One of the bright spots of traveling in the EU and the UK (let's not leave them out) is that when you return home the cost of dining out, or filling the car, are cheap by comparison. We can now go to our favorite Basque restaurant in Seattle and dine without pinching our pennies for great cuisine.

With fuel costs in Spain hovering around $4.75/gallon (diesel) and the cost of a decent lunch, with wine, at a nice restaurant in Madrid averaging more than $60/person, you feel relativity rich when you finally return home.

So much for being the newest 3rd world country on the map!

I use to pay for a VERY nice DINNER not more than 25 Euro per person incl. wine and tip, and that's in a big city in Germany. Lunch is even at a third of that. For the price you mentioned you can have lunch in a Michelin starred restaurant in my city.

The gas is VERY expensive in Germany, though. But that is because of the taxes, not the Euro.

Gee, just think of all the things you could do in Seattle if...YOU DIDN'T GO TO EUROPE AT ALL!!!!!!!!

Or all the things you could do in Europe if you didn't have to fly home to Seattle.

I basically look at my trips back to the US like a run to the mall. I mean, it is like funny money. Everything is at a 40% discount, it seems. Clothes, computers, electronics, whatever.

Good times, if you are earning in a European currency.

Robert,I hate to burst your bubble but current diesel price in Spain is €1.039 per/liter.
That is the equivelent to $6.22 per US gallon.

Here is a link to current European fuel prices.

http://www.aaroadwatch.ie/eupetrolprices/

Diesel in East Texas is almost $4.00 per gallon.

Sorry Lovejoy, forgot to put in the correct exchange rate.

The actual cost of a liter of diesel outside of Madrid was €1.109 to €1.139 euros on 30 March. It was €1.039 back in January, and €1.026 in November 07. That puts the diesel at a low of $6.549/gallon. And at that price it's killing the local economies, driving the prices up on everything.

Ingo - It’s not all taxes.

The A4 we had was getting around 18 km/liter, or 43 miles/gallon with a mix of highway and mountain driving. Not too bad. That's about 35% better fuel economy than what I get at home in my A4 gas powered model.

Average price for Diesel is € 1.31 per liter, i.e. 1 gallon costs $ 7.79.

Of those € 1.31 retail price, 56 cents are taxes. Gas has an even higher tax burdon, 78 cents per liter which will cost € 1.39

Spain is actually in the bottom third of gas/diesel prices in the EU. No need to whine.

Sorry.. forgot to start my prior post with mentioning that those prices are the current ones in Germany.

It is mostly taxes. In the Netherlands some 65% of the price is excise duty and taxes. Thank goodness the dollar is low against the Euro - otherwise petrol/diesel would be even more expensive.
As it is I pay €1.45 - €1.50 litre for petrol here, diesel is a bit cheaper - €1.16 - €1.20 litre.

Ingo, I have no idea where you live but if you can eat a Michelin star meal for $60 pp (that's less than €40pp) I want to know where! Even if Robert meant euros I still can't believe you can eat at a Michelin starred restaurant for that price.

Yeah, Robert you gotta love the fuel economy on the those European versions of vehicles.

I rented a VW Touran in Germany last year with a 2 liter TDI diesel that when fully loaded with 4 people and all their luggage managed to get 39MPG on average for 700 miles driving.

for those who don't know what a Touran is ,here is a shot of it.

http://stadium.weblogsinc.com/autobl...07touran05.jpg

What's your favorite Basque restaurant in Seattle, Robert?

Hetismij - it's Dresden. Two restaurants are star rated by Michelin:

www.bean-and-beluga.de
and
http://www.buelow-residenz.de/en/gas...the-caroussel/

You can only see the regular menu with prices for dinner, not the "business lunch" and such offers. But still, it's not as expensive as you might think. Getting hungry ;-)

I.

The best Basque restaurant in Seattle, and one of the best in the country, is the Harvest Vine on East Madison (http://www.harvestvine.com/).

They recently opened a San Sebastian style pintxos bar/restaurant in Belltown called Txori (http://www.txoribar.com/).

I wondered if you were talking about Harvest Vine! I'll have to check out Txori - looks interesting.

Robert, the txoribar certainly looks good....some of the pintxos are a bit funny (chorizo with chocolate), but they sound real good...

Last time I was in the US it was the other way around...everything was soooo expensive compared to prices in Spain (2001). This country has turned into a very expensive one, not just for US visitors, but specially for locals.