The beach towel brigade: Is Covid making the most German habit worse?

Some of these sunbeds at a beach in Ostia, near Rome, are clearly occupied. Photo: Sabine Dobel/dpa

Brits call them the "beach towel brigade". In hotels from Majorca to Antalya, some tourists – let's face it, often Germans – like to get up early to reserve a sunbed by the pool by putting down their towel there.

That is unrelated to how much time they plan to spend by the pool. Even if they're heading out on a trip for a couple of hours, in the mind of the German tourist, that sun lounger is theirs for the rest of the day, not to be touched by anybody else.