Having seen Europe with a rucksack on his back and a youthful spring in his step twenty years earlier, Bill 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.