No Wi Fi

I saw this sign outside a small cafe at the food market in Vienna earlier this year, made me laugh.
Click on image to get the full picture

no-wi-fi.png

(hasn't prevented the man in the background from focusing more on his phone than his friend

[Robin Garr]

Interesting that it's in English, not German. A message to US and British tourists?

There is a guy running a pub in the UK (London, IIRC) who has embedded wire mesh in the walls, etc., making the entire place a 'Faraday cage'. What that means, is that radio signals (e.g. cell phones) are totally blocked. While it illegal to jam cell communications (severe penalties in the US, unless you are the govt.), one can legally make a Faraday cage. Apparently the pub is quite popular.

[Robin Garr]

... making the entire place a 'Faraday cage'. ...

Ha! He's getting a lot of favorable publicity over there, too.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016 ... ecause-so/

There was a surprsing amount of English in signage in Austria and Germany.

There is a guy running a pub in the UK (London, IIRC) who has embedded wire mesh in the walls, etc., making the entire place a 'Faraday cage'. What that means, is that radio signals (e.g. cell phones) are totally blocked. While it illegal to jam cell communications (severe penalties in the US, unless you are the govt.), one can legally make a Faraday cage. Apparently the pub is quite popular.

Love that idea! We need more of that.

I live in one of those Faraday cages--my house is clad in stucco over chicken wire. Phone calls usually don't get through, but, oddly, I do get a beep when they leave a voicemail.

I have a (blurry) photo of a restaurant in Frankfurt that says: "No WiFi. Talk to each other and get drunk!"

[Jenise]

That where you've been?

Close: Nine days in Munich, then a smattering of days in Salzburg, Baden-Baden, Strasbourg, Basel, and Zurich.

Got out while Oktoberfest was still a week away.

[Jenise]

Good move, Jeff! Lovely area. I'm especially fond of Salzburg. We had a wonderful two-day stay there once, that was only meant to be an overnighter. We didn't have reservations but wandered into town and ended up at this amazing grand home. Our hostess waited up for us with sherry each night, and her husband, who inherited this as a family home, wandered the property with an empty smile in his threadbare pale green Austrian Army jacket, he obviously in the clutches of a gentle dementia and not quite aware that World War II ended. When we came down to breakfast that first day, she asked if we were staying a second night because the town was celebrating Mozart's birthday and a small five piece group would be playing a private recital at the Presidential palace and she could arrange for us to attend. Well, YES.

The upside of travelling without reservations.

Great story, Jenise.

We did attend a concert -- not a private one -- at the rooms adjacent to the Marble Staircase, in the palace. (The palace which is not open to the public without an appointment.) Nice to be in one of these grand places and have a purpose, not just gawking at the reconstructed decor.

[David M. Bueker]

Several restaurants in the Rockies (Jasper, Canmore, Banff) had similar signs/policies.

I was quite happy to be off my device at meal times. Other than a couple of photos for Trip Advisor reviews I did not use my iPhone at any meal during the entire 2 week trip. That's not unusual for me unless I am dining alone (though I prefer a book/e-book in that case), but it was interesting to see people actually talking to each other.