Celebrating 40 Editions of Europe Through the Back Door with Rick Steves

Teaching travel is the cornerstone of Rick Steves’ Europe. And among the roughly 100 guidebooks we’ve produced over the years, one has always been the flagship: “Europe Through the Back Door,” the handbook for traveling the Rick Steves way. After self-publishing the first edition in 1980 and selling it out of the trunk of his car, Rick celebrates the book’s 40th edition with a Monday Night Travel party tracking how travel has evolved over his career — from aerograms and picking up mail at an American Express office to Airbnb, TripAdvisor, and GPS. But despite all the change, the value and wonder of European travel is as great as ever, and Rick catalogs these wonders over the course of an hour that promises to be fun, entertaining, and inspiring. #ricksteves #mondaynighttravel

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Good evening everyone and welcome to Monday night travel with Rick stev’s Europe I’m Lisa friend and I’m delighted to be your moderator this evening as we celebrate a book that has for a lot of us been the first thing that we read to help us plan our travels to Europe so

Please put your travel dreams in the upright and locked position as I have the pleasure to introduce our host for the evening Rick Steves hey Rick Lisa thank you for that nice introduction we’re going to have a good time tonight getting a little bit nostalgic talking about the most important skills of

European travel and making sure that we incorporate those skills into our travel dreams so we can travel smartly smoothly economically and with maximum experience it’s so nice to be able to open the door digitally and have a couple thousand people Barrel into my living room here as we do every Monday

Night and I just want to welcome you thank you for joining us on Monday night travel and um explain that this evening we’re going to celebrate the 40th edition of this book Europe through the back door in the last couple of weeks I’ve been all over the United States

Giving lectures and so on and I was also in Italy uh teaching our new guides how to tour guide the Rick stev’s way and updating some of my Rome book and I’ve been thinking about the celebration we’re going to have tonight as we track the evolution of this book from its

First edition self-published typed by my girlfriend in the dormatory when I was at the University of Washington illustrated by my roommate and taken in the back of my old beater Oldsmobile up to a Publishing House half an hour north of Edmund’s here with $22,000 and a

Stack of uh how many pages 192 that’s a multiple of 16 I think because it had to be certain signatures and I came back couple weeks later with 2,000 copies of this book in my car and that was the beginning of me as a travel writer and I

Really learned when you become when you when you publish a book people think you are smarter than you actually are and it gave me momentum to establish this teaching that we do and we’re going to track how this book has evolved over 40 editions to here I was paging through

This book this is a first edition 1980 I can’t really open it because the spine breaks it’s a rare first edition so I’ve got a third edition here which is totally open and broken but that’s what I refer to but it’s just got all of these memories and this is from a day

When I would actually go to the bookstore that stocked the book and I would put this little flyer in there Rick Steve’s budget Europe travel classes and on the first Sunday of each month Our World Travelers slide Club meets you’re welcome to drop by with slides or cookies just to talk Europe

Hey that was 1980 and we’re still doing it but we’re doing it thanks to a modern technology and we’ve gone National with Monday night travel but I was looking at the changes in technology I mean back then you hitchhiked you slept for free uh some hotels didn’t have hot water all

Day long actually we had as one of the survival phrases in here at what time is the water hot you don’t need that anymore you travel generally without reservations well you have reservations these days you had to concern yourself with mail stops because you didn’t have

An internet how are you going to be in touch with your loved ones you’re going to stop by the American Express company right there in Paris or in Amsterdam where all the Travelers would gather together and sell their used cars and trade their tricks of the trade uh you

Had to change money in the black market in Eastern Europe uh people did Whirlwind tours you know we sold the year Rail Pass of All 20 countries around Europe and people did the if it’s Tuesday it must be Belgium Blitz there was not a lot of information back when I

Started Arthur fmer Europe on $5 today then the Harvard students wrote the let’s go Europe books and there were the Michelin green guides that gave you a dictionary kind of coverage of the great sites but there was not a lot of information today the challenge is there’s too much information that needs

To be curated what we’re going to do today is we’re going to talk about how some of the travel skills have changed and we’re going to visit the last half of this book the first half are the f are the skills and the last half are my favorite discoveries the offbeat gems of

Europe and uh we’re going to visit we’re going to go to the chinatera Dingle dartmore North Ireland uh rotenberg Castle day in Bavaria gimal up in the Alps and we’re going to go to Eastern Turkey to gazel and talk about how those great sites my favorite sites in Europe

Have evolved over the ages thank you so much for joining us I’d like to start off right now just to um show you a little bit about how things stay the same I’m going to show you a clip that has me giving the same travel tip on my

TV show 25 years apart we’re going to be talking about jet lag and we’re going to be talking about the importance of a money belt so check this out and uh you’ll notice uh well first of all it’s a pretty schlocky beginning of our TV show because it’s way back to the 1990s

And uh over time things get a lot better join us now as we discover the ins and outs of travels in Europe okay so here I’m stepping into a hotel room this is 25 years earlier in the clip you’re about to see and I’m going

To whip my money belt out and explain to you the importance of it right now you can see my uniform back in the very early days in the 1990s simple hotel room simple wardrobe I’m going to do a Switcheroo on you here when I reach down

To my money belt and I’ll come back 25 years later you’ll see a nicer hotel room and a different wardrobe but the same exact voice The Voice didn’t change neither does the travel tip as you’ve heard me preach before solve this problem simply by wearing a money belt it’s a nylon pouch

You tie around your waist and tuck in like your shirt tail in it you carry just your Essentials so that you can wear it comfortably all day long jet leg so the money belt is just as important now as it used to be jet leg is another

Thing where the tip doesn’t change here I’m giv the tip uh I’m going to cut it in half I think I’m going to give the same tip EX exactly the same twice 25 years apart hates Bright Light fresh air and any kind of exercise jet leg hates

Bright Light fresh air and exercise get out and walk so looking through the book through 40 editions a lot of the fundamental skills do remain the same one thing I remember I stressed really strong right from the start was to respect the importance of planning a smart trip planning your itinerary

Here’s a clip that talks to you about how we Americans who have the shortest vacations in the rich world can cut through all the superlatives and make an itinerary that is not trying to jam too much into a short amount of time check this out and then consider the

Importance of all of these skills and how they still I think they still make sense to this Day at the edge of Sienna’s medieval Center our hotel’s Garden is a fine place for reviewing some ideas on it itinerary planning start your travel experience early by enjoying the planning stage talk to other Travelers choose books and movies with your trip in mind nurture your travel dreams then develop a

Thoughtful itinerary in steps brainstorm a wish list of destinations and put them in a logical geographical order then write in how many days you’d like to stay in each place and then tally it up this adds up to 32 days now it’s got to fit to

Vacation time I’ve got 21 days off that means I’ve got some serious cutting to do minimize redundancy really don’t want to do both the Italian Riviera and the French Riviera I’ll cut the French Riviera keep a balance between big cities and small towns this itinery is

Pretty heavy on big cities so I think I’ll cut Rome that’ll save a few days Greece takes just too much time to get to it’ll have to wait till another trip rather than spend an entire day on the train you can save a day of your itinerary by flying or taking the night

Train from Bavaria to Venice I still have to cut one day I think I could tighten up on Paris I had given it four we’ll do Paris in 3 days when I add it up it fits 21 days now find tune your itinerary anticipate closed days for

Instance in Paris museums are closed on Tuesdays that’s a good thing to keep in mind and you can take your trip to the next level by researching and planning for events along the way concerts sporting events and festivals it brightens your experience consider building in a few slack days two days on

The beach Midway through the itin ray that’ll recharge those batteries and one night stops are hectic try your best to have two nights in a row at a minimum and remember open Jaws that’s flying into one city and out of another in this case Amsterdam and London saves time and

Money that’s efficient finally be realistic about how much you can cover you’ll always find places you just can’t get to I really wanted to get to grease but squeezing it in would rush my entire trip assume you will return travel is freedom it’s rich with choices and exciting

Decisions that’s part of the appeal factor in your comfort level with doing things on the Fly lots of people have a great trip with nothing planned at all others have a great trip by nailing down every detail before leaving home I like to keep a little flexibility in my

Itinerary perhaps I’ll fallen over with Sienna and stay an extra day also plan thoughtfully to get the best weather and the least crowds the most grueling thing about travel over here is the Heat and crowds of Summer especially in Italy check the weather charts my rule of thumb north of the

Alps is like Seattle or Boston south of the Alps is like Southern California or Florida I prefer visiting the Mediterranean countries in spring or fall and I travel north of the Alps in summer we happen to be here in August and it’s hot winter travels a whole different

Scene and it has its pros and cons too museums are empty flights are cheaper and the high culture Symphony Opera and so on is in full swing but in the winter it rains more and it gets dark early especially in the north and many activities and sites are closed or run

On shorter hours while small towns outdoor sites and Resorts can be sleepy big cities are vibrant and festive throughout the year You know one thing I would say about looking at those skills from so long ago and those were basically the skills I was talking about in the early editions of Europe through the back door it’s impractical generally not to have reservations nailed down for your hotels from beginning to end I’m really

Sad to say that because for me it was fundamental to travel was the freedom of not having reservations but these days hotels are so expensive and there’s so many people going to the places we want to go that you you’re smart to nail yourself down and and trade away the

Flexibility for knowing you’ve got those good um accommodations uh reserved also the Heat and the crowds of Summer it was interesting to me that I mentioned that there uh because that was a concern decades ago and it’s even a bigger concern now the heat is a bigger concern

And the Crowds Are a bigger concern what I would like to do now is um show you just a few slides that kind of talk about the skills of European travel and the road we’ve taken as teachers uh European travel in the last 40 years remember that first book came out back

In our hippie days uh this was in the 1980s that I first started teaching and this was our first edition uh I just wrote this book it was the basically I gave a lecture that I was giving all over the place to the pages here and

This was the class I was giving in book form there’s my buddy from high school Jean opaw on the day we graduated from high school and we’ve got the biggest backpacks we could find exterior frames we had tube tents mes kits all sorts of ridiculous heavy stuff and we were not

Packing heavy that’s for sure but we had The Adventurous Spirit we had the trip of a lifetime and I had so much fun with my buddy Jean on that trip I think um yeah here’s a in this book the very first editions of Europe to the back door

I think you can see it right there uh you know sketches drawn from photographs I took in that early trip um it was big to see the famous sites of course seeing the Eiffel Tower and all that of course but what I noticed in my travels was I

Was finding these special places and I’ve been talking about them for literally decades ever since hilltowns we’re all looking for the greatest hilltowns of course this is chivio two hours north of Rome keeping its head above the flood of the 21st century so beautifully um we got the

Best of the Riviera the Italian Riviera the chin that was one of my first discoveries and when I went to those places we’ll see a clip of it later no tourism at all of course today there’s plenty of Tourism but these were the back doors now the flip side of finding

The offbeat places is finding the people connecting with the people I used to joke if you see four cute guys sitting on a bench asking to scoot over nothing’s going on they’re sitting on that bench every day get to know them be an extrovert I was just thinking of

Slides to share with you today and I I remembered this slide and this was during communism and uh you know this guy was the hammer and sickle kind of worker and I met him and I grabbed the hammer and he had the sickle and together we compared notes he taught me

In fact I think he even said if you choose to have a low rung on society you can live a more free life because you’ve got nothing to lose uh if you are choosing a higher life a Fanci or more important profession then you got to be really careful about what you’re going

To say but he could talk freely with me during communism and we had an unforgettable connection it was just beautiful but that’s what carbonates your travel is meeting the people and that is part of that is integral to going through the back door going through the back door means catching Europe by surprise

That’s the name of this book Europe through the back door and that was the name of our company until we decided to call it rick Steve’s Europe my dad came up with that name and he just we were up at put our cabin up in the Cascade

Mountains and we were I was fiddling around with what should I call the book and he said you know you’re going through the back door it’s kind of um intimate it’s casual it’s familiar and I thought that’s exactly what we’re looking for we’re trying to find the

Back door not going through the front door going through the back door that’s where you catch Europe by surprise not formal not all dressed up not ready to see you but honest candid later on in this hour I’m going to take you with Clips to the chinatera to Dingle to the

Moors of England to North Ireland uh to rotenberg to to the castles of Bavaria to the mountains of Switzerland and gimal and then we’ll go to Eastern Turkey to gazel and we’ll have a chance to look at in three minute Clips my some of my very favorite back doors and we’ll

Talk about how they have fared in the last 40 years I was all about cheap travel very cheap that’s what I needed cheap hotel rooms $10 a bed you get a kitten tossed in for no extra what a delightful budget trick of course you don’t even have this option now if you

Wanted to travel this cheap but back then this was an option and this is what a lot of people opted for uh picnicking that was how you ate back then but you can see I had my Michelin guide there the green Michelin guide at my feet that

Was the most important guide in so many ways for me as I would save money at lunch so I could ex afford to go into the Palaces and the Galleries and the great museums it was very interesting as as a budget traveler I mean traveling around

With almost no money I did my first trip on like $3 a day there were musicians with boxes full of money and they would just welcome you to come up and help fund your travels and they would play The Four Seasons while I U figured out

How I was going to pay for dinner you went to a cafeteria and they actually had good food plated on racks you could go in there and pick what you like Budget Travel baby and I was writing it all down writing it down journaling like a journaling like a maniac I had this

I’ll just show you a little but I I filled these empty books and for eight years in a row I’d fill these empty books with tiny tiny writing and I would gather it this is before I really thought I was going to be a you know professional travel writer if you look

Here you can see how much it cost back in those early early days this was my first trip without my parents in 1973 and you can see well if you look at this tally and even this is long before I was going to be a travel writer U

Before I even gave talks um I was just graduated from high school but 70 nights in Europe average cost per night 84 cents 20 nights in hotels or penon $190 a night average 17 nights in youth hosts half of that 83 cents a night average 32 free nights nine nights sleeping out 10

With friends one on the plane 10 on trains one on a boat and one in a hostel and one night on Cleo’s roof a dollar each wow it’s amazing that you could do that then I mean accommodations are in one night you’d spend more than far more

Than what I’m spending on in 70 nights on that trip well I learned from my sluming around Europe and I I put together a talk it was didn’t make any excuses about it European travel cheap experimental College University of Washington 1978 it was experiential look at England is talking to me feel my

Fjords caress my castles and this was the Europe that I was in love with right from that early age I had two all day classes I had an all day budget travel class and I had an all day art class I would go anywhere I could get a crowd

Every weekend I would teach it it seems like when I wasn’t in Europe Saturday all day long 7 hour six- hour talk and then Sunday for those who wanted it I would take you back to Europe for more art the art class is something that’s interesting to me because I’ve always

Thought and I mean I forget about my own history until I look at these old slides but I always appreciated the fact that Europe is more than just um packing lighting catching the train and finding a hotel Europe is appreciating the culture and from the start I wanted to

Complement the skills with the art appreciation and I had this all day art class six hours well that’s what I’ve been producing for the last couple years for public television a six hour series on the art of Europe same thing I was was teaching way back then the Europe through the back door

Book this must have been the fourth or the fifth edition when I finally got a publisher it was intentionally no hotels no restaurants I didn’t have to bog down in all those kind of details those those um you know just overwhelming details but what I realized is people need guide

Books that cover the details hotels and restaurants so I opened a Floodgate Of work by deciding not only to have the skills book Europe up through the back door but to have individ guide books to countries and cities of course I need a staff for that I’ve got

The greatest crew in the world 100 amazing people hardworking passionate talented mission-driven Travelers that are all on my team and together we make this series of guide books and because of this team that we’ve got and our passion for accuracy and helping people travel well our guide books dominate in

The market I mean my publisher just visited a couple weeks ago and he loves to bring up the sales figures and he reminds us for examp example with this uh photograph here or this image 12 out of the top 15 bestselling Europe guide books have Rick Steves on the title um

Not because we’re that great I don’t think but because other Publishers are just phoning it in they’re not produced by Travelers for travelers they’re produced by corporations that are trying to make money we’re trying to help people travel better and that’s good business so over the three or four

Decades that I’ve been doing this I’ve had a sort of an evolution my focus has been first Europe through the back door the skills then Europe 101 the history and the art and then travel as a political act how we travel in a way that broadens our perspective it sees

Culture shock as a constructive thing not something to avoid culture shock is The Growing Pains of a broadening perspective it just needs curation and that’s what we provide in our tours in our books and in our TV shows uh if you look at the first edition of our budget

Travel newsletter backdoor travel do it yourself Budget Travel newsletter winter 1982 letter number one printed every now and then to fill the void in travel journalism well um you can kind of see what our mission was Seattle is a city of Travelers unmatched in the USA Globe

Trotters who have been bided by the travel bug lack togetherness we need a medium for sharing discoveries that is precisely the purpose of this newsletter to pool information for the mutual benefit of all travelers there’s no publication like this written by and only for for the traveler oh baby and

Then look at the world traveler slide Club I was just thinking about that I was reviewing these slides earlier today this is what we are gathering in right now this is the the the nucleus of what Monday night travel is all about the World Travelers slide Club open to absolutely everyone the

Wtsc is just like MNT it’s simply a club of Travelers that has a monthly get together to share slides stories ideas and have some fun we meet the first Sunday of every month that Steve Studios that was my piano teaching studios in downtown Edmonds every month focusing on

A European area and a showand tell theme which is based completely on member participation this year we have set a monthly country theme and so on the last sentence mark your calendar bring some slides some cookies a friend or just show up the Kodak projector is set up

And the coffee pot is On Let’s Travel well that’s what I’m loving about Monday night travel and our crew and all of you who join us each Monday night that’s the ghost of the world traveler slide Club alive and well deep into the 21st century so I was a piano teacher and I

Was finding that um the parents were sitting on boxes of my first edition of Europe to the back door when their kids were performing uh their Christmas recital and I decided I got to do one or the other teach piano or be a travel writer and I decided to go with the

Traveling uh eventually we started our tour program mini buses at first um yeah just women took the tours I’m not sure well actually I know why the women wanted to do what the the guys were doing but it was more safe to have a small group so the women could

Have the adventures the men were having um in more safely by being together on a Mini Bus and I got to be The Driver SL guide well that whole passion for guiding and teaching and writing is now with a staff of a 100 technology beyond our wildest streams and I’m still doing

Exactly what I’ve always done spending 100 days a year over there making mistakes taking careful notes and bringing home the hits and that’s the 40th edition of Europe through the back door it’s the skills it’s the travel dreams and it’s the places by the way we’ve got a special t-shirt to celebrate

This uh occasion and I would like to show it to you because I’m excited about this t-shirt um this is the the t-shirt that it celebrates the 40th edition of Europe through the back door and on the back this is really cool Dave hurlin is our map maker Dave was my

First employee back in the 1980s uh fellow student at the University Washington and Dave makes our beautiful intimate cozy real Maps he’s a cartographer who’s been there and here you can plan your trip on the back of your travel Partners uh on the back of your travel partner and we’ve just

Located our favorite back doors in this t-shirt but that’s available on our website along with the brand new hot off the press edition of Europe through the back door you can always go to the web store and check those out hey right now

I want to um take you to one of the back doors and this is the chinu and I’m just going to read the text from the first edition of the book um a sleepy romantic and inexpensive town in the Rivier without a tourist in sight that’s the Mirage Travelers Chase around busy nie

And con the most dreamworthy stretch of the Riviera sleeps just across the border from France between Genoa and Pisa it’s Italy’s chinat leaving the nearest Big City laspia your train takes you into a mountain and then minutes later you burst into the sunlight your train nips

In and out of the hills teasing you with a series of Mediterranean views each scene is grander than the last Azure blue Tinsel in sunbeams carbonated waves hitting desolate rocks and the occasional topless human camped out like a lone Limpet wow now when we look at this first clip of the

Chinua the joy of the region is the same but now it’s quite touristy it’s got infrastructure for bigger crowds and it’s quite expensive uh and there’s been a huge change in the number of fishing boats in the fishing fleet because they’re almost fishing the Mediterranean out but the magic of the chinatera is

Definitely still there let’s go check that out right now we’re going to take a trip to the Italian Riviera the which means five lands was originally described in medieval times as the five castles tiny communities like this grew up in the protective Shadows of their castles their people ready to run for

Refuge at the first hint of a Turkish pirate raid as the threat of pirates faded the communities grew with economies based on fish olives and grapes today the big employer is tourism each rugged little town is a variation on the same theme a well whittel pastel jumble of homes filling its

Ravine these days the castles which used to protect the towns from marauding Pirates guard only glorious views this 10 km stretch of the Italian Riviera is the rugged alternative to the more glitzy Riviera Resorts nearby I just had a de of my very first trip there it was so beautiful and I was

Hiking from town to town and uh I remember I got a brutal sunburn on my on the on my uh the back of my legs as I was hiking because it was the first time I had done a long hike on the Mediterranean and each Village was its

Own little Adventure there was almost no tourism there I don’t think there was more than a couple of serious hotels and uh the hillsides were thriving with people working the fields and making the wine it was just a delight I couldn’t believe my good fortune to find this

Place and I wanted to bring it home and tell every body about it the traffic free charm is a happy result of its natural isolation just sun sea sand well Pebbles and people for me this is Italy at its most relaxed for a home base choose among the

Five Villages each has a distinct personality gently and steadily carving a good life out of the and I can say these have not changed one iota in 40 years I mean visually the the buildings are exactly the same because it’s a national park and nobody can change their buildings

And that means there’s no comfortable hotels it’s just a warrant of little bnbs and Tiny pension and uh I think that’s one reason the charm of the chinoa is still there it’s still there physically difficult Terrain until the coming of the train and tourism these towns were very remote and heavily dependent upon the sea even today Traditions Survive while nothing like past Generations small scale fishermen still earn their living working their Nets while the tourists play and each day restaurant tours count on these men to keep their diners smacking their lips and each of the five Villages actually retains a distinct dialect every V of a

Different dilet what’s an example example for talk about married in Vera is and if you’re married in Rio major very different so when you hear somebody you know what village they live in yes sure from the Main Street you can pop into a series of narrow stepped Lanes

Called karui these zigzag every which way in the densest parts of town these lanes become interior passages if you keep climbing eventually you’ll pop out up at the top near the castle handy so when I look at that and I think of changes in 40 years in a big

City you’d have lots of changes you hardly recognize a town 40 years later but in a town like this it’s essentially the same but things have been prettied up because it’s no longer a poor town now it’s capitalizing on the tourist trade so the castle has been rent ated

The the stonework is beautiful as you’ll see in a couple of seconds there’s Gardens there and uh a big change to be honest is a lot of the local people have moved to the big city and they’ve got an absentee kind of U well they’re absentee landlords and they’ve hired people from

Eastern Europe to run their bed and breakfasts and they’ll sleep in a closet somewhere and rent out to the tourists and that way they’ll make their living for their retirement so uh Airbnb and and you know bed short-term rentals have invaded these towns and it does change

The character of the business in the towns but the The Vineyards the hikes the cactus the ruined castles all of that is just as charming and intoxicating as ever for fleeing attacks the castle is nicknamed Bill Forte the place of loud screams for the warnings shouted from its Tower back in pirating

Days a tower has stood guard here for a thousand years visitors climb to the top for the view and to imagine past Raids okay now we’re going to go to Ireland the west coast of Ireland and Ireland’s very popular we a lot of us and Ed rck Steve’s Europe call it Italy with rain and Ireland has the big city Dublin but of course you want to get to the

West Coast and if you want the ultimate in Irish folk culture and so on you go to Dingle Peninsula and one thing about one that Ireland has changed a lot is because of the EU which didn’t exist 40 years ago uh more people are speaking uh traditional Irish language the Gaelic

Than than they were 40 years ago and you’ll find a lot of towns are going back to Gaelic a lot of uh people are speaking Gaelic which you didn’t have uh when we first visited and discovered this for our American Travelers but let’s go to Dingle here and see what that’s all

About in Ireland you drive on the left on narrow roads like these take your time everybody works together in a Scenic doy do up and over the mountain with the help of a good map I often take the slow more memorable route the dramatic Connor pass leads to the scenic southwest tip

Of Ireland Dingle Peninsula over a 100 in of rain a year give this area its famous 40 shades of green Dingle Peninsula offers an ideal mix of faren away Beauty archaeological wonders and desolate walks or bike rides all within convenient reach of its main town my Irish dreams have long been set here

On this sparse but lushly carpeted Peninsula the people of Dingle are close to the land when I asked a local if he was born here he thought for a second and said no it was about 6 mil down the road when I asked if he’d lived here all his life he said not

Yet Dingle is so traditionally Irish because it’s another giltech a region where the Irish culture survives subsidized by the government while English is always there the signs menus and songs often come in Irish or gaic first teenagers from Ireland’s big cities come here for summer camp filling oldtime School rooms to learn the

Traditional language and Irish ways and here Irish songs are sung in Irish And old churches do double duty as concert Halls where those enthusiastic about traditional music share their Art [Applause] well you know I was just thinking there’s a good thing about tourism that’s a beautiful slice of traditional Irish culture and it’s thriving today to a great extent because tourists who visit will pay you know a few bucks to go to the church that evening and enjoy

The local concert uh we do a lot uh when we uh uh travel uh and consume thoughtfully to keep the local cultures vibrant the town of Dingle is the perfect home base for peninsula explorations it’s just large enough to have all the necessary tourist services and a steady

Beat of Irish folk music although a popular tourist destination Dingle still has a relaxed feel this is a place where the fish and the farm still matter a faint whiff of burning Pete fills its streets tractor tracks dirty the main drag and 40 fishing boats still sail from its

Harbor so our next stop on our series of backd doors is Southwestern England into dartmore and dartmore is a place I I I discovered a whole bunch of these little for me amazing uh enclaves of traditional life and culture uh in the same year or two and I realized I had a

Critical mass of these great sites to put into a book and this is a chance to I stayed in the youth hostel and I explored the mo and I’ve been going back ever since and the Moore is timeless and Timeless means it does not change check this out a short drive further north

Takes us out of Cornwall and into the neighboring County of Devon where we venture into remote and Windswept dartmore purged on the edge of the mo the Tiny Town of chagford is an easy home base for exploring dartmore the small town atmosphere here makes you feel like you’ve stepped into a Time

Warp it has a classic English Village feel with a picturesque church and Cemetery and cozy pubs that double as ins for hikers to spend the Night one of England’s most popular national parks dartmore is one of the few truly wild places left in this densely populated country a Moore is characterized by open land with scrubby vegetation England’s Moors are vast medieval Commons rare places where all can pass anyone can graze their

Livestock and in the case of dartmore ponies run wild dartmore sits on a granite plateau and occasionally bare Granite Peaks called tours break through the Heather Rising like Lonesome watchtowers these distinctive landmarks are the goal of popular hikes hator is the most famous of these rocks for the Tenderfoot The Climb to

Its Summit can be a challenge it’s not IL Capitan but it’s hard to to beat that King of the mountain feeling and the rewarding views that come with it a well-planned walk through the Moors rewards day hikers with fvid memories stone slab Clapper Bridges some medieval and some even

Ancient remind hikers that for thousands of years humans have Tred these same paths and forded these same streams tall Stones guided early Travelers this one erected by pagans long before Christianity arrived was later carved into a cross the iconic ponies of dartmore run wild their ancestors were the working horses of the local

Miners living in the harsh conditions of the Moore these Ponies are a hearty breed known for their stamina today they’re beloved among hikers for the romance they bring to the otherwise Stark Terrain so next up is a little moment I had when I was uh still a student and I came to

This Stone Circle in dartmore from my first time and I got to say this is exactly where I decided to become a travel writer I’ll tell you why in a moment but watch this of the hundreds of Neolithic ruins that dot the dartmore landscape the scorl stone circle is my

Favorite tranquil and nearly forgotten erected some 4,000 Years Ago by mysterious people for mysterious reasons it’s yours alone the way a stone circle should be it’s just you and your imagination enjoy the quiet Ponder the 40 centuries of people who’ve made this enchanting landscape their home and the

Wisdom of today’s English to protect it and keep it Pristine wow I just got to say wow I’m I love thinking of stumbling upon that stone circle and you know a couple days later or a couple days before I had gone to Stonehenge and it was the famous stone circle and there were the tour buses there and the barbed wire and the

Portapotty and the tourists with their blow horns and it was just not a very Soulful experience and then I was all alone there and I was on the boat to France a few days later and I decided you know I found these cool places I

Could collect them in a book and I could share them and other people could learn from my experience and travel better you know I’ve got I’ve actually got the original handwritten from 1979 or something like that here up through the back door and when I look at this thing

It’s it’s amazing to me that well how it survived I don’t know but I’ve got just been sitting in a box for decades but this was um what I wrote that became this book and the whole Spirit of this is to take the magic that I found in

Europe and combine it with the Practical tips I mean you’re going to pack light you’re going to pack light Pack Light Pack Light Pack Light you’re going to go open Jaws well there’s a little map for you right there that talks about how how

You go from USA to one end and then home from the other end of Europe these were just the Practical tips that I put into this in fact I’d like to show you just a few slides that I can kind of walk you through this if you’d be interested um because it

Is I think pretty cool to think how this information is essentially the same after 40 years um here’s my mom holding the first edition of Europe to the back door back when the spine didn’t break when you opened it but if we look at this uh you know bear with me here I’m

Going to read a little bit of this to you because my my penmanship was really good back then to compare what is yeah now but it’s still hard to read but this was um Europe through the back door most people enter Europe through the front door in fact seeing Europe This

Way has become common place almost blaz so I’m writing this when I’m 24 years old 1979 or something let me make your trip special come with me through the back door a warm relaxed personable Europe will greet us as an intimate friend we can become temporary Europeans part of the

Family we will approach Europe on its level except AC in its way of life appreciating its different ways we will demand nothing nothing except that no fuss is to be made over us we will feel its fjords and caress its castles spending money has very little to do

With the enjoyment of your trip in fact spending less money will bring you closer to the Europe you traveled so far to see the most important decision you will make is which door to use in other words the first half of this book is devoted to the skills of European

Travel and then in the last half I’ll give you 15 keys to some of Europe’s most exciting back doors and then I added on the bottom here it’s quite a mess sorry about that but a lot of money will force you through Europe’s Grand front entrance you’ll receive the formal

Polite and often stuffy treatment but through the back door well that’s a different story a story I’d like to to tell uh so that’s the story I’d like to tell and then there was just basic skills that really don’t survive to this day people don’t sleep on trains much

Anymore but back then this was a major thing for Backpackers around Europe uh how to sleep on the train that was actually a chapter the Big Sleep arrive 30 minutes before your train leaves walk most of the length of the train but not to the last car choose a car that is

Going where you want to go and find an empty compartment pull out the seats you know the seats pull out so you can make a bed and sleep if nobody sits across from you so you need two seats to make a bed pull out the seats close the

Curtains turn out the lights and pretend you are sound asleep it’s amazing at 900 p.m. everyone on that train is snoring away a car may have 10 compartments each capable of sleeping three or sitting seating six the first 30 people on that car have room to sleep number 31 will go

Into any car with the lights on and people still sitting up the most convincing sleepers will be the last to be quote woken up and then I talk about different crude ways that you can uh make people choose to sit Elsewhere for instance a more interesting way that

Works equally well and not nearly so rude is to sit cross-legged on the floor and chant religious sounding exotically discordant harmonies with a far away look on your face people will open the door stare in for a few seconds and leave determined to sit in the aisle

Rather than to share a compartment with the likes of you for those sleeping chanting or with their foot on the door the last minutes are the most tense there are always a few people wandering around looking for a less crowded part of the train when the train jolts into

Motion you may breathe a sigh of relief but don’t relax for another five or 10 minutes if by then you still have your space you’ll probably sleep well that night ah that was a big deal reading that just brings me back to that I mean because if you succeeded in getting a

Place to stretch out you had six or eight relatively comfortable hours but if you had to sit all up all night that was no fun eating and sleeping the five Commandments back then when I wrote the first edition of Europe the back door this was the text I could get eight good

Hours of sleep and three Square meals a day in Europe for 8 to $10 a day if my financial situation required it it doesn’t and I would prefer to spend a little more money when I have it and be looser with my budget if you have any

Budget limits at all these basic rules of thumb should be kept in mind for instance number one budget for Price variances remember the expensive countries are up to three times as costly as Spain Portugal Greece and Italy if your budget allows $15 a day you should do the cheaper places on $10

A day so you’ll have extra money for the places where $15 buys you very little one philosophy I have if I starve I starve where my suffering will save me the most money if I decide to live like a king I do that where my Splurge dollars will go the farthest for example

In Sweden walk sleep on trains and picnic in Portugal take the taxi to your comfortable hotel and have fresh seafood in a Waterfront Restaurant adapt to European tastes the most unhappy people I meet in Europe could find the source of all their problems in their own stubborn desire to

See to find the USA in Europe if you accept and at least try doing things the European way besides the obvious budgetary advantages you will be happier and learn more in your trip you cannot expect the local people to be warm and accepting of you if you don’t accept

Them things are different in Europe and I hope that’s why you go as I said before it’s a package deal and you have no choice but to accept the good with the bad if you requireed the Comforts of home you better stay there so that’s just a little bit of the philosophy of

Traveling through the back door it was a time when you could get sick just by drinking the water I spent a little time on the toilet back then because of drinking the water and uh I even put how do I want to see a doctor in six different languages in the first edition

Of that book back then people did the Whirlwind tour that was a big deal I sold a lot of e rail passes and by far the bestselling e Rail Pass was the all Europe 20 countries or whatever this was the blitz tour in two months that’s the

Trip I did on graduation like most kids did and I just love this itiner is the best trip I think I’d ever taken in Europe and uh we covered it very well on that first book about year one thing I discovered when I looked at this book

The uh you know 1982 edition of this book in the end of it there was a ad for bread for the world I forgot I was with them so long ago we just raised a million dollars because 5,000 of you each gave $100 and I matched

It and that was just Christmas 2023 but back in 1982 on the back page of the book many Americans failed to realize how richly black our nation is until travel opens their eyes millions of people work for 20 years and earn less than what you will spend on this year’s vacation

$2,000 As Americans we are gluttonous Kings of the money Mountain I’m a little more um careful with my words now it’s natural to feel a little self-conscious about this inequity if you don’t please read bread for the World by Simon or Rich Christians by cider one whim of our government to encourage Economic

Development M and free trade can make or break a third world country bread for the world is a Christian Lobby uh organization that effectively pushes for government sensitivity to the plate of the 70% of mankind who share just 133% of the world’s wealth by working with

Bread for the world you can trade your passive concern to real action but what was interesting I thought was this very last paragraph when I travel I take as much money as I expect to need with me to Europe if I return home with money I

Give half of it to people who will never see their name on a plane ticket through bread for the world or a good International charity if this book causes you to bring home some extra money May I challenge you to do the same it’s a nice way to end a trip thanks from

Millions well that’s what travel does to you it Tunes you in to the realities on this planet and that’s a big part of the travels that we promote at Rick Steves Europe hey speaking of good travels I want to remind you when you have good travels you pick up a taste for good

Wine and I’m drinking a lot of people like to know what’s Rick drinking here for his Monday night travel this is vino no de you’ve seen this before I have a case of this wine and uh kuchi is one of the venters that we visit in the town of

Multi poano it’s in my guide books and I just if you’ve seen Ado he’s a wonderful man that loves pouring wine for his Travelers but this is a sanjo vasy grape and Sano Asus the beautiful grape that distinguishes the nice cor poo the full bodied red wines of Tuscany the Brunello

Deont Chino is a sanesi and this Vino noil de Monti Pano is sort of the Poor Man’s Brunello and it’s really good and it’s a great value and I love that I hope you’re enjoying some good wine right now or whatever you like to drink hey I want

To thank before we go on I want to thank our crew at Monday night travel uh Gabe Ben Lisa and our newest member Emily our team makes Monday night travel possible and makes it happen uh next Monday Lisa friend and Colleen are going to be hosting a special um evening on Umbria

In Italy uh two weeks from tonight we’re going to Budapest and Gabe and one of our favorite Hungarian guides Andrea McKay is going to be hosting that evening right now I want to go back to some uh oh I wanted I do want to remind we’re going to do questions so if you

Have any questions at all we’ll have plenty of time for questions later on add them into the quest Q&A link there and if you go to the chat link you’ll find links to anything we’re talking about like the T-shirt if you wanted to get the copy of the 40th

Anniversary nostalgic T-shirt with the great specially made map highlighting all these beautiful places that are off the beaten path back doors you can find that uh on the website our new t-shirt and in the uh I’ll link to it in the chat section okay now it’s time to go

Back and upcoming is a chance to go to Northern Europe Northern Ireland and I want to say in this case when we go to Northern Ireland this was a long time ago it made the cut for the first back doors 40 years ago and it’s always been

An example of political travel you go to Northern Ireland and see how things are doing with the with the troubles with the Catholic community and the Protestant Community um Northern Ireland the Republic of Ireland it’s complicated and when we go there we humanize it here is a little look at Northern Ireland and

For me no tour to Ireland is complete without going to the Republic and to the north Northern Ireland is part of a group of islands called the British Isles and part of a political entity called the United Kingdom the emerald aisle is comprised of the independent Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland the

Northern region is also called olster from the capital Belfast we travel to fun-loving Port rush to the Rough and Tumble City of Derry and enjoy attractions along the Anum Coast here in Northern Ireland sightseeing makes more sense with a little background all of Ireland was once ruled by Britain but the Irish

Didn’t assimilate quite according to plan while Britain was Protestant most of the Irish were catholic and with these religious differences came a deep-seated cultural divide to help bolster its control London planted settlers Protestant settlers mostly from Scotland these people became the Scots Irish the dominant ethnic group in North

Ireland today but centuries of British rule led to strife and in the 1920s after a bloody war most of Ireland became an independent country Catholic and ruled from Dublin but the North with its Protestant majority opted to stay with Britain and the island remains divided to this day you’ll see symbols

Of that division throughout Northern Ireland Protestant orange parades are common several thousand a year during marching season between Easter and early September fill the streets with sectarian pageantry you know one thing I want to break in here I’ve been thinking about walls lately because there’s a wall

Between the West Bank and Palestine and Israel uh there there’s a wall between the sectarian communities in Belfast and and there are walls all over this planet either physical or metaphorical and the walls were built for whatever reason but the unfortunate impact of a wall it keeps the younger Generations saddled

With their parents’ fears and their their their parents baggage and the key to to peace is for sectarian communities to have the younger generation get together and realize hey we’re in this together be a lot better if we just learned to give each other a little wiggle room and respect and understand

Our context well this this kind of a parade right here is an exercise in older people teaching their kids to be hateful frankly and when you see this you’ll see the little kids here think of the tragedy of regions that are so divided that they’re going to war with each

Other and think of the tragedy when the younger generation can’t figure it out of course Ireland ultimately solved its troubles because heroically and smartly the Irish sectarian communities decided let’s get the kids together and there was all sorts of programs to let the kids go to summer camp together and

Dance and play together and they grew up thinking we don’t want to bomb each other we want to just U live together on this beautiful emerald ow while 90% of these parade through Protestant towns and are therefore peaceful a few are antagonistic marching through Catholic towns and neighborhoods far more political than

Your average parade these are like pep rallies for the cause of continued Union with Britain a chance for parents to to share their political passions with their kids the long-established Orange Order Works to defend the union with Britain so their political philosophy is unionist Orange is the team color and

The Union Jack is its flag this is countered on the Catholic Side by nationalists and Republicans people who want the entire Island to be one nation their color is green and they fly the Irish flag and by the way where they fly the Irish flag you’ll find Palestinian

Flags and when where they fly the unionist flag you’ll find Israeli Flags because Ireland is paying the price of people who were planted there by a colonial power England planted Scottish Protestants in Ireland to get a tow hold on that Catholic and Irish Island and centuries later they’re paying the price

And the settlers that are going from Israel into Palestine those are planted people in somebody else’s territory and centuries from now people are going to be paying the price from that that’s why when you look at Ireland the Protestant Community has an empathy with the Israelis and the Catholic Community has

An empathy with the Palestinians consequently they tend to fly each other’s Flags in the Republic of Ireland there is no question Catholics rule but here in the Protestant dominated North the Catholics with over a third of the population are just too big a minority to ignore in order to maintain control

Protestants employed policies which were tough on Catholics this escalated tensions which led to the troubles which have filled headlines around here since the late 1960s as Protestants and Catholics clashed the British army entered the fry and they’ve been here ever since thankfully real progress towards peace has been made recently and

While you still don’t want to sing Protestant songs in a Catholic Pub like this or vice versa Northern Ireland has become a great place to visit nice now we’re going to go to someplace a little lighter and that would be rotenberg onere talber and this is an example of a place that’s very

Touristy but if you can understand why it is so attractive today to so many tourists and understand that’s because it was really great and important five or 800 years ago we can see through all the tourism we can ramble the ramp Parts after hours and we can be turned on by

The magic of that place in spite of the fact that it’s very touristy one of the key skills in European travel these days because so many places are so discovered and so crowded is to enjoy it when the crowds are not there and to enjoy it by bringing more understanding so you can

Take more joy out of it in 3 hours we’re in rotenberg Germany’s ultimate walled City in the Middle Ages when Frankfurt and Munich were just wide spots on the road rotenberg was one of Germany’s largest cities with a whopping population of 6,000 today even with its crowds and overpriced souvenirs I love this

Place during rotenberg’s Heyday I was about 1,200 to, 1400 it was at the intersection of two great trading routes Prague to Paris and Hamburg to Venice but today the great trade is tourism rotenberg is a huge hit with Shoppers true this is a great place to buy cuckoo clocks Steines and dles but

See the town first most of the buildings were built by 1400 like many medieval towns the finest and biggest houses were built along harazi named for the Heron or the wealthy Class the commoners built higl pigl farther from the center near the walls hanging shop signs advertise what they sold knives armor bread whatever rotenberg’s wall with its beefy fortifications and intimidating Gates is about a mile around and provides great views and a good orientation rer Tor is

The only Tower you can actually climb it’s worth the hike for the commanding City View and the fascinating display on the bombing of rotenberg in the last weeks of World War II when much of the City was destroyed but rotenberg’s most devastating days were 400 years ago

During the 30 years war in the 1600s the Catholic and Protestant armies were fighting all across Europe the Catholic Army Army took the Protestant town of rodenberg and as was customary they planed to execute the town leaders and pillage and plunder the place but the Catholic General had an idea he said hey

If somebody in this town can drink a 3 l tanker filled with wine in one gulp I’ll spare the city according to Legend rotenberg’s retired mayor no said I can do that mayor no drank the whole thing the town was saved and the mayor slept for 3

Days and today tourists gather on the Town Square several times daily for a less than thrilling reenactment of that legendary chug nice story but in actuality the town was occupied and ransacked several times during that 30 years of war and when peace finally came rotenberg was never again a major player it slumbered

Peacefully until rediscovered in the 19th century by those same Romantics who put the rind on the grand tour map they came here to paint and write about the best preserved medieval town in Germany shops are filled with etchings and prints inspired by this 19th century romantic take on the Town and rotenberg is lined with other shopping opportunities and you can see it’s got plenty of Tourism but if you’re there early or if you’re there late it really is a chance to be lost in the wonders of that cobbled half timbered Wonderland and it’s just a matter of being out and

About when the tourists are not there early and late hey now we’re going to go to one of my favorite ruined castles in all of Europe and this is another example of your everybody’s going to go to Mad King ludwick’s Castle nanstein just over the Border a short actually

Just a a walk away you can hike there easily in Austria is aronburg and arenburg has changed a lot because of one man Arman V you’re going to meet him in a minute and in the 40 years that I’ve been going there he has been um turning this hill capping medieval

Castle into a cultural uh lesson uh for the tyru and uh it’s just a beautiful beautiful experience uh today thanks to the work of Armen VCH a hike up to the Stark and brooding ruins of arenburg Castle provides a striking contrast to Ludwig’s fantasy castles historian Armen VCH is

Spearheading a project Excavating and developing what he calls an ensemble of castles which will create a unique open air museum we have uh an ensemble of castles four elements built in different periods we start here in the middle age uh with arberg we have a Gothic element

In the valley we have a barck castle and we have a a brand new fortification system of the 18th century we’re visiting two castles of The Ensemble the 13th century aronburg and higher on the right the 17th century schlop this is a and when I was a kid I hked to the one

On the right and it it looks like it’s been peeled back like your scalp before you have brain surgery all the trees were taken down so they could excavate the castle but when I went up there it was lost nobody knew it existed it was a

It was a woodsy Wonderland and it was just an enchanting thing to check out one of the most romantic experiences I had ever had when it comes to exploring a ruined Castle today it’s protected it’s a museum and it gives us an amazing look at the history of the Ty roll

Strategic place because it lies on the 2,000-year-old Via Claudia austa this is a a road through the Alps which connected venea Italy with Germany and this road was Al in the middle age very important because they transported salt the white gold anyone who controlled the castles controlled the trade so in the

Middle age they had to find the perfect Hilltop to build the castle a steep hike takes us up to the bigger and more modern schlop Castle which Armen and his crew have just recently started covering well Rick um two years ago nobody in this town knew

Or only few people knew that there was a fortification on top of the hill two years ago you couldn’t see anything uh it was covered with trees so you shaved this up we shaved it we cleaned it it was completely covered with grease so from right there you couldn’t see anything W all

Right start Century castles like arberg were built uh with tiny walls High Towers on Hills because of uh the defense system of the middle age then they invented cannons cannons made this kind of architecture destroyable this became clear in the early 1700s when by cover of Darkness local tyrans wielded

Two Cannon up here and pulverized aronburg Castle which was occupied by their enemies the bavarians from this point on AR style castles were Obsolete and Canon proof castles like Schoop became the norm schlop was built in 1741 now we see the difference in architecture and fortification they buil

Here a fortification system 250 M long thick walls 8 m thick walls tunnels everything a real fortification system for canons Modern Warfare Modern Warfare wow it’s fun when you know a little bit about it the visiting experience is much nicer hey we’re going to go now to gimal if you’ve been with

Me for a while you know I love gimal my favorite town in the Swiss Alps in the book 40 years ago I wrote about gimal when told you’re visiting gimal Swiss people assume you mean the famous resort in the next Valley gindel VA when assured that gimal is your target they

Lean Forward they widen their eyes and with a sing songy Swiss German accent they whisper ER how do you know about giml VA how do you know about giml VA it’s because you’ve got that book you’re through the back door that finds these amazing places let’s go to gimal and

Remember this is one of those little places that are so beautifully preserved because you can’t get a building permit to build something big and fancy part of the fun and much of the expense of enjoying the Alps is riding the various lifts where whether you’re riding Cog wheeel trains steep

Funiculars or gondolas the views are breathtaking this Gondola drops us in the traffic-free village of giml Va this tiny intersection is the heart of downtown on a sunny day you understand why people say if heaven isn’t what it’s cracked up to be send me back to gimal the Village EST established in the Middle Ages incredibly on the edge of this Cliff was one of the poorest places

In Switzerland its traditional economy was stuck in the hay its Farmers make ends meat only with help from Swiss government subsidies and by working the ski lifts in the Winter modern tourism has perked up the local economy as well the village operates like a big family in fact most of the 120 residents have the same last name V almond collecting grass to get their cows through the winter in this rugged terrain is labor intensive each hardworking family harvests only enough

To feed 15 or 20 cows life can be tough but they’d have it no other way a generation ago developers wanted to turn gimal into a big Resort town the villagers thwarted those plans by getting the entire town declared an avalanche Zone from that point on no one could get

Permission to build anything bigger than a house or a barn unlike neighboring Resort towns gimal remains a vital community of families locally owned and proud of it most of the buildings house two families and are divided vertically right down the middle the writing on the post office building is a folksy blessing summer

Brings green winter brings snow the sun greets the day the Stars greet the night this house will keep you warm may God give us His blessings the oldest building in town dates from 1658 study the Log Cabin construction many are built without nails gimal has a strict building code for instance

Shutters can only be natural green or white the stones on the Huts are there to keep the shingles from blowing off during strong winter storms Farmers hang big ceremonial cowbells under their Eaves waiting for that festive day in the spring when the cows move from their their barns up to the High

Meadows giml va’s accommodations are rustic a couple simple pension B&B’s a hostel even a barn the hiker sleep in when the cows are in the High Meadows if you want a fancy bed you’re better off in a nearby Resort okay our last stop in our review

Of back doors and uh is is a a chance to get a little Beyond Europe we are in Asia Minor we’re going to Eastern Turkey a little town called geler it means beautiful land geler and this is a classic back door and in this little town without any Earth shaking sites as

Such the big reward is to those who meet the People Meet the Imam in the humble little mosque um play back am with people on the main square and uh get invited into somebody’s home you can do this and getting into a home is just as important as getting into a museum check

This out and I hope you can be inspired to have an experience like that yourself when you go to the far reaches of Europe we’re heading further south to the remote and un touristy town of geler the ancient Town seems one with the rock out of which it was

Carved 16 centuries ago monks built monasteries into the Cliffside erosion has driven most of the residents here to more stable dwellings but some remain and exploring the town you appreciate the tenacity of its people Though seemingly abandoned there is still life in the old town residents somehow eek out a living from its crumbling Terraces and neglected Gardens people do their humble chores as if stubbornly refusing to give up on their Talent This is the kind of Discovery I love to feature in my guide books it’s a perfect back door almost no tourism lots of history and plenty of character today like turkey in general gaziler is Muslim but for centuries Christians worshiped here and the city has an interesting connection with turkey’s neighbor to the

West Greece until the early 20th century Greece and Turkey were both part of the Ottoman Empire there were Muslim communities in Greece and Greek Orthodox communities here in Turkey like many Turkish towns gaziler was once a Greek Town then in the 1920s they had a huge population swap most Christians here

Were moved to Greece and Muslims there were sent to Turkey that’s why gazelle’s historic church is now a mosque today its single minet indicates that this is a valley where the people call God Allah above that 1600 Yee old church are celic arches Ottoman facades and on the

Horizon gleams the tin Dome of the main modern Mosque The Market Square is the heart of gazel it’s busy with people enjoying petite glasses of sweet chai and the happy clatter of be gam and dice no B 66 that’s good look at that boom boom an easy way to have fun with locals is over

A game of back gamon a daily treat for me anywhere in Turkey if you don’t know how to play it’s no problem if you pause someone will likely move for you okay nice Huh nice game thank you very good my partner my good luck and my friendly opponent kader is taking us to meet his family greetings are warm but formal as is the norm in Muslim households leave your shoes at the door the eldest gets the most Respect a splash of cologne leaves us refreshed and clean teaing is given great importance and done with pride and good luck if you want it without sugar as things loosen up I share pictures of my children but now she’s quite big she’s like you about like that

Yeah the daughters add to the fun and we enjoy a little Turkish fashion show and the grandfather entertains with Tales of 30 years of shepherding for me intimate encounters like these are as rewarding as visiting the great museums all right well I hope you enjoyed that little trip down memory lane and a

Thoughtful kind of retrospective on how Europe has changed and how it’s remained the same we’ve sure had fun teaching it hey Lisa got some questions we do have some questions before we get to them though we need a word from our sponsor please well thank

You for that you know I’ve got a book here called Asia through the back door and we’re not selling that because I think I’ve only got one or two copies this is from a long long time ago this is the fourth edition of that book I

Just really can’t get over it um but um uh what we got is a celebration of uh the skills of European travel and when I look at this book I think of the it’s a collaboration with our whole staff I mean you just gave a talk a few weeks

Ago here on Monday night travel about women packing smart and there’s a chapter in here on women packing smart uh there’s all the latest on Tech in in Europe I mean this is a new age because every everybody’s got to be a certain amount of techin to travel smartly these

Days they expect it when you’re going to be checking into an airplane or getting a um QR code for the guided tour at the Museum or whatever so we’ve got all the skills for 2024 in this book it’s hot off the press and it’s your if you go to

Our website ricksteves.com and look in the U uh the shopping section there and see the under books you got that with I know 60 or 80 other guide books that we’ve put together to help people do their travels and also I got to remind people I’m so enthusiastic about our

Tour program I just spent a week on a guide mentoring tour in Italy I got to take 20 of our newest guides and let them be on my bus I got to be the tour guide these are all professional guides and I got to just show them the Rick

Steve’s style of guiding so that they could join our team of Merry guides and we would have that uniform kind of personality in our travels which is experiential it’s respecting the local culture it is efficient it is having 25 people on a bus and enjoying the fact

That you are in a bus with 25 other Travelers because you’ve got a guide making everything smooth as can be hey um so if you got any curiosity about our tourk program learn about it at ricksteves.com all right Lisa let’s have some questions okay the first question

Selfishly comes from me what drove you to catalog your trips in such detail before you were a travel riter I’ve been wondering about that I honestly don’t know I just this this journal here it it goes back um I think I even have my postcards you guys have seen these before but

These are postcards I wrote when I was 18 years old and uh I was so cheap I had to get three postcards worth of writing out of each out of each stamp but um and and if you you were to transcribe these it’s all real you just take some ifying glass

To read it um but I oh and I even would modify the multi photograph cover and put a photograph of me in one of those shots of Paris that’s a scary tourist can you see me there Lisa that’s fantastic Isn’t that cool is that like a

From a photo booth that’s a photo booth yeah and that that little piece of tape has been on there for more than 50 years and then under the stamp many times I would send my parents a little bit of what I was eating a little bit of sauerkraut if be it’d be

Glu I just wanted to share the I was having so much fun in Europe I wanted people to be able to enjoy it I mean I I this is stor in the world here in the csws and I’m i’ I’ve never read it probably since I wrote it uh but uh you

Can bet this was written the same year I wrote the first edition of this and I noticed that once I started writing these books I ran out of energy for these handwritten journals but I I think I’ve got eight years of these and um they’re Treasures of mine and uh I to

This day I’m a big fan of Journal writing uh when when we took our kids to Europe part of the deal was you get your gelato money but you got to write a journal and it’s a treasured souvenir for for any any child that goes to

Europe y by the way in the Q&A there are some people suggesting that Rick Steve’s Europe needs an archist I think we probably do because there’s some beautiful stuff that um I think I’ve got it here I can I’ve got the original of this this is a fresco I

Made on the plane going home can you see that yeah right there 1973 that’s in good shape because it hasn’t faded but Gene and I wrote that on the flight going home and it’s got each episode on our trip that was Unforgettable from the oh that’s the one

With the toilet you showed on the other keep on trucking show that’s it so uh but yeah we need arive Lisa let’s put that in our list when we get a moment okay um Mike wants to know did you do most of your early traveling as a Solo Traveler by yourself has that

Changed over the years um my first year is I went with um friends from college girlfriends roommates you know I always like to have a buddy with me um and then when I got to be more professional ever since I’ve been in my late 20s I have

Been alone because I’ve had an agenda just to go go go and it hasn’t been really a vacation it’s been a passion to experience things and right about them and I’m not very polite to be honest when I’m alone working in Europe it’s

Just get out of my way I got stuff to do I’m just I’m not that fun but uh what my body waits for is the time when I’m going to be guiding a tour because then whether it’s eight people on a mini bus or 25 people on a big bus my body knows

I’m going to get good food and good company when I’m on tour because we’re all having a good time socially but when I’m alone it’s it’s pretty hard driven because I’ve got a lot to see and do Europe is a huge place I imagine that even in the old

Days when you were in between tours you were working on something yeah I really was um I just don’t understand it really but um you know uh I can’t get enough of it I love it oh you’re sharing your love you said it already yeah and we’re

Amplifying it now I mean we’re just amplifying it um expertly with the with the technology we’ve got and uh and all of our the collaboration we do with our team it’s it’s pretty nice and uh um yeah it’s I’m it’s a blessing to find your Niche and have it work out as work

As a job you know um and uh and also I get I get direct gratification because I meet people having the time of their life and they they thank me for for experiences they had in places I’ve never never been they just want to than people go oh Rick thanks for the

Azors what am I going to say you’re welcome aors um okay serious question do you see bed and breakfast surviving in through the next 40 years I loved the b&bs in in the old days um it was a Charming thing because everybody was more was less affluent all

You had was an extra room and you rented it out and you’d let them you’d make breakfast for them and and you’d take 20 bucks and it would it would bolster your family budget now it’s really expensive it’s really private it’s really dulled up and uh it’s allowing people to live

Away from that and hire somebody else to run it like a little business and bnbs are becoming atomized hotels a whole neighborhood is peppered with bnbs and there’s one I’ve noticed there’s one little corner uh congery check-in desk and you go there when you run out of toilet paper you

Leave your bag there when you got to check out early you go there when you lost your key you know I mean that’s the front desk for 25 desperate bnbs all around and the people who own those bnbs they willingly give away 25% of the gross to have somebody run the thing

There and hand out the keys and change the sheets uh so it’s impersonal now and and traditionally a BNB was personal you had tea and watched you know hurling on TV uh and uh you’d go to the church and play the pipe organ I mean a couple

Of times I got to go to a church and play the pipe organ because the people I was staying with uh went to that church and were the organists there uh that doesn’t happen really anymore so it’s all part of affluence we’re all driving it up you know I’ve told our staff we

Cannot continually make the worst Hotel on our tour is better because it just becomes this spiral up and all of a sudden everything becomes really demanding really expensive less accessible to people that don’t have a lot of money and um it doesn’t always need to be fancier and more affluent in

So many ways the down home gritty salt ofth Earth experience is by definition less expensive that’s the magic that we have to it’s great to be affluent and to be able to fly here and have a wonderful dinner there and drink you know a fine

Glass of wine but if that gets in the way of just getting together with people like bnbs is a good example then it’s a shame all right um let me see um CJ asks what is the greatest innovation in travel in the last 40 years and the worst

The greatest innovation in travel in the last 40 years is this and the worst innovation in travel in the last 40 years is this this can be your best friend or this can undermine your experience think about how to use it in a way that connects you with

Europe in saves you you know time and money and uh think about ways not to let it keep you away from being in the moment that’s a tough challenge it is a tough challenge it’s a challenge for all of us um I don’t know it’s interesting

Um you GPS is a fascinating thing I mean I love GPS but it’s it’s caused people to not really understand Maps it’s a very interesting cultural Gap with somebody who grew up using maps and somebody who’s never used a map and always just typed it in um you know I go

I get a taxi now and I who doesn’t speak my language and he hands me his phone and I just type in where I’m going and then he follows that he has no idea where it is he just follows it he didn’t learn a thing you know um I like the old

Days when I would learn the lay of the land through the map and then at a glance I could get there without constantly saying at the next turn go left and at the the next three intersections take a right you know I had a broader context of where I was going um there’s

Um you know we have time is a limited resource and money is a limited resource we want to do stuff that saves our time and saves our money but we have to be mindful of what what enhances the experience and um that’s not always a tech

Solution I’m a big fan of asking people for directions because especially as a woman traveling by myself a lot of times I can’t just go up to people and talk to them necessarily especially if it’s a man but I’m like uh is this the way to the

Church we used to do that Lisa on our very first tours I would stop and I would ask an old Farmer on the roadside or whatever a question just so he would come up close to the window and everybody on my minibus could see the twinkle in his eyes and hear his accent

It was just great and then a couple blocks later I’d asked the same question to another person just because it was a way to connect and it was fun for the farmer that get to see you know eight Americans and it was fun for eight Americans to meet that farmer there’s

That twinkle in the eye that if you can find a way to connect that way um those become little Sparks of positive energy in your travel experience absolutely okay Peppa asks how has your experience of Europe changed between being an anonymous young traveler and a well-known Travel

Authority well I’ve Got Friends all over Europe that I can call on to help me out when I need to in my work but generally when I’m traveling and I’ve got an appreciation of having a good guide I have to admit I’ve generally because I

Want to get the most out of my time I have a guide at my side I travel alone but um I’ve got my itinerary coming up for my next trip and uh I’ve just been working on it I think I’ve got it right here and if you look at my itinerary

Every um every day there’s a a G10 and a G6 on every day and each one of those has a guide that I’ll meet for sightseeing in the day and then for restaurants and activities in the evening and that’s going to make sure that that if I’m walking around and I go

Oh why is that that way and what happened here and what happens if I do that and why do they do it that way boom boom boom boom boom I’ve got it all so that that just lets me just learn so much and discover so much and write it

All down and I have to it’s a tough thing but I have to stop doing that and stay in the hotel room and write it all up or just I get buried in all of these ideas and these tips and then the consequence is nothing gets into the

Guide book because I get overwhelmed by it so you know what that’s like because you do a lot of that research too it’s just you got to stop and then tidy up all your notes and get it all put thoughtfully into the book and then you

Go out again it’s like you know you go out again and you gather more information I just love that okay last question it’s an easy one Jan wants to know any new travel shows in the works yeah right now we’re working on two Iceland shows and two Poland shows

That we shot this year or last year and I’m very excited about them they’re coming along beautifully and I’m going to be filming with our crew we’ve booked it already uh a uh best of Paris show and a barging show barging through burgundy while eating Gourmet French

Food uh this is going to be the most hedonistic thing we’ve ever filmed I think it’s fair to say we’re going to be gliding slowly Through The Vineyards of burgundy the finest wine in the world and the crew running our little barge is going to be the captain the first mate

And our chef and each day we’re going to go to markets and we’re going to go shopping together and we’re going to sit on that deck as we glide on vacation through burgundy and we’re going to enjoy eating our way through traditional French cuisine I just am so excited

About that and those are shows that’ll be coming your way with lots more shows uh on public television right now our Mighty Alp show is airing all over the country I’m really excited about that and I’m also excited about the ability to go into our website in classroom

Europe and pull together clips from the shows everything I showed tonight was assembled in 10 minutes by going to classroom Europe and typing in those places and putting them in a playlist and then I can just have my playlist and share with you so this is something

We’ve offered for teachers and it works very well for travelers as well as teachers if you haven’t played around with classroom Europe check it out it’s right on the homepage classroom Europe hey Lisa thank you so much for moderating tonight I want to thank everybody for traveling with us we so

Look forward to our Monday nights where we can get together I’m excited about next mon next Monday because we’re going to Umbria and the Monday after that we’re going to Budapest and we hope that you are part of our travel plans and that we can be part of your travel plans

Thank you so much happy travels and um thanks for going down a trip down memory lane with me as I recall how Europe has evolved and how our teaching has evolved from 40 editions of this book keep on traveling baby thank you so much Rick thank you

Everyone for being with us we will see you next week on in Umbria good night Lisa good night Gabe good night Rick good night everybody good night Everybody