Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe

By Bill Bryson

Bryson brings his unique brand of humour to travel writing as he shoulders his backpack, keeps a tight hold on his wallet and heads for Europe.  Travelling with Stephen Katz--also his wonderful sidekick in A Walk in the Woods--he wanders from Hammerfest in the far north, to Istanbul on the cusp of Asia.  As he makes his way round this incredibly varied continent, he retraces his travels as a student twenty years before with caustic hilarity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Sep 25, 2012
• ISBN: 9780385674553

Reviews for Neither Here Nor There

[tony2704 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Based on Brysons' travels around europe, slightly better than The Lost Continent' but still left me wanting more.

[librarycin · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

3.5 stars. Bryson twice travelled through Europe when he was younger. Some years later, he decides to go again and write about it. In this book, some of the places he travels through include Norway, Denmark, France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Yugoslavia (the book was originally written in 1992), and even Liechtenstein. He will often think back to his original trip and describe that, as well as the “current” trip he was on and writing about.I’d say this is pretty typical of his books. I enjoyed it, and there were plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. I particularly seemed to like some of his comments while he was in colder places (coming from Canada, myself). It was kind of interesting to read the Yugoslavia section and wonder how much has changed.

[bluepigeon-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I like Bryson, not only because he is a good writer, but also because he is usually similar in humor and mood to me when I travel. He sinks when everyone else happily body surfs. He is fascinated by all the things that can kill you. He wobbles and hobbles, just like me. And he likes a good view enjoyed with good food and good company in a soft, comfortable breeze. Well, that's not very American, but that's him alright.

So why didn't I like NHNT that much? There were several reasons, the main one being that Bryson, for the first time in the books I have read by him, really sounds like an American tourist. He complains a lot, but mainly he makes the mistakes that lead to his misery. He acts not like a seasoned traveler, but an amateur, monolingual, ignorant American (he is actually only monolingual...) He also lets his hatred towards the Nazis blur into a hatred of Germans and anything German in his trip, which I find to be, again, very American, and very, uhm, hypocritical?

Nevertheless, he is still fun to read and his sense of humor is in good shape. His encounter with the gypsy thief and the repercussions are hilarious. The comparisons between the time he backpacked through Europe with Katz in the 70s and this trip are interesting. His observations about the mood and life style of the different nationalities and places are spot on in many cases. His encounters with the Australians are just hilarious.

It's a pity Bryson spends far too little time in Istanbul, perhaps the only city that could have offered him the cultural and culinary wealth that could equal or even exceed Paris and Rome in his trip. But as most westerners, Bryson doesn't know what he is missing. He visits the Blue Mosque and walks the Galata Bridge, and of course the obligatory (and if you ask me completely overpriced and overhyped) Hagasofia (Ayasofya)... And that's it. What a pity, to visit Istanbul and to miss almost everything it has to offer. Also a pity that he did not make his way through some of the cities bordering Bulgaria and Greece, such as Edirne, which could have been a truly interesting experience for Bryson. But alas, not a very "European" one...

[kittyjay · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Bryson's Neither Here nor There takes you on an adventure from the coldly beautiful Hammerfest, Norway to the cafes of Paris, onward to Belgium and Germany, meanders through the crowded, chaotic streets of Italy, the stern cities of Switzerland, and even into the exotic markets of Istanbul.

With his usual dry wit and personal anecdotes regarding the locals, the local food, and the local highway robbery of hotel rates, Bryson spends his time regarding the landscape with either pleasure (Italy, one finds, is impossible to love) or mild disdain (in Austria's case, the mild is removed).

There is a line that struck me as especially poignant, not least because it is a recurring lament in Bryson's works: "We used to build civilizations. Now we build shopping malls" (105). His vitriol against city planners who spend pittance on great works of art that cannot be replaced but bestow lavish amounts of money on commercial districts usually inclines me to sympathy, though I have to admit some discomfort when he did the same to the poverty-stricken area of Sofia. Though he makes a few perfunctory motions to the people who live there and who benefit from such capitalism, he openly bemoans that the beautiful city he once visited has disappeared. Well, yes, I'm sure it has, but that is a small price to pay for people being able to eat things not bought out of unmarked tin cans.

It is pleasing, however, to note where our perceptions are right - and wrong. Let's be honest: we have stereotypes of each country, to some extent, built from scraps of news, film, and stories. France, for instance, is filled with people who are unconscionably rude (Bryson does not deny this, and, indeed, even finds it charming in its own way). Switzerland is peaceful, clean, and scarily efficient in a way that befits a country known - to be frank - for its watches and tiny knives. Even Italy, with its dreamers and romantics live up to the ideal.

Happily, our perceptions may be accurate to some extent, but can never encompass the full spectrum of people - just as not every American chows down on hamburgers while watching reality tv shows, there is a wealth of diversity to be found in abundance throughout the world, and Bryson offers a small glimpse at this happy truth.

There is nothing better than personal experience, but in the meantime, the second best is to read Bryson's adventures.

[brikis98 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A charming book that talks about a fun adventure through Europe with some good laughs along the way. Although the book suffers from a lack of a common theme/point, and Bryson has a tendency to whine a lot, the book can be highly entertaining and as long as you don't take it too seriously, it's a fun read for just about any traveler.

[mlake_22 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I like this but didn't love it.

[fyrefly98 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Summary: Bill Bryson travelled around Europe as a young man. In the early 1990s, he decided to retrace his steps. He starts out in Norway, hoping to see the Northern Lights. He then makes his way through the rest of Scandinavia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Turkey, reminiscing about his previous trip, and reporting along the way about the hassles of transportation, the odd accommodations, the highlights and lowlights of the various cultural attractions, and the attitudes of the locals he encounters.Review: Not his best. From reading his other travel writing (Notes from a Small Island and In a Sunburned Country, and to some extent A Walk in the Woods), it's pretty clear that Bryson is, at best, a grumpy traveler. I've occasionally wondered why, if seemingly everything about travel irks him so badly, he continues to do it. I suspect that he's not really as grumpy as he puts on, but instead is dealing with the same minor inconveniences as any traveller, just amping up the curmudgeonliness for comic effect.But the thing was, in this case, the grumpiness outweighed the humor, although there were some parts that were relatively amusing. But Bryson didn't seem to enjoy much of anything about Europe except Italy, and also ogling the asses of every young European woman he saw. (Seriously, he comments on women's bodies a lot, enough that I not only noticed but was also grossed out by it.) The biggest problem was that not only did Bryson not make me want to visit these places, it's that he didn't give me a particularly good feel for most of them, either. He doesn't really talk to the locals (other than station agents and hotel clerks and the like), and he doesn't include much of the type of history or tangents that mark some of his other travel books. So for all that he tries to point out how much cultural diversity Europe contains, all of his destinations tended to blur together, and it makes it hard to remember if this rude waiter or that crowded museum or the really terrible traffic was in Copenhagen or Vienna or where. And given how dated this book is at this point, it's hard to say how much of the impression that he does give is still accurate at this point. (So maybe this book did make me want to go to Europe after all, if for nothing else but to compare!) 3 out of 5 stars.Recommendation: It's not terrible, but it's out of date, and it's not Bryson at his best at any rate. I think it might actually be better for those with some experience traveling in Europe already, who can impose their own experiences over Bryson's grumbling.

[jbd1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I think I'm about done with Bryson's travel books. Every time I get the urge to try one, I end up feeling the same way about it: there are a few funny moments, but they're so well hidden amongst the constant complaining as to make them hardly worth seeking out. You've got the time, resources, &c. to travel all around Europe and yet you spend far more time kvetching about the food, the hotels, the lines, the minor travel kerfuffles than on anything else? C'mon. Enough's enough - no more of these for me.

[markpsadler · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I loved aloud continually.. great travelogue and very human experiences.

[drled_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

For a book about a road trip in the 2016 Reading Challenge, I chose a road trip in Europe.Synopsis: Bill travels around Europe recreating a trip he took in his early 20s. He writes about his experiences and reminisces about his earlier trip.Review: This was in interesting book to read since I'd been to many of the places he visited. The book was fun in that the author related some highly entertaining events while commenting on the culture of a particular country. Even though it's a bit dated, it's got good information about traveling in Europe.

[nemoman · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

As a collector of travel literature, I have been aware of Bryson for years. I have avoided buying his books, however, based on a presumption that they were rather shallow, albeit humorous. I broke down and finally bought this as my first. My presumptions wee correct.Bryson had toured Europe as a young man in the early 70s with a friend. Years later he attempts to reprise that trip by himself. The book alternates in time between the two journeys. Bryson is funny, almost relentlessly so. He does manage some true wit, but you have to suffer a lot of potty humor in the meantime. He does not dwell much on the history, culture or cuisine of the places he visits. He revels in his linguistic ignorance. Much of the book is spent on humorous encounters with locals and observations based on obvious cultural stereotypes.As a traveler, Bryson is basically a curmudgeon. In this respect he is like Paul Theroux. Theroux, however, writes with intelligence and insight. Bryson reaches for the obvious joke. Bryson writes well and is entertaining; however, reading him is like eating fast food.

[iira_24 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Bill Bryson is great! I just can't stop laughing. Although it's decades old and somewhat outdated, in many ways it still is very up to date. I don't understand all the whining going on about this book, perhaps you should just let go and laugh a little?! I found this tremendously funny but then again, I am rather mean and an admitted exaggerator so suits me well, sir.

[chrisnewton-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I liked it, but it got old. By the time he got to Bulgaria I was wishing he would cut it short and go home.

[cheryl_in_cc_nv · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I generally don't rate books unless I finish them, but after reading other reviews I do believe I got far enough in to be able to judge this. Here's Bryson wittily whining again - sharing little bits of interesting insights into bits of Europe amongst lots of boring stuff about him and his inability to admit he'd have a lot less to whine about if he planned ahead just a little bit. A line of Americans for the Louvre!? Really?! Who'd've thunk!!

[bagpuss-3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I’ve read a few of Bryson’s books, and like those, this didn't disappoint and I found myself laughing out loud on more than one occasion! His books are so enjoyable and so easy to read - reading him is like putting on a pair of comfy slippers or having a chat with a mate over a pint and a packet of pork scratchings!

This one covers his travels around Europe – a journey almost entirely undertaken on public transport. From Denmark (at a time of year when it was dark nearly all the time) to Sofia, with various stops in between, Bryson describes his experiences with his usual touch of humour. Sure, it’s a little dated now, and some of his stereotyping can seem a little near the mark, but I don’t think Bryson intends to be insulting and if one reads with a large pinch of salt then this is a very enjoyable book!

[russellbittner · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Whether you’re thinking of traveling to Europe on $5 or $5,000 a day, this is the book you first have to read to prepare for your trip – and possibly re-think it. Whether you’re a casual tourist or – as I once was – a SERIOUS student, this is the book you first have to read. I wish I’d possessed Bill Bryson’s sense of humor during the decade I spent in pre-post-graduate studies at several universities and language institutes in Western Europe and the (then-) Soviet Union, but I didn’t. Instead, I had to wait almost 30 years to learn what I obviously never missed by not going to Lichtenstein – and I can honestly say that I’ve never had a more enjoyably vicarious non-experience or un-urge to take (in) a Valduz.


This is the third work of Bill Bryson’s I’ve read (the other two being the monumental A Short History of Nearly Everything and the quite amusing A Walk in the Woods), and I suspect that Bryson is going to turn out to be my favorite (English-language) non-fiction writer. Yes, he’s that good. Why more textbooks for American high schoolers aren’t written by folks like Bill Bryson is a mystery to me, although I suspect that public school boards wouldn’t know what to do with the certain revolution in learning that might result – namely, that most kids would look at most parents and teachers and think Why can’t you think, talk and write a little more like Bill Bryson and little less like yourselves?


As if to underscore my point, Bryson has this to say on p. 64 about why he learned (or at least retained) virtually nothing from his junior high school French courses: “How often on a visit to France do you need to tell someone you want to clean a blackboard? How frequently do you wish to say: ‘It is winter. Soon it will be spring.’ In my experience, people know this already.”


Litotes – or understatement – is a literary device Bryson excels at, quite possibly thanks to his nearly two decades in the U. K. And although this book is primarily about traveling in Europe and rendering observations of – and judgments on – things Continental, Bryson is not too bewildered or bewitched by the mystique of the Olde World to deprive us of some of his more New Worldly nuggets, almost all of which are couched in what I’ll call, respectfully and affectionately, “Bryson-speak.”


As an example, we find on p. 66: “(t)o my mind, the only possible pet is a cow. Cows love you. They are harmless, they look nice, they don’t need a box to crap in, they keep the grass down, and they are so trusting and stupid that you can’t help but lose your heart to them. Where I live in Yorkshire, there’s a herd of cows down the lane. You can stand by the wall at any hour of the day or night, and after a minute the cows will all waddle over and stand with you, much too stupid to know what to do next, but happy just to be with you. They will stand there all day, as far as I can tell, possibly till the end of time. They will listen to your problems and never ask a thing in return. They will be your friends forever. And when you get tired of them, you can kill them and eat them. Perfect.”


‘Sounds a bit like my idea of an ideal girlfriend – except, perhaps, for that last bit.


But back to Europe and things quaintly European, Bryson observes on p. 68 that “I have been told more than once that one of the more trying things about learning to live with the Germans after the war was having to watch them return with their wives and girlfriends to show off the places they had helped to ruin.”


Ah, yes. The Olde World. Makes one downright grateful to have been born in the New – unless, of course, one was summarily called to task in Vietnam.


And I suppose Bryson’s two-decade residency in the U. K. also permits him to make this rather bold (not to say impertinent) observation on p. 145: “(t)he town [Sorrento, Italy] was full of middle-aged English tourists having an off-season holiday (i.e., one they could afford). Wisps of conversation floated to me across the tables and from couples passing on the sidewalk. It was always the same. The wife would be in noisemaking mode, that incessant, pointless, mildly fretful chatter that overtakes Englishwomen in midlife. ‘I was going to get tights today and I forgot. I asked you to remind me, Gerald. These ones have a ladder in them from here to Amalfi. I suppose I can get tights here. I haven’t a clue what size to ask for. I knew I should have packed an extra pair….’ Gerald was never listening to any of this, of course, because he was secretly ogling a braless beauty leaning languorously on a lamppost and trading quips with some hoods on Vespas, and appeared to be aware of his wife only as a mild, chronic irritant on the fringe of his existence. Everywhere I went in Sorrento I kept seeing these English couples, the wife looking critically at everything, as if she were working undercover for the Ministry of Sanitation, the husband dragging along behind her, worn and defeated.”


Bryson has no particular bone to pick with Brits, however, as we see from an equally trenchant observation about some of our own, delivered with equal parts pith and punch, just a few pages earlier. While touring (solo) the Vatican City in Rome, he spotted and hitched up with an American tour group, but was quickly spotted and discarded “because I wasn’t wearing a baseball cap and warm-up jacket and trousers in one of the livelier primary colors.”


The French have a lively (and accurate) little aphorism: “personne n’est prophète chez soi.” Perhaps it’s time someone in some language came up with a suitable way to describe your run-of-the-mill mass tourist – as in, “a tourist is never more lame and out of step than when he or she is on tour.” If this sounds both vaguely tautological and roundly condemnatory of the species ex situ, it’s meant to.


But before we leave Sorrento for parts unknown, Bryson treats us to a smidgen of what much of his Short History is all about – in short: here today, gone tomorrow. Some part of Calabria could blow (once again) at any time. And when it does, it’s hasta la vista, baby.


Let it never be said, by the way, that Bryson is above a product placement. On p. 185, after an exasperating experience inside a Union Bank of Switzerland office in Geneva to get some replacement travelers’ checks (for those that had been stolen by a gypsy posing as a child posing as a gypsy in Florence), we find: “(b)ut from now on it’s American Express travelers’ checks for me, boy, and if the company wishes to acknowledge this unsolicited endorsement with a set of luggage or a skiing holiday in the Rockies, then let the record show that I am ready to take it.”


Of course, Bill Bryson is a writer of unimpeachable ethics. And so, on p. 196, we have the following: “Perhaps the people at the hotel just didn’t like the look of me, or maybe they correctly suspected that I was a travel writer and would reveal to the world the secret that the food at the Vaduzerhof Hotel at number 3 Stadtlestrasse in Vaduz is Not Very Good. Who can say?”


The potential reader of Neither Here Nor There will, I trust, allow me the inclusion of a lengthy paragraph from p. 201 to this already lengthy review, but only because I find it so compelling. “One of my first vivid impressions of Europe was a Walt Disney movie I saw as a boy. I believe it was called The Trouble with Angels. It was a hopelessly sentimental fictionalized account of how a group of cherry-cheeked boys with impish instincts and voices like angels made their way into the Vienna Boys’ Choir. I enjoyed the film hugely, being hopelessly sentimental myself, but what made a lasting indent on me was the European-ness of the movie background – the cobbled streets, the toytown cars, the corner shops with a tinkling bell above the door, the modest, lived-in homeyness of each boy’s familial flat. It all seemed so engaging and agreeably old-fashioned compared with the sleek and modern world I knew, and it left me with the unshakable impression that Austria was somehow more European than the rest of Europe. And so it seemed here in Innsbruck. For the fist time in a long while, certainly for the first time on this trip, I felt a palpable sense of wonder to find myself here, on these streets, in this body, at this time. I was in Europe now. It was an oddly profound notion.”


“Austria was somehow more European than the rest of Europe” indeed! – as we discover on just the next page when Bryson and Katz (his erstwhile traveling companion here, but also in A Walk in the Woods), discover what’s being said about them by a couple of local yokels. In fact, it’s not until the squalor of Sophia (on p. 238) that Bryson “…realized with a sense of profound unease the Europe I had dreamed of as a child.”


One parting note by way of exit from this review… If Bill Bryson’s no-longer-so-youthful traveling experience is any reliable indicator, you now have a better idea of how the Western world was won, lost, and won again on the strength of many dreams, fantasies, erections, demolitions – and three essential lubricants: beer, wine and coffee. While the first two might well have given, uh, rise to the dreams, fantasies & Co., it’s clearly the last of these that keeps us in Wheaties. Lord help us if the bean farmers and pickers of the developing world ever decide to cut off our supply!


RRB
11/12/14
Brooklyn, NY

[Tiana Warner · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Possibly the best travel book I've read.

[harrod_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Bryson, as always, makes me laugh.

[voz_4 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I should have known better, after Bryson's abysmal book on Australia, which read as though it was written without leaving hotel rooms. In this, he at least gets out amongst people. One gets the impression he is just going through the motions for his book publisher; it lacks any read depth and the emphasis on stereotypes became tiresome. I had no doubts Bryson is a funny guy, but this is just lazy.

[etxgardener · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Bill Bryson is a funny guy and this book about his re-treacing of his first trip to Europe made me laugh out loud more than once. He shows his various stops on the continent warts and all - even poking fun at himself. This book is a joy for an arm-chair traveler.

[skinglist · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One of my first Bryson's -- love his comparison of the world pre and post the fall of Communism

[flydodofly · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Yes, I did laugh out loud at times, but I was also surprised to notice that Bryson seems to be annoyed by more than a few things, and quite negative, too. Now I keep thinking whether that was the case with other books I have read, and I just cannot remember...?

[ecw0647 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Bryson writes hysterical travel books. In this one he sets out to re-create a backpacking trip of Europe he made during the seventies when he was twenty. His descriptions of people and places will have you falling out of your chair. The beer he is offered in Belgium, for example, defies his palate. He just can’t associate the taste with any previous experience, but finally decides it puts him in mind of a very large urine sample, possibly from a circus animal. (He should have stuck with Coca-Cola, nicht wahr, Wendell?) Bryson has truly captured some of the giddy enjoyment that I experience when traveling in a foreign country where one does not speak the language. “I can’t think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything. Suddenly you are five years old again. You can’t read anything. You have only the most rudimentary sense of how things work. . . . Your whole existence becomes a series of interestingguesses.”At the Arc de Triomphe, some thirteen streets come together. “Can you imagine? I mean to say, here you have a city with the world’s most pathologically aggressive drivers -- who in other circumstances would be given injections of valium from syringes the size of basketball jumps and confined to their beds with leather straps -- and you give them an open space where they can all go in any of thirteen directions at once. Is that asking for trouble or what?”Interspersed are salient comments about traveling on European trains. “There is no scope for privacy and of course there is nothing like being trapped in a train compartment on a long journey to bring all those unassuageable little frailties of the human body crowding to the front of your mind – the withheld fart, the three and a half square yards of boxer shorts that have somehow become concertinaed between your buttocks, the Kellogg’s corn flake that is unaccountably lodged deep in your left nostril,”. . .and rude comments about the Swiss: “What do you call a gathering of boring people in Switzerland? Zurich.” He reveals some funny stories about himself. “I had no gift for woodworking. Everyone else in the class was building things like cedar chests and oceangoing boats and getting to play with dangerous and noisy power tools, but I had to sit at the Basics Table with Tubby Tucker and a kid who was so stupid that I don't think we ever learned his name. We just called him 'Drooler.' The three of us weren't allowed anything more dangerous than sandpaper and Elmer's Glue, so we would sit week after week making little nothings out of offcuts, except for Drooler, who would just eat the glue. Mr. Dreck never missed a chance to humiliate me. 'And what is this?' he would say, seizing some mangled block of wood on which I had been laboring for the last twenty-seven weeks and holding it aloft for the class to titter at. 'I've beenteaching shop for sixteen years, Mr. Bryson, and I have to say this is the worst beveled edge I've ever seen.' He held up a birdhouse of mine once and it just collapsed in his hands. The class roared. Tubby Tucker laughed so hard that he almost choked. He laughed for twenty minutes, even when I whispered to him across the table that if he didn't stop it I would bevel his testicles."It used to be -- not as common now as formerly -- that each public washroom had an attendant whose job it was to keep everything clean, and you were expected to drop in some change for his or her income. The sex of the attendant was irrelevant to the sex of the washroom and Bryson had difficulty getting used to the idea of some cleaning lady watching him urinate to make sure he didn't "dribble on the tiles or pocket any of the urinal cakes. It is hard enough to pee when you are aware that someone's eyes are on you, but when you fear that at any moment you will be felled by a rabbit chop to the kidneys for taking too much time, you seize up altogether. You couldn't have cleared my system with Drano. So eventually I would zip up and return unrelieved to the table [in the restaurant:], and spend the night back at the hotel doing a series of Niagara Falls impressions."Bryson does not mince words, and his perspective on former Austrian president Waldheim echoes mine but is perhaps more trenchant. “I fully accept Dr. Waldheim’s explanation that when he saw forty thousand Jews being loaded onto cattle trucks at Salonika, he genuinely believed they were being sent to the seaside for a holiday. For the sake of fairness, I should point out that Waldheim insists he never even knew that the Jews of Salonika were being shipped off to Auschwitz. And let’s be fair again – they accounted for no more than one third of the city’s entire population (italics theirs), and it is of course entirely plausible that a high-ranking Nazi officer in the district could have been unaware of what was happening within his area of command. Let’s give the man a break. I mean to say, when the Sturmabteilung, or stormtroopers, burned down forty-two of Vienna’s forty three synagogues during Kristallnacht, Waldheim did wait a whole week before joining theunit. . . . Christ, the man was practically a resistance hero. . . .Austrians should be proud of him and proud of themselves for having the courage to stand up to world opinion and elect a man of his caliber, overlooking the fact that he is a pathological liar. . .that he has a past so mired in mis-truths that no one but he knows what he has done. It takes a special kind of people to stand behind a man like that.”

[loralu_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In this book, Bryson takes a journey through Europe that somewhat follows his original backpacking journey 20yrs prior. It is wonderful to see his reflections from then to now, as well as see his thoughts on new cities he hadn't previously gone too. Once again I was laughing out loud throughout the trip, all the while updating my list of places to go and things to see. A must read for those wanting to visit Europe.

[imperfectcj · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for this one. I hesitated rating it since I stopped reading it, but since I read about 3/4 of it, I figured it was OK. Or at least justifiable.

Bryson's writing is, as usual, whimsical. Every few pages I laughed out loud. But it seemed to lack unity. Without that, I found I just lost interest. I think I was hoping for something more Geography of Bliss or even more A Walk in the Woods, both of which seemed to have more of a unifying idea or lesson behind them. This one just kind of jumped around. I found myself wondering how his family put up with him being gone for so long with so little in the way of a plan.

In the end, this book just didn't do it for me.

But then, I've been very impatient with books lately, so it might not even be the book itself.

[tesca_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I read this as a patient in a Romanian hospital, and was crying because I was laughing so much! I've lived and travelled extensively all over the world, but most especially in Eastern and Western Europe, both before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Can only presume that those sour reviews were written by people who have travelled little, if at all, in Europe. If they ever had a sense of humour (vital for all travel adventures), it has clearly been by-passed.

[bakersfieldbarbara · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Having lived in the Netherlands for ten years, I found this book amusing and interesting. I had experienced a lot of what I read or knew the areas quite well, as author Bill Bryson told his humorous tales.At first I wondered why he did this without his wife and then realized it was to gather information for the book. This choice to go alone probably gave us better insight on his travels, as it was about his adventures rather than a family experience. It would take me reams of paper to tell the best parts of this book, because it is all good, and funny. I don't laugh at many books but I had tears in my eyes with some of the exploits I read about. Even to buying souvenirs Mr. Bryson made it a amusing situation, such as buying crucifix corn- on- the- cob holders or a Musical Last Supper toilet paper holder from shops in the Vatican City. Equally amusing was his rendition of using the Italian-English phrases in Fodor's guide to Italy. Not to spoil your fun, I won't elaborate, but run out and buy this book, now in reprint form. While you are at it, buy several copies for gifts for those of your friends and relatives who want to, wanted to, or will travel to Europe. Bill Bryson's Neither Here Nor There is the perfect book for armchair traveling.

[beequiet · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Another lovely, and hilarious book by Bill Bryson. I read this whilst travelling, which is what I would suggest for anyone. You can share the frustrations, the joys, and even find yourself writing your own travel blog in an increasingly Brysonesque voice.

[diccon1bewes · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not quitehis best, but still much more amusing and interesting than most other writers.

[carrieprice78 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was a funny book. Of course it was, it was Bill Bryson. I enjoyed it, but wondered how much things had changed in the time since he's been there until now. I think a lot has probably changed, all over Europe. Nevertheless, it was a joy to read and gave me some good ideas of places I'd like to visit someday. It also led me on to Philip Ziegler's "The Black Death," which he mentioned several times in the book. Bryson's a good summer read, but he can be quite intellectual too. A couple of the scenes made me laugh out loud, for example, waiting in a ticket booth line somewhere in Sweden. A must-read for Europhiles.