artisland

Chardonnay...I took your quiz and got all of them right except the first one.
I guessed Rick Steves was the fellow the butler found fooling around with Prince Charles.

chardonnay

Phooey, we cant do the test today, we have to WORK! I'll get back to ya'll!

JonJon

I can tell you from experience that it was VERY possible on $5.00 a day because I did it in 1970! There was actually a more "upscale" book called "Europe on $10 a Day" that some of my friends used.
The answer: everything was cheaper and the dollar was worth a lot more..but in 20 years, Europe on $300 a day may seem cheap to some folks.

cherylforeurope

Chardonnay - Do any of your co-workers
say why they don't travel anywhere else?
It's very hard for me, though I try, to
understand someone not wanting to travel. Most of my relatives would never dream of going to Europe...nor do they travel in the US. I think they're afraid of anyplace new. Maybe we should be thankful...if everyone had a passion
for travel could you imagine the crowds! ;-)

Christina

I don't think I could name all the intricacies of the euro system--ie, diff. in EU vs. using Euro and exactly which countries other than the main ones I travel to use it. I have to look up Scandinavia, for example. I think a good question should be if you get 1.5 slobavian dollars for one USD, so that mean things are cheaper in Slobavia than in Romulac where you only get .90 romulacian dinars for one USD?

Should you put a US dollar sign in front of all foreign currencies when you cite what things cost in them?

My mother and people in the retirement home like to watch Rick Steves. they think he's really cool, she talks about him a lot.

I think I remember my first Frommer's book which was about $50 a day for some major European city, like Paris. Inflation has caused prices to rise, but the dollar was not worth more in 1970 than now -- coincidentally, it was worth almost exactly the same as I just looked it up to check, that since it didn't seem true to me. The dollar was really high against the franc in the mid 1980s (especially 1985), but not in the 1970s.

It was worth 5.6FF in 1970 which is exactly what it's worth today (.85 euro which is 5.6F). It was only worth 4.8F in 1974 amd 4.2F in 1979-80, actually, it's lowest point I noticed in the last 30 years. Those are yearly averages. It was worth less in 1975 than any year after 1958.

Grasshopper

Only something like 20% of Americans have Passports. That ought to tell you something. We are the exception, not the rule!

Scarlett

Hee hee~

Do the bathrooms have shower curtains in France?
How do you turn on the light in a Parisian toilet?
What do you do if there is NO toilet in a Parisian toilet !?
How many ways are there to say Chocolate in French?
How do you say Coffee in French.
How do you say Coffee in Italian.
If I just give them the money, will they pick out the coins they need and give me the correct change?

Marilyn

Scarlett:
no, leave the door open, use the bidet, 16, café crème, espresso, if you're lucky.
How'd I do?

RufusTFirefly

Do the bathrooms have shower curtains in France? Ours did
How do you turn on the light in a Parisian toilet? didn't know they had lights in their toilets--we used the switch when we went into a WC.
What do you do if there is NO toilet in a Parisian toilet !?Why would there be a toilet in a toilet?
How many ways are there to say Chocolate in French? One for me.
How do you say Coffee in French. Cafe ole. Same in Spanish.
How do you say Coffee in Italian. Espresso is absolutely correct
If I just give them the money, will they pick out the coins they need and give me the correct change? Without a doubt--everyone in Europe is intelligent, well-educated, and honest

WanderingTexan

My grandchildren are 3 and 5 and they have passports and frequent flyer accounts!

Shanna

Eeek - recently my niece (just graduated from college with honors in environmental science) asked if Italy was a city in Spain. And yet she wrote up a grant last summer, got the money and went to Africa to work for a month! Some really smart people don't know everything (unlike me and a few others on this board - LOL!!!).

rfb

Here's a question for you.

What U. S. President had never been to Europe or Africa or Asia before he was inaugurated?

Marilyn

"Some really smart people don't know everything" -- True, Shanna, but I don't understand how you graduate from college without a basic knowledge of world geography. Isn't that, like, 5th grade level information?

rfb, the answer is simply too depressing to put into print. I went to a live conversation with Calvin Trillin and Adam Gopnik last night, and Gopnik said "It's no surprise to find the Corleone family running America, but you don't expect Fredo to be President."

RufusTFirefly

rfb--Abraham Lincoln?

RufusTFirefly

Or maybe Andrew Jackson or U.S. Grant?

AnneO

When packing my parents house for a recent move, we found Dad's "Europe on $10 day" book....it worked then! He took 6 teenage boys for three weeks...they spent $750 each...$550 was for airfare! That was in 1977..they had a blast.

I'm using that book in planning my next trip, just to see some different ideas about places to see...just wish the prices were still that low!

Dad and I spent a bit more on our trip last year

Anne

jor

chardonnay, I am well traveled but if I overheard your "little quiz" I would stop you before you embarrased yourself. Thats got to be the dumbest thing to do after returning from a trip to Europe. I'll bet you don't have many friends at work anymore.

chardonnay

That is funny, Jor.
Actually they are sort of proud that they don't travel to Europe, and I am not doing it to exploit them, we have alot of down time and we discuss alot of topics.
They are up on politics and give me quizes on it all the time, boooring to me.
Last week we all took personality quizzes from Dr. Phil, what can I say.....

chardonnay

PS: Anyone want to take the Dr. Phil test? I can post it here if you do.

RufusTFirefly

Actually, I'd imagine that at least 99 percent of the world's population has never heard of Rich Steves.