Rick Steves wouldn't have any Brits on his tours - ugly or otherwise. We've never heard of the hambone.

Hey aef,

>We've never heard of the hambone.

Then, how do you know he's a "hambone"?

Then, how do you know he's a "hambone"? >>>

By a process of osmosis.

Hi Tinamidon, well put, I love your description of those people that like to block the pool chairs,
they feel entitled to leave anything on the chair to reserve it.....unbelievable but true, it did happened to us once in the Intercontinental in Rio de Janeiro and it was disgusting....I guess it happens all over.

Well said Tina!

Not quite on topic (though perhaps relevant to one's mindset on this), but I am curious as to whether a "doggy bag" is the norm anywhere other than the US.
Jess

another mea culpa, now reformed! It impacts the next breakfast group, who wants to carry food that could spoil, and oh, just pay for your snack or lunch!
What I thought: When younger, it was ok because I couldn't eat much at b'fast & the tours stacked the deck with pricey bland food. Didn't occur to me it wasn't a limitless supply (youth).

Reform: Travel discussions changed my view: bad manners. Became skilled at finding better choices on tours. On my own, easier to enjoy finding little shops to put together a lunch.

How it started: When I would drive down South to see my family, at 4-5 am, b'fast 10 a.m., geared to tour buses & buffet. An eggs/toast order was a LONG wait while they were stocking the buffet--Faster to pay more than double. Honey-voiced Souther ladies on line would smile & say "Come on baby, you get right in here" and even take a tong and put a biscuit on my plate. So now I've blown my lunch budget, & could't eat much, so yes, I packed ONE bicuit & sausage for later.
2 other times I'll take away: if I unintentionally ( no wink here) take more than I can finish, I will take it, if I am late I will ASK - may I take with me, and this is a roll a fruit, a yogurt, no more than I would have eaten seated.

Okay, I will not take even that piece of fruit. Ever.

Couple questions:

Who are the Clampets?

What's a snaffle?

A slice of brie?

Clampets would be the uncouth family from the Beverly Hillbillies - an Appalachian ("Hill Billy&quot family who, when oil gushed from their poor farm, moved to Hollywood and a mansion but retained their Appalachian-american values and habits - with them there would be nothing left in the food buffet after their breakfast.

The answer to the lounger-reservers comes from the riposte delivered to my mother many years ago by a no-nonsense Northern (England) lady: "It's bums saves seats, not bags".

Would you believe people leave their bags in to 'reserve' the large changing cubicles at my local swimming pool?!

I'm afraid they come back and find their bag dumped on the floor outside (oh dear, is the floor a bit wet?) and me inside changing. No-one has ever said anything even when they've returned while I'm in there.

Someone had asked about the breakfast buffet option to have it served in your room.

I've stayed at several hotels that had a breakfast buffet with this option. We always take the room service option and have found the breakfasts to be more substantial than the regular continental breakfast.

It will usually include yogurt, a soft boiled egg, coffee, milk, fruit AND juice in addition to the bread & jams.

At the Relais St. Germain in Paris, breakfast is included in the room price. In addition to all of the above, it also had parma ham freshly sliced off a giant ham and aged comte cheese. I don't know how the poor room service waiter carried it all.

Since we had it delivered to our room and it would have been thrown out if we didn't eat it, we made sandwiches off the baguette with the ham & cheese to take on the plane with us. I would never have done that without asking had we taken the breakfast in the dining room.

Served in your room is NOT the same as they have delivered a measured and controlled amout of food which they expect you to eat

and presumably would throw out the left overs --- though i wouldn't bet on that.

Of course if a meal is taken to your room, room service, you can eat it all, put some aside if you prefer.
This in my opinion has nothing to do with taken food out of the buffet table.

A recent dinner at Ponderosa with a couple of former co-workers reminded me of this thread. We all ordered steak and the salad bar. I had salad and steak. They went to the hot food buffet and filled a plate with chicken, pork, and whatever. They bagged their steak. One of them, my former boss and scumbag, went back to the buffet for another load of chicken which he promptly put in his doggie bag, with a smirk on his face. He has more money than he knows what to do with, but siezed the oportunity to steal a plate of chicken.

Hi H,

I recently stopped by a place that had a similar plan.

Order a man and get the AYCE buffet of hundreds of items.

At the buffet, there were signs stating that you could take your main home, but that anything from the buffet had to be paid for.

We always take "zip-lock" bags to the b'fast table...then we have food for our lunch also....fruit, hard-boiled eggs, bread, sweet rolls etc.

In Munich this past June I watched a woman at the table next to ours, cut 4 rolls in half and arrange cheese and ham on them. She wrapped them in napkins and stuffed them in her over-sized purse. She and her companion were speaking Deutsche.

hopscotch- lol @ 'my former boss and scumbag' - too funny

That's not the first time I've heard of someone wealthy being tight.

Makes you wonder if that's WHY they're wealthy.

Bloom