A few observations on travel to Europe after an absence of three years: 1) Europeans no longer use money. They use cards, mostly with little contactless symbols. They will not take cash, even at Mighty Burger in the food hall of St. Pancras Station. 2) Bicycles rule everywhere, especially in Paris, and the “bike-bastards” don’t stop for stop signs—or pedestrians. 3) All reservations for everything must be made online. It’s pointless to try to phone or drop by the box office.
4. Supermarkets, especially in England, have rows of self-service checkout machines and perhaps two machines that (unwillingly) take cash. A lone, harried attendant supervises all of this confusion—and there’s always confusion. In France, the self-service machines tend to be out-of-order, which means that the frazzled cashier must “help” you outsmart the system. 5. French trains still run exactly on time. English trains do not.
6. Everybody hates Boris Johnson, and almost everyone hates Emmanuel Macron, so naturally, they both remain in power. 7. Public transportation—in both Paris and London—is superb; they are SO far ahead of rinky-dink, user-unfriendly American systems. 8. So you see, the Londoners are right: there will ALWAYS be a gap. A gap between Europeans (concerned about improving the quality of human life) and America (concerned about carrying firearms in public). ALWAYS. Mind the gap.
