Times have changed

[Wansworth]

Back in 1981 on my aborted world cruise life in Spain wasfee and easy food was half the price as the UK in small harbours fish was almost given away.But through out the1980s prices rose and then came joining the eu.Not sure of the prices in the Uk food is no longer cheap and probably the cheapest places are the supermarkets.Many technical stuff is cheaper in the UK.

 

[sailaboutvic]

Delete

 

[sailaboutvic]

Prices have shot up every where , it's unbelievable how things gone
Agree many boat bits are cheaper UK , which is why I offen say to people perpair your boat well before going cruising

 

[LittleSister]

I first visited Spain about 1977, and was impressed by how cheap it was. A trip on public transport or a handful of gorgeous fruit from a street stall, even in the middle of Barcelona, was only the equivalent of a couple of pence.

The other things that 'impressed' me were
- the beggars in the street displaying their missing or grossly deformed legs, etc;
- the police carrying machine guns;
- the crazy traffic in towns, a seeming free-for-all, with at night seemingly most motorcycles and some cars lacking some or all lights, not to mention silencers, and direction signs at junctions in towns a rarity;
- we were able to sell our blood for IIRC £13 each, which more than paid for our stay of about 3 or 4 days, including a night in a hotel, all our petrol, food and drink, etc.

It was the most foreign place I'd been at the time. The country has seemed very much changed on my subsequent visits.

 

[Wansworth]

I first visited Spain about 1977, and was impressed by how cheap it was. A trip on public transport or a handful of gorgeous fruit from a street stall, even in the middle of Barcelona, was only the equivalent of a couple of pence.

The other things that 'impressed' me were
- the beggars in the street displaying their missing or grossly deformed legs, etc;
- the police carrying machine guns;
- the crazy traffic in towns, a seeming free-for-all, with at night seemingly most motorcycles and some cars lacking some or all lights, not to mention silencers, and direction signs at junctions in towns a rarity;
- we were able to sell our blood for IIRC £13 each, which more than paid for our stay of about 3 or 4 days, including a night in a hotel, all our petrol, food and drink, etc.

It was the most foreign place I'd been at the time. The country has seemed very much changed on my subsequent visits.

Yes much tamer now and trying very hard to be accepted by the proper Europeans……and lost something on the way?

 

[westernman]

Living standards in Spain have risen dramatically. Salaries have risen faster than those in the UK.
It is no longer a poor country. Same also applies to Greece.

This is why it no longer appears as cheap as it used to be.

The UK is stagnating. So may be some of us expats* will come back to the UK for a cheap holiday in the future.

*Not me though.

 

[LittleSister]

That reminds me, I visited the Netherlands around the same time. Actually did seasonal work there three years running*.
It was rather expensive (relative to UK) there the first year I was there, but by the third year UK prices seemed to have caught up.

One of the most noticeable things about the Netherlands then was how smart the cars were. They didn't have all the rust patches, filler patches, non-matching panels, etc.. that were so common at the time in the UK.

Taxis were Mercedes! With prices to match! (Mercedes were pretty thin on the ground in the UK back then, and certainly not what you'd expect a taxi to be.)

Bars didn't close at 10.30pm!

(*Being a low pay 'foreign migrant worker' for a while is a valuable life lesson, I found, even somewhere as civilised as the Netherlands, and me being the same colour etc. as the locals, but best experienced as a temporary rather than long-term state.)

 

[Wansworth]

Totally unrelated but around that time I was on a coaster in Belgium.In the middle of nowhere moored to a jetty.Anyway walked to nearest light source and found a bar in a deserted village…….then at nine o clock the bar filled up and we all sat watching Monty python which the Belgians loved

 

[LittleSister]

We thought the continental custom of bars staying open 'late' (compared to the UK) was very civilised. In the Netherlands, our local bar in a small mixed rural/commuter village stayed open until 1 or 2 - as far as I could tell until the last customers went home. In Amsterdam music clubs (and also eateries) would stay open all night. We saw no serious drunkeness, unlike UK pubs with their restricted hours.

We had no problem adapting to this lifestyle. On our way to Spain in a Citroen Dyane, we had a leisurely tour through France. We'd camped on the outskirts of Paris, again able to drink late.

A few days later we found ourselves in some rural backwater near Macon, went out for the evening about 8.30-9pm, found ourselves a bar, and ordered some wine. They were about to present us a glass each, and we tried to order a bottle. I'd not been good at French at school, and hadn't spoken it in nearly 10 years, so we struggled somewhat in making our desires known, or understanding what they were saying in response. Having done enough arm waving and mime they eventually cottoned on, and brought us a half bottle of wine, but we insisted, again in mime, on a proper sized bottle. All with a presumably amused but appreciative audience of a few locals.

That over, we settled down to drink our way through the bottle, and chuckled at our pathetic French. Before we'd finished our first glass, though, they started pulling down blinds, turning off lights and the locals were making their way out of the door! So that's what they'd been trying to tell us!