My Favorite Continent

If there is one continent in the world to which I return with repeated delight it is Europe. I find every facet of it endlessly fascinating. My very first travels overseas took me to Europe. I can recall, as if it were yesterday, the anticipation I experienced when my flight touched down into Charles de Gaule airport in Paris twenty years ago. With my head plastered to the window, I could see a blond-haired man handle the baggage carts near the cargo hold. I was in Europe, I told myself, pinching my arm hard if only to make the moment more concrete, more believable.

That was two decades ago. Since then, I have wandered through most of the corners of Western and Central Europe using every conceivable mode of transportation… from the backpacking convenience of Eurail which I used as I traveled alone while a grad student, to barges that sailed languidly along the River Rhine. In more recent years, driving in Europe in rented cars has provided Llew, Chriselle and me with some of the most exciting memories and some of our more amusing family anecdotes.

Our trips are memorable because we plan them differently. We could easily jump on to package tours but then we would never cover half the things on our itinerary. Our endless sightseeing, climbing and exploring have left us deeply fatigued. We were frightfully foot sore at the end of each day, but our appetite for discovery remained unabated.

Very farsightedly, I read many tourist guidebooks before I leave on our journeys, carefully photocopying the pages I need to carry along. Since many of these places do not have guided tours in English, it was these books that helped us take self-guided tours everywhere, bringing a whole new dimension to our enjoyment and appreciation of each venue. In particular, I would like to recommend the Eyewitness Series published by Dorking-Kinderley which almost every tourist has in hand in a multitude of different languages and, of course, the Lonely Planet series that needs no introduction or publicity.

Interacting with the common folk, dining in the eateries that they frequent, tasting the local brew and using public transportation everywhere has exposed us to the true lifestyle of ordinary Europeans and has provided experiences that we could never have garnered had we seen these lands through the tinted window panes of an air-conditioned bus. We also learned to say rudimentary words in several different languages especially the words “Please” and “Thank-you”.

We’ve always expected to see many wondrous sights on our travels. But even we will have to admit that by the end of each one, we are “castled-out” and “cathedral-ed out” because there are always just so many to see. Indeed, on our travels in Central Europe in 2004, we visited a total of 34 churches in two weeks! Chriselle says that she prayed more on this trip than she had done in her entire life!

Everywhere the indefatigable spirit of the Slavic people of Central Europe impressed us fully. Several decades of Communism have not blunted their enjoyment of life. While they are poised on the cusp of the twentieth-first century, they seem to have retained fully the old-fashioned values of a previous millennium. Their graciousness, their docility, their friendliness, were very pleasurable to experience. We were often happy to be the objects of their interest and curiosity as they clearly do not see many South Asians or indeed any ethnic people. These countries are singularly mono-racial and mono-cultural and while this may change in time to come, for the present, we are still rare in these parts of the globe. No doubt, their entry into the European Union will bring many changes to these nations; but we’re glad that we had the opportunity to visit a very unique part of Europe even if on a whirlwind tour.

Bon Voyage!