The New York Times today, in a story bout the dimishing value of the Euro, said that Europe--and Spain--would be anticipating record-breaking crowdes of tourists taking advantage of the cheap money.

Will this mean that Madrid will soon be crowded beyond its ability to handle all those visitors? Thus degrading the quality of the Spanish experience?
Cantabene

Here's the thing: American tourists in general travel in summer. So... Madrid in summer empties out of madrilenyos, fills up w/ tourists! I bet it won't be that noticeable until summer. And most tourists go w/ packages or hotels they can book via the U.S., so go with all the nice local places discussed on this board and we'll be fine! (I hope). Probably smaller places like Santiago, Toledo, etc will be noticeably more crowded, tho.

Right, if all Americans went to Europe right now, the airlines would not feel compelled to offer the great deals they DO offer. I bet you do not notice much of a difference in the next months. Since Americans usually do not have as much holidays, they cannot overflood Spain as easily

sad but true about the lack of vacation days. I'm tempted to take a long weekend!

One of the reasons i adore my profession (Spanish professor) is the massive amounts of time i am NOT in class (and therefore free to travel, prepare new courses, read, write, etc). But I am one of the lucky ones (tenure, good job, good working conditions). Very few positions like this exist any more. As for those of you in USA who have to work at least 45 weeks a year or more... it is awful. Every single espanyol (unless self employed) get more than the US workers!

Rub it in, rgf!!!! I miss teaching for that reason...studying in situ every summer!

I teach Spanish at a university in the US and can't complain - we get, in all, about four months of vacation a year...

Anyway, I have a question, maybe it's a dumb one but here goes. What makes the dollar so strong and the Euro/peseta so weak? How does this work?

Thanks

ilovemadrid, here is my take on it. Right now the US stock market is very high compared to international stocks. And Europeans and other foreigners have been buying US investments in great quantities. To do that, they sell their native currency and buy dollars. This causes the dollar to rise in value. Normally, a country would have power to make economic changes in order to protect their currency. But the European Union, with many different countries, has been unable to do much to protect the Euro. My guess is that it would start to swing back when the US economy slows down.

Ah, ok, now I get it, thanks caminante!!