My sister invited me with her to a lecture by Rick Steves yesterday, part of a Heinz Hall lecture series, all about European travel. This sister has gone many times to Europe so it was definitely her kind of thing, and I went not expecting much to be of interest to me, who has no means/$ to travel for the next million years.

It was wonderful, however. If you google "travel as a political act" you'll find links to what he's about. He spoke a lot about the European Union, and how the wealthier nations are providing infrastructure for the poorer ones -- he showed a photo of a fantastic bridge the EU built in Greece, for example. He said that Germany and France, the richer countries, still feel generally that it's a good deal for them, that they've made plenty of money from the less-rich member countries. He talked about how the E.U. came about due to Europe's utter horror of the world wars.

Rick Steve's background is in history. But he obviously finds the unusual people he can run across the best part of travel.