This hefty 2003 travel book (a new
edition was published in 2011) contains nearly 1,000 pages covering the world,
or more accurately some of the world. It
is divided into eight sections: Europe; Africa; the Middle East; Asia;
Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands; the United States and Canada;
Latin America; the Caribbean, Bahamas and Bermuda. It is heavily weighted in favour of the
United States, which has nearly 200 pages devoted to it. The whole of Asia gets less than a hundred.
Romania is represented by only two
locations, occupying less than a couple of pages: ‘The painted monasteries of
Moldavia’ (subtitled ‘the Sistine Chapels of the East’), and what it risibly
terms ‘Count Dracula’s Castle’, i.e. Bran (subtitled ‘In a Lost Corner of
Central Europe’). The latter section is
more about Dracula than Bran Castle, and calls Transylvania ‘a time-locked
country that never seems to have felt the 20th century’s touch, never mind the
21st’s’.
Naturally any list of the 1,000 places
one must definitely see before clogs are popped is going to be arbitrary to an
extent, and there will be disagreements about what has been included and omitted. However, for such a sizeable country with
much to offer this all seems inadequate, but then the region generally is not
well served by Schultz. The Czech
Republic has 7 entries, Hungary 4 and Poland 3.
Belarus, Bulgaria, Slovakia and the western Balkans are clearly not
worth visiting at all.
While much of the book’s content will
inevitably date, places like the painted monasteries and Bran Castle are not going
anywhere so it is still of some use and may stimulate a few travel ideas. But Romania, among others, deserves
better. Really, I cannot understand why
anyone would want to shell out for this book when there are so many up-to-date
country-specific guides available, all of which contain recommendations of
places that are worth a visit, and without the implicit suggestion that if you
die before you see them, your life will somehow have been unfulfilled.
