Bush was in office during our 8 week trip to Europe in 2005

Thats nice but you know, , I'd never heard about Americans being badly treated in Europe until I started reading American travel forums.

I think it all starts with one particular American being treated badly because they were rude or pushy, or they just hit a person( server etc) on a "bad day" and then they run home and tell all their friends they were treated badly because they were American!
People are people all over the world, and sometimes people do get treated rudely, but I think in most cases its nothing to do with nationality, but everything to do with just being a tourist.

We (tourists) expect everyone to be nice to us because we are happy and on holiday, and its a surprise sometimes to encounter the surly ticket taker or grumpy waiter,, but heck, we encounter people like that at home and always figure they are just being jerks , and never blame ourselves then. But , on holiday too many people like to jump to the conclusion it had to do with their nationality.

A Proud Canadian( as if there is any other type! LOL)

I dislike the term "proud Canadian" as much as I dislike "proud American". I am Canadian as an accident of birth, it had nothing to do with me personally. If I had chosen to come to Canada and had struggled to do so, I could claim to be proud of my choice, if indeed it had worked out well for me. Sometimes I am proud of Canada (such as when we opted not to go to war in Iraq) and sometimes I am not (such as when I hear about our Native People living in dire poverty with drug & alcohol problems) but I am always happy to be Canadian, just not "proud" of it.

We were in Europe in 2005, 2006, 2007, and this year. We never heard any anti-American remarks, nor felt discrimination in any way.

I agree with others here - it's easy to take rudeness or some other unfriendly behavior personally.

Oh, and I'm proud to have green eyes.....

I think people who are anti-American are so regardless of the president. We were treated poorly by a couple of people in 1992 (even with my German mother with us, and it was her home town!) and Bush Sr. was president, but Clinton had just been elected. I never thought to blame it on the president, just on the people who were rude!

I think people get so caught-up on how Europeans (esp. the French) are "anti-American" that they ignore the large amount of "anti-European" feeling (esp. anti-French) there is in America.

It can be seen on all levels, from posts on site like this ("I'm going to Paris but am worried about x,y,z stereotypes about the French.") to your Congress renaming foodstuffs to try an insult countries. From the outside looking in there is more anti-French feeling in the USA than the other way round, but most Americans aren't going to attack French tourists and the same is true in reverse.

If you go to Europe with negative prejudices about the people then chances are that every little inconvenience will, in your mind, be a reinforcement of that.

Actually, people in Europe asked who I voted for first before acting rude to me!

Bizarre post!

I have been to Europe when BOTH Bushs were in office, I have been when Carter and Clinton were in office.

The only difference I notice is that Americans seem to want to post strange things. The Europeans were nice no matter who was in charge.

Norma I totally agree with you regarding signing anything " Proud" anything, I did that on purpose to make a point that it looks funny to me. I am proud, but I certainly never feel the need to crow it.

Cate how did you know they were rude to you because you were America, I mean, people are rude to you sometimes at home in America, so why assume the rudeness you encounter has anything to do with your nationality?

Peter you had a few good points.

I'm very proud to be part of the Rick Steves web site. Does this count?

What a weird thread.