I had witnessed the last parade in my lifetime in which German soldiers would goose step

Goose-stepping, grey-uniformed infantry, the unhappy heirs to the Prussian martial tradition, seemed keen to demonstrate their superiority over any other European infantry. I retreated to a café after half an hour to write in my diary: 'When the Wall comes down, as it must, the thoughts of all this Prussian military tradition married to West German economic power is extremely disturbing' (7 October 1989). Happily, I was wrong: after reunification the quietude of the West German military quickly infected the former East German military; I had witnessed the last parade in my lifetime in which German soldiers would goose step.

R. Bassett, Last days in old Europe (2019), 143

It is hard to recall today how robust and energetic London was in the 1980s in standing up for the rights of Central European intellectuals

It is hard to recall today how robust and energetic London was in the 1980s in standing up for the rights of Central European intellectuals who were largely ignored by the other European states. The West Germans did not want to rock the boat of their relations with the East Germans. The French were reluctant to speak out in case it damaged their 'special relationship' with Moscow. The Italians and Spanish preferred to focus on commercial interests. In Europe, only London resolutely and consistently defended the human rights of the subject populations of the Soviet Empire.   

R. Bassett, Last days in old Europe (2019), 112-13

A sense of the absurd married to an inflexible observation of the rules of etiquette

She [Countess Bianca Maria Colomba Korvin] came to personify for me more and more all the qualities of the Habsburg world: perseverance, courage, detachment, and, perhaps above all, a sense of the absurd married to an inflexible observation of the rules of etiquette. However much we laughed together and became friends, the formal Sie was never once surrendered to the informal Du.

R. Bassett, Last days in old Europe (2019), 14-15

This once great metropolitan port had become, in practice, an enormous museum - a museum with very few visitors.

Trieste has been quiet since the early 1960s. Its status as a minor port of Italy, much disputed by Marshal Tito's Communist Yugoslavia in he immediate aftermath of the Second World War, had finally been stabilized by international treaty four years earlier. The Cold War had sealed it off from its hinterland and this once great metropolitan port had become, in practice, an enormous museum - a museum with very few visitors.

R. Bassett, Last days in old Europe (2019), 2