I am traveling to Spain soon with my family and my mom is worried about standing out because of her size. She is a very heavy, large woman (5'8, 210 lbs) and she doesn't want to be looked at differently. Will she be?? Does anyone have any advice? And are spanish woman very tiny?? thanks for all your help, we really do appreciate it.

I think overweight young women are not the norm. I always got the impression that if there were any, they were hiding out at home.

Middle aged women are frequently on the heavier side. You don't see the kind of obesity over there that you do in the U.S., but people just tend to put on weight as they age - in all countries.

isn't the average Scandinavian woman like 5'9" or something? Talk about big!! I ran into a bunch of swedes in spain and they were all at least 6'4"

Tell your Mom not to worry about it. Get over there and have a great time! She will be one among many international tourists from England, Germany, Sweden. etc- that come in all shapes and sizes.

[This message has been edited by Nicole (edited 01-05-2001).]

Unfortunately, she probably will get quite a few stares. If you do a search on staring on this board you will find that it happens quite frequently over there. Tell her just to stare back.