[...] or strolling the cobblestone streets of the world’s oldest cities

That would be Ur? Jericho? Çatalhöyük? The relationship of Americans with historical sites is quite amusing...

The point is on vacation there are no dishes to do, no kids to bother with and presumably the bills are paid. It's a vacation if you will. It's what people think fondly of and look forward to during the interim periods of non-vacationing.

http://headlinesafrica.com/component/option,com_seyret/Itemid,/task,videodirectlink/id,1092/

Ending female genital mutilation in Niger. Cultural imperialism, feminism or both?

Not to mention, where's the romance if you have to pee in the middle of dinner? Talk about an ordeal!

Thanks for this blog, its brilliant!

"Their quest led them here."

How's their quest going to get them back? And it's annoying enough when we can't get a waiter's attention at a regular restaurant, so how do we get more salsa before the entree' arrives? At least we could skip out on the bill if we didn't like the meal (and brought SCUBA gear).

Danielle: I'm sure they just let it roll down their leg since a floating dock would accommodate that. Still, the romance part is problematic (for me at least) because I would be unable to resist associating the floating dock with childhood Summers on the lake and doing a cannonball after dessert (although that would wash off my leg).

Elena: It could be any of those places you listed so long as there's a hotel there whose owners paid the exorbitant fee required to be called a "Leading Hotel of the World.®"

This ad perfectly captures what Spalding Gray called "the perfect moment." It's what we're all after when we go on vacations and is mostly illusory (kind of like romance). It is a snapshot of a moment in time (a perfect moment) that allows the viewer to project whatever impractical expectations are in their head onto the scene, so it's more like a Rorschach ink blot than anything else (for example, consider how Elena was able to draw so many conclusions about Americans and their relationship with historical sites when the ad contains no mention of either subject nor the location of any "leading" hotels).

The other elements of the photo prime most viewers (except Elena) to project all their Perfect Moment fantasies onto it rather than their neuroses, which is what makes it an ad instead of the therapy session the couple will need after their expectations are not quite met.

Personally, I love having dinner with my wife on the Riverwalk.

@Village Idiot: It was more of a dig at the idea of "the oldest cities in the world" being romantic but relatively new places like Paris, Florence, Istambul or Bombay (the nice parts, mind you), rather than a deserted mound criss-crossed by archeological excavations in the Middle East, kilometers from the nearest inhabited place (except Jericho, which has been inhabited more or less continuously for the past 11000 years).

Then again, tuxedos or cocktail dresses and stilettoes aren't the most practical attire for climbing the hill of the site of Troy in Hisarlik or strolling around the ruins of Mycenae, Knossos, Harappa, Carthago or Memphis :P

(Note for clarity: Archeological sites all over the world tend to look like this view of Troy)

How do they get the food out there? And if they take you out on a boat... isn't there a chance you could fall in and get your suit/gown all wet?

Come to think of it, the memories of falling in the water while attempting to reach the world's most romantic table, and the subsequent laugh riot, just MIGHT strengthen a relationship.

(By the by, I had a romantic meal at an archaeological site yesterday. Aztalan in Wisconsin. One of the world's oldest cities. ;-))