Also, welcome back!!
We want to encourage you to try to put the disappointment aside and try to enjoy the "new player experience", as it's almost as a new game for you with all the changes and additions. There's a huge world waiting to be explored and Europe community has plenty of friendly people who'd like to help along the way.
Brit bank empty... what time did you visit it? It sure is no way near as crowded as in the days of old, but empty really requires off hours in our experience. Europe is definitely not empty, just about the right amount of population we'd say as unlike Atlantic, you do have a chance at more than a small marble but we are far from a largely deserted shard like Drachenfels. (Sorry if we step on any Drachenfels toes, we play there as well and were surprised at the many options for Large Towers there. No intention to diss DF.)