades, the ghetto has gradually found its new identity, as artisans ranging from blacksmiths to chocolatiers moved their workshops here.</p> <p>One of Třebíč's most moving sights is its cemetery. This memorial park is covered with spreading ivy, wild strawberry bushes, and a commotion of 4,000 gravestones (dating back to 1631). If you visit, note how the tombstones reflect the assimilation of the Jews, from simple markers to fancy 19th-century headstones that look exactly like those of the rich burghers in Christian cemeteries.</p> <p>So much of Europe is crowded, industrialized, hamburgerized, and without a hint of the everything-in-its-place, fairy-tale land so many travelers seek. But traveling along Czech byways, you'll enjoy traditional towns and villages, like Třeboň and Třebíč, with great prices, a friendly and gentle countryside dotted by nettles and wild poppies — and fewer tourists.</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/039/004/medium/5d7b0e3b6f746f0f8bea67cfabb9ad20/article-czech-republic-trebon-main-square.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>The Czech town of Třeboň is an inviting medieval burg famous for its peat spas, network of man-made lakes, and fish specialties. (photo: Cameron Hewitt)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/000/587/medium/d24c77098a9f356ea016fc87f6f64ce5/677_Trebic.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>The ivy-covered remains of Třebíč’s Jewish Cemetery are an evocative reminder of a bygone era. (photo: Honza Vihan)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">1870</guid> <title>Alsace Blends the Best of France and Germany</title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/alsace-europes-cultural-hybrid</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2025-03-20</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p>France's easternmost region, <a href="/europe/france/alsace">Alsace</a>, is also one of its most enchanting — thanks largely to its location. Pressed up against the German border, along the Rhine, the region flip-flopped between Germany and France for centuries. (The Germans considered the Vosges Mountains, east of the Rhine, to be the natural border, while the French thought the river made a better border.)</p> <p>The region still represents a cultural continental divide, creating a fascinating mix of the best aspects of French and Germanic culture. Its cozy fairytale villages have kept their Germanic gemütlichkeit while offering distinctly French-quality cuisine. Alsace is home to endless vineyards, ruined castles, one of France's most inviting cities (<a href="/europe/france/strasbourg">Strasbourg</a>), and plenty of people with names like "Jacques Schmidt" or "Gunter Dubois."</p> <p>My favorite town in the region, <a href="/europe/france/colmar">Colmar</a>, is one of the most delightful in all of Europe. I absolutely love Colmar. Historic beauty was usually no excuse for being spared the ravages of World War II, but it worked for Colmar. The American and British military were careful not to bomb the old burghers' colorful half-timbered houses, pitched red- and green-tiled roofs, and cobbled lanes.</p> <p><!--Today, Colmar's antiques shops welcome browsers, homeowners fuss over their geraniums, and hoteliers hurry down the sleepy streets to pick up fresh croissants in time for breakfast. -->On a visit here you'll enjoy great cuisine, lovely white wine, and a proud heritage. Each Tuesday in summer, <a href="https://www.tourisme-colmar.com/en/visit/presentation/alsatian-folklore" target="_blank">folk dancers and musicians</a> share their talents on the town's main square — a fun and free slice of Alsatian culture.</p> <p>Colmar also has incredible art. The <a href="https://www.musee-unterlinden.com/en/home/" target="_blank">Unterlinden Museum</a> holds Matthias Grünewald's circa-1515 <em>Isenheim Altarpiece</em> — one of the most powerful paintings ever produced. The altarpiece is a mind-blowing polyptych (a many-paneled painting on hinges) that was designed to help people in a medieval hospital endure horrible skin diseases long before the age of painkillers. The painting tells Jesus' story — from Annunciation to Resurrection — and patients who meditated on it were reminded that they didn't have it so bad.</p> <p>It's easy to tour the region, and Colmar makes a good springboard. Alsace's Route du Vin (wine road) is blanketed with lush vineyards and dotted with delicious, picture-perfect little towns. You can drive, hike, bike, hire a taxi, catch the bus, or join a minibus tour like I did on one visit. Alsatian villages nestle in valleys on small rivers, which medieval villagers broke into canals and used to power their mills.</p> <p>Kaysersberg is one of the most charming stops along the Route du Vin. As you wander the cobbled streets below the half-timbered houses, you may find a sign with a picture of a wine-swilling fellow, which marks what was once the mansion of the town gourmet. Before coming here I'd never known the original meaning of the word "gourmet": Each city in a wine region (like Alsace) had a man appointed to rate and price wines, and to serve as the middleman between vintners and the wine-drinking public. He facilitated the sale of wine…and knew that having quality food to pair with the it would help. Eventually he became the man with the finest food in town, or the "gourmet." The actual job of the gourmet survived in Alsace until the 1930s.</p> <p>Like the gourmet of old, those visiting Alsace's Route du Vin today make a point to try the local wines. These wines are, not surprisingly, something of a Franco-Germanic hybrid: The bottle shape, grapes, and much of the wine terminology are inherited from its German past, though wines made today are distinctly French in style (and generally drier than their German sisters). Local vintners offer a warm — and liquid — welcome. Some of Alsace's most prestigious wines come from the vines surrounding the village of Riquewihr, which is dotted with several especially friendly places to sample them.</p> <p>In the village of Eguisheim, it's a treat to visit one of countless cozy wineries, such as <a href="https://vins-paul-schneider.fr/gb/" target="_blank">Paul Schneider's independent winery</a>, located in a one-time hospice, now run by a fourth-generation family winemaker. And on my most recent trip, my guide took me into the fragrant cellar of Eguisheim's <a href="https://www.emile-beyer.fr/en/" target="_blank">Domaine Emile Beyer Winery</a>, where enormous wooden barrels age white wine, a method rarely used in modern times.</p> <p>Until the 17th century, Alsace produced more (and better) wine than any other region in the Holy Roman Empire. Investments in the region then financed many of the beautiful buildings and villages we see today. You'll get the full benefit of that history by staying in Colmar and meandering through the charming small villages that dot the Alsatian wine road.</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/032/089/medium/2b02f753ddb771ebbbb12d0bd486989e/article-france-alsace-route-du-vin-colmar-pedestrian-bridge.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Colmar's Germanic half-timbered houses combine with traditional French shutters to make this town a picturesque place to linger. (photo: Cameron Hewitt)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/022/607/medium/5aa64c1cf5fb666d615f0e8ba145001f/france-alsace-kaysersberg-sign-071317-rs.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>In Kaysersberg, an evocative sign marks the former mansion of the town gourmet. (photo: Rick Steves)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">2020</guid> <title>Sightseeing Skills for the Ancient World</title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/sightseeing-ancient-sites</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2025-03-13</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p>Climbing the Acropolis, communing with the druids at <a href="/europe/england/stonehenge-avebury">Stonehenge</a>, or marveling at the sprawling remains of <a href="/europe/italy/pompeii-herculaneum">Pompeii</a> — exploring the remnants of Europe's distant past brings a special thrill to travelers with the interest to resurrect all that rubble.</p> <p>I had such a thrill on one memorable visit to <a href="http://odysseus.culture.gr/h/3/eh355.jsp?obj_id=6467" target="_blank">Epidavros</a>, where I visited the finest and best preserved of Greece's many ancient theaters. With my travel partner sitting on the top row of the stony grandstands, I stood alone in the center of the stage and, with a clap of my hands, demonstrated its 2,400-year-old acoustics. The theater here is part of a larger "sanctuary" — something of a luxury spa for people in need of a cure — complete with temples, baths, and a beautiful theater. It's in such good shape that the theater is still used for performances today.</p> <p>The grandeur of a well-preserved monument like the Epidavros theater is easy enough to appreciate even if it's been a while since your last history class. But most ancient sites are more ruined — and therefore harder to imagine in their prime. The <a href="https://colosseo.it/en/area/the-roman-forum/" target="_blank">Roman Forum</a> is a good example. Knowing it was important — the common ground between the fabled seven hills of ancient <a href="/europe/italy/rome">Rome </a>— doesn't necessarily make it interesting. That's especially true given that today what's left is little more than foundation stones and a few broken columns.</p> <p>The challenge is to envision the Forum in its day. Stand along the Via Sacra — the Sacred Way — on the same stones the masses did as Rome's military victors paraded by, displaying their booty and plunder. Imagine spitting into the cage of a barbarian king as it jostles by.</p> <p>Squinting into the sun, you can make out the carvings on the top of a towering triumphal arch, a reminder that your emperor is a god on earth and you are lucky to be his subject. In the here and now it's hot and it's dusty, and there are sweaty tour groups all around you. But if you can imagine the ancient stones supporting ancient life, it's an unforgettable experience and a trip highlight.</p> <p>In my student days, I bummed through Greece's <a href="http://odysseus.culture.gr/h/2/eh251.jsp?obj_id=912" target="_blank">Parthenon</a> surrounded by people looking like they were having a good time — and I was convinced they were faking it. Two years later, after a class in ancient art history, I understood how Greek society was designed. I could imagine Pericles, the ultimate Athenian statesman, hard at work. I could see Socrates, enjoying the shade of the colonnade. And I could fill the now-empty niches with brightly painted statues of Greek gods and goddesses. Clearly, there are two kinds of sightseers: those who know what they're looking at…and those who don't.</p> <p>But you don't have to go back to school to have a rich experience at an ancient site. There's plenty of information available for people who bring only a healthy dose of curiosity to the ancient sites. Local souvenir books have side-by-side illustrations of ancient sites that juxtapose their current look with how they would have appeared in their heyday — enabling you to imagine it filled with people. Most sights rent audioguides that give you a fine self-guided tour (just punch in the number you see as you wander to hear a narration about a particular work of art or structure). And private guides are almost always available. In anticipation of your visit, it can also be hugely helpful to do a little homework: Do some reading or watch a movie or documentary to get background and insight into the ancient wonders you'll be exploring.</p> <p>Archaeological areas are being excavated all the time. In fact, many of the sites you'll see are only partially uncovered. And the finest of the discovered statues, mosaics, and frescos are generally out of the weather and acidic air (and the reach of 21st-century vandals), and safely in state-of-the-art museums on-site. Be sure to approach an ancient site as a two-part experience: First tour the museum to see the treasures and get a context for the culture and life in that place and time. Then, with that newfound ability to understand what you'll be seeing, venture out into the actual excavation site.</p> <p>With more people than ever touring Europe's great ancient sites (including literally millions of sightseers on cruise-ship excursions), congestion has become a major concern. If online reservations in advance are recommended, consider them required. Any time you can get a ticket with a timed entry, it's smart to do so. Otherwise, going early or late is a good way to avoid the big tour groups that jam many ancient sites in the middle of the day (roughly between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.).</p> <p>Europe is better than ever at protecting and sharing its ancient patrimony. And if you approach its ancient wonders thoughtfully, you'll bring home an appreciation of the artistic wonders of antiquity and life-long memories.</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/037/012/medium/058d4db81d388956c9e42be76ebd66f6/article-italy-rome-ostia-antica-walkway.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>To mentally reconstruct a ruined ancient site like Italy's Ostia Antica, it pays to do some homework in advance. (photo: Gene Openshaw)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/024/118/medium/911643fe2968d37fcdf4e9131af563d4/italy-rome-forum-guide-061418-az.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Hiring a knowledgeable guide to explain what you're looking at is well worth the cost. (photo: Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">277</guid> <title>Germany’s Popular Rothenburg Keeps Its Medieval Charm Alive</title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/germanys-fairytale-dream-town-rothenburg</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2025-03-06</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p>As a young backpacker, I first fell in love with the picturesque village of Rothenburg, in Germany's Franconian heartland. At that time, the town still fed a few farm animals within its medieval walls. Today its barns are hotels, its livestock are tourists, and Rothenburg is well on its way to becoming a medieval theme park.</p> <p>But <a href="/europe/germany/rothenburg-ob-der-tauber">Rothenburg</a> is still Germany's best-preserved walled town. Countless travelers have searched for the elusive "untouristy Rothenburg." There are many contenders (such as Michelstadt, Miltenberg, Bamberg, Bad Windsheim, and Dinkelsbühl), but none holds a candle to the king of medieval German cuteness. Even with crowds, overpriced souvenirs, and a nearly inedible pastry specialty (a fried ball of pie crust called a <em>Schneeball</em> — "snowball"), Rothenburg is still the best. Save time and mileage and be satisfied with the winner.</p> <p>By the way, there are several "Rothenburgs" in <a href="/europe/germany">Germany</a>. Make sure you plan for Rothenburg ob der Tauber (on the Tauber River); people really do sometimes drive or ride the train to other, nondescript Rothenburgs by accident.</p> <p>In the Middle Ages, when <a href="/europe/germany/berlin">Berlin</a> and <a href="/europe/germany/munich">Munich</a> were just wide spots in the road, Rothenburg was Germany's second-largest city, with a whopping population of 6,000. Today, it's the country's most exciting medieval town, enjoying tremendous popularity with tourists without losing its charm. There's a thousand years of history packed between its cobbles.</p> <p>Rothenburg's <a href="https://www.kriminalmuseum.eu/en/?lang=en" target="_blank">Medieval Crime and Punishment Museum</a>, all explained in English, is full of diabolical instruments of punishment and torture. Some visitors react with horror, others wish for a gift shop.</p> <p><a href="http://rothenburg-evangelisch.de/unsere-kirchen/die-st-jakobs-kirche" target="_blank">St. Jakob's Church</a> contains the one must-see art treasure in Rothenburg: a glorious 500-year-old altarpiece by Tilman Riemenschneider, the Michelangelo of German woodcarvers. For a closer view of this realistic commotion of Bible scenes, climb the stairs behind the organ. It's Germany's greatest piece of woodcarving.</p> <p>Warning: Rothenburg is one of Germany's best shopping towns. Do it here, mail it home, and be done with it. Lovely prints, carvings, wine glasses, Christmas-tree ornaments, and beer steins are popular. (OK, I admit it, my Christmas tree sports a few ornaments from Rothenburg.)</p> <p>The biggest of the ornament shops has an excellent little <a href="https://www.weihnachtsmuseum.de/en" target="_blank">German Christmas Museum</a> upstairs. Its unique collection is much more than a ploy to get you to spend more money. You'll get a look at tree decorations through the ages, Christmas-tree stands, mini-trees sent in boxes to WWI soldiers at the front, early Advent calendars, and old-time Christmas cards, all thoughtfully arranged and described.</p> <p>To hear the birds and smell the cows, take a walk into the Tauber Valley. A trail leads downhill from Rothenburg's idyllic castle gardens to the cute, skinny, 600-year-old "Toppler Castle," the summer home of the town's mayor in the 15th century, Mayor Toppler. Despite the name, its floor plan is more like a four-story tree house. The mayor built it in an attempt to demonstrate to townsfolk that it was safe to live outside the ramparts of the densely populated walled town.</p> <p>From the mayor's getaway, the trail continues downstream along the trout-filled Tauber River to the sleepy village of Detwang. It is actually older than Rothenburg and has a church with another impressive Riemenschneider altarpiece. To see more of the rural countryside (old mills, apple trees, and chickens), rent a bike for a breezy half-day pedal around the river valley.</p> <p>To avoid the hordes of Rothenburg's day-trippers, I like to spend the night. Except for the rare Saturday night and during festivals, finding a room is easy. Rothenburg feels all mine after dark. In the deserted moonlit streets, the sounds of the Thirty Years' War still echo through turrets and clock towers.</p> <p>Well before the sun sets, climb the Town Hall tower to enjoy the best view of the town and surrounding countryside. For more views, walk the wall that surrounds the old town. This 1.5-mile stroll atop the wall is at its most medieval before breakfast or at sunset, when a rich, warm light bathes the half-timbered houses.</p> <p>A walking tour helps bring the ramparts alive. For the serious side of Rothenburg's history, you can take the tour offered by the town's tourist office (or follow my <a href="/watch-read-listen/audio/audio-tours/austria-germany">free audio tour</a>). But for a thoroughly fun hour of medieval wonderment, take the <a href="http://www.nightwatchman.de/index.php?active=Home&lang=en" target="_blank">Night Watchman's Tour</a>. The watchman jokes like a medieval John Cleese as he stokes his lamp and takes tourists on his rounds, all the while telling slice-of-gritty-life tales.</p> <p>In the night, I'm happy to find myself alone with Rothenburg. Sitting in a mossy niche in the town wall, I finger the medieval stonework and ponder how centuries of hard-working horse carts wore grooves in the cobbles while the winds of history polished half-timbered gables and blew through the grooves of centuries of horse carts. Notching my imaginary crossbow, I aim an arrow into the dark forest that surrounds the city. (Sorry Herr Mayor.) Even now, it feels good to be within these protective walls, where modern-day travelers meet medieval wayfarers.</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/038/901/medium/fe0f3d945a33fb80bdfe26d85c093352/article-germany-rothenburg-view-from-castle-garden.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany's best-preserved walled town, is the king of medieval cuteness. (photo: Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/000/591/medium/49dc6419117307f7ff875994a922b47f/679_Rothenburg.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>The town fountain is flanked by characteristic half-timbered buildings, once filled with grain and corn to enable the town's inhabitants to survive any siege. (photo: Rick Steves)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/015/475/medium/437831d82608a97e06459eda2145c94c/germany-rothenburg-kaethe-wohlfahrt.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>At Käthe Wohlfahrt shops, Christmas (or at least Christmas shopping) is a year-round season. (photo: Rick Steves)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">2080</guid> <title>Bath’s Easy Urban Delights</title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/bath-england</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2025-02-27</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p>England's best city within two hours of London is beautiful, historic <a href="/europe/england/bath">Bath</a>. The city is popular and expensive, but a delight nonetheless — the most relaxing and elegant place to sample urban <a href="/europe/england">England</a>.</p> <p>Bath was a joy even in ancient Roman times, when patricians soaked in the city's mineral springs. From Londinium (today's <a href="/europe/england/london">London</a>), Romans traveled so often to "Aquae Sulis," as the city was called, to "take a bath" that finally it became known simply as "Bath." Today, a fine <a href="https://www.romanbaths.co.uk/" target="_blank">museum</a> surrounds the ancient bathing site. With the help of a great audioguide, visitors can wander past well-documented displays, Roman artifacts, excavated foundations, and the actual mouth of the health-giving spring.</p> <p>Bath later prospered as a wool town, building its grand <a href="http://www.bathabbey.org/" target="_blank">abbey</a> about 500 years ago — the last great medieval church built in England. The abbey's facade features a very literal Jacob's Ladder — with angels going up…and down. The interior has breezy fan vaulting and is lit with enough stained glass that it feels like the inside of a giant lantern.</p> <p>By the middle of the 1600s, Bath's heyday had passed, and its population dropped to about 1,500 people — just a huddle of huts at the base of the abbey. Then, in 1687, King James II's wife, Queen Mary, struggling with infertility, came here and bathed. Within about 10 months she gave birth to a son. A few decades later, her stepdaughter Queen Anne came here to treat her gout. With all this royal interest, Bath was reborn as a resort.</p> <p>Most of the buildings you'll see in Bath today are from the 18th century — the cityscape is a triumph of the Neoclassical style that dominated the Georgian era, most of it built from the same honey-colored limestone. Free, fascinating <a href="https://visitbath.co.uk/things-to-do/tours-sightseeing/guided-walks/" target="_blank">town walks</a> are offered every day by volunteers who bring to life highlights of this Georgian heritage — such as the Circus and Royal Crescent building complexes.</p> <p>The Circus is like a coliseum turned inside out, with Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian capital decorations that pay homage to its Greco-Roman origin — a reminder that Bath (with its seven hills) aspired to be "the Rome of England." About a block away, the Royal Crescent is a long, graceful arc of buildings — impossible to see in one glance unless you step way back to the edge of the park in front. You can go inside one of these classy facades at <a href="https://no1royalcrescent.org.uk/" target="_blank">No. 1 Royal Crescent</a>, now a museum where you can see how the wealthy lived in 18th-century Bath.</p> <p>During the Georgian era, Bath was the trendsetting Tinseltown of Britain, where the filthy rich went to escape the filthy cities. A professional gambler named Beau Nash followed his clients (and their money) to this resort town — and then acted as its one-man tourism promotion department. He organized daily activities, did matchmaking, and helped spiff up the city. Today, his statue stands above the Roman baths.</p> <p>For a taste of the idyllic countryside just beyond town, walk (or bike) the three-mile towpath along the Kennet and Avon Canal to the sleepy village of Bathampton (which is home to two particularly inviting pubs). The canal, built for Industrial Age cargo transport, was put out of business by the railway shortly after it opened.</p><!--<p>You can see how natty Georgian-era folks dressed at the <a href="https://www.fashionmuseum.co.uk/" target="_blank">Fashion Museum</a> — which exhibits historic garments from every era since the days when there were no right or left shoes, all the way up to the present. A major feature of the museum is the "Dress of the Year" display, ongoing since 1963. Above the Fashion Museum, you can view the city's historic <a href="https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/bath-assembly-rooms" target="_blank">Assembly Rooms</a>, where card games, concerts, tea, and dances were held (before fancy hotels with grand public spaces made them obsolete).</p>--> <p>After a day of sightseeing in Bath, street theater is a fun evening option and a ritual for me in Bath. The best hour and a half of laughs I've had anywhere in Britain is on the <a href="http://www.bizarrebath.co.uk/" target="_blank">Bizarre Bath</a> comedy walk. They promise to include "absolutely no history or culture" during their wander of Bath's back lanes. Listening to the guides is always good fun — they may tell the same old jokes, but they're spiced up with a sharp, ad-lib wit that plays off the international crowd.</p> <p>I also enjoy the <a href="https://www.thermaebathspa.com/" target="_blank">Thermae Bath Spa</a>, particularly during chilly evening visits, when Bath's twilight glows through the steam from the rooftop pool. It's pricey, but it's the only natural thermal spa in the UK, and your one chance to actually bathe in Bath.</p><!--<p>Another of my favorite cappers for a day in Bath is heading to a pub to have scrumpy — "hard hard cider." It's notoriously strong: When I last ordered it, everyone stopped what they were doing just to see what would happen.</p>MOVED TO OTHER BATH ARTICLE TO REPLACE MEATLOAF GRAF--> <p>A tip for your itinerary: Upon arrival in England I like to take the train from the airport to London's Paddington Station and then hop on a connection straight to Bath, rather than deal with London's intensity right off the bat.</p> <p>From its evening indulgences to its elegant architecture, Bath combines beauty and hospitality better than most. It's a place drenched in history, but made for relaxation.</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/038/882/medium/e2c41fe219cd1af6a1d1b848449e629b/article-england-bath-royal-crescent-lawn.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>The Royal Crescent contains some of England’s finest Georgian homes, evoking the wealth and gentility of Bath's 18th-century glory days. (photo: Rick Steves)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/024/702/medium/ec455f4d473f223e5b56b98263da87d0/england-bath-roman-baths-102518-az.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>The ancient Roman spa that gave Bath its name is the town's sightseeing centerpiece, with temple remains and a fine museum. (photo: Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">727</guid> <title>Bruges: Pickled in Gothic</title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/bruges</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2025-02-20</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p>The medieval Belgian town of Bruges attracts hordes of visitors, but don't let that keep you away. Get lost on its back streets, away from the lace shops and waffle stands, and ride a bike along a quiet canal, sip beer in a tiny pub, or find a secluded bench to nibble fine local chocolate. After all, despite Bruges' several worthwhile museums and churches, the ultimate sight here is the quaint town itself.</p> <p>The Flemish who live in this part of <a href="/europe/belgium">Belgium</a> call this city "Brugge" (BROO-ghah), but the French half of the country (and English speakers) call it "<a href="/europe/belgium/bruges">Bruges</a>" (broozh). Either way, the name comes from the Old Norse word for "wharf" — and Bruges did indeed arise as a trading center.</p> <p>By the 1300s, the city had a population of 35,000 and the most important textile market in northern Europe. A century later, it was northern Europe's richest, most cosmopolitan, and most cultured city. Bruges' canals provided merchants smooth transportation, while new ideas, fads, and artistic techniques were imported and exported with each shipload.</p> <p>But silt soon began to clog the harbor, and most trade eventually moved to the port at <a href="/europe/belgium/antwerp">Antwerp</a>. By the 16th century, Bruges' golden age was over.</p> <p>Like so many of Europe's small-town wonders, Bruges is now well-pickled because its economy went sour so quickly. Rediscovered by modern-day tourists, Bruges thrives again. Bruges' market square, ringed by great old gabled buildings and crowned by a leaning belfry, is the colorful heart of the city — just as it was in Bruges' medieval heyday.</p> <p>This bell tower has dominated the square since 1300. It's worth climbing the 366 steps to survey the town — plus, just before the top, you can peek into the carillon room. I always aim to be there on the quarter hour, when the 47 bells are played mechanically with a huge, tabbed barrel that looks like something from a giant's music box.</p> <p>Within three blocks of the tower you'll find a day's worth of sightseeing. The <a href="https://www.holyblood.com/homepage-of-the-basilica-of-the-holy-blood" target="_blank">Basilica of the Holy Blood</a> is famous for its relic of the blood of Christ, which, according to tradition, was brought to Bruges in 1150 after the Second Crusade. Next door, the City Hall has the oldest and most sumptuous Gothic hall in the Low Countries.</p> <p>The <a href="https://www.museabrugge.be/en/visit-our-museums/our-museums-and-monuments/gruuthusemuseum" target="_blank">Gruuthuse Museum</a>, the former home of a wealthy brewer, is filled with everything from medieval bedpans to a guillotine. And the <a href="https://www.museabrugge.be/en/visit-our-museums/our-museums-and-monuments/onze-lieve-vrouwekerk" target="_blank">Church of Our Lady</a>, standing as a memorial to the power and wealth of Bruges in its heyday, has a delicate <em>Madonna and Child</em> by Michelangelo <span style="font-family: ProximaNova-Regular, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400;">—</span> said to be the only statue of his to leave Italy in his lifetime (yet another Bruges extravagance made possible by the cloth trade).</p> <p>But the main place for art here is the <a href="https://www.museabrugge.be/en/visit-our-museums/our-museums-and-monuments/groeningemuseum" target="_blank">Groeninge Museum</a>, which recalls the era when internationally known artists set up studios in Bruges, producing portraits and altarpieces for wealthy merchants from all over Europe. The museum has one of the world's best collections of Flemish paintings. And while early Flemish art is less appreciated and understood today than the Italian art of the same era, the Groeninge makes it easy to appreciate this subtle, technically advanced, and beautiful style. You'll gaze at 15th-century canals and at town squares festooned with people sporting leotards and lace. Many paintings show slice-of-life street scenes that make clear how much Bruges still looks as it did way back when.</p> <p>Bruges isn't just a feast for the eyes — this is Belgium, after all. The town is filled with restaurants serving up some of the world's best mussels, frites, and waffles. Every local has a favorite chocolatier (my top pick is <a href="https://www.chocolatierdumon.be/en/shops" target="_blank">Dumon</a>), and most shops are generous with their samples. Beer buffs will want to make time for a tour of <a href="https://www.halvemaan.be/en" target="_blank">De Halve Maan</a>, Bruges' only working family brewery — or just stop by the beloved <a href="https://www.brugsbeertje.be/en/home-2/" target="_blank">'t Brugs Beertje</a>, a convivial pub that happily serves up more than 300 Belgian brews.</p><!--<p>Walk off your beer buzz with a stroll through the town's <em>begijnhof </em>— a tranquil courtyard of wispy trees and frugal little homes that's typical of other <em>begijnhof</em>s all over Belgium and the Netherlands. For reasons of war and testosterone, there were more women than men in the medieval Low Countries. The order of Beguines gave unmarried and widowed women a dignified place to live and work. When the order died out, many <em>begijnhof</em>s were taken over by towns for subsidized housing, but some, like Bruges', became homes for nuns.</p>--> <p>At the end of the day, I like to head back to the market for a live carillon concert (held several times a week in summer) — consistently one of the best I've found in Europe. Though you can hear the tunes ringing out from the tower's bells anywhere in the cobblestoned old town, I like to listen from one of the benches in the courtyard just below the carillon.</p> <p>One evening, while I was waiting for the music to begin, I happened to look up just as the <em>carillonneur</em> popped his head out a window and waved to the crowd, like a kid checking in with a parent before diving into a pool. Then he disappeared and began hammering — literally hammering. (A carillon keyboard looks like the foot pedals of a big organ, but it is played with bare, clenched fists.)</p> <p>After the concert, I waited to personally thank the <em>carillonneur</em>. When I shook his hand, I found myself gripping a freakishly wide little finger. A lifetime of pounding the carillon had left him with a callus that had more than doubled the width of his pinky. He's just one more artist perfecting his craft in the timeless city of Bruges.</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/036/533/medium/0e4d2c7d1be74a35171860470207fa14/article-belgium-bruges-canal-bell-tower.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Bruges’s dreamy canal was essential to its early history as a trading center. (photo: Cameron Hewitt)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">134</guid> <title>Toledo: Spain’s Historic, Artistic, and Spiritual Center</title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/spains-toledo-a-living-monument</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2025-02-13</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p>On my last visit to <a href="/europe/spain/toledo">Toledo</a>, it seemed holier than ever: Dark El Greco clouds threatened overhead, stark against bright, clear horizons. Hail pelted the masses of people clogging the streets as they awaited the Good Friday procession.</p> <p>A look back at my write-up reveals nothing but superlatives: Toledo's street plan is the most confusing in <a href="/europe/spain">Spain</a>, its cathedral the most Gothic (and the most Spanish of all Gothic churches), and the cathedral's altar the most stunning. Toledo was once home to Europe's most powerful king, Charles V, and is papered with the vividly spiritual paintings of the city's most famous artist, El Greco.</p> <p>Spain's former capital crowds 2,500 years of tangled history onto a high, rocky perch protected on three sides by a natural moat, the Tajo River. Toledo is so well preserved and packed with cultural wonder that the city has been declared a national monument — no modern exteriors are allowed. For centuries, Christians, Muslims, and Jews enjoyed this city together. Toledo's past is a complex mix of these three great religions.</p> <p>Today Toledo is filled with tourists day-tripping from Madrid, a quick 30-minute train ride to the north. Its main sights were beautifully renovated when the town marked the 400th anniversary of El Greco's death in 2014. The two biggies are the magnificent cathedral, with a jaw-dropping interior and a sacristy swathed in El Greco's work, and the<strong> </strong>Santa Cruz Museum, with its own world-class collection of El Greco paintings.</p> <p>The <a href="https://www.catedralprimada.es/" target="_blank">cathedral</a> is shoehorned into the old center, where it rises brilliantly above the town's medieval clutter. The interior is laden with elaborate wrought-iron work, lavish wood carvings, and window after colorful window of 500-year-old stained glass. It's so lofty, rich, and vast that visitors wander around like Pez dispensers stuck open, whispering "Wow." Drifting among the pillars, it's easy to imagine a time when the light bulbs were candles and the tourists were pilgrims — when every window provided spiritual as well as physical light.</p> <p>The cathedral's spectacular altar — real gold on wood, by Flemish, French, and local artists — is one of the country's best pieces of Gothic art. The complex composition shows the story of Jesus' life, conveying the Christian message of salvation. The cathedral's sacristy is a mini-Prado, with masterpieces by the likes of Francisco de Goya, Titian, Diego Velázquez, Caravaggio, and Giovanni Bellini, not to mention 19 El Grecos.</p> <p>Born in Greece and trained in Venice, Doménikos Theotokópoulos (tongue-tied friends just called him "The Greek"…El Greco) came to Spain to get work as a painter. He found employment in Toledo, where he developed his unique painting style, mixing icon-like faces from his Greek homeland, bold color, and twisting poses from his time in Italy, and almost mystical spirituality from Catholic Spain.</p> <p>Toledo's <a href="https://cultura.castillalamancha.es/museos/nuestros-museos/museo-de-santa-cruz" target="_blank">Santa Cruz Museum</a> holds a superb collection of El Greco paintings, including the impressive altarpiece <em>Assumption of Mary</em>. Finished one year before El Greco's death, it's the culmination of his inimitable style, combining all his signature elements to express an otherworldly event. No painter before or since has captured the supernatural world better than El Greco.</p> <p>True El-Grecophiles will also want to visit the small <a href="https://www.culturaydeporte.gob.es/mgreco/inicio.html" target="_blank">El Greco Museum</a>, built near the site of El Greco's house. It's worth a stop if only to see El Greco's panoramic map of the city as it appeared in 1614 (commissioned to promote Toledo after the king moved to Madrid and the city was no longer Spain's capital).</p> <p>A day full of El Greco and the romance of Toledo after dark puts me in the mood for game and other traditional cuisine. Typical Toledo dishes include partridge <em>(perdiz)</em>, venison <em>(venado)</em>, wild boar <em>(jabali)</em>, roast suckling pig <em>(cochinillo asado)</em>, and young lamb (<em>cordero</em> — similarly roasted after a few weeks of mother's milk). Plaza de Zocodover is busy with eateries serving basic food at affordable prices, and its people-watching scene is great. But it's worth a few extra minutes — and the navigating challenge — to explore Toledo's side streets and find places where you'll be eating with locals as well as tourists.</p> <p>After dinner, I like to enjoy a tasty leftover from Toledo's Moorish days, almond-fruity <em>mazapán</em>. Shops all over town sell <em>mazapán</em> goodies in ready-made gift boxes, but I prefer to select my own. For a sweet and romantic evening finale, I pick up a few pastries and find a bench on the Plaza del Ayuntamiento. The fountain burbles to my right, Spain's best-looking city hall is at my back, and before me is her top cathedral — built back when Toledo was Spain's capital, and still shining brightly against the black night sky.</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/038/826/medium/395e48f1523360cd70e89aecb9d75534/article-spain-toledo-cathedral-altar.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Toledo's cathedral, with its vast interior and great collection of art, is one of Europe's most impressive. (photo: Cameron Hewitt) </p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/000/582/medium/e07068dd9619e44137841b122a3ea34a/674_Toledo.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Well-preserved Toledo, lassoed by the Tajo River, has been declared a national monument. (photo: Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/000/581/medium/3c491a69d69c6ef7fd407b0109edfa7f/674_MusElGreco.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Thoroughly modern in its disregard of realism, El Greco's art feels contemporary even today. (photo: Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">949</guid> <title>Orvieto: What an Italian Hill Town Should Be</title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/orvieto-what-an-italian-hill-town-should-be</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2025-02-06</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p>Orvieto is one of the most striking, memorable, and enjoyable hill towns in central <a href="/europe/italy">Italy</a>. About 90 minutes from <a href="/europe/italy/rome">Rome</a>, Orvieto sits majestically high above the valley floor atop a big chunk of <em>tufo</em> volcanic stone (tuff), overlooking cypress-dotted Umbrian plains. A visit here will reward you with a delightful, perfectly preserved, and virtually traffic-free world highlighted by a colorful-inside-and-out cathedral and some of Italy's best wine.</p> <p><a href="/europe/italy/orvieto">Orvieto</a> has two distinct parts: the old-town hilltop and the dull new town below. Driving in the upper old town is not recommended. And it's not necessary: From the train station (and a vast free parking lot just behind it) a slick little funicular whisks visitors memorably and effortlessly up the town's natural fortress hill and deposits them about a 10-minute walk or quick shuttle ride from the heart of town.</p> <p>Orvieto's cathedral gets my vote for Italy's liveliest facade. This colorful, prickly Gothic exterior, divided by four pillars, has been compared to a medieval altarpiece — a gleaming mass of mosaics, stained glass, and sculpture. It's a circa-1300 class in world history, back when no one dared question "intelligent design." Things start with Creation and end with the Last Judgment.</p> <p>Inside, the nave feels spacious and less cluttered than those in most Italian churches. It was filled with statues and fancy chapels until 1877, when the people decided they wanted to "de-Baroque" their church. The nave is also an optical illusion; the architect designed it to be wider at the back and narrower at the altar, making it appear longer than it is. Windows of thin-sliced alabaster bathe the interior in a soft light.</p> <p>The cathedral's highlight is the Chapel of San Brizio, featuring Luca Signorelli's brilliantly lit frescoes of the Day of Judgment and Life After Death. Although the frescoes refer to themes of resurrection and salvation, they also reflect the turbulent political and religious atmosphere of Italy in the late 1400s. Signorelli's ability to tell stories through human actions and gestures, rather than symbols, inspired his younger contemporary, Michelangelo, who meticulously studied Signorelli's work.</p> <p>Behind the Duomo, a complex of medieval palaces called Palazzi Papali shows off the city's best devotional art. Not to be missed is the marble Mary and Child, who sit beneath a bronze canopy, attended by exquisite angels. This proto-Renaissance ensemble, dating from around 1300, once filled the niche in the center of the cathedral's facade (where a replica sits today).</p> <p>Orvieto also boasts a rich subterranean world. The town sits atop a vast underground network of Etruscan-era caves, wells, and tunnels. Guided tours of the medieval caves offer a glimpse into how these ancient Italians lived, from the remains of an old olive press to a pigeon coop where the birds were reared for roasting. Even now, you'll still see pigeon <em>(piccione)</em> dishes featured on many Orvieto menus.</p> <p>St. Patrick's Well — 175 feet deep, 45 feet wide, and 248 steps down — impresses modern engineers to this day. Thanks to its natural hilltop fortification, Orvieto served as a 16th-century place of refuge for the pope. Wanting to ensure he had water during a time of siege, he had this extravagant well built, with a spiral stairway leading down to a bridge from which people could scoop up water, and another leading back up. The double-helix design was crucial for allowing efficient traffic flow (imagine if donkeys and people, balancing jugs of water, had to go up and down the same stairway). Digging this was a huge project. Even today, when faced with a difficult task, Italians say, "It's like digging St. Patrick's Well."</p> <p>Of course, no visit to Orvieto is complete without a taste of its famous classico wine. One of my favorite places to do this is at the <a href="https://www.tenutalevelette.com/en/homepage/" target="_blank">Tenuta Le Velette</a> winery, just outside Orvieto, where the Bottai family welcomes visitors who make an appointment. As the volcanic soil is very rich in minerals, grape vines thrive here, as they have since Etruscan times. In fact, the Bottais still keep bottles in the same cellar where the Etruscans used to store their wines. Dug from <em>tufo</em> stone, the cellar provides the perfect conditions for aging wine.</p> <p>While Orvieto is busy with tourists during the day, the town is quiet after dark. The back streets feel oblivious to the crush of modern-day tourism. Evocative lanes seem to keep the mystery of the Middle Ages alive. I like to close the evening with an after-dinner stroll, when the town is lamplit and romantic, then find a perfect spot to sit and simply savor the quiet thrill of a hill town after dark.</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/036/891/medium/ae73d9e622d28c11afeb504d51b6d370/article-italy-umbria-orvieto-panorama.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>The town of Orvieto sits on its grand stone throne a thousand feet above the valley floor. (photo: Dominic Bonuccelli)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/032/752/medium/09c7c87fcefba5a966d9f675bec31c29/article-italy-umbria-orvieto-duomo.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Orvieto's cathedral is known for its dynamic facade, optical-illusion interior, and extravagantly frescoed Chapel of San Brizio. (photo: Dominic Bonuccelli)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">139</guid> <title>Croatia’s Past Lives on in Modern-Day Split</title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/croatias-past-lives-on-in-modern-day-split</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2025-02-03</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p>Lounging alongside the Adriatic Sea, on the famed <a href="/europe/croatia/dalmatian-coast">Dalmatian Coast</a>, Split is a bustling metropolis, serious port city, major transit hub, and top sightseeing destination, all rolled into one. It hums with the vibrancy you'd expect from Croatia's second-largest city (after capital <a href="/europe/croatia/zagreb">Zagreb</a>), plus the seaside ambiance of sleepier coastal towns.</p> <p>Split has all the trappings of a modern city. But a close look at the surviving facade of the Roman palace fronting its harbor reveals its ancient roots. In the fourth century AD, when the Roman emperor Diocletian retired, he built a vast residence for his golden years here in his native Dalmatia. When Rome fell, the palace was abandoned. Eventually, a medieval town sprouted from its abandoned shell. And, to this day, the maze of narrow alleys — literally Diocletian's hallways at one point in time — makes up the core of Split. Today's residents are actually living in a Roman emperor's palace.</p> <p>Back in its heyday, the harborfront was Diocletian's back door. There was no embankment in front of the palace, so the water came right up to the door — sort of an emergency exit by boat. Just inside this gate, visitors can explore a labyrinth of cellars that once supported the palace. Rediscovered only in the last century, the cellars enabled archaeologists to derive the floor plan of some of the palace's long-gone upper sections.</p> <p>From the cellars, a grand underground hallway leads outside to the Peristyle (Split's main square) and Diocletian's vestibule, the dramatically domed entryway to the emperor's private rooms. These days, this grand space is often home to an all-male band of a cappella singers performing <em>klapa</em> — the quintessential Dalmatian folk music. These songs of seafaring life, of loves lost and loves found, stir the souls of Croatians and visitors alike.</p> <p>Overlooking the Peristyle, Diocletian's mausoleum once dominated the center of the palace complex. Much of the original Roman building survives, including the impressive dome, columns and capitals, and fine carved reliefs. Diocletian was notorious for persecuting Christians. But a thousand years ago, his mausoleum was converted into the Cathedral of St. Dominus. And so, ironically, what Diocletian built to glorify his memory is used instead to remember his victims.</p> <p>A few steps away is a temple dedicated to Jupiter. Roman emperors often made themselves a god. Diocletian was Jovius, son of the top god, Jupiter. People kissed his robe; he was like a deity on earth. About the time the mausoleum became a cathedral, the temple was converted into a baptistery, housing a huge 12th-century baptismal font large enough to immerse someone (as was the tradition in those days).</p> <p>Just outside Split's Old Town is a <a href="https://mestrovic.hr/en/gallery-mestrovic/" target="_blank">museum dedicated to Ivan Meštrović</a>, Croatia's answer to Rodin. Meštrović's sculptures, which depict biblical, mythological, political, and everyday themes, are everywhere in <a href="/europe/croatia">Croatia</a> — in the streets, squares, and museums. His work also appears in the United States — for example, he sculpted a pair of giant Native American warriors on horseback in Chicago's Grant Park.</p> <p>The museum's highlights include the quietly poignant <em>Roman Pietà</em>, in which Meštrović follows the classical pyramid form, with Joseph of Arimathea, Mary, and Mary Magdalene surrounding the limp body of Christ (he also did a marble version of this for the campus of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana). The sculpture <em>Job</em> — howling with an agony verging on insanity — was carved by the artist in exile, as his country was turned upside-down by World War II. Meštrović sketched his inspiration for this piece while he was imprisoned by the Ustaše, Croatia's Nazi puppet government.</p> <p>After diving into the city's ancient and artistic past, I enjoy dipping into modern-day Split. Matejuška has long been Split's working fishermen's harbor. While the area has received a facelift, it retains its striped-collar character. The enclosed harbor area is filled with working fishing boats and colorful dinghies that bob in unison. At the opposite end of town, the lively open-air Green Market is where residents shop for produce and clothes.</p> <p>The Marjan Peninsula, a huge, hilly, and relatively undeveloped spit of parkland, located right next to Split's Old Town, feels like a chunk of wilderness, a stone's throw from the big city. With out-of-the-way beaches and miles of hiking and biking trails, this is where residents go to relax.</p> <p>At the end of the day, a highlight for me is simply people-watching. The sea of Croatian humanity laps at the walls of Diocletian's Palace along the pedestrian promenade known as the "Riva." As on similar promenades throughout the Mediterranean world, cars have made way for people. Strolling locals finish their days in good style here — just enjoying life's simple pleasures in a city that so seamlessly weaves its past and present.</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/038/742/medium/38c97d0a8e21925b9552e8330af97985/article-croatia-split-peristyle-romans.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Split's main square was once the vestibule of Diocletian's grand Roman palace. (photo: Addie Mannan)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/000/478/medium/debd1568f93d119d64e3b91487e16b77/622_SplitTower.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>The 200-foot-tall cathedral bell tower rises above Split's Old Town. Climbing the 183 steep steps to the top rewards you with sweeping views of the city. (photo: Cameron Hewitt)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">1729</guid> <title>First Trip to Europe? What to Expect</title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/first-trip-to-europe-tips</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2025-01-23</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p>If you're planning your first trip to Europe, congratulations! Learning about the world through travel is the best thing that ever happened to me.</p> <p>Things are different in Europe — that's why you go. But every first-timer has concerns about getting along in an unfamiliar place. Travelers are worried or curious about everything from bed sizes and strange food to language problems and pickpockets. Here are a few friendly tips to help smooth the way.</p> <p><strong>Necessities:</strong> I've seen people pack a whole summer's supply of deodorant or razors, thinking they can't get them abroad. You can get virtually everything in Europe. If you can't get one of your essentials overseas, perhaps you should ask yourself how 500 million Europeans can live without it.</p> <p><strong>Communicating:</strong> Getting over the language barrier isn't as hard as you think. Many hoteliers and waiters speak some English, and are used to tourists. (I speak only English and manage just fine.) It's helpful — and considerate — to learn a few words of the native tongue, but you needn't try to master whole sentences. Instead of struggling to muddle through the local equivalent of "Pardon me, could you tell me where the restroom is?" (or blurting out "Where's the restroom?" in English), just ask "Toilet?" A few basic words — and a bit of sign language — are all you'll need.</p> <p><strong>Crime:</strong> Europe is a safe place. It has very little violent crime — but there's plenty of petty purse snatching and pickpocketing. European thieves target Americans — we're the ones with all the goodies in our day bags, wallets, and purses. Zip up and secure your valuables, preferably in a money belt.</p> <p><strong>Restaurants:</strong> I used to think that all those sophisticated Europeans dawdling through their three-hour dinners were showing off. But now I know they're simply savoring the good life — enjoying good food and good company. Think of your dinner as the evening's entertainment — a cultural show-and-tell. Slow service is respectful service. To get the check, you'll have to ask for it, but that's only because your host considers the table yours for the night.</p> <p><strong>At a table or at the bar:</strong> Throughout southern Europe, drinks are cheaper at the bar than at a table. The table price can be a great value if you want to linger and enjoy a world-class view (such as Venice's St. Mark's Square or Kraków's Main Market Square). But if you're just tossing down a quick drink, do it at the bar for about half the price of table service.</p> <p><strong>Tipping:</strong> Don't overtip. A service charge is almost always included in a European restaurant bill, so locals just round up their tab a bit, rarely as much as 10 percent — and they often don't tip at all. Get tipping advice from a local (try your hotelier). But don't lose sleep over having walked out of a restaurant in Europe without tipping — it's not necessarily expected.</p> <p><strong>Passport check:</strong> Don't be alarmed if you're asked to temporarily surrender your passport when checking in at a hotel. It's a European Union requirement for hotels to collect your name, nationality, and ID number for their law-enforcement databanks.</p> <p><strong>Hotel keys:</strong> Especially in characteristic, family-run hotels, you may find yourself fumbling with an old-fashioned key, often attached to a cumbersome key fob. You might be wondering how to fit it in your pocket, but don't even try. Your hotelier expects you to turn it in at the front desk as you come and go from the hotel.</p> <p><strong>In your room:</strong> European hotels are often in centuries-old buildings, so be prepared for idiosyncrasies. Rooms are small, bathrooms are quirky, and you might need to climb stairs to reach the reception desk. A "double bed" may be two twins sheeted together. Especially in northern Europe, don't be confused if your top sheet is "missing" — many hotels use covered duvets instead of a top sheet. You may need to lower your towel expectations, too (they get smaller the farther south you travel). And if a washcloth is important to you, pack your own quick-drying one, as European hotels rarely provide them.</p> <p><strong>Night noise:</strong> If you're sensitive to noise, don't pay a premium for a room with a view — take a quiet room in the back instead (and pack earplugs). Better yet, leave your room in the evening: Get out in the streets and make them even noisier. Cultural tourism happens in the streets as much as in museums.</p> <p><strong>Driving:</strong> Big superhighways connect Europe's major destinations, but in rural areas and quaint villages, little single-track roads are the norm. Road etiquette varies from country to country. For example, in Germany, never cruise in the fast lane — use that just for passing. Observe and copy.</p> <p>Much of the success of your travels will depend on the attitude you pack. If you're observant and tune into the little differences, you'll have a better time in Europe. Think positively, travel smartly, adapt well, and connect with the culture, and you'll have a truly wonderful trip.</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/020/686/medium/dc19e00453093a3c22bc3d4d71a9e6f9/austria-vienna-hotel-090816-az.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Most oversized room keys are designed to be left behind with your friendly receptionist. (photo: Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/020/687/medium/0ff53e89142c4fa68fc363cefb05df91/czech-republic-prague-tipping-090816-az.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Don't overtip in Europe; most locals just round up the bill with a few coins. (photo: Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">2041</guid> <title>Pomp and Consequence: Visiting Europe’s 20th-Century Fascist Sites </title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/europe-fascist-sites</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2025-01-20</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p>The fascist movements of 20th-century Europe had a sweeping impact around the world, in ways that still reverberate today. And travelers have an advantage when it comes to learning from this history: When we see its legacy in person, we better understand its lessons. Europe is dotted with fascinating monuments and powerful memorials that've been thoughtfully designed to bring those sobering lessons home. When we track the struggles of democracy on both sides of the Atlantic today, we can see that those intent on derailing democracy read from the same playbook.</p> <p>You can trace fascism's roots to the turbulent aftermath of World War I, where masses of angry people rose up, and their charismatic leaders manipulated that anger. Both Benito Mussolini in Italy and Adolf Hitler in <a href="/europe/germany">Germany</a> turned fringe movements claiming to be the champion of the oppressed into totalitarian fascist regimes.</p> <p>Mussolini was the first, ruling with dictatorial power and — for a time — success. He pumped up the economy, created jobs, and invested in infrastructure.</p> <p>Two examples of that infrastructure that you can see today in Rome are the <a href="https://www.turismoroma.it/it/luoghi/complesso-del-foro-italico" target="_blank">Foro Italico</a> (the site of Rome's huge Olympic Stadium, north of the Vatican City), and the sterile planned city called E.U.R., just south of the city center.</p> <p>Part of a sports complex originally named Foro Mussolini, the Olympic Stadium (still in use today) was built with the stated intention of promoting <a href="/europe/italy/rome">Rome</a> as a site for a future Olympic Games. But it was also built to promote physical prowess as a key element of fascist ideology. Athletes represented the "new fascist man": willing to believe, obey, and fight. You can see this in the 18 imposing statues of hulking men that circle the track of the Stadio di Marmi, just outside the main stadium, and the propaganda messages in the mosaics that pave the stadium's entry.</p> <p>In the late 1930s, Mussolini made plans for an international exhibition — the Exhibit Universal Rome (E.U.R.) — to show off the wonders of his fascist society. While the advent of World War II put that celebration on hold, the megaproject was completed in the 1950s. Today it houses apartment blocks, corporate and government offices, and big, rarely visited museums.</p> <p>Despite its grim past, E.U.R. (a 10-minute Metro ride from central Rome) is now an upscale district with a mix of businessmen and women at work — and young people enjoying its trendy cafés. Because a few landmark buildings of Italian modernism are located here, E.U.R. is an important destination for architecture buffs. Hiking down the wide, pedestrian-mean boulevards, you see patriotic murals and stern squares decorating the sterile office blocks, and patriotic quotes chiseled into walls. The uniform buildings and rigid grid-plan streets were meant to celebrate order and conformity, while echoing a powerful past and promising a glorious future. These buildings were also meant to intimidate — to make the average person feel small and powerless.</p> <p>Inspired by Mussolini and buoyed by the Great Depression in 1929, Hitler's similar promises of a better life gained traction in Germany. For the Nazis, the city that most embodied their sense of national unity was Nürnberg. Located at a historic crossroads, and often called "the most German of German cities," it was a favorite of Hitler's to showcase his nationalistic pomp and pageantry, and it's with grand rallies held here that he inspired Germans to get on board.</p> <p>Within the <a href="https://museums.nuernberg.de/documentation-center/" target="_blank">Rally Grounds</a>, a four-square-mile area a 10-minute tram ride southeast of Nürnberg's Old Town, Hitler made Zeppelin Field the site of his enormous rallies. Today, the stark remains of this massive gathering place are thought-provoking. Also part of this complex — looming over a now peaceful lake — is his huge-yet-unfinished Congress Hall, which now houses the excellent <a href="https://museums.nuernberg.de/documentation-center/" target="_blank">Documentation Center</a> museum. The largest surviving example of Nazi architecture, Hitler modeled this building after the Roman Colosseum…but made it even more colossal. The Documentation Center meticulously traces the evolution of the National Socialist movement, focusing on how it both energized and terrified the German people.</p> <p>Another stage set for this propaganda show was Hitler's mountain-capping <a href="https://www.kehlsteinhaus.de/english/" target="_blank">Eagle's Nest</a>. This alpine getaway, south of Munich in Berchtesgaden, was used to soften Hitler's image. A stone tunnel crafted with fascist precision leads to Hitler's plush elevator, which whisks visitors to the top today.</p> <p>Berlin is full of sights that let us reflect on these dark times: the <a href="https://www.dhm.de/en/" target="_blank">Germany History Museum</a> and its powerful propaganda art display; the <a href="https://www.bundestag.de/en/visittheBundestag/dome/registration/245686" target="_blank">Reichstag parliament building</a>, which caught fire under mysterious circumstances in 1933, giving Hitler an excuse to frame the communists and grab power for himself; and the <a href="https://www.topographie.de/en/" target="_blank">Topography of Terror</a> exhibit, which stands on the rubble of what was once the most feared address in the city — the headquarters of the Gestapo secret police and the elite SS force.</p> <p>Hitler's life would end in <a href="/europe/germany/berlin">Berlin</a>, deep underground in a bunker with his capital smoldering in ruins. Shortly thereafter, in the spring of 1945, the war in Europe ended. But the aftermath will always linger in the minds of those who live in its wake and those who visit.</p> <p>While visiting remnants of Mussolini and Hitler's reigns in preparation for my TV special on fascism, I was struck by how entire nations have become mesmerized and led astray by fascist leaders. My best souvenir from that trip — and what I hope viewers will take away from the TV special — is a realization of how fragile democracy is…and how, if you take freedom for granted, you can lose it.</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/024/355/medium/fb97dda02cae8c39b4eaf72644012e0f/italy-eur-palazzo-congressi-080218-rs.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>You can see prime examples of fascist-era architecture in Mussolini's E.U.R. suburb just south of Rome. (photo: Rick Steves)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/024/357/medium/a425962c008b7fd662d47503efa40a95/germany-berlin-typography-terror-080218-rs.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>The Topography of Terror exhibit in Berlin aims to teach visitors about the rise and fall of Nazism. (photo: Rick Steves)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">2091</guid> <title>Sicilian Surprises in Palermo</title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/palermo-sicily-surprises</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2025-01-09</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p>Europe is always changing — and Sicily's capital, <a href="/europe/italy/palermo">Palermo</a>, is a fine example of this. For years Palermo's reputation among travelers was tarnished by labels like gritty, run-down, polluted, traffic-clogged, crime ridden, and synonymous with Mafia violence. But those days are long gone. Palermo today is far cleaner, safer, and more inviting than it was in years past. But, at the same time, it retains its colorful edge — and that's why I love it.</p> <p>Over the past two decades Palermo has reinvented itself with new museums, gentrified neighborhoods, pedestrianized streets, and upscale shops and hotels. The Mafia's influence has also significantly diminished. Sure, the traffic is a free-for-all, and even the city's prettiest public spaces are rough around the edges. It's like <a href="/europe/italy/naples">Naples</a> in that regard — but most visitors come to appreciate Palermo's grittiness and what locals call its "<em>bella</em> chaos."</p> <p>The heart of the city is Quattro Canti ("Four Corners"). It's where two main streets — Via Maqueda and Via Vittorio Emanuele — intersect, dividing the city into four major historical neighborhoods. Between the streets are four Baroque facades, each adorned with three tiers of statues. The bottom statues represent the four seasons, from a young maiden for spring to an elderly woman for winter.</p> <p>A few steps from Quattro Canti is a trio of glorious churches, facing each other across Piazza Bellini: La Martorana, with gorgeous gilded mosaics; San Cataldo, filling a former mosque; and the highlight — the Church of Santa Caterina, where a simple exterior hides an explosive Sicilian Baroque interior.</p> <p>Nearby, in Piazza Pretoria, the famous "Fountain of Shame" is one of the few Renaissance works here. Its gathering of marble statues includes gods, goddesses, and grotesques on several tiers, with the virgin goddess of hunt, Diana, presiding above the commotion. The nickname comes from the nude figures — considered quite racy in conservative Sicily.</p> <p>While Palermo can seem a bit ramshackle, behind its gritty walls hide exquisite noble mansions reminding visitors of the island's rich heritage. One of my favorite places to sneak a glimpse of aristocratic life is <a href="https://www.contefederico.com/newsite/en/" target="_blank">Palazzo Conte Federico</a>, an elegant and extremely lived-in mansion built upon the city wall. Count Federico's family has lived here for centuries, and the current count is a race-car enthusiast (though after he flipped his car in a Sicilian road race, the countess said, "No more racing"). Mansion tours are led by the countess or their sons.</p> <p>Perhaps the most fascinating sight is about 1.5 miles from the center, in a crypt below a Capuchin monastery. The Capuchins, a branch of the Franciscan order, have a passion for reminding people of their mortality. Historically, when one of their monastic brothers died, their bones were saved and put on display. The Capuchins of Palermo took this tradition a step further, preserving bodies in their entirety.</p> <p>Inside the <a href="https://www.palermocatacombs.com/" target="_blank">Capuchin catacombs</a>, a maze of corridors contains about 2,000 clothed skeletons and mummies: monks in brown robes, women wearing favorite dresses, priests in their vestments, soldiers still in uniform, and children looking almost as if they were just taking a long nap. The oldest body — Brother Silvestro — has been hanging out here since 1599. These "bodies without souls" are meant to remind the living that their time on earth is transitory, and something much greater awaits. For many believers, this crypt is actually a beautiful celebration of life. At the very least, it's a thought-provoking reminder of your mortality.</p> <p>Palermo became a major city after the ninth-century arrival of the Arabs, who were the first inhabitants to spur its development. In the 11th century, the Normans, arriving from northern France, conquered and re-Christianized Sicily. Yet the Arab influence lives on throughout the city.</p> <p>A great example is at the Palatine Chapel, built in the 12th century inside the Norman rulers' royal residence. The king at the time hired architects and craftsmen from different communities, and together they built a simple Norman structure with Arab-style arches and geometric designs, then adorned the walls and ceiling with shimmering Norman-Byzantine mosaics.</p> <p>Arab influence is also felt in Palermo's street markets, where merchants retain the tradition of singing their sales pitches. My favorite place to witness this is the Ballarò Market, the city's oldest, most authentic, and liveliest market. And the Vucciria, with its little festival of meat, fish, and produce vendors, has one of the city's best street food scenes — a one-stop shop for boiled octopus, spleen sandwiches, and Sicily's famous fried rice balls <em>(arancine).</em></p> <p>While the Vucciria neighborhood is lively in the morning, it's even better after hours. Make it a point to explore its characteristic back lanes at night, where you'll likely stumble onto a wonderfully convivial scene under the stars — a kaleidoscope of edgy graffiti, cheap plastic chairs, soccer on the big screen, big-eyed kids with gelato, and people embracing life with Sicilian gusto.</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/036/984/medium/d89c6f4abebed4182c32d331906f2190/article-italy-sicily-palermo-overview.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Palermo entertains travelers with striking architecture, vivid street life, a cosmopolitan vibe, and a fun-loving energy. (photo: Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/024/853/medium/5146d3d89d1b91e2c2daffe56870c135/italy-sicily-palermo-vucciria-market-111518-ch.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Once the city's beating heart, the Vucciria is no longer a traditional street market, but it's a great place to sample street food. (photo: Cameron Hewitt)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">120</guid> <title>One Great Day in Madrid</title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/a-blitz-tour-of-madrid</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2025-01-02</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p>I'm standing on a tiny balcony overlooking the Times Square of all of <a href="/europe/spain">Spain</a> — Madrid's Puerta del Sol. Within a 10-minute walk I can visit one of the greatest palaces in Europe (Madrid's Royal Palace), the ultimate town square (Plaza Mayor), or my favorite collection of paintings under any single roof in Europe: the Prado Museum.</p> <p>Just like in New York's Times Square, crowds in <a href="/europe/spain/madrid">Madrid</a> fill on New Year's Eve while the rest of Spain watches the action on TV. As Spain's "Big Ben" atop the governor's office chimes 12 times, Madrileños eat one grape for each ring to bring good luck through each of the next 12 months.</p> <p>But unlike New York's famous gathering space, this square — like so many in Europe — has gone from a traffic nightmare to a more park-like people zone. It's what makes Madrid livable. Car traffic has been limited (made possible by the excellent public transportation system), letting the fine old buildings show off their original elegance in an inviting, wide-open setting.</p> <p>From Puerta del Sol, I'm going to do a blitz tour of three major sights. I start by strolling toward the <a href="https://www.patrimonionacional.es/en" target="_blank">Royal Palace</a>, which I consider Europe's third greatest palace (after Versailles, near Paris, and Schönbrunn in Vienna). Over the years, I've visited it at least 10 times — and I always learn more fascinating facts to include in my guidebook.</p> <p>It's big — more than 2,000 rooms, with tons of luxurious tapestries, a king's ransom of chandeliers, priceless porcelain, and bronze decor covered in gold leaf. While these days the royal family lives in a mansion a few miles away, this place still functions as a royal palace and is used for formal state receptions, royal weddings, and tourists' daydreams.</p> <p>One highlight is the throne room, where red velvet walls, lions, and frescoes of Spanish scenes symbolize the monarchy in a Rococo riot. Another eye-stopper is the dining room, where the king can entertain as many as 144 guests at a bowling-lane-size table. The ceiling fresco depicts Christopher Columbus kneeling before King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel, presenting exotic souvenirs and his New World "friends" to the royal couple.</p> <p>My next stop is Plaza Mayor — a stately, traffic-free chunk of 17th-century Spain. Each side of the square is uniform, as if a grand palace were turned inside-out. Whether hanging out with old friends, enjoying a cup of coffee, or finding a treasure at the weekly stamp-and-coin market, it's an appealing place where people gather.</p> <p>Bronze reliefs under the lampposts show how, upon this stage, much of Spanish history was played out. The square once hosted bullfights. It was the scene of generations of pre-Lent carnival gaiety. And during the Inquisition, many suspected heretics were tried here and punished by being strangled or burned at the stake. Thankfully, the brutality of the Inquisition is long gone.</p> <p>My last stop is the <a href="https://www.museodelprado.es/en" target="_blank">Prado Museum</a>, which holds my favorite collection of paintings anywhere. These artworks give an eye-pleasing overview of Spain's rich history, from its golden age through its slow fade.</p> <p>The Prado is <em>the </em>place to enjoy the great Spanish painter Francisco de Goya. You can follow this complex man through the stages of his life — from dutiful court painter to political rebel and scandal-maker, to the disillusioned genius of his "black paintings." It's also the home of Diego Velázquez's <em>Las Meninas,</em> considered by some to be the world's finest painting, period. In addition to Spanish works, you'll find paintings by Italian and Flemish masters, including Hieronymus Bosch's fantastical <em>Garden of Earthly Delights</em> altarpiece.</p> <p>With thousands of canvases, including entire rooms of masterpieces by superstar painters, the Prado can be overwhelming. A $215 million expansion, completed in 2007, made this museum more visitor friendly. This newer wing holds a modern café, auditorium, and gift shop — freeing up exhibition space in the original building for more art. But it still gets crowded — do what you can to avoid the hordes. It's always crowded on weekends and for the last two hours before closing time (when entry tickets are free); it's worth planning for a weekday visit and paying the admission price to enjoy it well before evening.</p> <p>As I walk back to my hotel on the Puerta del Sol, I reflect on this bustling capital — Europe's highest, at 2,000 feet. Despite phases of economic uncertainty, today's Madrid is vibrant. Even the living-statue street performers have a twinkle in their eyes. Lively Madrid has enough street-singing, bar-hopping, and people-watching vitality to give any visitor a boost. After every trip to this exciting city, the impression I take home is that of a thriving people with an enduring culture and an irresistible love of life.</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/038/539/medium/f22e581aa9501783ad33d0a49d03dc06/article-spain-madrid-plaza-mayor.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Madrid's cobbled Plaza Mayor has seen centuries of history, from bullfights to carnival celebrations to gruesome events of the Inquisition. (photo: Cameron Hewitt)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/000/494/medium/c923490426b0803978e896a87d6f9744/630_PuertaDelSol.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>The Puerta del Sol is an engaging place for evening crowd-watching. (photo: Dominic Bonuccelli)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/000/493/medium/c1a82566d1c0ba65679d2de7b76a8732/630_Palace.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Madrid's ornate Royal Palace, with more than 2,000 rooms and exquisite frescoes, is one of the top royal residences in Europe. (photo: Dominic Bonuccelli)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">95</guid> <title>Steep, Deep Western Norway: From Peaks to Port</title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/steep-deep-western-norway-from-peaks-to-port</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2024-12-26</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p>"Rugged" is putting it mildly when it comes to 80 percent of <a href="/europe/norway">Norway</a>. Historically, it was a challenge to live here. That's why Vikings ventured south and so many emigrants left for America.</p> <p>But I find excuses to return to Norway regularly. Three of my grandparents grew up there, and it can be a fun part of travel to feel a kinship with people from the land of your ancestors. In this intensely scenic corner of Europe, the challenges presented by nature have met the tough and creative spirit of the Norwegian people. The result: a fascinating land well worth exploring.</p> <p>I head for western Norway to experience the best of the nation's natural beauty. Northern Europe's highest mountains are here — in the region of Jotunheimen, which means "giant's country." This lofty national park feels like the top of the world. You can imagine the Norse spirits of Thor and Odin inhabiting these misty peaks.</p> <p>The country's famously steep mountains and deep fjords were shaped by the glaciers that covered Scandinavia 10,000 years ago. The distance from seabed to mountaintop around here is nearly two vertical miles.</p> <p>At the glacier called Nigardsbreen, the scale is enormous. Cruising on a boat across a pristine lake to the glacier, I felt dwarfed by blue cliffs of ancient ice. Adventurous travelers can lash on crampons and follow a guide on a trek over the ice and snow. While there are more demanding Nigardsbreen routes, I like to join a family hike — just an hour, but enough to bring me face to face with the glacier's majesty.</p> <p>To get deep into the heart of the fjords, sightseers ride traditional ferries or excursion boats. The stunning scenery keeps everyone on deck, cameras clicking. For an exhilarating alternative, sign up for a speedier tour in a small, open Zodiac-type boat. As the boat rockets across the water, you'll be thankful for the all-weather suit that comes with the ride.</p> <p>From the heart of the Sognefjord a handy express boat quickly gets travelers to Bergen, the biggest city in the west of Norway. Just one sheltering island away from the open sea, Bergen has long been a safe port of call. It's popular with cruise ships and a refuge when heavy winds drive in the boats that serve North Sea oil rigs. Much of Norway's affluence is fueled by the oil it drills just offshore.</p> <p>The urban heart of colorful <a href="/europe/norway/bergen">Bergen</a> has a thriving personality all its own. After a week in this expensive country, I'm comfortable with the notion that, here, beer is wine ($10 a glass). Busy with business travelers and popular with tourists, Bergen's hotels spike up and down with the demand. (It pays to check hotel websites for deals.)</p> <p>Back in the 13th century, Bergen was Norway's capital, but the city has few visible hints of its historical importance. For most of its past, Norway was extremely humble. As the wealthier parts of Europe were building grand churches and castles of stone, Norway built with wood, and little survives from centuries past. Bergen has burned down and been rebuilt several times.</p> <p>In the touristy wharf area, called Bryggen, creaky wooden warehouses lean haphazardly across cobbled alleys. This was the historic trading center. A medieval boomtown, Bergen was a member of the mighty Hanseatic League, an alliance of seafaring merchants.</p> <p>The <a href="https://hanseatiskemuseum.museumvest.no/en" target="_blank">Hanseatic Museum</a>, on the edge of the wharf, helps bring to life the salty economy that made Bergen prosper. It was all about the fish. Norwegian fishermen knew how to catch cod and Germanic traders knew how to sell it. Customers ate it up — then as well as today. The bustling fish market at the harbor has a seafood circus of eateries.</p> <p>Pale locals bolt outside when the sun peeks through in Norway's rainiest city. Pick one of the 60 days when the sun shines to ride Bergen's popular <a href="https://floyen.no/en/" target="_blank">Fløibanen funicular</a>. It rises 1,000 feet above the city to dazzling views that lead all the way to the Atlantic. In the last century, Bergen was a launching point for countless adventurers headed to the New World. Today's residents of the New World now head to Norway to discover a prosperous, contented, and beautiful country.</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/032/658/medium/64922c8c01e2c911d1f9f50d3b42f480/article-norway-sognefjord-lustrafjord.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>The Lustrafjord offers plenty of scenic adventures for anyone who takes time to linger in fjord country. (photo: Cameron Hewitt)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/037/957/medium/ef23d698709710ba9d5978ed1bdec4ea/article-norway-bergen-bryggen-waterfront.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>In Bergen, old wooden warehouses line the historic Hanseatic wharf of Bryggen. (photo: Rick Steves)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">249</guid> <title>Winter in London: Chilly Weather, Warm Memories</title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/winter-in-london</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2024-12-19</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p>London dazzles year-round, so consider visiting in winter. Despite the season's drearier weather and shorter days, London's museums, theaters, and pubs always offer a warm, cozy welcome. And come January, tourist crowds are at a minimum, and airfare and hotel rates are generally cheaper.</p> <p><a href="/europe/england/london">London</a> is especially appealing (though crowded) in the weeks leading up to Christmas, when the city dresses up to the nines and bursts with festivities. In mid-November, ye olde Christmas markets spring up all over the city. The market on <a href="https://www.christmasinleicestersquare.com/about" target="_blank">Leicester Square</a> is perhaps the most central, but the <a href="https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/events/winter/" target="_blank">Southbank Centre Winter Market</a> (between the London Eye and the Royal Festival Hall), is one of the biggest. Other major markets include one in <a href="https://londonbridgecity.co.uk/events/2024/november/winter-by-the-river-is-coming" target="_blank">London Bridge City</a> (also on the Thames' southern bank, between London Bridge and Tower Bridge) and in the center of maritime <a href="https://www.greenwichmarket.london/" target="_blank">Greenwich</a>.</p> <p>Many other squares are specially outfitted for the season. <a href="https://www.coventgarden.london/experience/christmas-in-covent-garden/" target="_blank">Covent Garden</a>'s spectacular transformation includes a festival of mulled wine,<span style="color:#FF0000;"> </span>impressive decorations, and even a bit of daily snowfall. Nearby <a href="https://www.london.gov.uk/who-we-are/city-halls-buildings-and-squares/trafalgar-square/christmas-trafalgar-square" target="_blank">Trafalgar Square</a> always sports a giant twinkling tree, given to London every year from the people of Norway in appreciation for British support during World War II. Free carol concerts are held beneath the tree, and a new poem is commissioned every year to be displayed at its base. The year-round gourmet extravaganza of <a href="https://boroughmarket.org.uk/" target="_blank">Borough Market</a> becomes a wonderful place to sample mulled wine, Christmas pudding, mince pie, and other traditional and seasonal favorites.</p> <p>The city's biggest to-do is <a href="https://hydeparkwinterwonderland.com/" target="_blank">Hyde Park Winter Wonderland</a>, a giant Christmassy carnival that takes over a good share of the park through the end of the year. It boasts enough rows of old-time market stalls to rival the Southbank Centre's market, as well as the UK's biggest outdoor ice rink — plus roller coasters, a Ferris wheel, circus show, a "magical ice kingdom," and all kinds of kitschy fun.</p> <p>Santa, a.k.a. Father Christmas, has been known to receive visitors in his "grotto" in Winter Wonderland, but magically he also manages to offer a lap and an ear at many other spots around town, including <a href="https://www.visitgreenwich.org.uk/whats-on/greenwich-market-grotto-p1832881" target="_blank">Greenwich Market</a>, <a href="https://www.christmasinleicestersquare.com/" target="_blank">Leicester Square</a>, and the <a href="https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/whats-on/santas-grotto/" target="_blank">Museum of London Docklands</a>.</p> <p>Elaborate light displays and store windows sparkle along major shopping streets, including Oxford Street, Bond Street, Regent Street, and Carnaby Street. Christmas concerts and sing-alongs bring carols and hymns to <a href="https://www.westminster-abbey.org/worship-music/services-times/advent-and-christmas/" target="_blank">Westminster Abbey</a>, <a href="https://www.stpauls.co.uk/christmas" target="_blank">St. Paul's Cathedral</a>, <a href="https://www.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/christmas/" target="_blank">St. Martin-in-the-Fields</a>, and <a href="https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/series/christmas-at-the-royal-albert-hall/" target="_blank">Royal Albert Hall</a>. Most walking-tour companies offer special tours with seasonal themes (Dickens, light displays, caroling).</p> <p>Ice skating is easily London's coolest outdoor offering in winter (at least in a literal sense). <a href="https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/skate-somerset-house" target="_blank">Somerset House</a> has the Rockefeller Center of London ice rinks, where you can glide alongside the facade of a grand Neoclassical building. <!--TOWER OF LONDON RINK PERMANENTLY CLOSED SQ 11/23--Other ice rinks sprawl in front of the <a href="https://toweroflondonicerink.co.uk/" target="_blank">Tower of London</a> and at <a href="https://hamptoncourtpalaceicerink.co.uk/" target="_blank">Hampton Court Palace</a>.--> Other ice rinks sprawl in front of <a href="https://hamptoncourtpalaceicerink.co.uk/" target="_blank">Hampton Court Palace</a><!--QUEENS HOUSE ICE RINK CLOSED FOR 24-25 SEASON--, in <a href="https://www.rmg.co.uk/queens-house/attractions/queens-house-ice-rink" target="_blank">Greenwich</a>,--> and in<a href="https://icerinkcanarywharf.co.uk/" target="_blank"> Canary Wharf</a>. Most are open for skating from mid-November until mid-January. (The rink in Canary Wharf runs a few weeks longer.)</p> <p>Of course, London always offers plenty to do indoors, and many well-touristed sights host special events and exhibits, such as the <a href="https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/whats-on/christmas-at-the-tower/#gs.1sddlw" target="_blank">Tower of London</a>, <a href="https://www.kew.org/kew-gardens/whats-on/christmas" target="_blank">Kew Gardens</a>, the <a href="https://www.londonzoo.org/plan-your-visit/events/magic-of-christmas" target="_blank">London Zoo</a>, <a href="https://www.museumofthehome.org.uk/whats-on/events/winter-festival-24-25/" target="_blank">Museum of the Home</a>, and the <a href="https://www.wbstudiotour.co.uk/whats-on/hogwarts-in-the-snow/" target="_blank"><em>Harry Potter</em> Studio Tour</a> in Leavesden.<!-- The grand, red-velvet-draped <a href="https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/series/christmas-at-the-royal-albert-hall/" target="_blank">Royal Albert Hall</a> puts on a wide range of seasonal programs, including sing-along caroling.--></p> <p>"Pantomime" plays are a curious holiday treat. These wacky, beloved slapstick shows, while primarily aimed at kids, are so delightfully English that it'd be a shame to miss a chance to see one in London, no matter your age. Most performances are put on prior to Christmas, but shows go into the new year. Two London theaters that usually stage pantos are the <a href="https://www.hackneyempire.co.uk/" target="_blank">Hackney Empire</a> and the <a href="https://palladiumpantomime.com/" target="_blank">London Palladium</a>.</p> <p>New Year's Eve in London is usually busiest in the South Bank district, as the <a href="https://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/event/27002385-london-new-years-eve-fireworks" target="_blank">midnight fireworks</a> are set off from the London Eye and nearby river barges. Shows attract upwards of 400,000 revelers to Trafalgar Square — the traditional hub of the partying — and the nearby riverbank. All of the biggest partying takes place within earshot of Big Ben, whose midnight chimes are broadcast nationwide. On New Year's Day, a <a href="https://lnydp.com/" target="_blank">parade</a> featuring 10,000 performers snakes through Soho. (Be aware that tickets are required for the fireworks, parade, and many events around the city — buy in advance.)</p> <p>January brings out the best shopping deals, with many big sales kicking off immediately after Christmas. And while most Yuletide events wrap up within a week of New Year's Day, mid-January can be an ideal time for sightseeing, as it's easily the city's least-crowded time of year.</p> <p>February is also relatively uncrowded, though London is a major destination for families during the week-long "half-term" break most British schools take in mid-February. Colorful <a href="https://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/whats-on/chinese-new-year" target="_blank">Chinese New Year celebrations</a> — which some claim are the largest outside Asia — liven up the West End in February (or late January, depending on when the lunar new year falls.)</p> <p>London's theater season is in high gear all winter. The plays rival New York's in quality and range of options, and usually beat them in price. Whether Shakespeare, musicals, comedies, thrillers, cutting-edge experimentation, London does it all…and does it well.</p><!--<p>Many of London's best sights don't charge admission — a good thing to keep in mind while out and about in London's famously miserable winter weather. (Don't feel obligated to pay the suggested donation if you're just ducking inside for a break from the elements.)</p>--> <p>London's a super one-week getaway, with sights that can keep even the thoughtful traveler well entertained. Whether you visit during the busy winter holidays or take advantage of less-crowded post-holiday times — as long as you're dressed for the weather — London is sure to delight.</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/038/584/medium/e467a54d0f83b49da6a65ab2ab86e9ec/article-england-london-oxford-street-winter.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>London brightens winter's dark nights with bright, twinkling lights. (photo: Cathy Lu)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/000/328/medium/fbe7c458f723393e5cb4534bd4186add/552b_IceSkating_TV.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Skating in front of Somerset House is one of London's top winter activities. (photo: Rick Steves)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">190</guid> <title>A Walk Across Prague</title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/a-walk-across-prague</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2024-12-12</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p>Known as the "Golden City of 100 Spires," Prague boasts a fairytale medieval Old Town, historic churches and synagogues, and perhaps Europe's largest castle. A good way to introduce yourself to the city, its layered past, and its resilient people is with a walk across town, starting on lively, urban Wenceslas Square, weaving through the atmospheric Old Town, and ending at the picturesque Charles Bridge.</p> <p>Huge Wenceslas Square, lined with great buildings, has been center stage for much of modern Czech history. It's named for King Wenceslas, the "good king" of Christmas-carol fame, sitting astride the big equestrian statue at the top of the boulevard-like square. The statue is a popular meeting point among locals, who like to say, "I'll meet you under the horse's tail."</p> <p>The creation of the Czechoslovak state was celebrated here in 1918. An inspiring memorial commemorates Jan Palach and Jan Zajíc, two college students who set themselves on fire in 1969 to protest the Soviet Union's invasion of the Czech Republic the year before. Twenty years later, giant crowds converged on the square, jingling their key chains and chanting, "It's time to go now!" in the lead-up to the peaceful overthrow of the communist government.</p> <p>The Czech people have a rousing enthusiasm for blowing raspberries in the face of authority — once voting to name a fictional comedic character, Jára Cimrman, as their "Greatest Czech of All Time." From the 14th-century rebel Jan Hus (who challenged Church corruption roughly a century before Martin Luther) to the flashes of revolt that sparked the 1989 Velvet Revolution against communism, the Czechs have maintained a healthy disrespect for those who would tell them how to live their lives. (Remembering the mediocre jobs the communists assigned them, Czechs quipped, "They pretended to pay us; we pretended to work.")</p> <p>From the bottom of Wenceslas Square, it's a short walk down skinny Melantrichova street to Prague's quaint, compact Old Town. On the way you'll pass the wonderful open-air Havelská Market, a thriving display of traditional-though-touristy Czech culture. Here you can browse for handcrafts, or snack on a vegetable or piece of fruit — merchants (often the farmers themselves) are happy to sell you just one.</p> <p>A couple of blocks from the market is the Old Town Square, surrounded by gloriously colorful buildings in a diversity of architectural styles: Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, and Art Nouveau. Chief among them is the towering Gothic Týn Church, topped by fanciful spires.</p> <p>At the center of the massive square, two monuments face off: the reformer Jan Hus and a Bernini-inspired Virgin Mary. The original statue of Mary, erected in 1652, honored the Virgin as the city's protector during the Thirty Years' War. But by the early 20th century, nationalist Czechs saw this Mary as a symbol of their oppressors, the militantly Catholic Habsburgs. Cue installation of the Jan Hus memorial, with Jan's eyes defiantly locked on Mary. After the declaration of independence in 1918, a rebellious mob tore down the "Habsburg" Virgin — to the dismay of many in this mainly Catholic country. It wasn't until 2020 that a replica was placed on her original spot, sparking controversy and conversation. </p> <p>A short detour up the uniquely tree-lined Parizska ("Paris") street leads to the poignant Jewish Quarter, with museums, synagogues, and cemeteries. For me, this is one of the most powerful collection of Jewish sights in Europe.</p> <p>Parizka ends at a bluff that once sported a 50-foot-tall stone statue of Stalin. Torn down in 1962, it was replaced in 1991 by a giant ticking metronome, its concrete base now favored by skateboarders who love to film themselves "skating at the Stalin."</p> <p>Back at the Old Town Square, Karlova street zigzags down to the river to one of my favorite places for a stroll — the Charles Bridge. Under the communists, this pedestrian-only bridge crossing the Vltava River was empty, its big Gothic towers and statues of saints coated in black soot. Today it's a celebration of life, with a festival of gleaming statues, artists, and musicians all along its length.</p> <p>Across the bridge is the charming Lesser Town, and beyond that, the Castle Quarter, topped by the massive, must-see <a href="https://www.hrad.cz/en/prague-castle-for-visitors" target="_blank">Prague Castle</a>. A visit to the castle complex, with its quarter-mile stretch of churches, courtyards, and palaces spanning a thousand years of Czech history, can fill the better part of a day.</p> <p>The mythical founder of <a href="/europe/czech-republic/prague">Prague</a> — the beautiful princess Libuse — named her city "Praha" ("threshold"). The Czechs have always been at a crossroads of Europe — between the Slavic and Germanic worlds, between Catholicism and Protestantism, and between Cold War East and West. Despite these strong external influences, the Czechs have retained their distinct culture…and their enviable ability to find humor in life's challenges.</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/038/488/medium/239c23a9bc2f74afcde4c3f172454e01/article-czech-republic-prague-old-town-square.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>On Prague's Old Town Square, a medieval astronomical clock intrigues visitors; the spiky Týn Church towers in the background. (photo: Glenn Eriksen)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/032/740/medium/3486b9f0ffc9211c0dec6088d3ab0477/article-czech-republic-prague-wenceslas-square.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>The main square in Prague's New Town Quarter, Wenceslas Square, has been center stage for much of modern Czech history. (photo: Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/000/509/medium/d43a1e85a5569ff83fa48c7a836d22bb/638_CharlesBridge_CH.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>One of my favorite places for a stroll, the Charles Bridge in Prague is a celebration of color and life. (photo: Cameron Hewitt)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">30</guid> <title>Andorra: Not Lost in the Pyrenees</title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/tms/andorra-not-lost-in-the-pyrenees</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2024-12-05</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p>High in the mountains where <a href="/europe/france">France</a> and <a href="/europe/spain">Spain</a> come together, I drove and drove. My goal: to stand atop a ridge looking into a rugged mountain-ringed basin where nature cradles an ancient tribe. There was an age when these pint-sized kingdoms were commonplace. But today, only a few survive. I finally reached my destination, deep in the rugged Pyrenees Mountains. Before me stretched the principality of Andorra.</p> <p>Europe's smallest countries have an undeniable curiosity factor. In Europe's tiny derby, the Vatican is the big little winner. Then comes <a href="/europe/france/monaco">Monaco</a>, San Marino, Liechtenstein, Malta, and finally — measuring about 13 miles by 13 miles, with 80,000 people — Andorra. All of these countries would fit easily into Europe's next smallest country…the relatively vast Luxemburg.</p> <p>While Andorra feels impressively remote — forget about getting there with the convenience of a plane or train — Andorra is just a couple hours' drive out of your way between the walled medieval time-capsule town of <a href="/europe/france/carcassonne">Carcassonne</a> (in the south of France), and <a href="/europe/spain/barcelona">Barcelona</a> (in Spain's far northeast).</p> <p>In their national anthem, Andorrans sing of Charlemagne saving their land from the Moors in 803. Four hundred years after that legendary rescue, after a Catalan (Spanish) noblewoman married a French nobleman, the couple shared control of Andorra with a bishop from Urgell, a town just over the border in Catalan Spain. But 70 years on, disputes arose between their grandson and the then-bishop, and the shared-custody arrangement broke down. The two sides eventually agreed that the principality would be neither Spanish nor French — and this unique feudal arrangement survives today. While they still have co-princes from other countries (the president of France and the current Bishop of Urgell) as official heads of state, Andorrans stress that their nation is 100 percent independent.</p> <p>For most of its long history, Andorra was an impoverished and isolated backwater. But in the last century, the nation has become wealthy — thanks to the same mountains that had hindered its development for so long. During the Spanish Civil War, Andorra sheltered huge numbers of refugees, from both sides of that conflict, and many of them stayed for good, significantly boosting the population. Around the same time, skiing and hiking became big business, stoking a building boom. Huge Vail-esque ski condos, built of perfectly crafted rustic stone, both contrast and match the historic stone buildings they now dwarf and outnumber.</p> <p>Andorra employs the special economic weapons so popular among Europe's little states: easygoing banking and low, low taxes. The principality has morphed from a rough-and-tumble smugglers' haven to a high-tech, high-altitude shoppers' haven — famous for its bargain-basement prices. More than 10 million visitors — mostly Spaniards and French enduring famous traffic jams — pour in yearly to buy the kind of luxury goods sold in airport duty-free shops while avoiding their high taxes back home. Signs are commonly multilingual with French, Spanish, and Catalan. While Andorrans speak Catalan, and feel particularly connected to Catalunya, their commercial environment is as international as can be.</p> <p>Back in the 1970s, on my first visit to Andorra la Vella — the country's capital and dominant city — I remember thinking it felt like a big Spanish-speaking Radio Shack. And while spiffed up today, it retains the charm of a giant shopping mall. As I walk down the streets, it seems there's nothing but banks and places to buy electronics, furs, and jewelry.</p> <p>But times are changing. Since Andorra adopted the euro — and, later, a small sales tax — its prices are no longer drastically lower than the rest of Europe's. Add to that the ever-increasing popularity of online shopping, and the nation knows its days as a retail mecca are numbered. Instead, Andorra is investing even more into drawing visitors as a year-round outdoor-sports destination. (The <a href="https://www.caldea.com/en/">Caldea</a> spa — an 18-floor extravaganza fed by local thermal springs — is one of Europe's biggest, not to mention Andorra's tallest building.)</p> <p>Andorrans have long grilled their trout, beef, and snails on open fires, and these days Andorran barbecue is a tourist attraction in itself, and the snails — fed a diet of thyme to become even tastier — are enjoyed by big-spending visitors.</p> <p>A short drive from the capital into the higher valleys takes you to rugged little towns made entirely of stone. Their stout 12th-century churches and their stony bell towers stand as strong as the Pyrenees around them.</p> <p>Pockets of Old World charm hide out even in the capital, which has an old center well worth a stroll. That's where you'll find the surprisingly small national parliament building, <a href="https://www.casadelavall.ad/en/una-casa-amb-historia" target="_blank">Casa de la Vall</a>. Built on a rocky outcrop with its flag flying high, it was a private residence back in the 16th century. Its claustrophobic parliament chamber has 28 seats — four representatives for each of the seven parishes — with portraits of the current co-princes on the wall. The centuries-old kitchen adjacent to the Assembly Room evokes a time when representatives would travel from (relatively) distant valleys of Andorra. They'd eat and sleep in this building as they performed their governmental duties. While a humble reminder of a simple past, Andorrans still look to this building for leadership as their country builds an ever-better life for its citizens.</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/000/065/medium/c4e2c2443f175b9d2fca376748447a9c/223AndorraPryenees.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Andorra’s capital, Andorra la Vella, sits high in the Pyrenees. (photo: Rick Steves)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">106</guid> <title>Sunday Morning, Vienna-Style</title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/sunday-morning-viennastyle</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2024-11-28</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p>Vienna is a city with a rich culture and a vivid history that can be impressively rewarding to the well-prepared traveler. As I walked out of my hotel on one Sunday morning in Vienna, I decided to skip the sights and immerse myself in the city's wealth of cultural offerings — none of which break the bank.</p> <p>I kicked off my day with Mass at the <a href="https://www.sisimuseum-hofburg.at/en/about-the-location/imperial-apartments" target="_blank">Hofburg Palace</a>'s Imperial Music Chapel, where the <a href="https://www.wsk.at/en" target="_blank">Vienna Boys' Choir</a> sings each Sunday morning throughout their season. I didn't actually see the boys as they sang like angels from the loft in the rear. But, just like you don't need to see the sun to know it's there on a gorgeous day, you don't need to watch the boys to enjoy their delicately beautiful music. Their voices blended perfectly with the scene in front of us: sunlight streaming through the windows, making it seem as if the Baroque starburst of gilded statuary was bursting over the altar.</p> <p>Energized, I ducked through a royal passageway to see a performance of the much-loved Lipizzaner stallions at the <a href="http://www.srs.at/en/" target="_blank">Spanish Riding School</a>, in the emperor's Baroque riding hall. Known for their noble gait, these regal horses have changed shape with the tenor of the times: They were bred strong and stout during wars, and frilly and slender in more cultured eras. But they're always born black, fade to gray, and turn a distinctive white in adulthood.</p> <p>As I watched the stallions prance to classical music under lavish chandeliers, it occurred to me that they move in 4:4, not 3:4 time — even though this is the city of waltz. From my standing-room spot, I realized I was enjoying the show as much — and with a view just as good — as those who booked more expensive seats months in advance.</p> <p>After the show, I strolled about 100 yards to the <a href="https://www.erzdioezese-wien.at/Wien-St-Augustin" target="_blank">Augustinian Church</a>, where silver urns containing the hearts of centuries of Habsburg emperors are stored in the crypt. This being Vienna, the Mass came with a complete choir and an orchestra, wowing worshippers with the spiritual confidence of Anton Bruckner's <em>Mass No. 3 in F Minor</em>.</p> <p>I headed to the Burggarten for lunch. Once the backyard of the Hofburg, the Burggarten is now a grassy people's park. After eating lunch under the palm trees in the emperors' conservatory (at <a href="https://www.palmenhaus.at/" target="_blank">Café Restaurant Palmenhaus</a>), I dropped into the adjacent <a href="https://www.schmetterlinghaus.at/en-gb" target="_blank">hothouse containing a wonderland of butterflies</a>. Enjoying the fluttering antics of these butterflies — most of which seemed drunk on the fermented banana juice they licked from sweating banana slices in their breakfast dish — is a Vienna tradition for me.</p> <p>Another ritual is a stop at <a href="https://hawelka.at/en/" target="_blank">Café Hawelka</a> for coffee and cake. With its circa-1900 décor, this smoke-and-coffee-stained café looks as if it's been frozen in time. The chair I was sitting in could have been occupied by any number of historical figures rattling around Vienna at the time. Trotsky, Hitler, Stalin, Freud — any one of them could have been sitting here in the early 1900s, drinking a <em>Mélange</em> (as they would have called their cappuccino).</p> <p>Not only did Vienna host some of the greatest (or evil) thinkers of the time, but it was also home to many famous composers — from Beethoven, walking lost in musical thought through the Vienna Woods, to "Waltz King" Johann Strauss, who kept Vienna's 300 ballrooms spinning during the city's 19th-century belle époque.</p> <p>This musical tradition continues into modern times. Even now, you'll find melodic treats wherever you turn. For instance, at the <a href="Https://www.soundofvienna.at/venue/" target="_blank">Kursalon</a>, in Vienna's City Park, you can enjoy crowd-pleasing Strauss concerts featuring a mix of ballet, waltzes, and a 15-piece orchestra. The tradition goes back more than a century, when Strauss himself directed concerts in the very same building.</p> <p>The <a href="https://www.wiener-staatsoper.at/en/" target="_blank">Vienna State Opera</a> is arguably the world's greatest. Even if you don't have time or money for a performance, a visit here is a must. Built in the 1860s, the sumptuous opera house is the pride of Vienna. You can simply admire the Neo-Renaissance building from the outside or take a guided tour of the grand interior, with its chandeliered lobby and carpeted staircases.</p> <p>On this particular Sunday, the Opera was doing an afternoon performance of Richard Wagner's <em>Tannhäuser</em>. Not wanting to splurge on a ticket, I decided to join the throngs of people outside the opera house, where the performance was to be projected live on a huge screen. Awaiting the start of <em>Tannhäuser</em>, I marveled at how accessible all this was. Two musical Masses and this opera experience — free. Horses — $30. Butterflies — $8. Lunch under the palms — $30. Coffee and cake — $10. Eighty bucks in all — not bad for a day of cultural indulgence.</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/000/357/medium/b0961ef9486e5cf8b0819a5efadd980b/565_BurggartenHothouse.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>The iron-and-glass pavilion at the Burggarten houses a good restaurant and a small butterfly exhibit. (photo: Cameron Hewitt)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/000/358/medium/4435cba92e4393b0ed1e7d6f03dafd0d/565_CityParkStrauss.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>This famous golden statue of Johann Strauss with his violin sits outside the Kursalon in Vienna's City Park. (photo: Cameron Hewitt)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> <item> <guid isPermaLink="false">82</guid> <title>Turkey Has Plenty to Explore Beyond Istanbul</title> <link>https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/turkey-beyond-istanbul</link> <author>rick@ricksteves.com (Rick Steves)</author> <pubDate>2024-11-21</pubDate> <description> <![CDATA[<p><a href="/europe/turkey">Turkey</a> is changing fast. And it's modernizing fast. For a recent vacation, I hit the road in Turkey, with romantic memories (from my backpacker days) of horse-drawn carriages and villages with economies powered by hay, dung, and ducks. While that rustic old world is tougher to find, the deep traditions and warm hospitality of the region are as endearing as ever, especially if you venture past the predictable sights and tourist zones. Turkey has a sparse and frustrating train system, but flights are competitive and bus companies provide easy, comfy, and inexpensive connections throughout the land.</p> <p>At the crossroads of Europe and Asia, much of Turkey is quite westernized. It is a vast land, bigger than Texas and with a population of 83 million. Only half of Turkey's 42,000 villages had electricity in 1980. Now they all do. Does modernization threaten the beautiful things that make Turkish culture so appealing? An old village woman assured me, "We can survive TV and tourism because we have strong cultural roots." The Turkish way of life is painted onto this land with indelible cultural ink.</p> <p>I followed my wanderlust to one of my favorite destinations in Turkey, the village of Güzelyurt in Cappadocia. Families here go about daily life as they have for generations. I walk down streets that residents from 3,000 years ago might recognize, past homes carved into rock, enjoying friendly greetings of <em>"Merhaba."</em> Time is not money here. It's the perfect place to slow down and experience a true "back door" experience: playing backgammon in a smoky teahouse, downing cup after cup of tea.</p> <p>With the help of a guide, I enjoy a home visit, the perfect two-way cultural exchange. A village woman serves me a simple, home-cooked lunch. Then, with the guide as translator, I get to really connect with my host. This is the best way to gain an insight into her world and village life in Turkey.</p> <p>Cappadocia is rightly famous for its fantastic land formations and labyrinthine cave dwellings going back to early Christian days. And it's also famous for a breathtaking way to survey this exotic landscape: by riding a hot-air balloon. I enjoyed a dreamy early-morning glide over a scenic wonderland. On busy mornings, a hundred balloons lift off, giving lots of travelers a fine memory and stunning pictures.</p> <p>Ancient ruins litter the Turkish countryside, reminding visitors that the more archaeologists dig, the more they realize that Anatolia (Asian Turkey), along with Mesopotamia, is a birthplace of civilization. And travelers often forget that 2,000 years ago the west coast of Turkey was the heartland of ancient Greece — a region called Ionia. A relatively new excavation at Aphrodisias has uncovered an ancient city dedicated to Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love and beauty. There are ruins at Troy, mythical site of Homer's <em>Iliad</em>, and Pergamum, with its beautifully sited theater and Temple of Trajan. At the impressive ruins of Hierapolis, you can walk through a vast and fascinating necropolis — city of the dead — where tombs line a network of roads, and then take a quick dip in a natural thermal pool amid chunks of Roman columns.</p> <p>But for me, the show-stopper is <a href="/europe/turkey/ephesus">Ephesus</a>. One of the biggest cities of the Roman Empire, Ephesus had a population of 250,000 and was a thriving seaport until its harbor silted up (it now lies five miles inland from the Aegean coast). It's famous for its once-spectacular, now-ruined Temple of Artemis — one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World — and the dramatic, partially restored Library of Celsus, one of the largest libraries of its time. A walking tour of the still-paved streets is the best way to peel back the layers of dust to understand the everyday lifestyles of the rich and Roman. As I strolled down the broad main drag, I just replaced my fellow tourists with toga-clad ancients to easily imagine the long-ago city, with its statues, bubbling fountains, arches, and shops.</p> <p>When I've had enough of blockbuster antiquities, I head for the coast. What better way to take a "vacation from vacation" than by sailing on the Turkish Riviera? Along Turkey's southwest coast, beautiful wooden boats (called <em>gulets</em>) cruise the azure waters, exploring coves and inlets. I capped off my trip with a day-cruise from the resort town of Bodrum, swimming and lazing while admiring striking views of jewel-like Aegean islands.</p> <p>Turkey is so rewarding as a destination because it gets me out of my comfort zone and challenges my norms. Experiencing the friendly charm of Turkey, I am like that balloon lifting off the wild Cappadocian field — free, at least for a while, from the bonds of my culture and ready to experience the world from a different perspective.</p><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/037/713/medium/4eb652c93f02ad42b2c6e008528ce029/article-turkey-ephesus-library-celsus.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>The monumental facade of the Library of Celsus, at Ephesus, makes it easy to imagine the grandeur of this ancient Greek and later Roman city at its peak. (photo: Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><table><trbody><tr><td><img src='https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/015/439/medium/25df40a9dbd8dce98bcc6af812756583/hr-s8-balloons-over-cappadocia.jpg' width='255'></td></tr><tr><td><p>Soaring over Cappadocia in a hot-air balloon gives an unforgettable perspective on the region's landscape of spires. (photo: Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli)</p></tr></td></trbody></table><p><em>Rick Steves (<a href='https://www.ricksteves.com'>www.ricksteves.com</a>) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at <a href='mailto:rick@ricksteves.com'>rick@ricksteves.com</a> and follow his <a href='https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves'>blog on Facebook</a>.</p>]]> </description> </item> </channel></rss> 
