I was so disappointed with this book!
I loved A Walk in the Woods so much that I've read it twice now. Of course, it may partly be because I'm obsessed with the AT, but still...Bryson's writing makes me laugh out loud.

But this? Ugh...I mean some of it was funny, and the first chapter was great..but then...it just went on and on. It was all the same - arrive in a new city/country after a long trip, can't find a hotel, can't find food, everything is dirty and disgusting, people are stupid...it really made him sound like a whiny brat, and I was totally over it. I feel like Bryson is so much better than this.

I'm giving him another chance with In a Sunburned Country. Stay tuned.

Read as a follow-up to The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid.

This book has seriously fun parts. It made me full on laugh out loud on multiple occasions. (An extra bonus is the reaction of people around you when you laugh like a maniac to something from the audiobook they do not see you "reading.") It also includes multiple bits of curio about different places in Europe.

The downside: it is seriously dated by now. It describes the world of early '90s. One of the stops is in the country called Yugoslavia to give you an idea.

Another peculiar thing, unlike other Bill Bryson's travelogue like The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America or Down Under, this one has a surprising focus on sex or sex-adjacent topics. Nothing too gross but surprising.

I also started A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail, but I feel I have too much of Bill Bryson for now, so I will cut that one short.

If you are new to the author, I recommend his A Short History of Nearly Everything and At Home: A Short History of Private Life. This is his best work, in my opinion.

I don’t know if it was lockdown blues that prompted me to pick up a Bill Bryson book but I’m sure glad I did, I needed a reminder that the world still exists beyond my Local Government Area (it’s been a long lockdown here in Sydney) this is my best and safest method of travel for now so I think I enjoyed this book even more because of it. I had to keep reminding myself it was written back in 1992 so I could forgive some of it’s dated commentary. Not only was this a fun way to travel but I learnt lots of fun facts and tidbits of trivia along the way. Fun and not to be taken too seriously as Bill Bryson displays his usual ascerbic humour.

The master of humourous travel writing thoroughly entertains us on his journeys through Scandanavia, Paris, the Low Countries, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. In amongst all of this he also manages to find something to write about in Liechtenstein, which is no small feat!

Bryson writes with killer wit partly retracing his steps from an earlier four month backpacking trip taken in 1973 with his friend Stephen Katz (who Bryson fans will recall from A Walk in the Woods). The retelling of some of these hiliarious stories into this book adds to his current experiences and our enjoyment of the overall story. A laugh-a-page travel book that is sure not to disappoint.

Bill Bryson is a fine writer. I may not love his persona and the random thoughts of sex with beautiful young women so much, but Bryson can spin a yarn. His writing skill keeps the golden thread alive in a travelogue that could have been a yawn.

Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe is a travelogue. The book starts with the northern reaches of coastal Norway and concludes on the European side of Istanbul. Asia is visible right across the slim expanse of the Bosphorus. In between, Bryson covers much ground from Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Bulgaria, and ending in Turkey.

Italy is likely Bryson's favorite destination, but he is not averse to being real about the shortcomings of even his favorite cities.

This is the third of Bryson's books I've read in the last 2 years. He reminds me of one of my uncle's generation with the occasional sexist crack or jibe that is not as funny as he thinks. It's good that he can spin a tale and keep the plates spinning. Amirite, boomer? (But please consider that asked with more affection than annoyance.)

Bryson is one of the funniest travel writers around, and this book is no exception, even if it's a little dated. Revisiting the places he first explored as a young backpacker, Bryson travels the European continent this time with a decidedly more adult approach. Plenty of laugh out loud moments are sprinkled throughout this book. If you are anything like me, Bryson's stories will have you thinking it's about time to drag out that suitcase again for your own European adventure.

Bryson is always entertaining. While some reviewers felt this book was a bit dated, somethings seldom change...typical weather in countries, churches, museums, to name a few. And when Bryson continued to fantasize about Ornella Muti (I was unfamiliar with this Italian actress) I looked her up on the internet, only to find a news headline on 2/25/15 about her being fined for missing a performance to dine with Putin. It doesn't get more current than that.
Of course it always helps when a reader agrees with a writer. In this case, his love of Sorrento, one of my favorite cities. First experiences often have a lasting impression and that certainly was the case here. On our first trip to Sorrento, we were given an upgrade to an elegant suite at the Grand Hotel Excelsior Vittoria. We could have held a dance or dinner party for 200 guests on our terrace! Instead, the two of us dined alfresco, each evening by candlelight, sumptuous meals while watching the twinkling lights of Capri, a short ferry ride across the bay. We have returned several times and found few changes. No, I'm not a PR rep:>
While I didn't always agree with Bryson's views of people/places on his journey, in most cases, he wasn't far off target.
A quote I liked: "Isn't it strange how wealth is always wasted on the rich?" page 152

Приятен пътепис, но не ми допадна това, че Брайсън е голямо мрънкало. Времето из Скандинавието било лошо през март (невероятно!), немският език му пречел да си поръча храна, валяло, било скучно и т.н. Общо взето успя да обиди всяка страна с по нещо. От друга страна обаче ми се видя доста обективен в описанията си. Някои от забележките му са все така актуални 25 години след написването на книгата.

С нетърпение очаквах една от последните глави - тази за София. Винаги е интересно да видиш родното през чужди очи. С много тъга и доста точно е описал ситуацията ни в началото на прехода, даже е уловил някои "болести", които още ни мъчат. След като обявява българките за най-красивите жени в Европа - как да му се сърди човек. Бил Брайсън явно е българин.

Having only read Bill Bryson’s, “A Short History of Nearly Everything”, I went into this expecting a similar plethora of information and memorable anecdotes about his travels in Europe. I certainly was not expecting it to be as raunchy and mildly vitriolic as it turned out to be.

There were things I loved, tolerated, as well as disliked, about the book. To begin with, the aspects I loved were his short random anecdotes and analogies. They were extremely relatable to anyone who has ever traveled anywhere, and a few of them were certainly of the laugh-out-loud kind. Another thing I loved was that it was refreshingly different from an ordinary guidebook. It was one person’s truly personal and biased account of Europe and all it had to offer, and that was enough to keep it from getting boring. Also, another nice addition were the stats and histories of specific places that were interspersed in between.

Moving on to the things I did not love but could deal with, was the adult tone of the book as well as the stereotypical approach towards each country. It's all fun and games when you see other countries getting roasted until you realize he might do the same to yours. Most of the writing was plain grousing, but some passages truly made me want to write that place down on my travel list, just by the way he described it.

And finally, the parts I truly disliked would have to be the kind of whining undertone throughout the book, especially regarding the food and hotels. They were putting a damper on the momentum. Towards the end, I could feel Bryson’s fatigue through the book and was silently willing him to just end his travels and return home, because it was starting to sound tiresome, which might be as realistic as a travel memoir gets.

All in all, I don’t regret reading it, and it is an entertaining book if taken in a carefree spirit with no deeper meanings attached.

Edit: Il libro mi è piaciuto, ma ho scoperto che in realtà Bryson viene in Italia. Solo che nella traduzione italiana questa parte scompare. Assurdo.
Il voto è da ritenersi riferito alla versione italiana.

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Divertente e interessante come tutti i libri di Bryson.

Questa volta parte per un viaggio nell'Europa continentale, dalla scandinavia fino a Instanbul, a due passi dall'Asia. Passando per Francia, Svizzera, Austria, Germania e Balcani.

L'unica delusione è stata che in tutto questo ha evitato le nazioni tirreniche: Portogallo, Spagna e soprattutto Italia, mentre io ero curiosissimo di scoprire cosa ne pensasse questo americano trapiantato in Inghilterra dell'Italia di fine anni '80... però mi ha messo una voglia matta di visitare alcune città (mentre di altre mi ha tolto ogni possibile desiderio, se mai ne avessi potuto avere uno).

This book was highly entertaining at times, I can't say it wasn't. In fact, it was highly entertaining most of the time. However, I can't say I learned hardly anything about any of the places Bill Bryson visited. He reserves most of his commentary for how far he walked to get to a train station, how fast or slow the train rides were, and how cornflake-sized bugars feel in his nose while on those train rides...

I hate to bash authors...that's not what I'm trying to do here. I am simply trying to say Bryson's book was not what I was expecting and did not give me what I look for in reading travel novels (I like to get a grasp of what different places are like, the ambience, the people, maybe a little history). Also, it was about a year ago that I read this book, and I am sure some of these tidbits were woven into his writing. However, I do remember feeling let down at the time and coming to the conclusion that inserting this sort of substance into his writing was not his main focus, although it may have slipped in somewhere along the way.

Číst knihu od autora, jehož populárně-naučné knihy milujete, a zjistit při tom, že je vlastně v reálu docela vůl, skoro až fyzicky bolí.

Bryson neustále remcá, ať se zrovna nachází kdekoliv: na nepohodlí, na hloupé Evropany (kteří, světe div se, ne vždycky umí anglicky), na drahotu, na jídlo, na počasí, na architekturu, zkrátka na cokoliv. Navíc má spoustu pitomých sexistických hlášek. A krade v hotelech ručníky.
Procestuje kousek Skandinávie, Belgie, Itálie, Rakouska, (tehdy ještě) Jugoslávie a kudy chodí, tam plije na místní. Je zvláštní, číst cestopis od někoho, komu zjevně většinu času uniká podstata poznávacího cestování.

Jeho stížnosti jsou většinou celkem otravné a Bryson je jede jako kolovrátek, ale docela jsem valila oči, když píše, že ho překvapilo, jak jsou Francouzi nevděční. Přestože byli za války Francouzi osvobozeni Spojenci, nikdo v Paříži nenabízí turistům ze spojeneckých zemí (jakože Brysonovi) drinky nebo vstup na Eiffelovku zadarmo! Skandál! Dokonce mu za osvobození Francie ani nikdo nepoděkoval. (Bryson sám se narodil v roce 1951.)

Jinak uznávám, že jeho remcání je sam tam i vtipné - většinou takovým tím zlým, jedovatým způsobem - a několikrát jsem se nahlas uchechtla.

Celkově jsou jeho cesty po Evropě - a především on sám - pro mě zklamáním.