Look East if you want to visit Europe but escape the maddening crowds of its major

destinations in high season. Coming up we'll look at how the old Eastern Bloc

nations have been modernizing and are ready to compete as top-notch visitor attractions.

It's amazing the progress they're making and it just keeps going.

Norway is an interesting example of how to organize a society.

They're using the wealth from their oil industry to invest to We had luckily a very clever government.

And a journalist on assignment to write about piracy in the Horn of Africa soon found himself at the center of the story when he was held for ransom for nearly three years.

What I didn't expect was that they were going to demand $20 million,

which was a total shock to me.

Michael Scott Moore tells us what happened.

And we'll take a closer look at Central Europe and Norway in the hour ahead.

Its travel with Rick Steves.

Michael Scott Moore was mostly known for writing about surfing in Southern California

until he went to Somalia to write about the rampant piracy in the Horn of Africa

and got taken hostage himself for 977 days. He tells us how he endured

the ordeal a little later in the hour. And a guide from Oslo explains how Norway uses its oil revenue and its taxes

to fund social benefits that rank it near the top among the world's wealthiest countries.

Let's start today's travel with Rick Steeves looking at the emergence of what we're going to call Central Europe.

The discussion among travelers in Western Europe lately is how to manage the unprecedented crowds.

Well, a great way to avoid the crowds is simply head east.

The Slavic countries, ranging from Poland to Croatia,

are a world apart from so many European travel dreams, but when you travel there, you realize

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