You are right about that. In my few trips to Europe I was amazed at the places you could get to by train, bus or on foot. But that's just because the countries are small and very densely populated, and unless you ascend to the clouds, there is just no getting away from people. In Europe you can walk from city to city. In the part of Canada I come from, the closest small city to the east is 200 miles away. To the west, you have to go 500 miles to find a place with more than one traffic light. Mass transit is barely feasible there, and even in Ottawa the transit system is designed to get people downtown in the morning and back to the burbs at night. You can use the buses for urban outings, but that's all. On the bright side, you don't have to drive far to gain some solitude -- 20 minutes to the north or west will do it.