I’m not sure when I first became obsessed with traveling to Europe. It was at an early age when I couldn’t have known much about it. But somehow Europe became the place I longed to go more than anywhere. Early on it settled in my imagination as a mythical, magical place of great wonder and pleasure.
I don’t know what set it off. I learned about England early on because my mother and grandparents had just come to America when I was born. Perhaps my fascination with Europe began when I heard them talking about England, and the longing in their voices when they spoke of the place they called home. I inherited their fondness for England before I had any idea of geography.
England is part of Europe – or not – depending on which day of the week. But to most people, it’s part of “The Continent.” That gets confusing.
In grade school I learned that Europe was a continent, though it didn’t fit the definition. We were told that a continent is a large body of land surrounded on all sides by ocean. Europe is a peninsula off Asia. But we call it a continent by tradition. Europe’s importance in the world has always been much greater than its physical size warrants.
That was only one of many contradictions I was told with a straight face during my education. But the larger point was made: Europe is exceptional. Even now, after decades of expanding my travel horizons, Europe still stands inordinately tall on the landscape of my imagination. As I look around, I see that I am not unusual in this. Europe is perennially the most popular tourist destination in the world.
There are many ways to interpret statistics, but certainly the top tourist destinations by visitors makes an irrefutable point about the popularity of Europe. I came upon this list of the top tourism destinations in 2019:
France – 90.0 million
Spain – 83.7 million
United States – 79.3 million
China – 65.7 million
Italy – 64.5 million
Turkey – 51.2 million
Mexico – 45.0 million
Thailand – 39.8 million
Germany – 39.6 million
United Kingdom – 39.4 million
Six of the top 10 countries are in Europe. If you compared in terms of land mass, or consider Europe as a single destination, the numbers would be even more lopsided.
Europe is about the same land area as the United States. But it packs all those countries of major importance into that space. And those countries have individual histories that date back thousands of years. It’s incomprehensibly rich in culture and…
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