Recently I returned from my first-ever trip to Europe (Iceland, France, and England). I was a chaperone on a student group excursion to see the sights, explore culture, and try to better understand our neighbors across the Atlantic.
Be forewarned, this post is long on reflection and short on links. It is my impressions and somewhat random thoughts on the eleven days there in which I tried to better understand how our nation relates to our Allies. Eleven days is certainly not enough time to come to a full grasp, but it certainly left me with some thoughts.
At no point did anyone accost or otherwise chide us about our current president. If anything, the few who did comment did so more to offer sympathy. There were a few in our group who were Trumpistas, but we really did try to keep politics out of it all.
The people of Normandy (and to a lesser degree, Brittany) were amazingly friendly and kind. The special affection they have for the people of the U.S., and the UK and Canada, was amazing to behold. Next year will be the 75th anniversary of Operation Overlord and the D-Day Invasion. As someone who had family who fought and died in the ETO during WWII, seeing many of those sights was moving to say the least.
The UK is really struggling to deal with Brexit. Londoners are quite unhappy about it and they made no secret of that. Those in our group who were aware of and understood Brexit did not disagree. Side note — the pound is trading crappy against the dollar; it was 1.33/1 when we were there.
Finally some random observations, in no particular order:
- I’ll gladly fly Icenaldic Air again. They were professional, courteous, and attentive to all our needs.
- As a nation we really need to try again at adopting the metric system. Start with something simple like temperature, show how easy it is, then move forward. We tried when I was a kid, and for some inexplicable reason, said “nope...”.
- When I hear someone say “I don’t care what those snotty Europeans think of us”, I will gently and forcefully remind them that much of who we are as a nation is owed to those snotty Europeans (yes, I know, not all of it, but we cannot deny the connection either). We have a shared history that cannot be ignored. Therefore, we should care.
- British newspapers are way better than American ones. Talk about depth and substance!
- I’ll never complain about bad drivers in American cities after watching people drive around Paris; it was like watching one big game of chicken.
There is likely more I could comment on, but I don’t want this post to get too wordy so I’ll stop here by saying that: In the end I do hope to return and see even more sights and hear more sounds and hopefully engage in more conversations about the relationship between us and our good friends. Some day...
UPDATE: I should add that having to spend nearly twenty hours in four different jets reminded me of why I would oh so love to see airlines get rid of reclining seats. I have enough trouble with my frame just fitting into any seat let alone when the goober sitting in front of me decides that my lap is the perfect place for them to snooze on a red eye.