Indeed, Sula, I know about that road.

The posts of your brother and you are so well written, I admire that, but I like to poke some fun on occasion. So many Brits are so well educated, and then with the darn accent, they sound like it as well, even when, in the rarest of circumstances, they may not be talking sense!

My only trip to Europe was in the summer of 1973. My college buddy and I began our trip in London, figuring we'd start slowly, given the language issues we anticipated on the continent. Arrived in Heathrow, took a cab to downtown London - cab driver jabbered, in a friendly way, the whole time - we may have understood about 20% of the words he said!! My buddy and I kept exchanging glances, like, "WTF, we can't even understand the English guys!" Fortunately, others were somewhat easier to understand, and we really didn't have much difficulty traveling through the continent, either.

Anyway, when leaving London for Paris, we happened to sit near a fellow on the train down to Dover and then stuck with him on the ferry and then another train from Calais to Paris. Never forget this guy's name, Victor Walne. Damn that guy was educated and sharp! I thought it pretty good that I knew a little Latin and had read the Aeneid in Latin - with 90% help from a translation book - he was appalled that we'd been allowed to use transalatin books! He started recited that damn poem in Latin, and got plenty past singing of arms and men and only stopped because we raised the white flag!