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Europe on Five Wrong Turns a Day: One Man, Eight Countries, One Vintage Travel Guide Reviewed By Lois Henderson of Bookpleasures.com
http://www.bookpleasures.com/websitepublisher/articles/4945/1/Europe-on-Five-Wrong-Turns-a-Day-One-Man-Eight-Countries-One-Vintage-Travel-Guide-Reviewed-By-Lois-Henderson-of-Bookpleasurescom/Page1.html
Lois C. Henderson

Reviewer Lois C. Henderson: Lois is a freelance academic editor and back-of-book indexer, who spends most of her free time compiling word search puzzles for tourism and educative purposes. Her puzzles are available HERE and HERE Her Twitter account (@LoisCHenderson) mainly focusses on the toponymy of British place names. Please feel welcome to contact her with any feedback at LoisCourtenayHenderson@gmail.com.





 
By Lois C. Henderson
Published on May 23, 2012
 

Author: Doug Mack

Publisher: Perigee Trade

ISBN-10: 0399537325:   ISBN-13: 978-0399537325




Follow Here To Purchase Europe on 5 Wrong Turns a Day: One Man, Eight Countries, One Vintage Travel Guide

Author: Doug Mack

Publisher: Perigee Trade

ISBN-10: 0399537325:   ISBN-13: 978-0399537325


The title a sendup of that of Frommer’s ’60’s classic guidebook for the hippy generation, Europe on Five Dollars a Day, Doug Mack’s 21st century Europe on Five Wrong Turns a Day: One Man, Eight Countries, One Vintage Travel Guide is a tale that stretches from highs to lows to highs again, as first the author’s Mom gleefully regales her offspring with accounts of how she travelled Europe in the heyday of her youth (when she really could make five bucks go a long, long way), to the cynical expectations of the author of a Europe trashed beyond repair, to his delight at finding it not to be so – despite Europe being somewhat grimier and more besmirched than it was in the early days of mass tourism in the middle of the last century, the continent, nevertheless, manages to rise above it all, and to emerge as a most worthwhile and inspiring destination.

Starting with Florence, and writing his way through the major metropoli of Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Berlin, Munich, Zurich, Vienna, Venice, Rome and Madrid, Mack takes us on an updated version of the Grand Tour. Setting out with the mission of treading “the standard tourist path”, and following, as closely as possible, in Frommer’s footsteps, Mack nevertheless eschews “the familiarity and knowledge of the modern information-overloaded traveller.” However, he does confess to having made use of the internet to establish which of Frommer’s recommended accommodation establishments were still open, as many of them, sadly enough, were not. From being a jaded and jaundiced listener to other (wo)men’s tales, Mack progresses from feeling totally out of his element to becoming an experienced adventurer abroad with tourist savvy of which to boast.

Starting with “blissed-out gaping” as “the authenticity high turned into an enrapturing overdose at the up-close sight of the winding cobblestoned passageways encroached by ineffably Old World architecture” in a Florence that was “romantic beyond belief,” Mack soon realizes that his linguistic shortcomings are unlikely to land him up with any romantic interlude on the oh-so-inviting continent, which has the reputation of being strewn with such dalliances. Mack’s comparison of his own loneliness in foreign lands compares poignantly with the close relationship between his parents when his Mom toured the same lands and kept in contact with her fiancé (who remained back in the States) through numerous letters, from which Mack fittingly quotes. However, his puckish and charmingly self-deprecatory sense of humor carries him through, revealing itself in such aphoristic comments as: “The world was my oyster, but then, I don’t trust oysters―all they’ve ever given me is food poisoning.”

If you are looking for an unusual guidebook to Europe that smacks of yesteryear and yet also has an eye on how globalization has affected the international tourist market, look no farther than Europe on Five Wrong Turns a Day: One Man, Eight Countries, One Vintage Travel Guide―it would be worth its value at twice the price.


Follow Here To Purchase Europe on 5 Wrong Turns a Day: One Man, Eight Countries, One Vintage Travel Guide