830 Bite of Rome; Heart of London; Spirit of Portugal

18:52Rick Steves:If you want to learn more about this, you can actually visit the House of Commons. I was going to say yes. You can visit the House of Commons. There's a website. The office is right by the bridge in Westminster Pier, so it's not actually at the House of Parliament itself. But it's remarkably easy to do. Very easy to do, much easier than you think. And you can book online, and even if it shows us being full online, it's still worth going to the ticket office. On certain days, you can go around with a real-life person as a guide, but the audio guide is brilliant as well. That's great. Yeah, and I believe it's free.

19:27No, it's not. It's not? No, it's not free. You pay to go in.

19:30Rick Steves:It's probably free to watch the House of Commons in action. Yes, you can go in as a member of the public to the House of Commons or the House of Lords just to sit there. Wow. This is Travel with Rick Steves. We're talking with Deborah Hayburn. And we're digging a little deeper into London now to understand better what is Westminster and what is the city. Okay, so you got that, the House of Commons, the House of Lords, Queen Elizabeth Tower. Yes. And across the street, Westminster Abbey. And across the street, Westminster Abbey. We have the little Church of St. Margaret's in between. Yeah, but there's so many important people.

20:02Rick Steves:There's so many important people buried in Westminster Abbey. I just, for me, it is a trip down English history lane. Yes. What do you enjoy about taking people through Westminster Abbey? Because it must be fun because you know all of these characters to take an American through and you can just go, here's so-and-so, here's so-and-so. What are the top four or five people you like to make sure people see when they go to Westminster? Isaac Newton. Yeah? I love visiting his tomb and seeing his tomb. But the other two that are brilliant, I think, are Queen Elizabeth sitting on top, Elizabeth I, this is, sitting on top of Mary Tudor.

20:39Rick Steves:Is that right? Yes. Sitting on top? Yes. Two tombs on top of each other? Yes, yes. Wow. Yes, one squashing the other over time. Well, there must be hundreds of tombs there. I mean, if you can think of a person who made Britain great, there's a good chance they're buried in Westminster Abbey. Yes, yes. Okay, so that's the big sightseeing. And then you walk along this grand boulevard, Whitehall. Whitehall. And Whitehall is actually the name of a palace that used to stand there, right? It is, yes. Halfway up on the right-hand side, going up towards Trafalgar Square. There used to be a huge palace there.

21:12It was built by James I as the Royal Palace, hundreds of years before Buckingham Palace was ever thought of. And it was decorated by his son, Charles I. And he got the painter Rubens to paint the ceiling. And what I love about it is they've got beanbags on the floor inside. And you can lie on beanbags and look up at the ceiling. And Rubens' paintings showing James I as a representative of God on Earth.

21:44Rick Steves:I love it. I love it. And then you walk by all of this, the echoes of this great palace, which is today so many contemporary governmental buildings and monuments along this grand boulevard. and you get to a column and on the top of that column is... He is one of our great heroes. Yes, Lord Nelson. He's got one arm, one leg and one arm and he's looking out at Trafalgar and he was just so thankful to give his life for England. Yes, that's right, yes. But that's Trafalgar Square. That's Trafalgar Square, yes. Named after that battle. Named after the Battle of Trafalgar against the troops of Napoleon.

22:22Rick Steves:And that to me is one of the highlights of London, to go to Trafalgar Square and then to pop into a couple of museums. Oh, the National Gallery is right behind that. You've got the Portrait Gallery. And I just was in the National Portrait Gallery a month ago. And wow, it is renovated and it is up and it is new. It's given women much more importance, both women painters and women subjects. And all of the descriptions are up to date. It is one of the most impressive remodels of a museum I've seen anywhere in Europe. Really? I haven't been into the Port of Gallo this year. You've got to go in. It is wonderful.

22:57Yes, I haven't had a chance.

22:58Rick Steves:Deborah Hayburn is guiding us into the historic core of London today on Travel with Rick Steves. You'll find photos and articles about London and a list of our favorite sites in the city on our website, ricksteves.com. Matt's listening in from Birmingham, Alabama, and joins us on the line at 877-333-7425. Matt, I understand when you were in London, you enjoyed getting to Greenwich on a river tour along the Thames. Hey, Rick. Thanks for having me on. I went to London with my in-laws, who were in their 70s last summer, and my wife and our two kids, who were 7 and 3 last year. I'm normally a pretty anti-touristy section of town guy.

23:39I don't really love guided tours, but I saw you were talking about central London. And I just wanted to say we were down by Big Ben and Buckingham Palace, or Westminster Abbey, and we saw the river cruises. And so, you know, no big prior planning. We just walked down to one of the boats, bought tickets, got on the cruise, and it was just a really great way to see London.

24:01Rick Steves:And we took your advice. We took it all the way down to Greenwich, saw the Cuddy Sark, and had a great afternoon. I love it. And did it have any kind of narration on it as you sailed? Oh, yeah. We had two tour guides. It was cheesy enough that both our in-laws and our kids had a great time. I love it. You know, it is cheesy in a great way. I mean, but the point is, Matt just went down there underneath the Westminster Bridge and saw when the next boat was going, paid the price, hopped in with his family, and they had a great trip all the way down to Greenwich. Yes, and it's a very, very easy way to see the city.

24:37and if you've trod the pavements all morning, to have an hour to two hours on a boat like that.

24:45Rick Steves:I love that. It's just the rest you need to get you going for the rest of the day. So, Matt, what else did you see? You left from Westminster Bridge. That's in the middle of Westminster, what we've been talking about. And you went down past the city, past the Tower of London. Tower of London, yes. Tell us what you remember from the trip, Matt. I'm trying to remember. I could have told you everything we'd seen if you hadn't just asked. One other thing I will point out, though, we get on board and immediately on the boat, there's a snack bar and a bar. So my kids get snacks. My wife and I get beers.

25:20You know, we're good to go for the next couple hours.

25:22Rick Steves:I love it. You know, you can also go the other direction to Kew Gardens. Yes. And you can take boats up and down the Thames from many different spots. Deborah, do you have some sort of a practical tip for taking a tour on the Thames? For taking a tour on the Thames? The practical tour, I would say, because unfortunately it's not always hot and sunny in London, is be on deck. Don't be underneath. Be on deck. And you need to make sure whatever the weather's doing, you're warm enough so you can enjoy being on deck. Good advice. In fact, that's good advice whenever you're touring in London. Assume you'll get different weather during the day and part of that's going to be rainy.

26:00Rick Steves:Matt, thanks for your call. Thanks. I enjoyed it. Take care. Bye-bye. Bye. We should not lose sight of the fact that all of our kings and queens, they lived here for more than 500 years. Deborah Hayburn is our certified guide to the heart of London right now on Travel with Rick Steves. A year in the southwest of France, right out of school, launched Deborah's career as a world traveler, learning about and sharing how people in different places live. Today, Deborah offers tours of Devon and Cornwall in the southwest of England. That's from her home base in London. We have contact information in the notes for this week's show at ricksteves.com slash radio.

26:44Rick Steves:So, Deborah, we were talking about Westminster, and there's actually kind of a pageantry ritual relationship between the... What is the deal when the Lord Mayor goes somewhere, or what happens at the border between these two districts? The Lord Mayor is the mayor of the City of London. Okay. Okay. He is not a political figure. However, he is the leader of the City of London, which is basically a local authority. And every year he is appointed in November. And a few days later, there is a huge Lord Mayor's show. and it is a huge procession with medieval costumes full of pageantry and it goes all the way from the city of London all the way to the edge of Westminster where the mayor pays his allegiance, wears his allegiance to the monarch.

27:34Still today.

27:35Rick Steves:Still today. Still today. Finding those little bits of pageantry and ritual are so fun and London seems to specialize in it. Oh, and this is one of the best, really. That's great. So people can learn about that when they go to the city and when we walk through the city, I'm thinking it's like a series of great streets. You've got the Strand, you've got Fleet Street. Yes, Fleet Street. You come to St. Paul's. St. Paul's is cheap. You look around and you see all of these amazing spires. I know, yes, yes. And 23 of them were still built by Sir Christopher Wren. Christopher Wren. So the city burned down in the famous fire.

28:11The great fire. I don't know how many dates. 1666.

28:15Rick Steves:And Christopher Wren was an ambitious young architect. He was, yeah. He wasn't even an architect at the time. But he was just Johnny on the spot. And he said, I'm a smart guy. I could rebuild this city. And it was the best thing that could happen for his career. I know. I know more than 50 churches, other buildings. And they're just gorgeous. I know. And they're just gorgeous. He made London modern. And then at the far end, you're going through all of this historic, I mean, you can even You can see Roman ruins, but you also see a forest of skyscrapers. And one thing I do now, every time I go to London, I have to check in on the skyscraper forest because there's a new skyscraper.

28:50Rick Steves:Can you give us a rundown on the most famous skyscrapers and what are their nicknames? Because I love how each one has a little thing. In fact, hardly anyone knows what the real name of them is. So what are these nicknames? The real names are boring. Well, we've got the cheese grater, because it looks like a cheese grater. We've got the walkie-talkie that looks like a walkie-talkie. We've got the gherkin that looks like a gherkin. And what's a gherkin in American? A gherkin. Oh, it's a pickled cucumber. A cucumber, yeah. So there you go. It looks like a cucumber. Good. All right. And the shard.

29:22The shard is the tallest at the moment. And it looks like a shard.

29:26Rick Steves:And it looks like a shard of glass. Absolutely. And you know, one place I found, I understand that if you're going to build a skyscraper, you've got, in order to get your permission, you've got to have a sort of a public space or a place where people can enjoy a view or have some kind of access. Oh, I see. Yes, yes. And I love to find these different public spaces. And it changes. Some of them are expensive. Some of them are free. Some of them used to be there and no longer there. But I found a great one. It's called The Garden at 120. It's so good. It's really good, isn't it? It's like a garden at 120 meters in the sky.

29:58Rick Steves:I don't know what 120 means, but it's way up there. And it's an amazing view. It is a fantastic view. I mean, it's lower than a lot of the others, but who cares? It's high enough. And the garden is beautiful. and you're looking down on what's it called? Leaden Hall. That's right. Leaden Hall. Oh, which is so lovely. Leaden Hall. In the middle of all these, you know, just jaw-dropping iron and glass structures, you've got this beautiful centuries-old market hall that is protected and in its day, it was a big deal. Yes, and also made of iron. It survives. It is so cool. We're just about out of time here.

30:35Rick Steves:I would love one little tip from you about how to make the walk through the city a little more intimate, what would you do? What's a little nook and cranny you would wrap up? To walk through the City of London, I would look for some of the churches that were never rebuilt after they were destroyed in the Blitz that have been turned into what they call pocket parks. Pocket parks. And there are lots and lots of them in the City of London. So, wait a minute, they were destroyed in the Blitz? They were destroyed in the Blitz, and so they haven't, some of them were so badly destroyed, they have just created Pocket Park, A little quiet enclave.

31:12Oh, that's a beautiful thing. And the City of London has planted them with plants, tropical trees, etc. And lots of the churches also have coffee shops in them.

31:21Rick Steves:Pocket parks and coffee shops and churches. There you go. Deborah Haverin, thanks so much for joining us and giving us a better understanding of your great city, London. Thank you very much. My pleasure. This is London.

31:42Rick Steves:If that tune sounds familiar, it's a British folk melody called Lili Bolero, and it was used for many years as the theme music on the BBC World Service. Our next stop on Travel with Rick Steves takes us to the laid-back pleasures of Portugal. Stay with us. For a small country, Portugal sure offers plenty to see and do in its culture and sights. And it offers an intriguing contrast between its rejuvenated cityscapes in Lisbon and Porto and the laid-back, humbler Portugal you'll find in its traditional villages with economies rooted in fishing, winemaking, textiles, and growing cork. To offer a Portuguese perspective on its culture as well as on the issues Portugal's tackling today, we're joined now on Travel with Rick Steves by tour guide Adriana Madeira.

32:32Rick Steves:Adriana, thanks for being here. Thank you for having me, Rick. I'm so excited. Yeah, now, I love Portugal, and all of us who go to Portugal, we just, I mean, Lisbon is the first stop. It's great. And then I really think Porto has to be seen also. It's just a wonderful city. But tell me your, first of all, your situation in Portugal. Where do you live? Where do you raise your child and so on? So I do have a six-year-old boy that I'm raising and I was born and raised in Lisbon. And I've always lived in big cities. About two years ago, I made the decision to move to a smaller town in the outskirts of the city of Lisbon because I wanted to experience a more calm lifestyle, what I now consider to be authentic Portugal.

33:17I wanted to leave the rush of metropolitan Lisbon behind, and I wanted to connect to my family's roots. So I moved to a village that my grandmother was from, a village that I can take the train from and to to access Lisbon's city center in only 30 minutes. but a village where when I walk outside of my doorstep, I can still see the ladies hanging the laundry on the cobblestone street, and I sometimes hit my head on their aprons, and there's just this beautiful sense of community, and this is what makes me love my country.

33:55Rick Steves:That sounds almost like a postcard of old-fashioned Portugal, still alive. Absolutely. In our modern age. I know when you, almost any country, Adriana, And they've got a, you know how New York City is just so high-powered and exhausting if you're not used to a big city. Totally. Big cities are that way, but also more diverse. I mean, Portugal has quite a big colonial heritage. I mean, Portugal ran a lot of countries in the global south, and that colonial empire is gone now. But you've got a lot of color and personality and fun food in the big city, along with a lot of big immigrant communities.

34:30Rick Steves:How does that compare to a small-town Portugal? So Portugal has a lot of flavor to it. Although we're talking about a country that is made of 11 million people, nearly 11 million, we have lots of different layers to us. And one of the things that our Portuguese people appreciate the most about ourselves is our openness to the world. So just like how you put it now, we have such a beautiful community of Brazilian people and Angolans and people from Mozambique and most recently from Asia and Macau and Pakistan and Cambodia and India, and it all just comes together beautifully. When did the end of the Portuguese colonial empire happen?

35:12Rick Steves:It was like one year, wasn't it? In 1974. 1974. And suddenly you're no longer the colonial ruler of all these places. Exactly. But you still have the connections, the cultural connections. Now, let's compare the sense of community and economics with small town and big city in Portugal. So when we're talking about the countryside, we're talking about mostly fishing, the cork industries, the number one industry in the country, and the port wine industry. So these are the thriving forces of Portugal's economy when we speak of the countryside. And how is that doing? Is there hard times where people in the small towns are leaving and depopulating the countryside to go to the promise of better jobs in the big city?

35:55Rick Steves:Or is it healthy in the countryside? It's actually fascinating to see because this transit is happening in the two directions. Really? Yes. It's very curious because you have younger generations that are having a hard time finding a job in the countryside. And they're moving more and more to the city center. But there's a big problem right now is they cannot afford to live in metropolitan areas because of the increasing prices of the real estate. And so they're moving to small villages like myself. Is part of that ability to work remotely so you can get a cheap apartment or house and still get a big city job?

36:32Rick Steves:Absolutely. Working remotely. Absolutely. So as a Portuguese person, you wouldn't think that there's a crisis of everybody leaving the countryside now? No. Okay, because that is a crisis in other countries like in France, I think. Yes. I remember one time, Adriana, that I was talking to an old fisherman in Salema on the Algarve. The south. And I was asking him about what it was like before the tourists came. And he said it was really hard. I mean, this is such a charming village now. It's probably quite wealthy because there's a lot of tourists there. Absolutely. But it's a humble town. And I remember he looked out at the sea and he said life was just the wind and sardines.

37:08Rick Steves:That's all they had was the wind and the sardines. And it was quite poignant. That's a beautiful description of Portugal. You know, and there's a lot of towns that that's what it used to be 50 years ago, as some of those old timers remember. Right, and it's changed so much. Portugal's face has changed so much. So if I'm a tourist and I want to go to Portugal and I want to experience not the poverty of wind and sardines, but the charm that you've got in your life in a small town that probably doesn't have many postcards and many tour groups coming in. Not one. Not one. Not one. I cannot think of one.

37:40Rick Steves:You could go there and have a perfectly good time as a tourist. Absolutely, you could. You might not find an English menu. No, so we go back to the old notepads where you have to draw something on it and just show people the picture. See, that's fun. It is fun. Adriana Madeira is our guide to the delights of Portugal right now on Travel with Rick Steves. She was born and raised in Lisbon, but recently moved to a more rural area outside the city to reconnect with the more traditional side of Portugal. Speaking of the delights, the edible delights of Portugal, what's the fish stew, the fish soup?

38:18Caldeirada.

38:19Rick Steves:Caldeirada. Caldeirada. How do I find that, and what's the trick? Oh, you would have to go to the oldest neighborhoods in the city of Lisbon, for example, or Oporto, but you need to stay closer to the coast. Close to the coast. Because that's where they will add up to six different types of fish into the fish stew. And it depends on what they caught today. Absolutely. And of course, if I was thinking of one iconic thing to eat, it would be the pastiche de belem. Yes. The pastel de nata. De nata or belem, yeah. But this is a little cream custard. Fresh out of the oven. You hit it right there, fresh out of the oven.

38:57Rick Steves:If you've got it sitting on the shelf in a restaurant for six hours. No good. No good. No good. Not at all. You want it hot, literally hot out of the oven. We have so many stores that sell these. They sell it like hotcakes. We say they sell it like hotcakes. They sell it like pastel de nada. That's how you buy them. So you'll see it. Don't miss that. One of my favorite things is vino verde. Yes. Because I just like the word green wine. Yes. Sparkly bubbly from the north. Very fresh. Very fresh, slightly acidic, but beautiful wine. Is there fine vino verde or is it all just kind of table wine? No, they make some, they produce some fine vino verdes, but at its origin, it was more like a worker's wine made by the workers, for the people, for the villagers.

39:38Very refreshing. Very rough. Very rough.

39:39Rick Steves:Rough and young. That's the right word. Walking through the back streets of Lisbon, my favorite smell, sardines. You got to pick the good months for it, but absolutely. What's the month? June. June. June is a sardine month. I love it. It's just, everywhere you go, people are celebrating those little sardines. That's a beautiful thing. That is a beautiful thing and tasty. Tasty. Adriana, I'm fascinated by the dynamic that's going on in Europe right now with far-right, people that are upset with the way things are going and they want some sort of a populist kind of government. Yes. And I know it's not unique to America.

40:16Rick Steves:Many countries in Europe have the same dynamic going on. Yes. And Portugal comes from a heritage of Salazar, the fascist dictator, which is really far-right. When did he get out of power? He died in 1974. So that same year that the empire was over. Sorry, He died in 1971. Okay. And we carried on with the dictatorship for three more years. Okay. So that was the turning point. That was. Yes. No more colonial empire? No more. No more fascist dictator? No more. Freedom. Freedom. Happy. And we have been up until now where things are starting to turn around. Problem being, the country is more and more divided.

40:55Right. So those who are getting the votes are the extremists. Yeah. And one of the people, it's an extreme right. And one of the most preoccupying things that this candidate has said is that the country now needs 10 times what Salazar did in the days of the dictatorship. And people are believing it and buying it and voting for him.

41:17Rick Steves:This is the very clever populism of our age. Absolutely. And I've been in Portugal many times when there's been a demonstration all over Europe. I mean, I think demonstrations are an illustration of freedom. People in the streets raising their voices together. Yes. And if you're traveling around Portugal and you see a demonstration, what should a traveler do? A traveler should observe and take it all in. Although I must say, Rick, in Portugal, we are such laid back, relaxed people. We sometimes comment on the French's ability to lead revolutions and demonstrations. That is not our forte. No, because what I was going to say, now when I look at your energy and the smile on your face right now, I'm remembering.

42:02Rick Steves:The demonstration I remember best, it was like a birthday party in the streets. Everybody was just sweet and happy going down the streets. We are sweet and happy people. With banners, you know. Oh, yes. But I just asked somebody, what's going on? And they said, oh, they're making us retire later. So we have a demonstration. Yeah. Adriana, I'd love more of your insight into the dynamic that's fueling the political tension and the division in your country today because so many countries are dealing with this. Is it related to immigrants and people who are struggling economically that are natives arguing over the same limited resources?

42:41Yes, this is a really good point. I think Portugal's struggle right now. What's going through Portuguese people's minds is the government is not protecting their own. but still, and yet, being so very open to the world and to everybody else that indeed needs our support and needs our help and wants to come and move to Portugal.

43:01Rick Steves:I mean, to put it simply, too many refugees and not enough welfare. Yes. That's a reasonable concern if you're struggling in your country and all of a sudden there's twice as many people struggling. Right. But the world's a big and complicated place. Yes. And Portugal is connected to the global south. Very much. Speaking of immigration, a lot of Americans dream of retiring in Portugal. Yes. And I've got friends that have lived beautiful retirement years on the South Coast, in the Algarve. It is extremely popular. Almost to a fault, because if you go to certain places on the Algarve, local people might say, I can't find the Portuguese menu, because it's catering to people who are looking for a change in climate, but not a change in culture.

43:44Very true.

43:45Rick Steves:So that's one thing you've got to be careful of. I mean, there's people who want to embrace the local culture and fit in, and people who just want to camp on it because it's sunny and cheaper. And comfortable. And they can have their own community with their own radio and their own newspaper. And speak English. Yeah. Costa del Sol. That's right. Spain, same phenomenon. Algarve in Portugal, the south coast. Yes. Adriana Madeira has been a tour guide now for more than 10 years. Raised in Portugal, she's lived abroad since she was 14 and even worked as a ballerina in France and the U.S. She's living near Lisbon now and specializes in guiding visitors to experience the sights and spirit of today's Portugal.

44:25Rick Steves:Adriana, what would your advice be to somebody that wants to really gain an appreciation for the Portuguese way of life and the seductive charms of Portugal? It's just such a wonderful temple of life. It's such a delicious culture. It is. What are a few tips of yours when you have friends that are going to be visiting Portugal? Be curious, be mindful, and just have this open mind, want to embrace the culture. Learn how to cook the Portuguese food. Learn how to speak the Portuguese language, the Portuguese way of living, the quietness, the peacefulness in us, the melancholy in us. Want to become a little bit Portuguese.

45:06Add a little bit of Portuguese spice to your DNA. You can do that.

45:10Rick Steves:You can put a little spice. I can go to a Fado performance and look into the eyes of the old lady who's singing, and she can take me out to sea with her song. That's it. Do you know what I mean? That's it. But you've got to let yourself get a little bit emotional, because there's a lot of emotion in the music and an emotion in the culture. And Portugal is emotion. Yes. Portugal is a very emotional word. What is the word saudade? Saudade. What is that? Longing. Longing. What do you mean longing? We long. Portugal's, this concept of saudade, we're always expecting for somebody to come and save us.

45:47It will be better. It will be better. One day it will be better. So this translates into the way we are. We are quiet, calm people.

45:56Rick Steves:And you can have a festival of saudade when you hear the fado singing. Yes, we can. Oh, it's so beautiful. Idrana, it's such a delight to talk with you. And all of these things we've been talking about, these wonderful little slices of Portuguese culture, you can enjoy them equally well in towns that would never be in a guidebook. Like your town. That's a town with no tourism where you could get 100 % traditional Portugal. Absolutely. 30 inhabitants. 30 inhabitants. Well, my point is you could be at any tourist place and you could, with a rental car, you could drive for 20 or 30 minutes and pull into a town that never saw a tourist.

46:37Never.

46:37Rick Steves:And you could go to the bar, you could go to the café, take a little walk around the square, you could kick the soccer ball with the kids, and you could experience Portugal candid, intimate. Is that fair to say? That is super fair to say. That is the actual truth about Portugal. There's my best budget tip ever. Adriana Rodrigues Medeira, obrigado. Obrigado. I'll see you in Portugal.

47:14Rick Steves:You can always write us with your questions and comments to radio at ricksteves.com. Listeners Neil and Leslie in Omaha did just that, to ask me how I settle into all the hotel rooms I stay in each year to make it feel more like my home for a few days. Neil and Leslie from Omaha, Nebraska, email, and they ask, you must stay in a lot of hotels. Is there anything special you do after checking in to make it more comfortable for you? Man, that's a little bit of extra credit that makes a huge difference. I always take a few moments. If I'm just one night in a hotel, I don't make a big deal about it.

47:49Rick Steves:But if I'm settling in for a few days, I'm very careful to get the right room, first of all. Remember, if a hotel sends you a room and you don't like it, before you settle in, ask if you can see another room. Generally, they want to get you in a room you like. And if you're too close to the elevator or if you want to be higher up, ask about that. If you want a shower and you've got a bathtub, ask about it. I would rather be on the back where it's quiet than on the front where there's a view, frankly. I like silence. This is really important. And remember, a lot of Europeans, they'd rather be in the front with all the noise.

48:21Rick Steves:I like silence to the point that if the mini-fridge is noisy, I will unplug it. I've got no qualms about that. I'll dig behind the desk and I'll pull it out and I'll find the plug and I'll unplug it so that I don't hear the noisy fridge going on and off. I clean up all the clutter. Hotels are just more and more filling it with little itsy-bitsies and advertisements and extra pillows, things that I don't really want to use and I don't want to be staring at for my whole stay. So I will stack all that stuff out of sight in the closet. Something else I do when I'm setting up for a few days in a hotel is I go shopping to a grocery store and I stock my on-the-road pantry.

49:00Rick Steves:I do it with my favorite drinks and food, and it gives me healthier options than the stuff in the minibar or the expensive options at the bar downstairs. It saves me a lot of money, and I find I'm just feeling more at home if I set up a pantry in my hotel room. A lot of times I'm working, and I need to arrange the furniture so it works for me. If I want the desk by the window so I get better light on my work when I'm doing my writing, I move the desk. I carefully arrange the room. One of my pet peeves is a mattress, a rubber mat under the sheet on my bed. A lot of times I wake up at 3 o 'clock in the morning and I feel just sweaty.

49:37Rick Steves:What's going on? Oh, they've put a rubber mat under my sheet so somebody who's going to pee in bed or vomit after being out and drinking too long doesn't ruin the mattress. Well, I can understand a hotel wanting to guard against that, but I'm not going to pee or vomit in the bed, and I don't want a rubber mattress. So I remove the mattress, And then I put the sheet back on, and I don't sleep sweaty. But I have to be careful because when the maid comes in the next day, they'll go, oh, how did this rubber mat not be on the bed? It's in the closet. So I put a note on the door. I hang the don't bother me in this room for my entire stay because I don't want the maid coming in and putting everything back the way it was when I worked so hard to make it fit my needs.

50:19Rick Steves:So that's the, I suppose you could call it the little Rick Steves pet peeves list of how to settle into a hotel. but it makes a huge difference for me and I enjoy that hotel room a lot more. Travel with Rick Steves is produced by Tim Tatton, Kaz Murrahull, and Donna Bardsley at Rick Steves Europe in Edmonds, Washington. Affiliate relations are by Sheila Gerzoff. Website uploads are by Andrew Wakeling and Sherry Court. Our theme music is by Jerry Frank. Find links to our guests and search the show archives at ricksteves.com slash radio. And we'll look for you again next week with more Travel with Rick Steves.

50:59Rick Steves:Rick Steves Classroom Europe is a fast, free, and fun video archive. It's designed for teachers, travelers, and students. It gives you immediate access to some 500 short video clips from the Rick Steves Europe TV show library. Clips cover European history, art, culture, food, and geography. Google Classroom Europe or visit ricksteves.com to watch clips and create your own playlist. Teachers love it. Students do, too.