TheDoctor - 10:00 pm on Mar 27, 2005 (gmt 0)

all of europe is a portion of the size of the US (i'm just guessing)

The European Union is about 40% of the size of the USA [en.wikipedia.org], but has about one and a half times the population [en.wikipedia.org]. The EU is the largest economy in the world [en.wikipedia.org], although the USA has a higher per-capita GDP.

You should note, however, that the EU does not contain all European countries, although it seems to cover most of the area of Europe west of Russia [upload.wikimedia.org]. (But there's a whole chunk of Russia in Europe.)

my dollars work everywhere except Canada

That means, since you're talking about the USA and Canada, that they only work in the USA :).

Back on topic:

One of the reasons for high prices in the UK is, of course, the high value of the pound.

There are a number of reasons for this, and I'm not going to get into a discussion about it at this moment. However, it should be noted that, when the euro was launched it immediately fell in value against the pound. There was much gloating about this in the euro-sceptic press in Britain, but the eurozone authorities generally did not worry about it. It gave them a sort of protective barrier against the British without them having to breach free-trade rules.

The low value of the dollar also works to make European prices high for US residents.