British holiday makers say that badly translated signs can leave them baffled, and quite often laughing.
A holiday company has now compiled a list of the oddest signs encountered, including one which simply read "Women are diseases".
At the airline ticket office in Copenhagen, visitors are apparently informed that the airline will take their bags and "send them in all directions" - not overly reassuring to passengers.
Meanwhile, a hotel in Budapest put up a sign saying "We regret to inform visitors that their stay will be unbearable" when their lift broke.
Another sign spotted warned visitors that any children left unattended will be sold to the circus. However, people in Austria aren’t quite so lucky, a sign there says all children left unattended will be sold as slaves.
For the more adventurous Brits a sign in a Zurich hotel lobby will come as quite a treat. The notice stated that because of the impropriety of entertaining guests of the opposite sex in the bedroom, it is suggested that the lobby be used for this purpose and, any waiting customers or management should remove all clothing.
A spokesperson for sunshine.co.uk - who compiled the list - said: "English speakers are among the most heavily travelled people in the world and so it’s no wonder that hotels, restaurants and other tourist attractions try to appeal to them by translating signs and menus.
"However, the problems come when these translations are completely inaccurate. The above examples are just a bit of fun and aren’t likely to offend anyone, other than chambermaids, but when menu translations wind up saying ‘delicious roasted hepatitis’, companies are bound to lose lots of business,
"The problem with these translations is that they could be interpreted as something very different by people all over the world."
