I haven't made to the UK yet, though that's where most of my ancestors hailed from, but I've had a lot of British friends in the States and I agree, they default to politeness, which I've always valued.

I loved Luxembourg, and Germany, France, Belgium and Poland as well, and found like you that the cities were (mostly) clean, the people were lovely, and there was very little crime, and none that I witnessed.

Interestingly, after growing up in L.A., where most of the natives were naturally polite (the tourists were all over the spectrum), I moved to Tampa, Florida in my twenties, only to discover that it actually had a higher murder rate per capita than L.A. Oops.

And, truthfully, the number of gunshots I've heard in either place, I could count on one hand.

Unfortunately, one of those was aimed at me, or at least my car, and after having my car window shot out mere inches from my head, that was what convinced me to leave L.A. once and for all. I had a serious feeling that if I stayed, I would be a statistic, and that wasn't high on my list.

In Middle Tennessee, where I live now, most of the crime is drug related, and centered in the cities, which are a ways from where we live. There is remarkably little violent crime near us.

And people here tend to default to politeness as well, which is lovely, and much appreciated. Rarely have I had so many doors opened for me, and people will apologize if they don't notice, or don't get to it in time. And it's pretty much across the board . . . old, young, male, female, black white, Latino . . . doesn't matter. People around here are just nice. ;-)

We do hear gunshots on a far more frequent basis, but then we live almost directly across the river from a shooting range, and we live in an area where pretty much everyone hunts. Regularly.

But compared to the near-constant wail of sirens past my last home, in Largo, Florida, I'll take it. Most of the time around here, the primary sounds are the birds, the wind in the trees, the forest critters, and our and our neighbors' animals. It's a pretty bucolic lifestyle.