The collapse of the division between eastern and western
Europe at the end of the 1980s, and the ever closer ties
among the fifteen countries of the European Union - increasingly a
political and cultural as well as economic union - made Europe a
buzzword in the early 1990s, implying shared values and, despite
all the wrangling, a broad consensus of political beliefs. Some of
this is inevitably a superficial analysis, but although true
European unity still remains a distant dream, developments such as
the introduction of the euro, the creation of the frontier-free
Schengen Group and the opening of the Channel Tunnel have done much
to bring it closer.
Conventionally, the geographical boundaries of Europe are
the Ural Mountains in the east, the Atlantic Coast in the north and
west, and the Mediterranean in the south. However, within these
rough parameters Europe is massively diverse. The environment
changes radically within very short distances, with bleak mountain
ranges never far from broad, fertile plains, and deep, ancient
forests close to scattered lake systems or river gorges.
Politically and ethnically, too, it is an extraordinary patchwork:
Slavic peoples are scattered through central Europe from Poland in
the north to Serbia and Bulgaria in the south; the Finnish and
Estonian languages bear no resemblance to the tongues of their
Baltic and Scandinavian neighbours, but more to that of Hungary,
over 1000km south; meanwhile Romansch, akin to ancient Latin, is
spoken in the valleys of south-eastern Switzerland, while the
Basques of the Western Pyrenees have a language unrelated to any
others known. These differences have become more political of late
with the rise of nationalism that coincided with the fall of
Communism, and borders are even now being redrawn, not always
peacefully, and usually along ethnic lines defined by language,
race or religion.
Where you head for obviously depends on your tastes and
the kind of vacation you want: you can sample mountain air and
winter sports in the Alps of France, Austria or Switzerland, lie on
a beach in the swanky resorts of the south of France or Italy, or
view architecture and works of art in the great cities of London,
Paris, Florence or Amsterdam. Suffice to say, the lifting of
restrictions on travel in eastern Europe, with only a handful of
countries still requiring visas and nothing like the bureaucratic
regulations there were before, means that the Continent really is
there for the travelling - something manifest in the increasingly
good-value rail passes which cover most of the countries in Europe.
Although you may want to make a long hop or two by air, rail
is indeed the way to see the Continent, highlighting the diversity
of the place when you travel in a few hours from the cool
temperatures of northern Europe to the rich and sultry climes of
the Mediterranean. In fact, with the richness and diversity of its
culture, climate, landscapes and peoples, there is no more exciting
place to travel.