The more you bring to your sightseeing, the more you'll get out of it.

You don't need to be a historian. You don't need to be a scholar. You just need to be curious enough to do your reading ahead of time.

And then when you go to a windmill, you can understand it.

If you go to a windmill and you don't know what an Archimedes’ screw is, you don't understand a windmill. You know, I mean, think about it: when you go to a windmill -- this was centuries ago the ingenious Dutch figured out this clever way to harness wind power and then through different gears, turn that power, and then it would turn this Archimedes’ screw, and that would go down into the water.

And by turning it, it would pump the water from below, over the dike and out into the sea, and then bail out all that land reclaimed from the sea. And then they'd turn it into fertile farmland. And the Netherlands would become quite powerful and wealthy because of windmills.

So, I'll tell you, in the tourism industry, they make more money when they dumb you down, you know, and I'll just speak from a tourism point of view.

But in so many ways in our society, there are powerful forces that would find it more profitable and more convenient if we're all just dumbed down.

And tour guides have very little incentive to smarten you up.

But for your experience, if you can be a little smarter in your sightseeing, you'll have a better trip.

It's really great. It's really great when you can do that.

Now, art and museums can be quite a challenge, and I know a museum can ruin a good vacation.

Just because a big museum is famous doesn't mean all of its art is worth seeing. You know? It's exhausting.

The biggest building in a lot of ways, historically in Europe, was the Louvre and the biggest palace, and today the biggest museum.

It's packed with art, and this is the longest gallery in the Louvre. It's about a quarter mile long.

Well, boy, you do not need to see all of that. I can promise you that.

Our challenge is to be selecting the art and then to understand. So what? I mean, what is it about this art that makes it important?

And such, such an exciting thing?

Culturally, I have long, as a tour guide, wanted to put together our TV work and to make a series that is just the art of Europe.

And finally, we did it.

Just this last couple of years, we've been putting this together.

It's, the “Art of Europe.” It's airing all over the country on public television.

It's a six-hour sweep through the story of Europe's art from the Paleolithic times to right up to today.

And it's, for me, so exciting to have this available. You can see it on the PBS app. You can see it on my website, but it brings the art to life.

And, as a tour guide, you just want to help people get excited about the art.