Rita wrote:
> >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.
I confess to having gone to an Irish pubs in Copenhagen and to an Irish Pub and an
English Pub in Paris. We went to the one in Copenhagen because we were meeting up with
someone from the British Embassy which was nearby. The Irish pub in Paris was across
the street from our hotel and one of the party was being a drag and didn't want to go
far. The English pub was to meet a Parisian friend, and it was his choice, and the
closest to our hotel. When travelling with my brothers over there, we went to an
Italian restaurant in Baden Baden, second worst meal of that trip, the worst being the
one at the Irish pub in Paris. I would have preferred a German meal. Not much point
in going to another country and eating foreign food.
> 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.
I would think that it is because there are a few who are loud and obnoxious. Those are
the type that make leave strong impressions. I met some of them over there. I mentioned
previously about the American girls being so rude and yelling at the girl in the
restaurant that they wanted ketchup, apparently thinking that speaking louder would be
more effective than trying to speak French, or perhaps to try speaking more slowly. I
ran into some very pleasant Americans there too. I used to deal with a lot of tour
buses and their passengers when I was working. I ran into a lot of obnoxious Americans
over the years, and they do leave an impression, just as an obnoxious person from any
other country could be. As much as they tend to stand out, I have to say that the vast
majority of them were very pleasant.
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