I had to look up Yoga pants too, Peg, but if the pictures that came up are the norm, I find them very interesting!

https://www.google.com/search?q=yoga...2&ved=0CDgQ7Ak

<i>Credit cards are not widely accepted here.</i>

Except Amsterdam? because that's where we paid with a credit card for just coffees in the cafés that did not accept cash. But at no time was our credit card refused elsewhere except in the train stations.

oh, my goodness, are those girls ill or have they stuffed things down those trousers?

It can't be healthy being that fat???

The most insulting thing about that article is that it's extremely badly written.

<<So the US of A sends over its most loud, tacky, garish, uncouth as ambassadors >>

Is that what we do? Or could it be that those are the ones you notice, rather than the thousands of other Americans who visit and who aren't loud, tacky, garish, and uncouth? I can understand how one can get the wrong impression, though. I mean if I generalized about Europeans from a few that have posted here, I'd think all of you were pretentious arses.

Not sure where this self loathing comes from? I for one I'm a proud American , and if people abroad can detect it, that's fine by me. I've never read an article by a European wringing his hands about being "spotted" or not as a tourist in the USA, good for them for not caring! It seems its only Americans that have this sense of inadequacy.

oh, my goodness, are those girls ill or have they stuffed things down those trousers?

It can't be healthy being that fat???
___________

You know the old joke. You are pretentious and judgmental and I am fat. But I am on a diet.

IMO I think traveller1959 is feeling bored today, and our responses are now entertaining him.

Cruiseluv, I agree. I am clearly a European visitor when in the US, but I don't care because that is what I am, and Americans, being, for the most part, the most warm, friendly people either don't care or are too polite to say ;).

Americans not wanting to look like Americans in Europe seems to be a perennial thread here on Fodor's. We really don't care what you look like, and to a large extent don't care how you behave. You cannot be any worse behaved than many British tourists.

Michael, Amsterdam is a tourist attraction, so many places there accept credit cards. Supermarkets don't though. Get out of the tourist bubble into the real country and credit cards are not accepted that often.

"What are yoghurt pants?"

IMDonehere, I believe they are pants that show you are "cultured."


I hope we don't all get so drunk on our trip to Spain that we start singing Granada at the top of our lungs while visiting the Alhambra.

By the way, the easiest way to spot that our foursome is American is that we're speaking English to one another. They won't need to look at my shoes.

((H))

You know the old joke. You are pretentious and judgmental and I am fat. But I am on a diet. :-)

I liked the one to Churchill,
"sir, you are drunk"
"madam, you are ugly but in the morning I will be sober"

The way you can spot an American is the haircut.

That one barber who does all Americans must be making a helluva lot of money.

Partly true - partly ugly american.

As a New Yorker I can say some of the same about US tourists here.

Also - european tourists are often easy to spot:

Often found smoking in the street or outside a restaurant door

Many (esp northern europeans) wear hiking short and sandals with brown hairy socks (I think there must be some central factory somewhere that just turns out millions of pair)

Not tipping or seriously undertipping in restaurants, cabs, etc (here many cabs avoid picking up european tourists since they fear being stiffed)

Obviously many tourists tend to just go on as they are despite accepted local differences.

I've told my wife and friends that if I, as an American male, ever take to wearing a perfectly knotted or draped scarf in 70-degree weather in order to look more "European," they have my permission to hit me over the head with baseball bat. Or, in a pinch, a cricket bat.

"What are yoghurt pants?"

IMDonehere, I believe they are pants that show you are "cultured.

____________

I think yours is the only response that speaks of culture.

Some of that list is true and some of it isn't. However, it is very true that so many Americans ask if it is appropriate to take their children certain places in case of nudity. Even though I grew up in the U.S., I find that extremely odd.

Holy Moley, nukesafe! Those behinds all look like the Kardashians.

Lots of girls at the university I've been attending wear them, but they tend not to look that incredibly vulgar.

The true problem here is that many of the countries Americans visit in Europe were the thrones of fallen empires. And Americans are not the worthy successors to their plundering, warring, and destruction of other cultures. Who are the only people to hold military parades today? The North Koreans, The Russians, and the French. For the French residue of past glories.

So instead of being, at the very least indifferent that Americans visit for different reasons and act very differently there will be always be some that resent Americans.

But I confident that when the American empire falls, we will be worse than the Europeans in our attempt to be respected for what we did.

Vincenzo, It certainly doesn't follow from what I said that I think all Americans have the same haircut. If I say cows are different from horses, does it mean that I think all cows are identical?