Down Old Roads

"This is the E8," my father said. "It runs from London to Moscow."

For a million years people have been traveling throughout Europe, from the mysterious homo antecessor who left its footprints on the coast of England to the travellers on the motorways of today. Under every footstep lies an older one, under every paved road a donkey trail or wagon rut, under every footpath the prints of a hunter or their prey.

And yet the long nation-spanning roads of Europe don't hold a special place in the imaginations and identities of its residents. No classic songs been written about the E30 or the E8, such as the Americans have written about Route 66. Are Europeans too attached to their own home patch? Or have they too often seen armies marching towards them along those roads?

Seeking to answer to that question, Mathijs Deen goes in search of the warriors, refugees, bandits, pilgrims, fortune-seekers, conquerors and racers who trod their path into history along the roads of Europe. From Boekelo in the Netherlands to Smolensk on the Dnieper, and from the first prehistoric Europeans to the barons who raced the open roads of Europe in the early 20th century, Down the Old Roads is both a journey through Europe and a trip through time.

Translated from the Dutch by Jane Hedley-Prole and Jonathan Reeder