I was in Europe, and a scheduled flight to Hamburg got canceled due to bad weather. After many hours of standing in multiple lines, it was finally arranged that we (my travel buddy and myself) were given a voucher to stay in a hotel in Paris for the night, including another voucher for a cab to take us there. So, a cab was called for us, and after a longer than expected drive, he dropped us off in front of the hotel, accepted our thanks and our tip, and left. Well, the gentleman at the desk, informed us that he was not told of such a thing, and there were no vacancies. It was about midnight by then, and the only thing we could think of to do at the time was sit in the lobby and sob.

Well, turned out the lousy cab driver took us to the wrong hotel (of a chain) that was way farther away than what the voucher was for!!! For a bigger tip maybe?? Well, the fellow at the desk took pity on us, and called the airport to clarify the issue, and a room was found. It was a long walk to get there, but at long last we found the room, and wouldn't you know it, the key card would not work, Not after many, many tries. We tried calling the desk, and no one answered. We just sat on the floor in the hallway, and sobbed some more.

By this time we were exhausted, and just slept (sort of) the remaining few hours of the night on the floor outside the room.

Amazingly, we ended up making it to Hamburg on time to board a cruise ship there, as planned. Whew!

This was one of just a few blips in what on the whole, was a magnificent, month long trip. Everything else fell into place flawlessly. (except getting lost in Italy in a rental car, with Siri lying to us left and right.

My next door neighbor and I were driving from Dallas to Chicago for Christmas. When we left Dallas it was 85°. Hours later, cruising up the interstate into Illinois, it got cold, and the windows started icing up. We slipped into snuggies, it got colder, down to 6°. The car started slowing down. In central Illinois around 4am, we limped up the offramp, and there happened to be a state trooper’s station, and of course they are open all day and night. They gave us hot coffee and let us use their phone to call AAA. AAA got their local service guy out of bed, and he drove over, stopping first at the donut store and bought the first batch of the day, for the trooper staff and us. He poured a can of Heet into the tank, and a little while later we were on our way.

Another-

We often vacationed at Club Med locations with our kids and decided to try one in Tahiti. There were two. A friend who'd been to Bora Bora suggested trying the other one because it was a shorter flight from Papeete than the nearly one hour trip to Bora Bora. This on the heels of a 9 hour flight from California.

We landed in Papeete, cleared formalities and went to the gate to board the plane to Moorea. It taxied, took off—and after climbing to what seemed like little more than a few hundred feet, it leveled off. And then started to descend. I began to get uneasy watching the water rush up but after perhaps less than a minute of descent, I caught sight of a rock sea wall and the plane landed on terra firma. The flight attendant said, “Welcome to Moorea.”

We’d been in the air maybe five minutes at best. It couldn't have been 10 miles or much more. I wished I’d looked at a map first to know what to expect.

Sadly, both Club Meds have closed there. The company expanded too quickly, was apparently not able to provide enough business to keep all locations open, and wound up going through bankruptcy and retrenching. There are still some open, we went to one two years ago. It's too bad, they're a lot of fun and great for families with kids. Lots of activities, great food, guests from all over the world and something for everyone.

just some funny coincidences. I was on a train heading to Hamburg (I can’t remember from where). I had my seat in a compartment, a fellow was also in the compartment, and a woman came in with a heavy bag. She said to the man ”kanst du mir helfen?” and he helped her lift the bag on to the rack. They chatted for a moment in German, but I detected an accent. I glanced at the tag on his case, and he was from the town next to my home.

Another coincidence: I went on a walking tour in England. There were I think 14 people in the group, including three Americans. One was from a town just a few milesfrom mine. A married English couple on the trip had the same last name as me; a common name in our shared heritage country, but not that common in the US or UK. And, when I returned home, the cute guy at work asked where I’d been.

A walking tour in England, I said.

Oh? My mom’s from England, he said. Where did you go?

I was in Yorkshire. You know, All Creatures Great and Small and all that.

He had a funny look: My mom’s from Yorkshire. Skipton.

Skipton was the next town on the train line from where I was.

We’ve been married 33 years now.

Another, but not a coincidence: I was on an overnight train, but there had been no sleepers available so I booked two facing seats so I could stretch out to sleep. Well, who swarms the train but soldiers going to their training. These are kind of like our Army Reserve. So they fill the compartment and take my second seat! and they are, of course, noisy, and won’t give up that seat to some American college girl. So I leave my duffel (they can have my dirty laundry) and head up to first class. When the conductor protests my ticket later, I pull out my best, most indignant French possible explaining my situation and protesting the soldiers who will not Will not leave my seat. The conductor and the couple sharing my new comfy compartment. They all looked quite taken aback, and maybe a little afraid, and the conductor backed off, and I swear he kind of smiled as he closed the door.

Okay, last: the trip home from that Yorkshire walking tour.

The year before, our newspaper travel section had a series called ”Great Train Journeys of the World”., and one of them was the Settle-Carlisle line in Yorkshire. So, as I plan my walking vacation, I figure I may as well take that train, and so I fly into Glasgow, train down to Carlisle on the border, then the trip to Settle. Very nice.

On the way home, I retrace my steps, er, rails, to Glasgow. Stay overnight in a smallish hotel. There’s a wedding party staying there, kilts and suit jackets on the men, dresses with tartan sashes on the women passing me in the hall. In the morning I wake up and go out to get a little breakfast, and hear bagpipes. I follow the sound and find a Highland dance competition in the nearby square. The group that’s up? A team from a town a few miles from my home (in fact, the same town where that American on my walking tour was from).

I take a cab to the airport. The driver had such a Glaswegian accent, I could not understand a word he said.

At the airport, I go to security. Now, this was just eight months after the explosion over Lockerbie, so security is tight. When it is my turn, apparently I waved every red flag known to airport security.

”Why did you pay cash for your ticket? not check, not credit card?” (just my way of doing things at the time. There was a lot of questioning about that)

”Where were you in England? Never heard of it, where is it?” (I was in a wee village near the market town but I didn’t know to explain that. They got out a map. It didn’t help.)

“You went on this trip and tour alone?” (Yes. Great way to get to know people.)

“Where were the other people on your tour from?” (Umm…I wasn’t sure how to answer this, I just said ”UK, US, Canada, Germany” which is a pretty typical makeup for the tour company.

Then it got tricky:

”Was anyone from Israel?” Whoa. ”No.”. True. My roommate was an American who had lived the previous year on a kibbutz, but that was not the question.

”Why didn’t you fly via Manchester like most people?” (So I could take the damn Settle Carlisle train ride. I had to explain about the newspaper series, and they really didn’t get it).

”Take the battery out of your ($5 Target special) alarm clock.”

”Why don’t you have a blow dryer or curling iron? That is very unusual.” (I got this perm so I wouldn’t have to bring a blow dryer or curling iron. Unfortunately I also looked nothing like my straight-hair passport photo, which is probably what started this whole rigmarole.)

Then the kicker: ”Okay, on your way. The gate is right through there.” Passing through an UNSECURED OUTDOOR area to the gate.

Made it home.

When that cute guy from the office took me home to meet his parents, it took me awhile to more easily understand his dad’s accent: A native Polish speaker who learned English in Glasgow after the war.

???

"even if my word choices seem to be more American than not. "

I can think of a couple that stand out, one good and one not so good.

I made many trips across the Pacific to a couple of remote government-run islands. Wake Island, which is about halfway between Hawaii & Guam, has a long runway and has been used strategically for US military (and sometimes other) planes to refuel or stopover going to/from points further west. We used military air from Hickam AFB to get there and back. One time there was a KC135 refuel support aircraft that stopped there with several FA/18’s. We were given the opportunity to ride back to Hickam, a couple of days earlier since we were finished earlier than expected. There is no ground A/C inboard in the cargo area where we ride, so it was unexpected sweatbox. Once we were airborne it was fine.

The crew was making a couple of swings near Wake for one of the jets to do some refueling hook-up test runs because the pilot had some issues the day before. The crew let us go into the bay where we could lie on a blanket type mat and view the FA/18 coming up to connect to the drogue basket (refuel line). It was very interesting because there is a lot of communication going on between the drogue operator and the pilot and it has to be precise. And of course the jet pilot is doing his work too and is in communication. It was one of the coolest things I have ever witnessed and seeing that jet up so close to the underbelly of the plane you are riding in sure gets your heart rate up.

I’ll put story #2 in a different thread.

Outside, what a once or never in a lifetime, for most, experience!

The not-so-fun travel experience…

I had to double check but the year was 2006. Heathrow had just pretty much shut down all flights due to finding bomb threat activity against passenger aircraft. I had been working in the UK for a coiple of weeks on our cooperative project and was mainly at the UK contractor facility. Of course it was constantly in the news and my flight back home was affected since all flights the next day were cancelled. I was rebooked for the following dah and crossed my fingers.

Then we started hearing about the new rules about what one could bring on the plane, which was basically nothing at that time and what you did take onboard had to be in a clear plastic bag. The guys at work found some clear bags and gave me a couple, for which i was very grateful. All we were allowed to being onboard was your passport, reading glasses, some prescription meds could be allowed. I don’t recall what they did about milk for babies, and other personal ’necessary’ things. I think the security folks were winging it as well. No lip balm, no car keys, no book, the list goes on. I cannot tell you how many boxes containing liquor bottles I saw at the entrance to the security check. Thankfully you could buy a book once you cleared security but were warned to keep the receipt to prove you bought it there.

Then the real fun started. All planes from the US had been delayed. I was grateful i had been upgraded plus i had Delta lounge privileges, so that’s where I spent the next 6+ hours. Thankful we had food and drink and a clean ladies room. Then we finally were able to board and leave the gate, probably eating up another almost 2 hours. Then we sat there with about a dozen other planes waiting our turn to taxi out to takeoff. Another 3 hours.

Atlanta airport never looked so good! I don’t remember how I managed to catch a shuttle back to Alabama (probably because so many others had missed their flights) but it was around midnight as I was driving home. So around 24+ hours since i had gotten up early in the UK and started rhe journey.

rob, reread the whole paragraph. I think the aspect of my comments I wanted to explain is clear.

Wake Island and a very cool experience.

Is Wake the one that's overrun with seabirds?

Elmer, yes, it s now. At one time just one of the 3 islands (Wilkes) was a bird sanctuary. A major storm in the early 2000’s changed things, damaged or destroyed several buildings, and for whatever reason caused rhe birds to start occupying more of the other island across the lagoon. Not so much at the southern-most portion where the airfield is, but there aren’t as many trees or other nesting areas there either.

We rented an asthmatic little Suzuki jeep and drove to Fraser Island. This is in Australia. The Suzuki wasn’t powerful enough to drive in the sand on the beach, so we took an inland dirt road which went deeper and deeper into the rainforest. It started to rain, then pour, and get dark. We came to a point where the road, by now just a sodden track, was flooded out. We pulled the Suzuki off the track and pitched our tent. It was pelting down rain, and somehow still hot at the same time. SWMBO was trying to keep baby DD, about 7 months old, sort of dry in the sodden, steaming tent. I got out and stood in the rain which was not much wetter, but less oppressive, than inside the tent.

The next morning, we packed up, put DD in her carseat strapped into the rear seat, and started driving through the still flooded track. There came a point when this seemed like a bad idea, but if we stopped we knew the Suzuki would never get going again, so we kept going, until the Suzuki rolled over onto its side, half submerged in the muddy water.

Fortunately, DD’s carseat was in the side above the water, and she was still sleeping soundly, hanging from her harness. SWMBO and I waded around, unloading our bags and piling them on the sandy bank, and last we lifted still-sleeping DD out of her seat. After a couple hours, a group of Germans came along in two real 4x4s, righted the Suzuki, and towed it and us to their destination which was the Eurong Beach resort on the east coast of Fraser Island. We got a room and hung out there for a few days.

I poured the water out of my laptop and got it working again, coaxed the Suzuki into life, and spent evenings at the bar playing the local game, which was to see who could accumulate the largest pile of swatted giant green flies at the feet of his barstool.

Because my laptop was working again, I was able to post this account of the trip.

https://web.archive.org/web/20061216153350/http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/johnliu/fraser.htm

One of my favorite memories was visiting the Tower of London in August 1999. We were there on the day of a total solar eclipse. When it happened, life stopped! Everyone just stood there and marvelled at it. I've been back to London many times, but I don't think I would ever go back to the Tower, because it just wouldn't be the same.

Another from my solo travel in college. I arrived in Amsterdam and went to the hostel office, booked a hostel, but they didn’t open till later in the day. So I stashed my duffel in a locker. I was quite obviously a female American student. A guy started talking to me, and I wanted nothing to do with it, so I ignored him. He kept talking to me. I tried replying in Danish but he just switched to French. I ignored him and walked like I knew exactly where I was going. He backed off but followed me from half a block behind. I kept walking.

Finally, I saw a lot of tourists walking into a narrow gangway, with a small plaque saying it was an Anglican English church, so I mixed in to the flow.

The old stone passage opened into a glorious courtyard sea of daffodils in full bloom, with an ancient (well, to me anyway) stone church at one end. Heavenly.

Every time I looked back at the passage, the guy was standing at the street end, poking his head around the corner. Finally, when I hadn’t seen him for a long time (I was in there for well over an hour), I slipped out with a group of people. Thankfully he was gone.

But, two days later, I went back to that church, my refuge, for a beautiful Easter morning service.

The trip to Italy to meet my father’s relatives in Tuscany — specifically Lucca, and Collodi. Very eye opening as to explaining why certain things were done a certain way in my family.

Another trip to Italy to meet my mother’s relatives in Piemonte — Turin and the little town of Rivara. More examples of why things were done in a certain ways, especially cooking.

We were flying from Barcelona to Turin on Iberia instead of Alitalia to (foolishly) save money. Iberia cancelled the flight, Alitalia’s Turin flight was full, and the next flight out was to Milan, much later, with bus service to Turin.

I needed to call my cousin in Turin to alert him, but I could not get an airport phone to work. I found an Alitalia woman and went full drama queen — would she please contact my cousin Alessandro at this number and explain our delay. Two families, US and Italian, were meeting for the first time in two generations, and they needed to know why weren’t on the Turin flight. I begged with tears in my eyes, but not certain if she would call.

Once in Milan I was able to contact my cousin, and yes the Alitalia woman had called. I should have known that ”family” would be persuasive.

Anyway, my cousin already knew about the flight mess by tracking online, knew when the bus connection would leave and arrive. Less than ideal family reunion, but Alessandro was there to meet us when we arrived.

Elmer, I meant to ask, have you been at Wake Island before? I know some might have landed there if they have ever caught space-available military flights out of Hickam or to/from the western US air force bases. It’s a common stop for topping off fuel. The WWII and even the pre-war history of the old PanAm hotel is very interesting.

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.

Outside Playing, no. I've never been there. I never took any space-available hops during my 6 years of Army Reserve service (that was the minimum commitment for reserve volunteers. I didn't stay as much as one day longer than I needed to.)

It seems like an interesting place in many ways. Do its historical roles overstate what remains to see? Perhaps ditto with Midway, if that's a place some can get to as well.

Reservists not travelling on orders had low (maybe even last) priority for space available and I had an enlisted, not officer, rank to boot. I joke that my Security Clearance was so low, I wasn't authorized to know what would be served for lunch.

I know a tad about the Pan Am clippers, I recently reread Follett's book Night Over Water. It's a good book if you like mysteries.

Okay, one more from that solo travel during which I met up with acquaintances, family, my ”fraude famille” (from a high school homestay). But on this day, I was in Stockholm, sitting in the window of a restaurant, when it hit me. People walking past me in the window, and stranger to all of them. At that particular moment, no one I knew and loved, knew I ws there. Knew where I was, in Stockholm, in Sweden, in the world. (Well, they could assume I was somewhere in Europe.)

I didn’t feel sad, or lonely, or particularly alone, it wasn’t the first, nor the last, time I had been in that situation, just suddenly very aware of that very odd sensation.

Elmer if you’d like I’ll send you a link to a couple of articles written by someone I know. He was a government environmental engineer who accompanied us on a couple of trips and was also doing some research after hours into the old long-gone hotel and some other things. At that time he was an amateur geologist and archaeologist, studying to get an archaeology degree which he did finish a few years later. A very interesting and intelligent guy.

The island has changed greatly over the years. It would be interesting to be able to go see a few of the old WWII remnants if they are still there, the ’98 Rock’ the POWs carved, the Marine memorial and a quick walk thru the very small museum of artifacts in the airfield building (assuming it’s still there).

Yes, I'd love that . Please send me a message with your email address or I can send you one with mine. Thanks so much!

@bpath's last post reminds me of a solo trip to Chile and Argentina. I had planned to spend a few days in Santiago, a long weekend in the Maipo Valley with some friends of friends, then travel to Patagonia. The schedule with the friends got switched around, so I ended up with a free weekend and opted to fly to Buenos Aires.

I went in the Buenos Aires zoo on a rainy day and was one of only a few patrons. That's when I realized that no one knew where I was. Like bpath, I didn't feel sad or alone.....until I noticed the zoo had closed two hours early with me still inside! All the gates were locked, and I couldn't find any human to help. Fortunately, and oddly, the back door of a restaurant kitchen opened to the zoo. The staff were totally confused by my situation, but let me go through their kitchen to get to the street.