They all speak english, dont they?

We were in a city centre ***** hotel and the hotel guide said (in good
english) ring this number to book the restro. So I spared my spanish
and did.
"Hello, please may I book the restro for 9.30 tonight, my name is Reid
(spelled phonetically in spanish) and my room number is 408"

Five minutes later the doorbell rang, it was a waiter with a large
bucket of ice.

A free tour of my website for the first spanish speaker to explain
what had happened.

We had a second lingistic problema the next night, the taxi driver
just could not grasp where we wanted to go, Calle Buenos Aires. I had
to go back to the room and get a map. He squinted at the map, placing
well known features, then eventually "ahhhh, buenos aires, capital
argentina!!!" The lack of a soft "ghent" in "argentina" pointed at
the problem, we had unconciously forgotten to actually look at the
spelling of "aires" and just used the anglicised pronounciation. Funny
how what seems a small difference can make something incomprehensible.
Still, he liked my "joke" about 4 euros being cheap "para argentina".

"Aires" joins "El Hierro" as top spanish words I cant pronounce
clearly.

While i'm posting, another piece of advice, dont arrive at a hotel
rural in a honeypot location in the mountains late Sunday lunchtime.
It was like a cross between a working mens club on saturday night and
a lunatic assylum, reception was deserted, the chef was dancing round
singing "no hay croquettas" for some reason and there were screaming
kids, chickens and donkeys everywhere, not to mention copious dirty
dishes. It took almost an hour to get the room sorted, it seems the
polite emails we had exchanged were probably with someone in the
capital who actually had a computer, in future rural bookings will be
confirmed by a letter, (you may have heard of them).

photo of hotel with our subtly understated transport outside:-
"http://www.fell-walker.co.uk/img0098.htm"
once we got over the bad start the hotel was fine, deep inside there
is an attractive posh dining room and its views are both panoramic and
superb, great base for walks on Gran Canaria, meals well cooked and
large.
view from hotel
"http://www.fell-walker.co.uk/img0087.htm"
Of the two capitals of Tenerife and Gran Canaria, I recommend staying
at Mency in Santa Cruz, Tenerife, lovely happy town.
"http://www.fell-walker.co.uk/tenerifepics.htm"



Hotel Santa Catalina in Las Palmas I'm not so sure, nice hotel with
good food but didnt like the town much, the beach area is OK, the
marina is blocked off by a six lane road with one hard to find
crossing point and what old town there is isnt that interesting, its
also a little big for "on foot". We got a distinct impression of rules
being paramount, rather un spanish, they even have speed cameras!
Lots of people wearing ties and the new bar development by the marina
(when we found a way there) had a long list of dress code rules that
were turning away confused looking spaniards, never seen that before.
In fact the over dressed posh people double parking outside the
Catalina to lunch, were, on reflection, too "up thier own arses". The
evening atmosphere seemed more relaxed, but it makes me weep when
american guests look at the menu and then ask if the chef can do a
steak and ceaser salad on the side. Do other nationalities do that?
They could have tried the pork with potatoes and local (Teror) spiced
morcilla balls, it was really good.

We had a look at Maspolomas, as the dunes are famous in guide books.
Some effort has been made to protect wildlife, but basically if you
surround a dune system with 300,000 tourists in hotels and self
catering units, the result is going to be as you would expect.

Worst in flight film ever
"You, me and McGee" (or whatever its called).
How does Hollywood survive making such garbage, ah, yes, I remember,
stupid customers are widely available.
--
Mike Reid
updated Tenerife pics "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk/tenerifepics.htm"
Gran Canaria pics "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk/grancanaria.htm"

Entertaining tale, and thanks for the pics.

On Tue, 20 Feb 2007 15:57:22 +0000, The Reid
wrote:

We were in a city centre ***** hotel and the hotel guide said (in good
english) ring this number to book the restro. So I spared my spanish
and did.
"Hello, please may I book the restro for 9.30 tonight, my name is Reid
(spelled phonetically in spanish) and my room number is 408"

Five minutes later the doorbell rang, it was a waiter with a large
bucket of ice.

A free tour of my website for the first spanish speaker to explain
what had happened.

Well, he got the room number right.

singing "no hay croquettas" for some reason and there were screaming

He must have thought you were Dutch.
--
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup

The Reid wrote:

We were in a city centre ***** hotel and the hotel guide said (in good
english) ring this number to book the restro. So I spared my spanish
and did.
"Hello, please may I book the restro for 9.30 tonight, my name is Reid
(spelled phonetically in spanish) and my room number is 408"

Five minutes later the doorbell rang, it was a waiter with a large
bucket of ice.

A free tour of my website for the first spanish speaker to explain
what had happened.

Even though I don't speak Spanish, may I enter the competition?

The answer is in two parts:
1. As you spoke English without, apparently, asking first if the other
party understood English, you were taken for an American.
2. Americans always want ice.

--
PB
The return address has been MUNGED
My travel writing: http://www.iol.ie/~draoi/

Padraig Breathnach wrote:

The Reid wrote:

We were in a city centre ***** hotel and the hotel guide said (in good
english) ring this number to book the restro. So I spared my spanish
and did.
"Hello, please may I book the restro for 9.30 tonight, my name is Reid
(spelled phonetically in spanish) and my room number is 408"

Five minutes later the doorbell rang, it was a waiter with a large
bucket of ice.

A free tour of my website for the first spanish speaker to explain
what had happened.

Even though I don't speak Spanish, may I enter the competition?

The answer is in two parts:
1. As you spoke English without, apparently, asking first if the other
party understood English, you were taken for an American.

Not a bad hypothesis, but it's not just some Americans who would do
that.

Oddly, a few weeks ago I saw a chap at one of the snack shops (Upper
Crust) at Liverpool's Lime Street speaking Portuguese to the assistant.
The assistant didn't speak Portuguese, and nor do I, but I could
understand enough and thought about intervening, until it became
apparent that the lack of a common language wasn't a barrier to
communication between them. I thought it was quite cute, and the
assistant quite liked it too, from what I gathered. It's quite rare to
encounter a foreigner here who has (or doesn't use) absolutely no
English whatsoever.

--
(*) ... of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
David Horne- http://www.davidhorne.net
(don't email yahoo address) usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk

"Padraig Breathnach" wrote in message
...
The Reid wrote:

We were in a city centre ***** hotel and the hotel guide said (in good
english) ring this number to book the restro. So I spared my spanish
and did.
"Hello, please may I book the restro for 9.30 tonight, my name is Reid
(spelled phonetically in spanish) and my room number is 408"

Five minutes later the doorbell rang, it was a waiter with a large
bucket of ice.

A free tour of my website for the first spanish speaker to explain
what had happened.

Even though I don't speak Spanish, may I enter the competition?

The answer is in two parts:
1. As you spoke English without, apparently, asking first if the other
party understood English, you were taken for an American.
2. Americans always want ice.

--
PB
The return address has been MUNGED
My travel writing: http://www.iol.ie/~draoi/

No we don't. We always want steak and caesar salads.

The Reid wrote:


evening atmosphere seemed more relaxed, but it makes me weep when
american guests look at the menu and then ask if the chef can do a
steak and ceaser salad on the side. Do other nationalities do that?
They could have tried the pork with potatoes and local (Teror) spiced
morcilla balls, it was really good.

Since one of my reasons for traveling is to sample other
cuisines, I really don't understand fellow-Americans who
only want to eat foods with which they are familiar! I
might draw the line at such (reportedly Arab) "delicacies"
as sheeps' eyeballs (if I knew that's what I was eating,
anyway), but for the most part I assume that, if it's
considered fit for human consumption, it won't kill me, and
I may discover I actually LIKE it. (For all I know,
sheeps' eyes may be delicious - it's the idea of eating them
that makes me squeamish.)

dUH

"EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)" a écrit dans le
message de news: ...


The Reid wrote:


evening atmosphere seemed more relaxed, but it makes me weep when
american guests look at the menu and then ask if the chef can do a
steak and ceaser salad on the side. Do other nationalities do that?
They could have tried the pork with potatoes and local (Teror) spiced
morcilla balls, it was really good.

Since one of my reasons for traveling is to sample other cuisines, I
really don't understand fellow-Americans who only want to eat foods with
which they are familiar! I might draw the line at such (reportedly Arab)
"delicacies" as sheeps' eyeballs (if I knew that's what I was eating,
anyway), but for the most part I assume that, if it's considered fit for
human consumption, it won't kill me, and I may discover I actually LIKE
it. (For all I know, sheeps' eyes may be delicious - it's the idea of
eating them that makes me squeamish.)

"EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)" wrote:

Since one of my reasons for traveling is to sample other
cuisines, I really don't understand fellow-Americans who
only want to eat foods with which they are familiar! I
might draw the line at such (reportedly Arab) "delicacies"
as sheeps' eyeballs (if I knew that's what I was eating,
anyway), but for the most part I assume that, if it's
considered fit for human consumption, it won't kill me, and
I may discover I actually LIKE it. (For all I know,
sheeps' eyes may be delicious - it's the idea of eating them
that makes me squeamish.)

Your optimism might be a little misplaced. Local populations develop
their own resistances and immunities, and food that might not harm
them could have a bad effect on you. Most Egyptians do not suffer from
"gippy tummy" that so many visitors experience.

--
PB
The return address has been MUNGED
My travel writing: http://www.iol.ie/~draoi/

Let is be knownst that on Tue, 20 Feb 2007 18:43:19 +0000,
(David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*)) writted:

Padraig Breathnach wrote:

Even though I don't speak Spanish, may I enter the competition?

The answer is in two parts:
1. As you spoke English without, apparently, asking first if the other
party understood English, you were taken for an American.

Not a bad hypothesis, but it's not just some Americans who would do
that.

Oddly, a few weeks ago I saw a chap at one of the snack shops (Upper
Crust) at Liverpool's Lime Street speaking Portuguese to the assistant.
The assistant didn't speak Portuguese, and nor do I, but I could
understand enough and thought about intervening, until it became
apparent that the lack of a common language wasn't a barrier to
communication between them. I thought it was quite cute, and the
assistant quite liked it too, from what I gathered. It's quite rare to
encounter a foreigner here who has (or doesn't use) absolutely no
English whatsoever.

I can't imagine how hard London would be without any English!
--
---
DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
---
--