Neither here nor there: Travels in Europe

He was accompanied by an unforgettable sidekick named Stephen Katz (who will be gloriously familiar to readers of Bryson's A Walk in the Woods). Twenty years later, he decided to retrace his journey.

Setting out in the dead of winter, he rides a bouncing bus to northern Norway—hoping for Northern Lights, tolerable seats, and a well-behaved heater. From there, he winds south through Parisian boulevards, Belgian rain, and Roman traffic, taking in great cathedrals and odd local museums.

His route eventually carries him all the way to Istanbul, trading grand romantic visions for missed connections, eccentric locals, and dubious meals. The result is the affectionate and riotously funny Neither Here Nor There.

• European Travel Humor: From dodging runaway meatballs on a Swedish express train to deciphering incomprehensible menus in Bavaria, Bryson skewers the everyday indignities and comic misadventures of navigating foreign lands.
• Backpacking Europe Stories: Flashbacks to his youthful 1970s wanderings reveal the trials of hitchhiking in Belgium, surviving strange apartment dinners of warm beer and fried eggs, and dodging irate Austrian villagers.
• Europe Travel Observations: Wry commentary explores why French drivers treat roundabouts like bumper cars, how Danish cinema-goers crowd into single rows in empty theaters, and why the Swiss string endless overhead wires across mountain vistas.
• Also by This Author: Notes from a Small Island, The Lost Continent and The Best American Travel Writing 2016.