Few cities can match the over-the-top romance and Old World charm...and tourist crowds of Prague. But this fun, historic city is popular for good reason: It’s the only Central European capital to escape the bombing of the last century’s wars, and it’s one of the Continent’s best-preserved cities. A good way to introduce yourself to the city, its layered past, and its resilient people is with a walk across town, starting on lively, urban Wenceslas Square, weaving through the atmospheric Old Town,

As I get older, I’m enjoying more déjà vu moments. On my most recent trip to Germany, I was wandering a back lane in Rothenburg and realized I’d been there before…in a little half-timbered gingerbread cottage built into the town wall. I stayed in a B&B there with my parents on my first trip to Europe, back in 1969 when I was just 14 years old. And with it came an unforgettable encounter with an old woman who had a bullet wound in her arm that she liked to show off… | Rick Steves