Switzerland's Berner Alps 雪域之行-瑞士-3

First, smart travelers use travelers’ checks. They are easy to change into cash and replaceable if lost or stolen. Shop around and see if you can find some checks without having to pay the fee.

Hello, can I change money here?

I use whichever major brand I can get without the one to one and a half percent fee. For instance, I can get major name-brand travelers’ checks free through my auto¹ club or my credit union. Then, you have the question of denominations². Large checks save on time and book, but smaller checks are sometimes easier to cash and allow you to change just what you need. I get a mix, for instance, for 1,000 dollars I'd choose five one-hundreds, six fifties and ten twenty-dollar checks. Keep the receipts separate from the checks, and keep track of the serial³ numbers as you cash them in case you have a claim for lost or stolen checks. I also bring about a day’s spending money of local currency for each country I plan to visit, just enough to keep me going till I can get to a bank in each country.

Beautiful
Yes
Danke schon.(o should be o-umlaut)

So what about changing money? You can’t change money without losing money, not to mention losing time. So when you enter a new country, estimate carefully how much money you'll need, find a fair place to change your money and then buy your local currency. Then of course you'll put your cash in a money belt, your safety deposit vault⁴. Let’s take a look at this board to see how this exchange business works. There's a buying and a selling rate. The bank makes money on every transaction. After all the traveling I’ve done, I still have a tough time conceptualizing who is buying and who is selling. It doesn’t matter. We lose. The rates are always changing, but right now if I’m changing US dollars, I can see I’ll get 1.3 Swiss francs for each dollar. And this column shows I'll have to give them 1.38 Swiss francs to get that dollar back. Every time I change, I’ll lose a few percent. So I want to change as accurately⁵ as possible. Let's say you are on your way out of a country, you only need a little money and you have only large checks. You change a hundred dollars, spend twenty and you're left with 80 dollars excess local currency which you’ll have to change again at another loss. That’s an expensive twenty dollars. And remember, don’t change back into dollars between currency because you’ll lose again. As you travel, see how close you can come to predicting how much local currency you'll need in each country. Minimize your bank losses.

And another tip, coins are generally not accepted outside their home country. And this one is worth over 3 dollars. Change them into paper, spend them or else once you’ve crossed that border, you've just purchased a pocketful of little souvenirs.

We’ve taken care of some important business. And here is an example of how to use a place like Interlaken. It’s a great administrative⁶ center at any time, but if you run into rain as we did, use the time to catch up on indoor chores. Take advantage of their post office, long distance phone booth, banks, tourist office, shops and so on

1 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

2 denominations   

n.宗派( denomination的名词复数 )；教派；面额；名称

参考例句：

• Christians of all denominations attended the conference. 基督教所有教派的人都出席了这次会议。
• The service was attended by Christians of all denominations. 这次礼拜仪式各教派的基督徒都参加了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 serial   

n.连本影片，连本电视节目；adj.连续的

参考例句：

• A new serial is starting on television tonight.今晚电视开播一部新的电视连续剧。
• Can you account for the serial failures in our experiment?你能解释我们实验屡屡失败的原因吗？

4 vault   

n.拱形圆顶，地窖，地下室

参考例句：

• The vault of this cathedral is very high.这座天主教堂的拱顶非常高。
• The old patrician was buried in the family vault.这位老贵族埋在家族的墓地里。

5 accurately   

adv.准确地，精确地

参考例句：

• It is hard to hit the ball accurately.准确地击中球很难。
• Now scientists can forecast the weather accurately.现在科学家们能准确地预报天气。

6 administrative   

adj.行政的，管理的

参考例句：

• The administrative burden must be lifted from local government.必须解除地方政府的行政负担。
• He regarded all these administrative details as beneath his notice.他认为行政管理上的这些琐事都不值一顾。