I would say the perception of insensitivity often depends on whether you are on the giving or on the receiving end.

suze: "We still don't know if Dottimann is on a cruise or tour or what for the upcoming trip, do we?"

On her other thread she says she will be in London three days and wants recs for tour companies to "Bath and other areas in London" (I was going to comment but have already been accused of being mean ;) )

So she is either not on a cruise or has 3 days before or after sailing. No hint of where else she is going . . . . .

When did they move Bath to London? I really have got to keep up better with the news. :-D

It is ridiculous to expect to be in a foreign country and not use their currency. Exceptions are, of course, heavy tourist areas in basically 3rd world countries. Dotti may have only travelled on cruises but surely she took note of policies. She should really think about getting a travelling life.

I'm not even going to speculate on Dotti's traveling experience, but suffice it to say you will be in England and YES you HAVE to use pounds or face looking like a total idiot. Do people in your home town take foreign currency for payment for goods and services?, and is losing loads of dollars as you apparently have in the past as well,in horrible currency changes, something you wish to revisit?

Use the ATM once you are there for your cash needs. There's no charge and you get the best rate.

Don't even think about paying in dollars - that's just rude and assumptive.

After reading more threads & getting a better feel for where some posters are from, I can see that we should expect Brits to be a friendly as anticipated. I also can better understand the negative responses & know that had I fully understood the circumstances to begin with, I would have just ignored them. My bad! Thanks for the kind reassurances.

Unfortunately, there are people who have so little knowledge that sometimes I think they are auditioning to be on Jay Leno's "jay walking"....here are the top 2 stupid questions I've received from people in the past years when I tell them about my travels:

1) Do they speak English in England?
2) How do they celebrate July 4th in Italy?

But what can we expect from people who often don't know who their first President was or when WWII took place, etc...? What's even sadder, is that these peopel are reproducing!!!! :)

People ...not Peopel....typos don't make you stupid by the way...just not coordinated. :) :)

lyb, not only reproducing, but voting.

tarheel, better to err in the direction of kindness. Welcome to fodors!

But what can we expect from people who often don't know who their first President was or when WWII took place, etc...? What's even sadder, is that these peopel are reproducing!!!!

Unfortunately, it takes more intelligence to not reproduce than to reproduce.
This is why the world is overpopulated.

there was an informal survey on a morning news show the other day. People on the street (in the US) were asked questions like "What are the first ten amendments to the Constitution called?" and even
"Who was our first President?" Most did not know the answers. Every single one of them knew the name of Tom Cruise's fiancee.

elaine,

I saw that "street" interview on the Today show and I was also appalled...it's sad but true...a lot of younger people will say, It happened before I was born, how should I know it? Very sad!!!

Perhaps Flanneruk can answer this for me - Is it still hard to use Scottish Currency in England?

My mother had a Scottish $10 note rejected in a store - they slashed it with a red pen and told her it ws counterfeit, she had to take it to the bank to change it.

In England at least is you suspect counterfeit currency you're supposed to call the police.

Yes, it is almost as bad as people who have to ask adults what to wear when they travel.

Intrepid - is your reply in response to my post?

I can assure you that I'm perfectly capable of dressing myself - well most days anyway.:-D

My mother - who's a Brit was really irritated and 'flounced' out of the restaurant - never to return. Pity really it was a good restaurant but ethics are ethics!

Or is that 'cutting off your nose to spite your face'

It's hard not to confuse the two :-)

Alya:

It's impossible to use a Scottish $10 note anywhere. Or even find one.

You'll often find it difficult to get Scottish £10 notes accepted outside Scotland except at places geared to Scots. If I'm in Scotland and get a wad of their notes from a cash machine, I always get rid of them ASAP at the London airport or station, or on an M6 service station if I'm driving back.

I'm unaware of any particular counterfeit issue (though it's obviously possible that counterfeit detection machines aren't set up to check foreign money), but there are three other problems:
- English shops, but especially London ones, are increasingly staffed by people who aren't that sure what country London's in. Scottish money just scares them
- English banks charge a premium for handling Scottish or N Irish notes (cash handling is a significant income opportunity and cost for British banks). The fact that in several cases they're precisely the same bank, under a different name, as the bank making a mint out of issuing their own notes in Scotland is irrelevant: banks need to be consistent ony when it suits them.
- the phrase "legal tender" is almost meaningless and widely misunderstood. But Scottish notes aren't legal tender outside Scotland.

The truth is, of course, that this Scottish note thing is a ridiculous bankers' conspiracy. Can you seriously imagine the US allowing Australian or Hong Kong-owned private banks to issue their own notes in Texas? Or non-Texans putting up with Texans bleating that the rest of the country wouldn't accept this disgraceful public subsidy to foreign bankers?

These foreign multinational banks are greedily exploiting Scots' naive nationalism,

Tip to tourists: always in Scotland (especially in Glasgow pubs on a Saturday night) insist on real notes in your change, rather than these Scottish tokens. You'll find the friendly Scots will be delighted to accommodate you.

A Sydney waitress swore that a customer off a cruise ship puzzled over the bill for some time, then asked her companion "What's ten per cent of Australian dollars? I could figure it out if this was in US dollars..."

Flanner, I have been married to a Scot for nearly 40 years and have visited Scotland every year since the late 1960s.
I always bring Scottish notes home and have never EVER had one rejected.
I have used them in supermarkets, our village shop and my works dining room.
The only comment I have ever had was in said works dining room when the cashier remarked, "On, everyone seems to have been on holiday to Scotland".

Of course, there was a time when the pound coin was introduced when paper pound notes ceased to be legal tender in England. The Scots held onto them for a bit and I'd ask for pound coins in my change.

We're getting way off topic here, but actually Scottish notes are not legal tender even in Scotland.

If you look at http://www.scotbanks.org.uk/notes.htm

it has lots of interesting stuff about the history of Scottish banking including the following:

"An interesting feature of the Scottish banknotes issue has been the fact that they have never, apart from under temporary provisions introduced in both World Wars, been "legal tender" even in Scotland, although they are, of course, legal currency. Today, in fact, no banknote whatsoever (including Bank of England notes!) qualifies for the term 'legal tender' north of the Border and the Scottish economy seems to manage without that legal protection"

I think (I think I think) flanner is in wind up mode too.

I've sometime had to go through a rigamarole to get Scots notes taken in London but I've never failed yet.

It will not surprise you to know that I do it deliberately:)