I highly recommend this book for American Christians who are going to Europe. The authors have done an excellent job of including the obvious sites of Christian significance (Notre Dame, Rome, etc.) and balancing them with relatively obscure sites (Austria's St. Florian Abby, for example).Other things I like about this book:
* The "Country in a Capsule" section at the beginning of each country section provides an excellent introduction to each country -- very well done.
* The inclusion of even minor "countries" -- Gibraltar, Andorra, Malta (which I now want to visit!), Liechtenstein, Iceland, Monaco and of course the Vatican City (they left out San Marino, though -- its not even in the Italy section) is refreshing, and I found them to be very interesting. * The sprinkling in of some (well-selected) not specifically Christian sites. The authors seem to understand that even "Christian Travelers" will want to see some of the other major sites in Europe, too, and so they provide a valuable service in reporting on these places for us through Christian eyes.
Because "The Christian Traveler's Companion: Western Europe" does not include information on lodging, restaurants and transportation (trains, buses, etc.), they pack a lot into their 360 pages. Because of this, though, you will also need to purchase a more general travel guide book, too, to give you that kind of information. You will find only modest overlap between a general interest guide to Europe and this one.
Overall, well worth having -- I recommend it!
