Western Europe The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture

Western Europe The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture
epub | 28.44 MB | English | 1857334906 | Author: Roger Jones | 484 | 2011

The historic countries of Western Europe -- Austria, Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland -- are the jewels in the crown of European civilization. Their importance and attraction for the rest of the world are so great that the region is the prime travel destination for businesspeople, tourists, and students.

Western Europe is a relatively compact geographical area, containing an enormous diversity of landscapes, peoples, and cultures. The historically competitive Western Europeans are unlike each other in many ways, yet share an underlying system of values, and the restless Western European spirit of enquiry, enterprise, and adventure has had a decisive impact on world history. In the past, their empires spread their languages, religions, arts, and ideologies around the globe, and today the world beats a pathway to their doors. For foreign visitors, first encounters in Western Europe can be overwhelming. The...