I've been in Europe for over 4 months now, and... eh... just eh. They have nice old buildings and nice pieces of art, but as for the rest, it's like being on the wrong side of town in the States. When you cut through all the PC, that's all they are anyway... They are not significant because they believe in nothing. Once they wake-up, I will take more notice of this tired place.
Europe needs paint.
I always had the impression that they turned a negative into a positive. In other words, they were so poor they couldn't afford to rebuild or upgrade, so after a thousand years or so, obsolete, decrepit buildings became antique architectural treasures.
In America, something five years old is rated obsolete, torn down and a bigger, better(?) building is created. Sometimes that's carried to extremes and some fine old architecture is torn down and replaced with some plastic and glass abomination.
That's the difference between Us and Them. We are a dynamic country, warts and all, whereas they're just a model of stagnation and the closed thinking that comes with it.