Bagging sun loungers 'illegal' :bandit:
A German lawyer says the practice of leaving towels on sun loungers to secure them is not legally binding.
Ralf Hocker's research is published in a new German book, the New Dictionary of Popular Legal Errors.
Mr Hocker told the Guardian: "A British tourist would be quite within their legal rights to ignore the reservation implied by the towels if there is nobody there."
Bar patrons who leave coats on chairs and pedestrians who try to claim parking spots for yet-to-appear cars are on equally shaky legal ground.
Mr H?cker, who runs a law firm that represents celebrities including supermodel Heidi Klum, discovered the British paranoia about Germans and loungers when he lived in London from 1999 to 2000.
"The towel thing is not such a big deal in Germany, but I have to say that the stereotype is true - German people do reserve all the loungers.
"It's also worth saying that it also infuriates some German people.
"There is a certain type of German tourist who does it, the same type who when they are on the beach builds a little wall with shelves and so on to protect their spot." :bunny:
A German lawyer says the practice of leaving towels on sun loungers to secure them is not legally binding.
Ralf Hocker's research is published in a new German book, the New Dictionary of Popular Legal Errors.
Mr Hocker told the Guardian: "A British tourist would be quite within their legal rights to ignore the reservation implied by the towels if there is nobody there."
Bar patrons who leave coats on chairs and pedestrians who try to claim parking spots for yet-to-appear cars are on equally shaky legal ground.
Mr H?cker, who runs a law firm that represents celebrities including supermodel Heidi Klum, discovered the British paranoia about Germans and loungers when he lived in London from 1999 to 2000.
"The towel thing is not such a big deal in Germany, but I have to say that the stereotype is true - German people do reserve all the loungers.
"It's also worth saying that it also infuriates some German people.
"There is a certain type of German tourist who does it, the same type who when they are on the beach builds a little wall with shelves and so on to protect their spot." :bunny: