Germany
Netherlands
Switzerland
WESTERN EUROPE
GETTING TO WESTERN EUROPE
Discount clubs and fare brokers offer members savings on last-minute charter and tour deals. Study contracts closely; you don’t want to end up with an unwanted overnight layover. Travelers Advantage, Trumbull, CT (® 203-365-2000; www.travel- ersadvantage.com; US$60 annual fee includes discounts and cheap flight directo ries) specializes in European travel and tour packages.
BY CHUNNEL FROM THE UK
Traversing 27 miles under the sea, the Chunnel is undoubtedly the fastest, most convenient, and least scenic route from England to France.
BY TRAIN. Eurostar, Eurostar House, Waterloo Station, London SE1 8SE (UK ®0990 186 186; US®800-387-6782; elsewhere call UK®020 7928 5163; www.euro- star.com; www.raileurope.com) runs frequent trains between London and the con tinent. Ten to 28 trains per day run to Paris (3hr. US$75-159 2nd-class), Brussels (4hr. USS75-159 2nd-class), and Disneyland Paris. Routes include stops at Ashford in England, and Calais and Lille in France. Book at major rail stations in the UK, at the office above, by phone, or on the web.
BY BUS. Both Eurolines and Eurobus provide bus-ferry combinations (50).
BY CAR. Eurotunnel, Customer Relations, P.O. Box 2000, Folkestone, Kent CT18 8XY (UK®080 0096 9992; www.eurotunnel.co.uk) shuttles cars and passengers between Kent and Nord-Pas-de-Calais. Round-trip fares for vehicle and all passen gers range from UK&100-210 with car, UK&259-636 with campervan. Same-day round-trip costs UKS110-150, five-day round-trip UK&139-195. Book online or via phone. Travelers with cars can also look into sea crossings by ferry (see below).
1721 The Puritan minister John Wise publishes A Word of Comfort to a Melancholy Country under a pseudonym, advocating paper money and easy credit as beneficial to the rural population. 10 best countries to visit Another minister, Thomas Paine, replies in A Discourse Shewing that the Real First Cause of the Straits and Difficulties of this Province of the Massachusetts Bay is its Extravagance, and not Paper Money, and also what is a Safe Foundation to Raise a Bank of Credit on, and what not. Paine attacks extravagance and vanity, particularly among the lower classes, as the real source of Massachusetts’s economic problems. 1722 The White Pines Act, intended to reserve trees for masts for the Royal Navy, requires a permit to fell white pines with a diameter over 24 inches unless on private land. 1723 Frenchman Philippe Renaut establishes a lead mine on the west bank of the Mississippi.
