 Poster: A snowHead
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| davidof wrote: |
| Levi215 wrote: |
I lived in Munich, never loved anywhere as much as there! Utterly brilliant place |
Lived there in the late 80s early 90s. I found the Bavarians to be very uptight and not overly friendly. I went back for a few days about 9 years ago and was pleased that people were a lot more pleasant... I guess it is a generational thing. |
I was there 2003 ish, everyone i came across was very friendly could be a slow warm as the Bavarians rediscover their identity.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Levi215 wrote: |
| davidof wrote: |
| Levi215 wrote: |
I lived in Munich, never loved anywhere as much as there! Utterly brilliant place |
Lived there in the late 80s early 90s. I found the Bavarians to be very uptight and not overly friendly. I went back for a few days about 9 years ago and was pleased that people were a lot more pleasant... I guess it is a generational thing. |
I was there 2003 ish, everyone i came across was very friendly could be a slow warm as the Bavarians rediscover their identity. |
I particuarly remember World of Music, a CD store in the city center. On a Saturday they would start to try and kick people out of the shop at 1pm for a 2pm closure (yes really on a Saturday all the ******* shops closed at 2pm except the first Saturday of the month). The WOM staff would physically start to shove people who were browsing the aisles - the Germans seemed to accept this but it brought fistcuffs with Brit customers not used to physical contact from shop staff. That's a particuarly bad example but all the shops had really really terrible service levels that make me quite relaxed about rude French cafe owners these days.
And my mate who was riding down a cycle path but on the left side of the road (these are the seperated Munich style cycle paths not just a line in the road that Brits might be used to). A driver drove up onto the path and knocked him off his bike. This drew a crowd and eventually the police. They were initially quite shocked with the driver's actions until he pointed out that it was illegal to ride on a cycle path against the traffic flow, at that my friend got a severe bollocking and little sympathy for his cuts and bruises and damaged bike.
Now yes, I agree, when you are visiting somewhere it is a very good idea to find out what the local laws and customs are but to deliberately knock someone off their bike because they are doing something wrong seems pretty dumb to me.
Things have changed for the better, I'm not sure I'd want to live in Munich again but it has a lot of good points for someone going abroad for the first time.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@Levi215, got offered a Job here in 1985. My original plan was to stay for a couple of years, do some skiing and then move on. So much for plans.
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I live in the Alps. It's really nice.
I like the people. I like the lifestyle. I like the weather. I like being 'IN' Europe so easy to pop to the Med, or on a train to major cities.
I like that shops occasionally close, people take holidays and enjoy life.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@davidof, I was in WOM on a Saturday many times ( doesn't exist any more ). I never got shoved around by anyone. In fact I've never been in a shop where I got shoved around.
I wonder how people on bikes get on in the center of Marseilles. Always harmonious? Or London, or Manchester for that matter.
Shops are open till 20:00 every working day These days btw.
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We live in a small alpine village of less than 400 people and we love it. We're not considered locals but we are integrated and we are respected for making the effort with the community and the language. We don't work in the ski industry but we love the outdoors life and we've learnt a huge amount about the local area from skiing and hiking with local friends. We've met locals who have lived on the other side of the world and returned, locals who now live in Paris/London/Geneva and come back for holidays and weekends and locals who have never left the Savoie. From what local friends say your welcome can vary enormously from village to village so maybe some luck on our part ending up here. Last year our mayor asked me to stand as a local councilor for the commune as he thought it would be good for the community as the population changes and more nationalities move into the commune. We had a 75% turnout at the election and over 90% voted for me! So not adverse to change... There are, of course, some strange folk and some critics but no more so than where we used to live close to Paris or in the SW of England. We haven't tried to become local because we never will be but we have tried to integrate and people seem genuinely pleased at the pleasure we get from living in their part of the world. Life could be worse...
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| Quote: |
Last year our mayor asked me to stand as a local councilor for the commune as he thought it would be good for the community as the population changes and more nationalities move into the commune.
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What a very enlightened Maire! Congratulations on your landslide victory. 
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| cameronphillips2000 wrote: |
| Anyone live in the Pyrenees? |
No, but a bad couple of years in the office and a third good week in Andorra has got me seriously dreaming. Our instructor this week was British, says he came out for a two year career break. That was 17 years ago. The thing with Andorra is that it is outside the EU, so I guess that means paperwork, and being an exclusive principality he says it's difficult to be fully accepted though he seems to have no complaints. Obviously learning Catalan would be a challenge for some, and I'm not sure my children want to learn yet another language, and I couldn't afford the expat English school. Wonder what it would be like just over the French border, don't they have a better health system?
My concerns would be child schooling and how to earn money for food, assuming I could buy a small apartment outright after selling my large house and giving back the balance of the mortgage.
I supposedly live in a dream place for some Brits, but when your bosses are a pain and you spend all your time in the office or worrying about it, that's a different reality, doesn't matter about the supposed luxuries just outside!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| Steilhang wrote: |
| @davidof, I was in WOM on a Saturday many times ( doesn't exist any more ). I never got shoved around by anyone. In fact I've never been in a shop where I got shoved around. |
Good, I'm glad to hear you had good experiences there. I'm just relating my experience, awful shop, mental staff.
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I stayed in a Youth Hostel in Munich once, with a friend - summer holiday from uni. Must have been about 1967. It was awful. We stayed in hostels in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy on that trip - many different ones, some of them lovely (especially in Switzerland) but the Munich one was the worst. Enormous, very regimented and run by a guy who was like a comic book Nazi. We felt more like army recruits than holiday makers.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@pam w, hmmm, good point
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@davidof, sorry to hear you had such a bad shopping experience. Gotta admit that really reflects badly on Munich as a whole.
As for your friend who was riding the wrong way down a street and got deliberately knocked down by a madman... what can I say? Maybe the Driver was upset by the fact that your friend had put a dent in his car. I'm sure drivers in France would be more understanding.
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Drivers in France are actually rather good with cyclists. SH Macgyver, to whom I gave a lift to the Birthday Bash, works in France and is a keen cyclist. He is by no means an uncritical fan of the French but as a cyclist he told me he much preferred French drivers to British ones.
Most people would feel that cars have no business on a separate designated cycle path, @Steilhang, regardless of which way the bikes are going. 
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You know it makes sense.
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Iirc, French (and I think Swiss, although you could switch countries and I'd be equally confident of my facts) law mandates a 1m gap between traffic and cycles if there's no cycle lane. That must contrbute?
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@pam w, yes I agree, but maybe he didn't even see the cyclist given that he was busy trying to drive his car onto the cycle path. Whatever the truth of the story I doubt that he deliberately got his car dented by an Ausländer. Otoh, maybe he did. No idea.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| pam w wrote: |
I wonder where the best coffee shops are? Italy probably has the best coffee but their cakes/croissants etc are fairly grim
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Next time you go on the SxBB go to the top of the col reiser (en route to ortisei above st. Christina) stop at the hut at the top of the bubble. Sit on the terrace with a coffee and a cake and tell me that you still agree with the above...
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Sat 21-02-15 10:00; edited 1 time in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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No dount people have had bad experiences in the past. I did see some footage of some Chelsea fans in Paris recently. Can I infer anything general about Brits from that? Generally treated politely, friendly and with good service everywhere I have been. Poeple generally treat you as you treat them. I have found that younger people are politer, friendlier and more considerate than older people. Doubt if people innately changed but better language skills and travelled more. Changing and smaller world.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@TTT, of course there are knobs everywhere. But the shocking thing about davidof's story was that the police apparently felt the driver's actions were justified by the cyclist's being on the wrong side of the cycle path.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| pam w wrote: |
| @TTT, of course there are knobs everywhere. But the shocking thing about davidof's story was that the police apparently felt the driver's actions were justified by the cyclist's being on the wrong side of the cycle path. |
Well the Police didn't want to take any action would be a better way of putting it because they felt that a driver couldn't be expected to notice people riding the wrong way up a bike path and probably because it was just too much hassle. My friend asked the driver why he'd hit him and he said it was because he was breaking the law and would teach him a lesson. Not particularly nice. I wouldn't be too shocked, UK police are very reluctant to prosecute motorists in bike collisions. In France the rule is the car driver is automatically wrong when in collision with a bike or pedestrian which tends to make them a bit more careful. To answer Steilhang's question though, no I wouldn't cycle in Marseille.
I've related a couple of experiences but the service in Munich cafes and shops was awful at the time, in my experience. Everyone in Bavaria whinges about the North Germans but I found Berlin a nicer city than Munich people wise. As I said, things have changed in my experience at least with respect to service.
Oh I remember parking on a road with a curve on it, parking was allowed, I got a ticket for "not parking parallel with the pavement" - how can you park parallel to a curve?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| davidof wrote: |
| how can you park parallel to a curve? |
By having a car with curved sides - a kind of ski-inspired waisting
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@pam w, that is wrong but my point it is an isolated incident and personally generally felt safer cycling on continent than UK and the police have always been good. I have though been confronted by UK police when cycling for something they subsequently admitted was both legal and safer. But again one isolated incident.
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| bertie bassett wrote: |
| pam w wrote: |
I wonder where the best coffee shops are? Italy probably has the best coffee but their cakes/croissants etc are fairly grim
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Next time you go on the SxBB go to the top of the col reiser (en route to ortisei above st. Christina) stop at the hut at the top of the bubble. Sit on the terrace with a coffee and a cake and tell me that you still agree with the above... |
That's more Tirol than Italy though
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| Karl Marx wrote: |
| davidof wrote: |
| how can you park parallel to a curve? |
By having a car with curved sides - a kind of ski-inspired waisting |
back in the 80s cars were rectangular, no sidecut at all.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@davidof, driving was a real skill then.
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@davidof, 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Quote: |
That's more Tirol than Italy though
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indeed; I have no doubt that, on average, Austrian cakes are better than Italian ones (just as Italian coffee is superior ). And one of the nicest offerings in our local patisserie in France is a "Foret Noire"
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