Cosmopolitan Frankfurt — nicknamed "Bankfurt" — is a trading hub of a united Europe, home to the European Central Bank, and a center for global commerce. Though it may be low on Old World charm, it offers a great look at no-nonsense, modern Germany. At http://www.ricksteves.com, you'll find money-saving travel tips, small-group tours, guidebooks, TV shows, radio programs, podcasts, and more on this destination.

In February of 1945, after the city was bombed in the last months of World War II, Dresden's beloved Frauenkirche ("Church of Our Lady") collapsed. Then, Dresdeners decided to rebuild it completely and painstakingly, and it finally reopened to the public in 2005. At http://www.ricksteves.com, you'll find money-saving travel tips, small-group tours, guidebooks, TV shows, radio programs, podcasts, and more on this destination.

Martin Luther went to law school in Erfurt, Germany, and today, this half-timbered medieval town remains an charming destination that Luther himself would recognize. This is the land of fairy tales and the Brothers Grimm, fine woodcarvers, and fanciful puppets. At http://www.ricksteves.com, you'll find money-saving travel tips, small-group tours, guidebooks, TV shows, radio programs, podcasts, and more on this destination.

Once a Benedictine monastery, St. Michael's Mount was later a fortified castle, and eventually a stately home. Nearby is Penzance — a blue-collar transportation hub and Rick's favorite home base in the area. At http://www.ricksteves.com, you'll find money-saving travel tips, small-group tours, guidebooks, TV shows, radio programs, podcasts, and more on this destination.

Check your local public television station for this new Rick Steves’ Europe episode! The far southwest of England is a world unto itself, with a persistent Cornish culture. We'll explore a world of flowers springing from towering hedges, a tin-mining heritage going back to biblical times, salty pirates' towns and fishing villages, and the Land's End of England. Then, side-tripping deep into the vast and mysterious Dartmoor National Park, we’ll hike to forgotten stone circles and chase wild ponies. At http://www.ricksteves.com, you'll find money-saving travel tips, small-group tours, guidebooks, TV shows, radio programs, podcasts, and more on this destination.

The White Cliffs of Dover overlook the English Channel. Sitting atop those cliffs is the impressive Dover Castle — the site of England's primary defensive stronghold from ancient Roman until modern times. At http://www.ricksteves.com, you'll find money-saving travel tips, small-group tours, guidebooks, TV shows, radio programs, podcasts, and more on this destination.

Check your local public television station for this new Rick Steves’ Europe episode! Arcing along the southeast coast of England, we’ll travel from Canterbury (with its famous cathedral) to Dover (stoutly fortified from Roman times to the Battle of Britain). Then we’ll hike the trails that top the towering chalk cliffs of the South Downs, wander into the beachy resort of Brighton (England’s Coney Island), and push on to Portsmouth, whose naval heritage has left it with the best collection of historic sailing ships anywhere. At http://www.ricksteves.com, you'll find money-saving travel tips, small-group tours, guidebooks, TV shows, radio programs, podcasts, and more on this destination.

As with many fairy-tale regions in Europe, the present-day beauty of England's Cotswolds was the result of an economic disaster — in this case, the collapse of the wool industry. The fine Cotswold towns fell into a time warp, creating a rustic charm that is the basis of today's new prosperity from tourism. At http://www.ricksteves.com, you'll find money-saving travel tips, small-group tours, guidebooks, TV shows, radio programs, podcasts, and more on this destination.

Check your local public television station for this new Rick Steves’ Europe episode! The quintessence of charming England is the “West Country”: quaint Cotswold villages with their fine churches, manor homes, and gastropubs; Wells, England’s smallest cathedral town; and the New Age capital of Glastonbury, with its legends of the Holy Grail and King Arthur. We'll finish by pondering the dramatic prehistoric stone circles of Stonehenge and Avebury. At http://www.ricksteves.com, you'll find money-saving travel tips, small-group tours, guidebooks, TV shows, radio programs, podcasts, and more on this destination.

Each July and August, the entire city of Siena, Italy, readies itself for its big Palio horse race. During the race, life stops for the frantic three laps…just 90 seconds. At http://www.ricksteves.com, you'll find money-saving travel tips, small-group tours, guidebooks, TV shows, radio programs, podcasts, and more on this destination.