Europe and its history

Looking back over their history, it's hard to find a time when they weren't killing one another, grabbing each other's land, sinking ships, burning churches, stealing works of art. Even today, when they've made what for want of a better word they call peace, they can't help fighting over the price of olive oil, wheat and codfish or whether to put clean gasoline in their cars. No, Europeans are not exactly one big happy family.

But they do have fun. The land they grabbed is marvellously fertile, the churches they left standing are magnificent and the works of art eminently worth stealing. And when you taste your first Genovese tagliatelle al pasta or crusty French baguette, you'll understand that the olive oil and wheat are worth fighting for.

Europe and car hire

Touring some of the three dozen cities, you'll soon sense that the good things of European life derive from its sheer diversity. Take the city parks. When you walk around the geometrically arranged lawns bordered by regiments of chestnut trees in Paris's Tuileries Gardens, you couldn't possibly mistake them for the rolling expanses of grass scattered with sturdy oaks, deck chairs and loving couples in London's Hyde Park.

Paris's poets and philosophers meditate along right angled or diagonal gravel paths while their London counterparts proclaim their wisdoms corralled in one corner of their park on soapboxes. Even the so called Englischer Garten of Munich has as its centrepiece a decidedly unEnglish beer garden. Or the cheeses.

France may have 400 different kinds (the figure seems to change as often as the Dow Jones average), but the serious gourmet should not neglect the scores of others to be found in Italy, Britain or the Netherlands, each of them subtly different in aroma, texture and taste. The Baroque palaces of Austria do not resemble those of Italy; the beaches of Greece and Spain are as different as chalk and cheese.

The diversity of urban landscape, cuisine or architecture is of course an inevitable expression of the endless variety in the people themselves, not just the obvious differences between, say, Swedes and Italians but also between Prussian and Bavarian Germans or Parisian and Mediterranean Frenchmen.

These national and regional differences are occasional causes of international and civil wars, but a permanent source of pride for the natives and a joy for the foreign visitors. The ideal places for you to sample the flavour and spice of this variety are the major cities, natural magnets for the best talents in Europe.

Well, where do you start? If you don't want to add too much culture shock to your jet lag by confronting a foreign language as soon as you land, it may be a good idea to start with an English speaking city. So unless the old country demanding your undivided allegiance is Ireland or Scotland, which we'll get to in a minute, your first choice is likely to be London.

Things to do in London

The old lady is looking good. Since Britain's entry into the European Common Market in the 1960s, London has become a top tourist destination not just for Americans but for all of Britain's European partners. This has forced London, at last, to raise the standards of its restaurants and the comfort of its hotels. The internationalization of the job market has brought in Italian,

Spanish, Greek and even French chefs and the competition has improved the quality of English food, too. The theatre is as good as ever, whether in the venerable West End houses around Shaftesbury Avenue or in the ultramodern performing arts centre at the Barbican and the prestigious new National Theatre on the South Bank of the River Thames.

The monuments and museums of London's historic past are remarkably unforbidding, but you still won't get the guard at Buckingham Palace to give you a kiss. Shopping is a delightful adventure both in the imperturbable department stores of Oxford Street and Knightsbridge or the elegant arcades of Piccadilly.

Car hire in London

The best way to get around London is to hire a car from the airport at Heathrow or Gatwick. If you're not planning to tour the surrounding countryside, wait till you get to the Continent. But before you cross the English Channel, why not take a plane or train up to Edinburgh? Scotland's dashing; cobblestoned capital charms visitors with its graceful Royal Mile stretching from Edinburgh Castle to the palace of Holy rood house.

The couple of dozen courses in and around the city limits make it a heady delight for golfers, and the pure malt whisky served in the cheerful taverns does a similar job for the rest of us.

Dublin is for poets, professional and amateur, romantic and cynical. The professionals bear names like W.B.Yeats, James Joyce and George Bernard Shaw and the amateurs are to be seen and heard any night of the week in the pubs around St Stephen's Green. They are at their most entertaining on cabaret night. For your moments of meditation, walk the quadrangles of Trinity College and in the evening enjoy the splendid Irish drama at the grand old Abbey Theatre.