Europe @ 2.4 km/h (56 page)

The magic box, shaken vigorously, has yielded certain clues to its well-hidden mysteries. At the end of my road a final epiphany awaits. And so it falls out that the real purpose of this expedition, which has taken up the best part of my life’s best year, was nothing other than a quest to capture Europe’s soul.

1. The World in 2008
   , The Economist, London, 2007, p. 96
   
2. Russia & Belarus
   , Lonely Planet, 4th ed., March 2006, p. 36
   
3. Jared Diamond, in his book
   Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail or
   Survive
   , dubs this expansion ‘autocatalytic’. But the Norwegians at that point were pagans — not for another 50 years would their chieftains begin to adopt Christianity — so you could hardly call them ‘autocatalytic converters’. Anyway, they lacked autos, preferring to get about in longships. Who said history can’t be fun?
   
4. With
   King’s Men
   , the first book of his Viking trilogy, Tim Severin sheds light on the oft overlooked connections between Norsemen and Normans. They have also been referred to, on occasion, as Northmen.
   
5. Not what you’re thinking. To pronk, a word of Afrikaans origin, means to spring or prance in the manner of an antelope or a deer.
   
6. The pithy note Per pressed against the Forus Bank’s window to attract the staff’s attention read:
   Han trener Kr. viersmill oe oi han pemer
   .
   Vaer
   en god norman
   . (I cannot vouch for Per’s spelling.) Which translates: ‘I need money. The post office has no entrance for me. Please be human.’ Interestingly, the word for ‘human’ is ‘Norman’. So at least the English can be thankful they were invaded by humans.
   
7. Those who wish to pursue the tail further are invited to log on to www.storsjoodjuret.com
   
8. You can view
   Vital Signs
   at www.mosdeux.com
   
9. Time for Celebration,
   Jun Feng, Select Books Online @ www.selectbooks.com.sg/get Title 2000
   
10. The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there’ are the opening lines of L.P. Hartley’s novel
    The Go-Between
    .
    
11. Although Steen Thomsen himself points out that, as he is from the Bendixsen line of our far-flung family tree — a branch on the opposite side, as it were — he is technically a ‘non-cousin’ of mine.
    
12. Intellectuals
    , by Paul Johnson, p. 168
    
13. By John Kelly, 2001. Now on permanent display at Victoria Dock, opposite Docklands (renamed Etihad, 2009) Stadium, Melbourne
    
14. In 1861, when his long essay
    Considerations on Representative Government
    first appeared, the political economist John Stuart Mill could write without fear of contradiction, ‘The Flemish and the Walloon provinces of Belgium, notwithstanding diversity of race and language, have a much greater feeling of common nationality than the former have with Holland, or the latter with France.’ Today that would be begging the question.
    On
    Liberty and Other Essays
    , by J.S. Mill, p. 427
    
15. The State of Africa
    , Martin Meredith. Jonathan Ball Publishers, Johannesburg and Cape Town, 2006, pp 511-12
    
16. Truth
    , Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, St Martin’s Press, New York, 1997, p. 94
    
17. Several weeks later, on a bus from Germany to France, I will see the same thought is circulating in Belgium. A
    Guardian Weekly
    article quotes Flemish Party leader Bart de Wever as saying, ‘Brussels is the last obstacle. We would have divorced years ago if it weren’t for Brussels.’
    
18. Brussels, Your Capital City, Your European Village
    , available at Brussels Town Hall, Grand Place/Grote Markt, p. 53
    
19. Gargantua and
    Pantagruel
    , Francois Rabelais, Penguin, p. 663 (orig. 1532, 1534)
    
20. The qualification ‘heavier-than-air’ is often overlooked when giving the Wright Brothers credit for their pioneering flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, twelve years later.
    
21. Benedict — Church Leader
    , published by the Rectory of St Oswald, Marktl am Inn
    
22. Buchenwald — A Tour of the Memorial Site
    by Sabine and Harry Stein, Buchenwald Memorial, 1993, p. 18
    
23. Routes to Luther in Wittenberg
    , booklet published by Luther-Forum, Lutherstadt-Wittenberg, undated, p. 21
    
24. It now seems doubtful if Luther posted his theses on any church door, at least initially. Around the time in question he is known to have sent them in a letter to the Archbishop of Mainz. Martin Luther’s
    95 Theses
    , booklet published by Akanthus, 2005, p. 5
    
25. Chronology of the History of France
    , by Claude Lebedel, Editions Ouest-France, 1999 (reprinted in English translation by Angela Moyon, February 2007, p. 6)
    
26. Louvre: The Pocket Louvre
    , by Valerie Mittais, Musee du Louvre Editions/Artlys, 2006, p. 88
    
27. Natalie Vella presented Oz Music Radio from 2007 and early in 2010 moved on to film, presenting the Sexy International Paris Film Festival (sexyfilmfestparis.weebly.com)
    
28. Jason Burke,
    The Observer
    , 30 September 2007, pp 40-41
    
29. Et elle coule, coule, coule; Et elle coule nuit et jour;
    Car la Seine est une amante; Et Paris est son amour.
    
30. La Renaissance du Bessin
    , Issue 6578, vendredi 19 octobre 2007, p. 37
    
31. Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer
    
32. Spoken to Pontius Pilate. John 18: 36
    
33. Neither French city was successful with its bid to be European Capital of Culture in 2013. And the winner is … Kosice, Slovakia.
    
34. The competitors, in descending order of size, were: Cyprus, Luxembourg, Andorra, Malta, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Monaco. Apparently, the Vatican is not very sporting.
    
35. 15 March 1993 issue,
    Diari d’Andorra
    
36. For more information, visit www.museus.ad
    
37. The month before my arrival in Spain, some of the 21 accused over the Madrid atrocities were convicted but the alleged mastermind was still at large. In January 2008 he was arrested in Morocco and in December of that year the man — Abdelilah Ahriz — was sentenced in the Moroccan town of Scale to 20 years in jail for his involvement in the bombings. But in Spain itself the apportionment of criminal responsibility for the atrocities remains an open question. In December 2010 a US cable released by WikiLeaks identified two Indian as having also been involved.
    
38. The New Spaniards
    , by John Hooper, p. 19
    
39. Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia)
    
40. The New Spaniards
    , ibid.,p. 238
    
41. Europe on a Shoestring
    , Lonely Planet, 4th edition, Feb. 2005, p. 954
    
42. Royal photo-burners fined €2700,
    Catalonia Today
    , 22 November 2007
    
43. It’s That Man Again,
    Catalonia Today
    , ibid., p. 4
    
44. www.barcelonaworld.org
    
45. Ghosts of Spain: Travels Through a Country’s Hidden Past
    , Giles Tremlett, Faber & Faber, 2006, p. 132
    
46. The Great War for Civilisation
    —
    The Conquest of the Middle East
    , by Robert Fisk, Harper Perennial, 2006, p. 1275
    
47. Ghosts of Spain
    , ibid., p. 249
    
48. The Alhambra and Generalife: Official Guide
    , p. 9
    
49. In an email, 13 March 2008
    
50. In a second email, 14 March 2008
    
51. The
    muleta
    is a stick attached to the red cloth called a veronica which is held by the toreador. It obscures the sword with which he will stab it to death.
    
52. That bit about the tigers was just to see if you’re still paying attention: the rest is true.
    
53. The Histories
    , by Herodotus, Oxford University Press, p. 26
    
54. Paperback Oxford English Dictionary
    , pp 255-256
    
55. Travels with Herodotus
    , Ryszard Kapuscinski, p. 81
    

Some of these books are referred to in the text; they contain observations that shed light on the historical landscape through which I travelled. The others were no less inspiring or, in certain cases, of practical use. Note: Where no individual can be cited, titles are listed alphabetically by publishing house instead of by author.

Author unattributed,
Altotting City Guide
, St Antonius Buchhandlung, Munich, 2005

Bernaudez Lopez, J. and Calera Andreu, P.
, The Alhambra and
Generalife: Official Guide
, Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife, Granada, 1999

Bronnikera, E and Seledkova, O.,
Soberg, I
., Gostiny Dvor Publications, Archangelsk (undated)

Carlyon, L.,
The Great War
. Pan Macmillan, Sydney, 2006

Coates, L.,
Ypres,
1914
-
18: A Study in History Around Us
, Self-published, Norwich, 1995

Davies, N.,
Europe: A History
, Pimlico, London, 1997

Deutsches Museum
, Deutsches Museum: A Guide to the Museum.
3rd revised ed
.
, Munich, 1995

Diamond, J.,
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive
, Allen Lane, New York, 2005

Feng, J.,
Time for Celebration
, Select Books Online @www.selectbooks. com.sg/get Title, 2000

Fisk, R.,
The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East
, Harper Perennial, London, 2006

Flynn, N.,
Another Bullshit Night in Suck City
, Faber & Faber, New York, 2004

Hardy, T.,
Race Around the Sports World
, GSP Books, Melbourne, 2006

Hemingway, E.,
For Whom the Bell Tolls
, Arrow Books, New York, 1941

Herodotus,
The Histories
(translation, introduction and notes by Dewald, C.), Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1998

Hooper, J.,
The New Spaniards
, Penguin, London, 1995

Isherwood, C.,
The Berlin Novels: Mr Norris Changes Trains and Goodbye
to Berlin
, Vintage, London, 1998 (orig. 1935, 1939) Johnson, P.,
Intellectuals
, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 2005 (orig. 1988)

Kapuscinski, R.,
Travels with Herodotus
. Allen Lane, New York, 2007

Kuringova, T.,
Sorbian Customs and Traditions in the Course of the Year
, Serbska Cultura Informacija, Bautzen, 2005

Lewis, E.,
Left Bank Waltz: The Australian Bookshop in Paris
, Vintage, Sydney, 2006

Lonely Planet,
Europe on a Shoestring
, 4th ed., Melbourne, February 2005

Lonely Planet
, Russia & Belarus
, 4th ed., Melbourne, March 2006

Meredith, M.,
The State of Africa
, Jonathan Ball Publishers, Johannesburg and Cape Town, 2005

Mill, J.S.,
On Liberty and Other Essays,
Oxford World’s Classics, Oxford, 1998

Mittais, V.,
Louvre: The Pocket Louvre
, Musee du Louvre Editions/Artlys, Paris, 2006

Montefiore, S.S.,
Prince of Princes: The Life of Potemkin
, St Martin’s Press, New York, 2001

Orwell, G.,
Down and Out in Paris and London
, Penguin Modern Classics, London, 1968 (orig. 1933) Oxford University Press,
Paperback Oxford English Dictionary
, Oxford, 2006

Roberts, J.,
A Sense of the World
, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2006

Saramago, J.,
The History of the Siege of Lisbon
, Harcourt Inc., London (orig. in Portuguese, 1989)

Scott, Sir W.,
Ivanhoe
, Penguin Popular Classics, London, 1994 (orig. 1819)

Severin, T.,
King’s Man
, Vol. 3 of the Viking Trilogy, Macmillan, London, 2005

Taylor, F.,
The Berlin Wall, 13 August 1961-9 November 1989
, Bloomsbury, London, 2006

The Economist,
The World in 2008
, London, 2007

Tremlett, G.,
Ghosts of Spain: Travels Through a Country’s Hidden Past
, Faber & Faber, Ipswich, England, 2006

Van Gogh Museum,
A Museum for Van Gogh: Vincent Van Gogh
:
Life,
Work and Contemporaries
, Amsterdam, 2005

Maps of Europe consulted

Marco Polo map by Institut Geographique National, 1:4 500 000; 1st edition, 2005

GeoCenter map by MairDumont, 1: 2 500 000; 2007

LanderKarte map by Carto Travel, ADAC, 1: 2 500 000; 2007

Sponsors of the Journey

None of these people has asked for, or been given, any say in the opinions or emphases adopted in the text of
Europe @ 2.4 km/h
, all of which are my own. But I hereby record my gratitude for their contributions which eased the financial burden of my long journey.

Pentax Corporation (www.pentax.co.jp/english)

Graham Deacon, Elsternwick Camera Centre

Russia & Beyond (www.russiabeyond.com.au)

YHA Australia (Australian division of Hostelling International) (www.yha.com.au)

QBE Insurance (www.qbetravelinsurance.com.au)

Principal and partners, Selwyn Greenberg & Co.

Hurtigruten Steamship Company, Tromso branch — with particular gratitude to communications consultant Stein Lillebo and team leader Eigil Molo. (www.hurtigruten.com)

Peninsula Star Cycles, Playne St, Frankston (www.peninsularstarcycles.com.au)

Eric and Liesbeth Dasbach, Hotel Campanile, Gaasperplas, Amsterdam ([email protected])

Special recognition

(grouped according to where they were when they made their particular contributions)

AU
STRALIA

Mum and Dad: For being there when I wasn’t — and even when I was.

Les Carlyon: Your letter of encouragement and challenge stayed on my desk from the first day of writing till the last.

Joye Oldham: For blazing the trail to our European family.

Stephanie Bunbury: Your globetrotting and work ethic remain exemplary. Note, I’m still obeying the international vagrancy laws.

Bob Weis: For sending me to Buchenwald.

Tony Hardy: For writing first and best about Cafe Oz’s Grand Final knees-up.

Geoff Slattery: For putting me in touch with Tony and his rollicking
tour de force
of a book.

Bernard Whimpress, without whom I wouldn’t have found a home for this book.

At Wakefield Press: Julia Beaven, for patience, precision and always keeping my focus where it needed to be; Michael Bollen for his quiet vigilance; Angela Tolley and Stephanie Johnston for getting the word out; Michael Deves for showing you where I went without telling me where to go; and Stacey Zass for making the journey look a picture.