Pam's Book 13: Neither Here Nor There

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I love Bill Bryson. I love his linguistics books and I love his travel books. This book, as you can see from the cover, is about Bryson's travels around continental Europe. He follows the route he and a buddy (Katz) took twenty years before. There are lots of gems in the book that I marked while reading, intending to reproduce them here, but I don't happen to have the book with me right now.

Neither Here Nor There is a funny travelogue, recounting details, facts and opinions. One thing I like about Bryson's writing is that he doesn't hold back; he calls things like he sees them, unapologetic, yet willing to change his opinion when circumstances change. He makes sweeping generalizations about people and cultures, some I agree with, some I don't. I chose this book because it's about places I've been, places I'm soon visiting, or places I'd very much like to go, and I thought maybe it would give me some good insights. I learned that it's always a good idea to book an Amsterdam hotel in advance and never to be the first off the ferry in Copenhagen. I learned that if you want to travel by sleeper train from one European capital to another, it's best to book well in advance.

What struck me most about the book, though, more than the insights, was how dated it seemed. Bryson kept talking about how long ago 1970 was, and how different things were. Then I looked at the copyright, and the book was published in 1992. I learned later that the trip had taken place in 1990, twenty years ago. There are as many differences between 1990 and today as there are between 1970 and 1990. I wouldn't have thought so, just thinking about how I remember things. Obviously fashions are different now, and the Internet is far more pervasive. Yet, this trip in 1990 was just after the fall of the Iron Curtain. The Berlin Wall was newly torn down. The Euro did not yet exist, nor did the European Union. Cheap airline operations such as Ryan Air did not seem to exist, or if they did, they weren't on Bryson's radar.

I wonder if he has any plans to return to Europe soon for another twenty year reunion trip. If so, what changes will he note? If he goes, I hope he puts out another book about it.