Having seen Europe with a rucksack on his back and a youthful spring in his step twenty years earlierlike many of his generation, in search of enlightenment, beer, and womenBill Bryson decides to make a sentimental journey back to that familiar territory, to wander perilously through the minefields of linguistic confusion and through innumerable European cities in search of a room for the night and a good square meal. With characteristic caustic wit and a cynical eye, he suffers every known peculiarity of every country he visits and in the process creates an unforgettably incisive, honest, and funny portrait of modern Europe, from the frozen wastes of Scandinavia to the chaotic tumult of Istanbul.