24 official languages were spoken throughout Europe and our feeble attempt to converse in the local lingo appeared to cause our hosts some frustration – most of them made it clear that they would prefer to communicate in English, especially the younger generation.
I suppose I hadn’t appreciated that the language barrier applied to all travellers in Europe, not just the Brits – a Swede travelling in Spain was just as linguistically handicapped as we were. We sat next an elderly German couple in a restaurant in Italy where the staff were Sri Lankan and spoke impeccable English. We ordered without difficulty but at the next table the food brought to the Germans seemed to cause them considerable surprise. Europe had a shared currency in the euro so, perhaps it was time to have just one official language. Of course that would have to be English!
We spent a few days at a camp site just outside Turin. The site was in a run down industrial area and adjacent to a major traffic route but the mature trees around the camp site all but masked the sound of the traffic. The site had 42 pitches and was virtually full to capacity, Germans, Swiss and English as well as Italians. To the rear of the site was a beautiful area of parkland that led down to the Po River.
