An Attempted Crimp In My UK Travel Plans

I suppose most of you have heard of the US State Department's latest 'travel advisory' regarding Americans traveling in Europe?   It is in regard to reports that al-Qaida, and its 'hidden' supporters, are in the midst of planning high-profile terror attacks on transport and tourist sites in Europe, similar to the horrible atrocity committed in Mumbai, India, in November 2008.  

There have been reports of arrests of UK and Continental nationals of South Asian and/or Middle Eastern origin, who 'spilled some beans' about alleged terror plots.  The Eiffel Tower in Paris, for instance, has been closed more than once recently, in response to telephoned 'threats'.   Thankfully, so far, these 'threats' haven't borne fruit.

Of course, this hoo-hah comes right in the middle of my own preparations for visiting the UK and Belgium early next month (wouldn't you know it!).   From past experience of travel to Israel in the 1970s and 1980s, I am certainly well aware of such travel advisories.   I visited Israel nine times between 1977 and 1989, and never EVER felt seriously threatened (although I was at a kibbutz close to the Israel-Lebanon border in June 1982, right after the start of Israel's conflict with PLO terrorists in southern Lebanon).   And that was in spite of seeing armed Israeli soldiers all around the country, and the occasional military vehicle.

I have to confess that I am not afraid.   Although I will take sensible precautions when in public, on transport and while visiting popular sites, like keeping an eye on my baggage, or on anyone who looks remotely suspicious.  

I have a poster in my home that says KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON--which sounds remarkably like a Second World War-era British slogan, created to give the civilian population courage.   I will take that poster to heart during my travels, and not let cowardly terrorists (and their so-called 'leaders' hiding in some remote South Asia cave) tell me how to live my life.   I will go ahead with my plans, and enjoy the time spent with my British and Continental friends.