>>>No idea, but whoever said it has not expirienced directness as practiced in some of the more northern countries in the Old World ;-)
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>LOL. My undoubted favorite was the older woman in the Basel tram who looked me up and down and scolded me- in English- for bringing a stroller in the wrong door of the tram. The other door had a platform for such purpose, so using the narrow door clearly was a major infraction. A fellow commuter then scolded her- in German- for being so impolite to somebody who clearly isn't actually English (in which case any scolding would be well deserved, I presume.) I then told her in dreadful Haut-Rhin that I am coming from Alsace. Silence ensued. The subcontexts are fabulous and still make me chuckle to this day- similar to the joys of telling Texans or Alabamites that I'm from down South- way down South.

Hmmm... In Switzerland they are usually nice to those language-impaired foreigners coming from countries with only 1 or 2 languages when it comes to making their words understood.

Contrast that to Niederbayern, where they swear that most foreigners will understand their dialect, anybody not able to follow those grunts must be imbecile. I am uncertain whether if "foreigner" sample stems mainly from Austria and former Sudetenland or if they group Oberbayern and Oberpfalz among the foreign countries....

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>The surviving Alsatian relative is in NZ this year for a summer Christmas or else I'd be thinking about a trip back to your part of the world. I hark back to European winters with young dependent children who now stretch their wings and may never vacation with silly old dad ever again. Truly, in life you don't always appreciate what the good bits are until much later.

Yep, snow in the Alps can be great if timed outside school vacations of near countries ;-))