On Tue, 08 Nov 2005 11:06:50 -0500, Dave Smith
wrote:
>Rita wrote:
>
>> On the other hand, I've talked to people in England who never have
>> crossed the English channel, something that is very hard for me to
>> understand. And to others who have vacationed at times in one of the
>> winter resort communities in Portugal or Spain but never have explored
>> European cities.
>>
>> And it is so easy for them -- they can drive there.
>
>They can drive there now :-) Maybe it is the island mentality that makes people
>reluctant to travel when every trip involves a ferry trip. I have no idea what the
>Chunnel costs, but links like that tend to be just as expensive as the ferries
>they replace. Perhaps it is a problem many English seem to have with different
>cultures and languages, similar to many Americans and Canadians. I was amazed at
>the English staying at the same hotel as us the last time I was in Paris. The
>breakfast buffet had a great assortment of cheeses, croissants, baguettes, great
>coffee. The English were drinking their tea and munching on plain white toast. I
>saw them one day in an English pub down the street from the hotel, drinking
>English beer and watching soccer. I had to wonder why they had bothered to go to
>France.
I stayed at a hotel in Sorrento that had a lot of English package tourists.
In the dining room they were distinctly uneasy and peered at the food as if
it contained something unsavory. The women appeared to take to it all
better than the men.
There were some English style pubs in Sorrento as well.
But then, other places I visited in Italy provided sausage and sauerkraut
Italian style sandwiches for the Germans. I was always amused to
encounter German tourists who tend to travel in a pack. The English
at least are reticent if not totally with it, but the Germans are so
aggressive in staking out territory -- saving seats, spreading bath towels
by the pool at 4 a.m. to assure a spot, etc.
Americans often get a bad press as travelers, but citizens of some other
nations have their quirks as well.
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