willmore

The russians love their hockey and love to rub our noses in it when canada loses to them.....

jimenato

Well I actually didn't like America the place. Mind you I'm not being very fair - I only spent two weeks working in Los Angeles - I gather most Americans don't like Los Angeles either. I've worked in many countries for short spells. The only two I wouldn't want to go back to are the USA and Saudi Arabia.

JLFS

Dont look at it like that, the Americans were not mentioned either, but neither was classed as near the top of the rudest list.

This was the news, so obviously they were not going to read the whole list out in order, just the most relevant ie best and worst.

So Canadians and Americans are fair to middling

JLFS

Why would that be, are they too similar?.....

willmore

I was just teasing - fair to middling sounds just fine to me......

HBG

Thinking about tourists in Spain and their popularity, how do Moroccans fare? It's an up and coming country and I'm not talking about lookie-lookie men, but tourists from north Africa only a few miles away?

JLFS

from what I have seen, Moroccan tourists are sort of thin on the ground, that is the visiting ones are usually here to see family and I would not really class them as tourists, as their socialising is usually done in private homes.

But it is also more likely that the Moroccans in Spain, visit their families back home rather than them coming to Spain.

HBG

What about the Krauts? I see a lot of them around.

willmore

If you are referring to the germans, they are very well travelled indeed and a pleasure to meet......just make sure you move around them on the boardwalk in Plitvice National Park.....thats where I learned the elbow trick so I didnt fall into the water......

HBG

Having a grandson in the Canadian army, I've got some knowledge of that lovely country, and I'm pleased that the word Kraut has penetrated the frozen wastes of BC.

And yes, I was referring to Germans, but not in a derogatory way. Where I live in Spain, there's loads of them, but I've never had to elbow one.

fionamw

MMMMmmmmmm.... The A45 attests to the likelihood that a fair number of Moroccans use Spain as a route to and from Morocco to carry bikes, furniture, clay pots, etc etc in sufficient quantity to lower the suspension alarmingly near the road surface, and all bound very tenuously to the top of vehicles smaller than the cargo being carried (note to self: remember own credo ref generalisation)

Goddangit my thread's closed...you're safe!!!!

Fredbargate

Canadians are educated Americans
Yanks are uneducated Americans that are lost once outside their borders.

Lynn R

Funnily enough, although I don't live in a town visited by masses of tourists, we do meet quite a few Canadians. When chatting to a couple outside our house one day, I asked how they came to be there and they said they had seen the town on an episode of a British TV show, "Build a New Life in the Country" which featured a couple renovating an old palacio into a hotel, and liked the look of it. I haven't met many Americans though (except for the one who bought a house almost opposite mine last year) so maybe they haven't shown the programme in the States.

All the ones I've met have been charming.

I do know what the poster meant who mentioned needing to negotiate your way around the Germans, though. Seems the concept of lebensraum is alive and well! Never met any people like them for determination to be at the front of any queue - except maybe the Chinese. My 6' 2" OH was once sent flying at an airport by a tiny old Chinese lady who barged him out of the way to get the seat she wanted. Most impressive!

jackytoo

There is an American society on the coast and has various chapters (as they say). Marbella golf is owned by an American company.

Haven't found the Germans rude, some of our golfing friends were German. Norwegians are lovely but they can still put away a lot of drink and get noisy. The local restaurants and chringuitos all disliked the madrileños, mainly because they got the rich and arrogant types who are used to getting better service in Madrid. When you aren't a tourist all tourists can seem rude when they are in large groups.

BTW I was in London this week and there was a large group of spanish schoolchildren all wearing those large mad hatter type hats patterened in the union flag. Same in portsmouth yesterday, almost everyone of them was wearing something with the flag on.

HBG

Without getting too fanciful, a lot of tourism is common for historical reasons, stretching way back. The Germans and Chinese have had friendly relations with Spain for centuries, so they come.

The Royal families of the UK and Spain have had similar close links through marriage, so they come.

I should have included the Dutch and Scandinavian Royals, so they come.

Russians are the newcomers on the block, they come from a cold country and now have money and few travel restrictions.

And then we get the pickpocket tourists from Rumania and transvestites from Cuba.

A right mix, all looking for the sun.