We survived Europe !

Tim C. wrote in
:




Sounds about right :-) Unfortunately it's pasta cooked by a German
and Schnitzel cooked by an Italian.

They do have a bit of an identity crisis there.
--
Tim C.


sounds like an Austrian friend "italians can't cook weal!"

--
Joseph Coulter
Cruises and Vacations
http://www.josephcoulter.com/

On Sun, 04 Jun 2006 15:36:11 +0100, Keith Anderson
wrote:

I presume in Sud Tirol they don't eat much Italian stuff either!

I stayed in Bolzano/Bozen a few years ago and there seemed to be quite
a mix of Austrian and Italian food.

Remember a blonde-haired Austrian-looking waiter in one restaurant
talking to customers in German - but when he accidentally dropped some
cutlery on the floor, he let out a "Mama mia".!

It was the kind of place where people were ordering pasta starters
followed by Schnitzel as a main course.


Sounds about right :-) Unfortunately it's pasta cooked by a German
and Schnitzel cooked by an Italian.

They do have a bit of an identity crisis there.
--
Tim C.

poldy wrote:

In article ,
B wrote:

It's not easy to find good authentic Italian food in the US, but it's
certainly not impossible. For some reason, when I visit family and
friends in the US, they always want to take me to an Italian
restaurant that they swear is authentic.

It's not authentic but I wished Italian restaurants had other salad
choices than just some greens with the oil and vinegar.

Like something with chicken, so you could have something little more
hearty than the contorni.

And for heavens sakes, how about some tomatoes and other things than
greens?

There's an "Italian" restaurant in Manchester that as part of a special
deal offers a salad with lots of things, including feta cheese. It's a
perfectly good salad actually IMO, but I'm not sure what's Italian about
it!

--
David Horne- http://www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk
http://homepage.mac.com/davidhornecomposer http://soundjunction.org

On Sun, 04 Jun 2006 10:01:17 -0500, Joseph Coulter
wrote:

Tim C. wrote in
:




Sounds about right :-) Unfortunately it's pasta cooked by a German
and Schnitzel cooked by an Italian.

They do have a bit of an identity crisis there.
--
Tim C.


sounds like an Austrian friend "italians can't cook weal!"

LOL! There may be some truth in that.
--
Tim C.

poldy wrote:

In article
1hg3smu.19p69ce1f74clgN%this_address_is_for_spam@ yahoo.com,
(David Horne, _the_ chancellor of
the duchy of besses o' th' barn and prestwich tesco 24h offy) wrote:

If you got GBP20 off, how much was the rest of the bill?

That's the important question! It was 60 before the discount. It was a
blanket discount- i.e. not reflecting the price of any particular dish,
though we complained in particular about two, one of them duck, the
other I forget. That for a party of 4. I'm too sensitive sometimes, or
am maybe just gulllible, because I felt bad later on as the staff seemed
genuinely hurt by our complaints. But, they needed to be told, and if we
hadn't been in such a rush to eat before a play, I wouldn't have
selected it to begin with. The place we had planned to go to (Poons) was
closed for renovation (maybe forever?), and we hadn't bothered to check.

One of the appeals of Chinese food in the US is the low price. 20
pounds per person for a meal is very high by American Chinese restaurant
standards.

It was £60 for a party of 4, so £15, and that's including wine. For
London, that's actually pretty good- usually, I'd feel I'd got a deal
there at £20 including everything. However, UK restaurants in general
are more expensive than in the US, just as the UK is more expensive than
most European countries. Chinese restaurants are fairly cheap compared
to other restaurants in the UK- as are Indian.

--
David Horne- http://www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk
http://homepage.mac.com/davidhornecomposer http://soundjunction.org

In article ,
Martin wrote:

Out of interest, what do they show for the Netherlands?

Don't they sell some kind of fish in the streets in Amsterdam?

In article ,
B wrote:

a traveller is just a
deluded tourist. They eat in nice little restaurants, they try to
converse in the local language, they stroll the streets, but they
don't really experience the place and a lot of what they see is
indicipherable and they don't even know it.

Yeah that is the truth. People make distinctions between traveler and
tourists, maybe read Peter Matthiesen, believe they are immersing
themselves completely in another culture.

But really, you have to commit to live there to even have a chance of
getting into the minds of the natives.

Even if you're fluent in another language, it's still your second or
third language and it takes years before you start thinking and dreaming
in the new language.

In article ,
B wrote:

On Mon, 29 May 2006 16:37:11 GMT, "PTravel"
wrote:

... However, there are some people who tour like the
fictional Cathy L. (see her comments about the Spanish Steps if you still
think she isn't a troll).

The last time I saw the Spanish Steps, there were so many people I
left immediately. However, I saw similar conditions at the Trevi
fountain when I took my sister there two years ago. (Clouds of pot
smoke in the air and toasted tourists throwing trash everywhere.) So I
don't really doubt the veracity of her account.

I didn't see any pot smoking.

There was a police presence so how far would they get smoking openly?

In article ,
Padraig Breathnach wrote:

Tim C. wrote:

Whenever I visit a new place I nearly always end up in a main square or
attraction - getting my bearings. The next thing I do is head for the back
streets away from as many (other) tourists as possible.

I hope that is an aspect of, rather than the whole of, your strategy.
Many of the places crowded with tourists are crowded because they are
interesting.

Yup. I would never dream of living near Fisherman's Wharf but if I was
visiting SF as a tourist, there are worse places to stay.

In article ,
"a.spencer3" wrote:

Last time we went was in late August a few years ago, on one of the days
you get in around half price after 6pm. It was actually fairly quiet-
probably a good time to visit.

Last week, we were told to 'go late' to St. Peter's & the Vatican to miss
the crowds. We didn't fancy that. We turned up late morning and saw the
20-mile queues for both standing in 85F. We didn't fancy that either.
However, sitting on the shaded steps and square-gazing instead, we realised
that the queues were rapidly diminishing - all the package tours were
through and off to their packaged lunches!
Around 1 p.m. we were into St. Peter's within about 15 minutes and
afterwards, into the Vatican in certainly less than half-an-hour.
Might be a useful tip for others.

It didn't seem too bad if you timed it to arrive like 15-30 minutes
before it opened. Seemed like about a 15 minute wait in queue.

St. Peters also wasn't bad if you got there early.

Louvre was the same but it was always worth buying the ticket in advance
at FNAC and going at the other entrance, nearer to the river and away
from the pyramid up top. Also had luck entering via the Carousel. At
least you weren't out there with the sun beating down on you.