Rick Steves' Europe

Madrid, Spain; museums; Picasso masterpiece; flamenco dancers.

Castile; pickles; medieval walls; bachelorette party; troubadours.

Normandy, France; lily ponds; artisans; composer Erik Satie; cuisine; pilgrims.

Belfast, Northern Ireland; Irish whiskey; rock columns; golf course; Irish music.

London; Millennium Bridge; mummies; riverside beachcombing; the Thames.

Eiffel Tower; Orsay Gallery; French cuisine; Parisian history.

Headquarters of the European Union; medieval hospital; carillon concert; lace; art; Belgian chocolate.

Roman ruins in Nîmes; Avignon's papal palace; Van Gogh's Arles; the Rhone.

The Riviera's yachts; Monaco harbor; Nice's promenade; artists' hangouts.

Cobbled and Baroque Kraków; tragedy at Auschwitz; lively Warsaw.

Straddling the Danube River is the Hungarian city of Budapest, with its bridges, mineral baths, old coffeehouses, parks and thriving capitalism.

The best of Portugal features Lisbon's Fado singers and ornate architecture, and the Algarve's windy Cape Sagres and pristine beaches.

Bullfighting and flamenco in Sevilla; Moorish palace, cathedral and labyrinthine Jewish quarter in Andalusia.