For many people, the best experiences and memories of foreign travel come from all the cockamamie situations and bizarre things that can happen. Lessons learned situations and what we decide we would do differently the next time. Two short experiences that are bodily function related. -Once when in Lausanne, Switzerland, following days of what I'll call slowed outflow of previously eaten roughage, we were walking along the lake on a beautiful day when an urgent need hit. I rushed an uncomfortably long distance as best I could to what I thought was a public restroom. Only to find no toilets but only squat-style setups that completely caught me off guard. The shock alone seemed to have made the urgent problem instantly disappear, and I left without needing to go at all. Apparently, my body drew the line before I did. -On a totally different occasion and in a different country, after a half day excursion of kayaking and drinking beer with work colleagues, the need for a rest facility was urgent. At the bar/pub adjacent to the kayak drop-off point, the bathroom lines were enormous. There were three - Men, Women, and Urinals. The lines snaked through meandering corridors, the Urinal one staying adjacent to the Women one. After the last turn, we came upon a long line of maybe 15 urinals on the walls of one side of the corridor, right next to women waiting for stalls on the other. Some men were startled by the setup and walked out. I was glad to be there and used the facility without hesitation. There were woods on the other side of a largish parking lot to use but for me, having waited to use an indoor facility, I stayed and used it gratefully. There was pretty constant laughing and chuckling among the people standing in the corridor, everyone took it good naturedly. Sometimes when you really need something, it doesn’t matter if it’s not exactly what you expected.

We lived in the Netherlands for a year with out 3 children fron 88-89. DH and I went back with our bicycles after we road from Vienna to Nante . We took the train to Amsterdam and rode all around the country taking our bikes and staying i their version of Airbnb. Leiden has the Hortus Botanicus. It dates from 1590. It is the most beautiful and amazing display of plants. The entire area of Holland is small gorgeous canals . https://www.google.com/search?q=hortus+botanicus+leiden%C2%A0&sca_esv=38bf29ee6820990e&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS1149US1149&hl=en-US&sxsrf=ANbL-n5-ffqXQLAp3P6SBEVlGzf8oPPzBA%3A1770249542717&ei=Rt2Dacm0K5Pe5NoPy8TqkAM&oq=hortus+botanicus+leiden%C2%A0&gs_lp=EhNtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1zZXJwIhlob3J0dXMgYm90YW5pY3VzIGxlaWRlbsKgMgUQABiABDIFEAAYgAQyCxAAGIAEGJECGIoFMgUQABiABDIFEAAYgAQyBRAAGIAEMgUQABiABDIFEAAYgARIsjlQpQpYwy9wAngBkAEAmAFtoAGtCqoBBDEzLjO4AQPIAQD4AQGYAhKgAt0KwgIKEAAYsAMY1gQYR8ICDRAAGIAEGLADGEMYigXCAhkQLhiABBiwAxhDGMcBGMgDGIoFGK8B2AEBwgIQEC4YgAQYxwEYJxiKBRivAcICChAAGIAEGBQYhwLCAgsQLhiABBjHARivAcICChAAGIAEGEMYigWYAwCIBgGQBhG6BgQIARgIkgcEMTUuM6AH45YBsgcEMTMuM7gHzgrCBwgwLjEzLjQuMcgHKYAIAA&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-serp#ebo=0 Also the clock museum in Utrecht . incredible we stayed outside of town and cycled to it. https://www.google.com/search?q=clock+museum+utrecht&sca_esv=38bf29ee6820990e&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS1149US1149&hl=en-US&sxsrf=ANbL-n4XHq4vg_hSpHKziKDhqXRfnIrQHA%3A1770249731064&ei=A96Dae_PA4iq5NoPiIOauAM&oq=clock+museum+utrech&gs_lp=EhNtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1zZXJwIhNjbG9jayBtdXNldW0gdXRyZWNoKgIIADIFEAAYgAQyBhAAGBYYHjIGEAAYFhgeMgsQABiABBiGAxiKBTILEAAYgAQYhgMYigUyCxAAGIAEGIYDGIoFMgsQABiABBiGAxiKBTILEAAYgAQYhgMYigVI-k9QpxpY7D9wAngBkAEAmAFvoAHrC6oBBDExLja4AQHIAQD4AQGYAhOgApwMwgIKEAAYsAMY1gQYR8ICBBAjGCfCAgUQIRigAcICDhAAGIAEGJECGMkDGIoFwgILEC4YgAQYxwEYrwHCAggQABiABBjJA8ICCxAAGIAEGJECGIoFwgIREC4YgAQYkQIYxwEYigUYrwGYAwCIBgGQBgiSBwQxMy42oAf1kgGyBwQxMS42uAeRDMIHBjEuMTEuN8gHLIAIAA&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-serp#ebo=0 ( trailrunner)

I would never trust ChatGPT to plan any trip for me. I am on the Australia forum of TripAdvisor and when people ask for assistance with AI planned itineraries, invariably they are flawed and unrealistic. I ve self planned several overseas trips in Asia, New Zealand and Europe. It’s not difficult and you don’t need to be a computer whiz to do it. My first move is to Google the State/Foreign Affairs Department of the country/countries I plan to visit to see what the visa/passport requirements are for entry to that country. Some countries require an actual visa issued by their local embassy; others allow visitors from particular countries to enter with what is called an Electronic Travel Authority/ETA. Some are free and others must be paid for. NOTE: Be sure the URL of the website ends with the extension ”.gov”. This indicates it is an official government website. There are a lot of fakes out there. Next, I Google “[Name of country] Tourism website”. Pretty well every country has some kind of tourism website with info about entry requirements, what you can bring into the country, what weather you can expect at any given time of the year, cultural information, things to see, thing to do, you name it. NOTE: As above, be sure the URL of this website ends in ”.gov”. Then I make a list of all of the things that interest me. Many tourism websites have direct links to things of interest, but if not, Mr Google can help there. I can find out opening hours, entry fees and all kinds of things I might need or want to know before deciding to keep this place on my list. Then I look at how much time I have for my trip, how much time I expect to spend at any given tourist site on the list, travel time between them, time for meals etc. Then I know what is feasible to achieve in my time frame and budget. Google Maps helps with choice of hotels or other accommodation. I go to an area I hope to stay in, put ”hotels” in the search box and then click on every one to see what they offer and tariffs. I look at the GoogleMaps reviews for each property, looking for consistency. If it has a less than stellar total score but recent reviews are consistently good, it’s probably been renovated or had new management brought in. I look particularly at the poor reviews to see if they are consistent. If the poor reviews are all along the lines of ”It was dirty/noisy/infested by insects/staffed by sullen or unhelpful people”, then it gets crossed off the list. But if one person didn’t like the colour of the carpet and another found a single hair in the shower, and another thought the receptionist looked at them funny, while a fourth didn’t like the soap in the bathroom, then I wonder if these people would be happy anywhere they stayed. I have the same approach if we’re planning to stay at an AirBnb/VRBO type property. I also look to see what places are close to public transport as we generally use public transport, or if we are renting a car, what parking is available and where the depot is located. Looking around using StreetView is also helpful to see what the neighbourhood looks like. Then I go onto the appropriate TripAdvisor forum and ask the locals for their opinion of my itinerary and proposed accommodation. Sometimes there will be information that isn’t commonly available on any website, such as it isn’t a good idea to drive between dusk and dawn on Australian rural roads, as they are generally unlit and there are a lot of nocturnal animals such as kangaroos out and about on the roads at night and they can be difficult to dodge if you don’t know what to do. Sometimes they will recommend a place I wasn’t aware of, or recommend great places to eat. I can ask questions to clear up anything I don’t understand. Then it’s just a case of finalising my itinerary, booking the accommodation I have chosen and car/s if we are hiring a car, booking the flights and heading off. I also keep the list of things to see or do that didn’t make it onto the list, in case we get there and find that for some reason or another something that did make it onto the list is closed or turns out not to be so interesting or whatever, so we have suggestions for other things to do instead.

Somehow the thread on kitchen table reappeared so here's my comment. Maybe it will be helpful in the future: I'd head to NH. The view from the back deck of the Mt Washington Resort is unparalleled. Whether you stay there or not, have a cup of tea there to enjoy the view. Take the cog train up to the top of the mountain. Take a boat ride on Lake Winnepesaukee. Head to Franconia Notch. See the waterfalls at Diana's Bath. If outlet shopping is your thing, you can do that in N. Conway too...esp if it's a rainy day. We stayed at Stonehurst Manor which includes breakfast and dinner. Mind you this was many years ago so things may have changed. But it's some thoughts about what we enjoyed when we were there.