My dad told me when I was a little girl that in Europe, especially in older, more historic cities, buildings were built so closely together that neighbors could shake hands in the morning. Streets were built in between them, sometimes even those streets used to drive on! I thought he was exaggerating but this is a picture I took myself this summer in Germany. As I have mentioned before, roads in Europe were built before cars were invented, so they were mostly used for carriages or walking. The streets in the U.S. were built after the automobile Revolution; therefore they are more prepared for traffic and more comfortable to drive on. I literally thought I was going to die every day my dad would drive us around because it was so chaotic. Even on the freeways (the “autobahn” which for the most part has no speed limit) we would only have two lanes to drive on most of the time. Our freeways here in the U.S. are much slower and we have up to four or five lanes. Crazy right?
I will start out by quoting a blog “travel photo” who said this: Do you know the difference between European and American streets?
European towns were built for you to wake up and and get down to the street cafe under your apartment to drink your coffee. American towns were built very broad. That's for defense purposes - when Russian bombs fall and all the houses are ruined, tanks should have enough place to go through the streets of a town :-D
Click here for more!
This brings me to a totally different topic. Yes, it is convenient and much easier to drive in America, but there is something quite charming about European streets. There are cute shopping kiosks everywhere, food stands, and hundreds of pedestrians. Here in America, one almost gets out of the habit of watching out for pedestrians because there are so few of them! In Europe, pedestrians and bike riders are the majority.
When I looked up “Roman Roads” in the sixth edition of the Columbia Encyclopedia, it discusses how the roads were rebuilt after they were destroyed throughout the years and how many old bridges are even still in use. This is another element of Europe that I love. They don’t rip everything down and start over every few decades; they re-build and re-store. An old bridge can be absolutely stunning and contain a lot of history but every time a bridge in America is damaged (or just if we get bored with it) it gets completely ripped down and completely remade.
In Conclusion, European roads and American roads are very different because of their size, they atmosphere, and their history. This is a major part of European history and even it’s architecture. I feel as if I could go on and one about how important the atmosphere of a city is to it's history and that is what I will be discussing in my next blog! It is crucial to have a good atmosphere in a historical city not only to further it's historical charm but to satisfy it's visitors, who come for this kind of experience!
I felt this needed revision because it did not have a picture! I also made several grammatical changes and embeded my link into the "click here for more". These suggestions were given to me through my peer review response so I figured input from a fellow classmate was the most useful way to edit my blog. Also, it is now much easier to navigate through my page and more interesting to look at with different links and more pictures.
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