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For more information on the Rick Steves' Europe TV series — including episode descriptions, scripts, participating stations, travel information on destinations and more — visit www.ricksteves.com.

Every two years since 1990, Rick Steves has produced a new season of travel shows featuring his favorite European destinations. This October, public television stations across the USA are rolling out Rick's newest shows — 11 half-hour episodes taking you from Estonia to Bosnia-Herzegovina to Morocco and beyond. For more information on the Rick Steves' Europe TV series — including episode descriptions, scripts, participating stations, travel information on destinations and more — visit http://www.ricksteves.com

During dinner, tour member David Preston had to take a moment to demonstrate how baggy pants are just the ticket when your money belt keeps sliding higher. (A friend from Twin Cities Public Television in Minnesota, David couldn't resist slipping in a pledge pitch at the end of his demo.)

At the market, most of our group members — including the men — bought the local baggy pants, which are the standard attire for village women. Walking across town to the home of a family who was hosting us for dinner, we decided to dress up as best we could. The locals are likely still talking about those crazy cross-dressing American visitors.

Handling 8,000 cruise-ship tourists a day, the bus lot at Ephesus (my favorite ancient site in Turkey) is a busy place. I was told local carpet shops provide these buses and drivers to the cruise companies at no charge. And guides, who accept less than the standard pay here, are given work according to how enthusiastically and effectively they sell carpets. I guess there's no question that each group will get to the shopping stop on time.

For more information on the Rick Steves' Europe TV series — including episode descriptions, scripts, participating stations, travel information on destinations and more — visit www.ricksteves.com.

For more information on the Rick Steves' Europe TV series — including episode descriptions, scripts, participating stations, travel information on destinations and more — visit www.ricksteves.com.

For more information on the Rick Steves' Europe TV series — including episode descriptions, scripts, participating stations, travel information on destinations and more — visit www.ricksteves.com.

Russians flock to this part of the Turkish coast. In the coastal resort town of Kemer, locals identify Russian woman as the ones in bathing suits and high heels. With so much black-market money creating Russia's new rich, you have to wonder how tough-looking older men with an entourage of young babes got their wealth. They fill party boats and famously dance and drink all day long.

For more information on the Rick Steves' Europe TV series — including episode descriptions, scripts, participating stations, travel information on destinations and more — visit www.ricksteves.com.

I'm just finishing a busy week visiting the best châteaux of the Loire. Touring these insanely extravagant palaces--and considering the division of economic classes of that time--it occurred to me that most of them were built by bankers and financiers from the courts of the great kings. The parallels between these "hedge-fund managers of the 17th century" and their counterparts today, given the recent political discourse in our country, was fun to ponder.

I had a particularly thrilling experience climbing through the attic of one of these guys and popping out on his rooftop, where I could survey his garden. This was about a century before a "big correction" occurred. Because, back then, there was no political way to reign in these fat cats, the correction was done quite violently. Here's Vaux-le-Vicomte, the home of Louis XIV's finance minister, Nicolas Fouquet.

Turkish rest stops compete furiously for tour bus business, and it seems they think they'll be judged on the quality of their toilets.

For more information on the Rick Steves' Europe TV series — including episode descriptions, scripts, participating stations, travel information on destinations and more — visit www.ricksteves.com.

The 13th-century Muslim cleric Mevlana (better known to Westerners as Rumi) believed that spinning in a circle allows one to become part of the universal harmony. Turkey's famous Whirling Dervishes carry on this tradition today. Nearing the end of a two-month European journey, it occurs to me that traveling — like spinning — can be a broadening, spiritual experience that connects you with the world.

We just finished filming two new TV shows on Paris—12 days of work. I was exhausted when we were done, but—I have to admit—in Paris it's hard to call it "work." Rather than hard working, let's call it hard living.

One of the great perks of TV production is the luxury of being alone with Europe's greatest art. A few weeks before we came to film, I scouted Paris' Orangerie Museum and developed a concept of strolling with Monet along the banks of his water lily pond. When I returned with the film crew, we commandeered a wheelchair to use as a "poor man's dolly" (in good guerilla-budget public television style), allowing us to capture that smooth "stroll along the pond" effect for our viewers—in hi-def!