Traveling in flatlands like the Great Plains, you can get in touch with life in ways you just won't find up in the mountains.

The top of the world is like the Titanic moment, you know, we're on top of the world, we're bigger than the world, and I think being in the flatlands, you are of the world.

You are in a way smaller than it.

Hi, I'm Rick Steeves.

Coming up, we enjoy the endless horizons and the sweet small-scale attractions that the flat places of the earth can offer.

We also explore the issues that crop up for people from other countries

when they marry an American.

It's those small things that tend to remind us that we are still foreign to each other.

And guides from the former East Bloc tell us about places you can still visit that show what

life was like a generation ago during the Communist era in Eastern Europe.

And we're very proud of the fact that we didn't just put it behind and wanted to erase it

because I think it's something that we definitely have to show to the generations following us.

It's all just ahead on, Travel with Rick Steeves.

Whether it's a prairie, an endless farmscape, or even a desert, the flat places of Earth can

offer you a lot more than their reputation as flyover country suggests.

But you have to be willing to listen to what the land is trying to tell you.

Coming up on today's travel with Rick Steves, Robert Reed explains how to look for hidden treasure

from your feet to the horizon in a vast flat landscape.

It's hard to believe it's already been a generation since the fall of communism in Europe.

Guides from Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic bring us sightseeing tips for the kind of places in their countries that retain the look and

the feel of that bygone era.

Who would have thought that Soviet-block communism would become a tourist attraction?

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