Having never travelled to continental Europe before, I’d collected a series of impressions most scraped from those around me. With family in England, I’d often been there. Perched on the edge of the continent, the English watch their European cousins with what seems like bemusement and a mild contempt. And while that’s not surprising as it seems to be how the English perceive most countries in the world, it isn’t exactly the beaming positivity one wants to bring on one’s…