Traveling to Europe (again)

On Feb 18, 8:25*pm, Magda wrote:
On Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:03:00 -0800 (PST), in rec.travel.europe, J'ai retrouvé mon
chien...elle s'appelle runge arranged some electrons, so they
looked like this:

*... On Feb 18, 6:21*pm, Magda wrote:
*... On Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:07:51 -0800 (PST), in rec.travel.europe, J'ai retrouv mon
*... chien...elle s'appelle runge arranged some electrons, so they
*... looked like this:
*...
*... *... On Feb 18, 5:45 pm, Magda wrote:
*... *... On Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:24:25 -0800 (PST), in rec.travel..europe, J'ai retrouv mon
*... *... chien...elle s'appelle runge arranged some electrons, so they
*... *... looked like this:
*... *...
*... *... ... On Feb 18, 5:00 pm, Magda wrote:
*... *... ... On Wed, 17 Feb 2010 14:12:10 -0500, in rec.travel..europe, Cathy L
*... *... ... arranged some electrons, so they looked like this:
*... *... ...
*... *... ... ... We will be taking another trip to Europe in May.
*... *... ...
*... *... ... What for?
*... *... ...
*... *... ... Or, more to the point - why oh why...?
*... *... ...
*... *... ... kulcha
*... *...
*... *... Translation please...?
*... *...
*... *...
*... *... culture....
*...
*... Yeah, sure.
*...
* ...
*... thats why she keeps coming back....

And wasting money...

=====
It sounds much better in French, but then, everything does.

gotta spend it b4 those terrorists get ya....;-)

Tim C. wrote:
On Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:52:42 -0000, Le$ wrote in post :
:

4. If you want to go where nearly everyone speaks English, go to The
Netherlands or eastern Belgium.

Or Scandinavia. Or the UK even :-)

I have had very little trouble communicating in English in France,
Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Estonia. English was less common in Italy
and Belgium. Most of those who spoke English spoke it very well, even
better than some immigrants here in Canada. I have neighbours from Italy
and I have a hard time communicating with them, and they have been here
for more than 50 years.

Cathy L wrote:

On Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:14:01 +0100, "Tim C."
wrote:

On Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:52:42 -0000, Le$ wrote in post :
:

4. If you want to go where nearly everyone speaks English, go to The
Netherlands or eastern Belgium.

Or Scandinavia. Or the UK even :-)

It is funny, we could understand the English people spoke in countries
like Germany, much better than the English spoken by the people in
London and Ireland.

That's because they spoke slow enough for you.

--
(*) of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
www.davidhorne.net (email address on website)
"[Do you think the world learned anything from the first
world war?] No. They never learn." -Harry Patch (1898-2009)

In article ,
"William Black" wrote:

"Cathy L" wrote in message
...

We will be taking the Cosmos tour number 9020.
http://www.cosmos.com/Product.aspx?t...roduct_Britain
Has anyone taken this tour?

See the UK from the back of a bus.

Eat hotel food and spend the evenings in hotel bars.

It sounds like a week and a half in hell to me.

shuddering violently-- no one could pay me enough to take one of those
tours!

I'm going back to Germany again for a couple weeks in April to visit a
couple places I've missed and hunt some more castles. No group; just
me, my backpack, and my camera.

--
Erilar, biblioholic medievalist


http://www.chibardun.net/~erilarlo

In article ,
Cathy L wrote:

They should speak as good English as we do in the States.

giggling helplessly! Come on, folks, ATTACK!!

--
Erilar, biblioholic medievalist


http://www.chibardun.net/~erilarlo

Cathy L ha scritto:

We will be taking another trip to Europe in May. I would love to get
some "tips" on how to make the trip more enjoyable.

Are you from USA?
We traveled in USA 4 times in the past, and maybe I can help you with
some advice or tip on differences between USA and Europe (particularly
Italy, where we live).
The first thing you must know is that here tips/gratuities are not
compulsory at all.
Normally no one leave tips on normal restaurants, hotels, taxies etc.
Just sometime few coins got as change.

Prices are all around net prices, the price you look at is the price you
will pay at the cashier, no hidden taxes (or better: taxes are always
hidden and included).

Beware to currency: the smallest bill is 5 EUR (around 7$), so coins
have high values.

In many Italian (only in Italy) restaurants you will find (and you will
pay) a supplementary item called 'Pane e coperto' that covers the cost
of the bread (always all_you_can_eat on Italian restaurants) and of the
'coperto' (I don't know the exact translation, but 'coperto' is the
entire set of dishes, forks, knives, spoons, glass etc.).

Here, at least in Italy, to drink is not a too bad thing as in USA...
Normally we drink wine or beer when we eat.
Wine is far cheaper (and ... better) here.
Bad thing is to drive if you drink too much...
Tap water is often good to drink (and everywhere drinkable), but
Italians still prefer mineral water, that is very cheap here.
Bewa in the rest of Europe mineral water is not so cheap (in Germany
is cheaper beer than water!).

If you will drive a car you will find some difference...
Here fuel is far higher in price (the difference is now lower, but still
relevant), and so cars are smaller and drinks less fuel than in USA.
Around half of cars are diesel fueled: diesel fuel is cheaper (not in
all countries) and diesel cars drinks substantially less fuel (around
30/40% less) than gasoline powered cars.
In Italy (and in some other country) we have also cars powered by
Natural Gas ('Metano') or Propane ('GPL').
You must be careful when refueling!
Propane is called here 'GPL' or simply 'Gas', so 'Gas' is NOT gasoline!
We also have Diesel fuel called 'Gasolio', but normally you will read
'DIESEL' in newer pumps.
The gasoline is called 'Benzina', but normally on pumps you will read
'SUPER' (long time ago there was two kinds of gasoline: 'Super' and
'Normale', now only 'SUPER'...).
The majority of cars here are still with manual gearbox, but you will
find also automatic cars if you don't like the manual ones...
Speed limits are varying from country to country (and differently
enforced)....
In Italy are often unattended: you will find on highways people driving
as fast as they can...
Beware to mobile panels saying 'Controllo elettronico della velocita''
(electronic speed control): now police MUST place a panel when they put
a speed-trap, so be careful...
You will avoid fines also driving SLIGHTLY faster: as a rule driving
around 10-15Km more than speed limit hardly will create problems...
In Italy the more you will go south, the more traffic rules are
unattended, especially on big cities (Naples has first place!).
If you will drive in Naples you will find no rule at all.
Traffic lights and STOP signs are totally ignored and the first to pass
is the one that horns louder.

Now I don't remember more thing to say, and I don't know where you will
go in Europe... I talked almost only about Italy (the country I know
better...).

If you have some question I will be very happy to answer them, if I can.

Ciao, Piero.

Martin wrote:
On Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:31:25 -0500, Dave Smith
wrote:

Tim C. wrote:
On Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:52:42 -0000, Le$ wrote in post :
:

4. If you want to go where nearly everyone speaks English, go to The
Netherlands or eastern Belgium.
Or Scandinavia. Or the UK even :-)
I have had very little trouble communicating in English in France,
Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Estonia. English was less common in Italy
and Belgium.

Wallonia?

Peopel in Flanders speak English.

I was in Ypres, so Wallonia I guess.

erilar wrote:
In article ,
Cathy L wrote:

They should speak as good English as we do in the States.

giggling helplessly! Come on, folks, ATTACK!!


They speak it gooder :-)

On Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:50:02 +0100, Magda wrote in post :
:

On Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:39:20 -0500, in rec.travel.europe, Cathy L
arranged some electrons, so they looked like this:

... On Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:36:33 +0100, "Tim C."
... wrote:
...
... On Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:18:52 -0500, Cathy L wrote in post :
... m :
...
... On Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:14:01 +0100, "Tim C."
... wrote:
...
... On Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:52:42 -0000, Le$ wrote in post :
... :
...
... 4. If you want to go where nearly everyone speaks English, go to The
... Netherlands or eastern Belgium.
...
... Or Scandinavia. Or the UK even :-)
...
... It is funny, we could understand the English people spoke in countries
... like Germany, much better than the English spoken by the people in
... London and Ireland.
...
... Cathy L
...
... Why is that surprising? Do you think people in the UK speak school
... eenglish? (sic)
...
... They should speak as good English as we do in the States.
...
... Cathy L

ROTFL

I thought you'd say something like that :-)

--
Tim C.

On Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:59:45 +0000, vid Horne, _the_
chancellor wrote in post :
:

That's because they spoke slow enough for you.

I didn't want to say that, but I'm glad you did :-)
--
Tim C.