"Welcome home, Joanna. I'm sure everyone has been looking forward to souvenirs from Old Europe. Myself, I'll be content with a glimpse of your sun-kissed shoulders in a vacation photo. ;->"
Blush...blush.... Wish I had a digital camera....
Vacation was fast and furious...focused mostly on giving my nineteen-year old sun a crash course in travelling in Europe. That mission was accomplished, but at the cost of everything going by in a blur. (I haven't had time to look at B Mayer's posts (he was with us on the same trip), but I'm sure he furnished some details too.)
The itinerary was as follows: London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Venice, Pompeii, Rome, Interlaaken, Freiburg, Luxembourg, Verdun, Paris, Oxford, Exeter, London, home.
I don't know that it's possible to sum up something like that. What stood out:
First, and foremost, it was very clear that the forces gripping the U.S. are global and evident throughout Europe: the polarization of wealth, the erosion of the social, the relentless, shamless attack on the working class, the brittle confidence of the upper classes. Everywhere, imperial relics are being brought out, dusted off, and re-gilded. (Shall we refer to our time as the "Re-Gilded Age"?) A french minister is blithely quoted as saying "Why not move the retirment age to 80?"
Some details: Beggars everywhere, except Switzerland. Despite the economic troubles, northern Europe, especially Berlin, is caught in a frenzy of construction. Cranes everywhere. The misery and seediness of southern Italy beggars description and is far greater than anything I have seen in Eastern Europe. Eastern europeans are streaming into western europe, continuing the brain drain and working for slave wages. Overall impression: The empire does not feel powerful. It feels like it's tottering on the edge of an abyss and the only thing that's keeping it upright is everyone's fear of that abyss. The constant reference to empire in the media and commercial iconography feels more like the ravings of Miss Havisham (a feeble-minded relative stuck in the past) than a going-forward kind of plan.
Anecdotes and trivia: Food in all of Western Europe is exquisite: from the cheapest eats to the most expensive restaurants.--It's the basic ingredients. We've gone on and on about this before, I know. But it was quite striking. The only European country that still sports a creditable fashion industry is Italy. Being tall (5' 9"), I could not fit into anything, but the favored color this season is a Venetian red (reddish-burgundy) and there isn't an even hemline to be seen: it's all handkerchief hems, slant hems, sarongs, etc.
Americans abroad: I did not run into any hostility, but it seemed to me that there was a lot of reserve that wasn't there before.( I can prattle in a lot of languages, so it wasn't a language thing.)
(Big apologies to Colin Brace, LBOster from Amsterdam, whom I stood up on a Tango date. Really, really sorry Colin. I was trying to maneuvre with three others in tow and very jet-lagged.)
I came back home with one illusion smashed...the illusion that there was any other, better place to run away too. I am now settling into the routine of "working-at-home": Sun microsystems has closed its Oakland office, so I can either work at home (and save them $75,000/year of office space) or I can commute 90 minutes every day. Guess what I'm doing?
Anyway, I'll stop now. Glad to be back!
xxxx
Joanna