Eric Anderson, MD

On the drive north to Carmel-by-the-Sea, Eric Anderson, MD, and Nancy Anderson, RN, swing by the Morro Rock, a town of just 18, Hearst Castle and get stuck in traffic in Big Sur.

On a trip to Spain and Morocco, Eric Anderson, MD, searched out traces of Jewish scholar and physician Maimonides' life. Finding the statue in Cordoba proved easy, but the streets of Fes were more challenging.

Clear another item from your Bucket List and have a meal in the Oldest Restaurant in the World, favored by authors, movie stars and royalty.

The Andersons love Madrid - it's cleaner than Rome, less noisy and its people more helpful. Here is their top 10 for the capital of Spain.

Life on the Rock isn't all that easy for the ex-patriot Brits who made it their own. Getting on to Gibraltar is more complicated than it need be - Spain still isn't happy about yielding land to the British in 1713.

Visits to Fes, Marrakech, Casablanca and Rabat in Morocco made easy on a guided tour visiting a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the oldest tannery in Africa and spying scenes familiar from Hollywood classics.

A detour to religiously important Fatima, and the holiday towns of Sintra and Cascais on the way to Lisbon - Western Europe's least expensive capital and one of Europe's safest cities.

Most high-end tours are not cheap yet they claim they save money and surely give value. The Andersons recently went on one that crossed Spain, Portugal and Morocco.

Train travel through Europe isn't always cheap or easy to figure out and it necessitates having small, easy to carry luggage. But you don't have to pay for a car rental, which, maybe, more than balances things.

Europe, like any continent, has differences amongst its peoples. A school teacher could say you can learn about the Dutch by sailing Amsterdam's canals and listening.

Amsterdam, Delft and Antwerp have in common the former homes of three of the most famous, interesting and popular artists in Europe - Rembrandt, Vermeer and Rubens.

The Canadian prairies would make any scientist believe the Earth really is flat, and of all Canada's provinces, Saskatchewan out on the prairies gets the most sunshine.

Supposedly, Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada, is in the geographical center of North America and it's not a difficult city to move around in on foot.

For some, the Toronto to Vancouver train is a way to see more of Canada's towns and scenery, but some are simply there because they're train enthusiasts who enjoy the experience as a journey from the past.

Even though Toronto hasn't changed much, the Andersons still found it fun to re-discover Toronto, a slick, idyllic city famously described as "New York run by the Swiss."

Gananoque, Ontario can be an opening into the surrounding countryside if you rent a car for a few days. What's your interest? Antiques, culture, military history?

Gananoque is being discovered by fledgling Canadian sophisticates the way young entrepreneurs are changing the nature of Portland, Ore., and Austin, Texas, and the sense of community there is astonishing.

Canada surprises - it is the second largest country in the world, yet has a population the size of California. Even in bad weather, it's a great visit, because there are so many attractions.

Canada is the nicest neighbor a country could have, although Americans might not take the time to visit. However, there is a lot to see, the currency doesn't dominate the U.S. dollar, they speak English and it's quite different from America.

Hann.Munden has been called "one of the seven most beautifully situated cities in the world." The town was also home to the famous Dr. Eisenbarth, who traveled the country to operate on locals.

On the German Fairy Tale Road, the towns of Hanau, Steinau and Marburg are filled with mementos for famous residents Jacob and Wilhelm - also known as the Brothers Grimm.

Mannheim, Germany, is home to the first motor car ever built, the first long-distance journey and the woman who drove it 125 years ago.

Koblenz is one of those great German cities where you look around and seemingly everything has a story, whether it's the face of an executed robber knight visible below a town clock or the many statues of the city's celebrated characters.

Mainz is the Wine Capital of Germany. Buckingham Palace ordered German wines for the queen's 50th Jubilee, and an archbishop in the 1200s claimed wines from one vineyard had mystical healing properties after his health improved after drinking just one glass.

Heidelberg is one of the lucky 13 cities in the Historic Highlights of Germany. That's no surprise. The city, home to the world's largest wine barrel, is not all Middle Ages as witnessed by the very modern 43-foot tall horse sculpture.

Like the rest of Europe, all the old buildings in Ghent have a story. The old hospital was born out of the "Flemish version of the Romeo and Juliet story."

From ceramics made in one town to wool gathering just miles away in another, the diverse towns of Holland and their history, including a church Napoleon seized.

On top of the problems that make flying such a pain, there is the need to be careful about theft also. In Europe, the problem may be increasing based on these accounts. However, there are some steps that can be taken as extra protection.

The 19 remaining "astonishingly well-preserved" windmills of Kinderdijk suck water from the land and have done so for years, because if they are not used, they lose their capability.

The rail system in the Low Countries is superb but the way to visit a land mass so covered with waterways is surely by boat. Traveling by water also seems appropriate considering how important the Dutch East India Company was to the area.