Germany's red carpet welcome faces first World Cup test

(David Horne, _the_ chancellor of the duchy of besses o' th' barn and prestwich tesco 24h offy) writes:

Des Small wrote:

[]
If _I_ was picking user-unfriendly places, I'd personally go for
Barcelona, and my anecdotal evidence would strongly favour Madrid.

What was wrong in Barcelona? (I've never been to Madrid, so can't
compare.)

Particularly, the staff posted at every corner of museums to scold you
(in a langwidge you didn't know) if you dared to attempt to deviate
from the Approved Route. If they did that in Germany we'd never hear
the end of it.

Also, the table-waiting staff in bars and cafés could take a dislike
to you for being insufficiently cool, and shun you with some vigour.

We were also once shooed out of a restaurant by a woman with a broom
for having the temerity to think that the openness of the door might
mean they were open as absurdly early as 20:30.

And then there was the other restaurant where they told us first it
was too early for lunch and to come back in an hour, and then when we
did that it was booked for a private function.

Des

But on French google, Paris gets 97,200 to London's 9,660 using
"bonne cuisine".
how many people talk about London food in French? There are only
187 hits for "bonne cuisine" Melbourne :-)

"bonne cuisine Airdrie" gets 207.

But "Buckfast Airdrie" gets 1280.

============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ==============
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On 9/12/05 11:45, in article ,
"The Reid" wrote:

Following up to Earl Evleth

But on French google, Paris gets 97,200 to London's 9,660 using "bonne
cuisine".

how many people talk about London food in French? There are only
187 hits for "bonne cuisine" Melbourne :-)

Figures. The American term "good eats" gets 1,500,000 Google hits
globally, 153,000 in New York, and 51,000 in Paris (in google
English, only 37 hits on French Google). La bonne bouffe
however gets a million hits on French google and a little
more on English Google. There is even a restaurant
named the Bonne Bouffe in Encinitas, Calif.

In fact using the "bonne bouffe" search has Berlin
outscoring London by 29,700 to 27,500.

Breakfast room services Germany:


Been travelling to Europe several times a year for over 35 years and
continuosly
find OJ and coffee availability raises its ugly head too many times
there regularly when it
shouldn't. Of course there are exceptions.

An early recollection that prompted me to buy particularly orange juice
in the
market
and travel with it in order to avoid breakfast room incidents like one
that took
place
in a hotel in Meersburg on the Bodensee in Germany back in the 70's.

In addition to 4 years of Latin in High School, and two years of
German in college plus using German on trips, I can get by with the
language in Germany
although my accent and syntax is such that it is quickly obvious that
I am not indigenous.

When in Meersburg hotel at breakfast the waitress came over and asked
"Cafe oder tee" and I responded "Eine tasse cafe und ein glas
orangensaft bitte" ( a cup of coffee and a glass of orange juice
please) and showed my room key with the huge room number on it. The
young waitress looked like she got got an attack of indigestion and
ran into the kitchen. An older more mature lady appeared with
a coffee pot and asked "Moechten Sie ein glas orangensaft mit
fruehstuek?"
( would you like a glass of orange juice with breakfast? and I
responded "Ja, bitte" (yes please). She then reponded in German that
the orange juice was not
included "mit fruehstuek" and I would have to pay extra and she seemed
to understand my universal "OK".

Time went by and time went by as I waited for my orange juice fix
which I had to have before starting the rest of my breakfast.

Finally the lady who I had then figured was the
"Hauptfruehstueckzimmerfuehrerin" (main-breakfast-room-bosslady)
appeared
with a miniscule little glass of blood red orange juice and advised
"Sie Muessen bei mir fuer die orangensaft zahlen" (you must pay me for
the orange juice) and I responded "OK" and every time she came out of
the kitchen, she
passed my table and repeated "Sie muessen bei mir fuer die orangensaft
zahlen"
While I thought I had made her understand I would be checking out and
travelling on that morning but I was beginning to enjoy the humor of
the exchange with my "OK"

When I checked out at the main desk I presented my credit card and was
advised
I must pay cash for what I recall was about $5.00 "fuer die
orangensaft" since
the hotel had to pay the "Hauptfruehstuekzimmerfuehrerin" direct and
it was "nicht moeglich" (not possible) to include it with the credit
card.

Of course, I paid the cash but I will admit
this incident was a bit of culture shock but it did give me the
incentive to buy
the inexpensive and readily available OJ at the market and travel with
it as opposed to creating international incidents particular in some
hotels
in Germany and the UK to get a simple glass of OJ with breakfast.

Fluent German speakers are welcome to attack my German spelling,
syntax, grammar, capitalization, etc. etc. Flame on. I am always open
to learn.

« Start of topic « Older Messages 241 -

"David Horne, _the_ chancellor of the duchy of besses o' th' barn and
prestwich tesco 24h offy" skrev i
meddelandet
news:1h7a3ja.ui14y71da0wkeN%this_address_is_for_sp ...
Lennart Petersen wrote:

"David Horne, _the_ chancellor of the duchy of besses o' th' barn and
prestwich tesco 24h offy" skrev i
meddelandet
news:1h796y0.v3ea8ftv5a5aN%this_address_is_for_spa ...
[]
Or perhaps, just maybe, one city generates more hits _in general_. But,
do go ahead, and use google hits as a test...

(London "excellent food" gets more hits that Paris "excellent food"
too,
for the same reason.)
I guess that's right. There are good reasons to understand why Paris
gets
more hits than Berlin as there are more visitors to Paris. And there are
good reasons to understand why N.Y and London receives more hits as "poor
service" happens to be the language used in those two cities.

It's probably more the fact that there are simply more hits for London
than for Paris, about twice as many. New York has over twice as many
than London.
Yes , I said so.

"Martin" skrev i meddelandet
...
On Thu, 08 Dec 2005 22:46:35 +0100, DDT Filled Mormons
wrote:

But can you suggest something different?

Opening your fridge door to stop global warming?

and removing the light bulb to save energy.
Martin
Not very fun.
DDT filled have a good point as opening the fridge door actually increases
the global heating by more energy consumption while removing the light bulb
may save a little.

Following up to Martin

how many people talk about London food in French? There are only
187 hits for "bonne cuisine" Melbourne :-)

Despite which we had good meals there. :-)

impossible, look at Google!
--
Mike Reid
Walk-eat-photos UK "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" -- you can email us@ this site
Walk-eat-photos Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" -- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap

Following up to Des Small

Also, the table-waiting staff in bars and cafés could take a dislike
to you for being insufficiently cool, and shun you with some vigour.

I'm not cool, had no problem.

We were also once shooed out of a restaurant by a woman with a broom
for having the temerity to think that the openness of the door might
mean they were open as absurdly early as 20:30.

you wanted to eat at 20:30 in Spain???? You are uncooler than I.
--
Mike Reid
Walk-eat-photos UK "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" -- you can email us@ this site
Walk-eat-photos Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" -- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap

Following up to Earl Evleth

In fact using the "bonne bouffe" search has Berlin
outscoring London by 29,700 to 27,500.

I'll tell Gordon Ramsay we need to work on our bouffs

Rosbif London get 712 hits
Rosbif Paris gets 29,400
I conclude Paris is the home of rosbif.
--
Mike Reid
Walk-eat-photos UK "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" -- you can email us@ this site
Walk-eat-photos Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" -- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap

On 9/12/05 15:24, in article ,
"The Reid" wrote:

Rosbif London get 712 hits
Rosbif Paris gets 29,400
I conclude Paris is the home of rosbif.


You are finally understanding.