Dec. 29--Why go to Europe in winter?
For one thing, it's cheap! My round-trip Boston-to-Paris airfare on Iceland's discount carrier WOW Air was $550. That's less than half of the summer-season cost. My econo rental car was $12 a day, or about half the holiday rate. The cottage I rented in Holland was discounted by 20 percent, and the tourist restaurants in Assisi in Italy had a price war going on: two people, three courses each and a bottle of wine for $40. Plus, the dollar is as strong against the euro as it's been in years.
It's uncrowded. My wife and I waited only 10 minutes without reservations at the Musee D'Orsay, Paris' popular repository of impressionist art, on a free Sunday. And no one was standing between us and the "Mona Lisa" at The Louvre. On the trail linking the Cinque Terre villages on Italy's Mediterranean coast where you can feel as if you are in a queue during tourist season, we passed just four hikers and one jogger.
It's warm. Well, at least it's not cold like the Northern U.S. The Gulf Stream that sweeps up the American East Coast crosses the Atlantic and warms big hunks of Europe, promoting the growth of flowers and palm trees in unexpected places at unexpected times. Despite Hans Brinker (a story written by an American), the Dutch canals so seldom freeze that when they do, a holiday is declared. And almost everywhere winter crops such as Brussels sprouts, leeks and winter wheat continue to grow.
It's not hot. Southern Europe is sweltering in summer, northern Europe can be hot, and no one has much air conditioning.
There aren't many Americans. Of course, I like us, but when everyone at breakfast in your London B is from the United States, you begin to wonder where all the Europeans are. They're here now! Come visit them in winter.
Peter Ferry is a freelance reporter and author of "Old Heart."
