Someday Travel

08/04/2025

On my way home. Of course, one more thing had to go wrong before I get there.
This time someone took my suitcase off the train by mistake.

I was the last person off the train so when I saw the only bag left on the luggage rack I immediately guessed what happened, so I grabbed it hoping to chase down whoever had mine. I wasn’t even out of the car yet when a young woman started yelling at me that I had her bag. She sounded like she was accusing me of taking her bag until I demanded to know where mine was. Then it dawned on her that she’d been the one who made a mistake, and after that she calmed down. In all fairness , they look quite similar, although hers is much better quality.

It turns out her name is Charlotte and she’s on her way to be a bridesmaid in her friend’s wedding in Ft Lauderdale. So she would have been much worse off with my suitcase full of butter and cheese than I would have been with a bridesmaid’s dress. Nevertheless, I’m glad I got my stuff back. That butter is too good to lose!

07/04/2025

07/04/2025

My tradition of running into "situations" rubbed off on Teri last week who was a day late arriving in Paris thanks to bad weather cancelling flights. Of course, traveling with me included getting lost which in itself is not big deal, but when it happens on the walk back to a remote chateau on strange streets along a dark forest, it doesn't make for a great impression as a travel companion. But we figured everything out, got back safe and sound, and after a couple of glasses of wine, decided to laugh about it. I don't know who invented GPS maps, but they're my hero.

We walked miles, visited amazing places, ate great food and drank a lot of French wine. We shared secrets, she listened to me blather on with a bunch of useless information about the places we visited, and didn't complain or yell at me even once. Last night she said goodbye to Paris by taking me on one of the stunning after dark riverboat cruises that shows the beauty of the city under the night lights.

Teri's on her way back to FL, I've downgraded to a hostel that's loud and rowdy with young people and families and people my own age. The bathroom is hardly big enough to turn around in and it's certainly no chateau, but for one night it will work. I still have a few hours in Paris tomorrow, then it's back on the train to London and a fight home on Wednesday. I'm ready to come home and get back to the neighborhood.

07/04/2025

The home exchange I thought I was going to get in Paris fell through, so we had to "settle" for staying at a former chateau on the outskirts of the city. Teri and I both agreed, it was not bad for a second choice. It was certainly one of the more interesting homes I've stayed in, with a history reaching back through centuries of former royalty.

01/04/2025

Just in case anyone thought I was making up the story of the booties. I did keep one package; this pair will go one the Christmas tree as a reminder of this trip.

31/03/2025

I wonder sometimes if people think I make this stuff up. Then I remember that anyone who knows me, knows I don't have enough creativity to make up what happens to me.

Today I was back on my own in Paris. I had breakfast at the tiny hotel I stayed at last night. I got just a little creeped out early in the morning when somebody tried to open the door to my room. I suspect it was someone curious as to whether their room was as dilapidated as mine. They buzzed off as soon as I yelled at them, so it was no big deal. Breakfast at the hotel was in a tiny room that would never pass standards in the US, but hey, it's Paris in a 600 yr old building. I think the old gentleman there liked me.

I went to see Notre Dame first thing to try to beat the crowds and all I can say is, "Well done, Paris". It's magnificent. Better than I remembered, even with 10,000 other people visiting at the same time. It really is overrun but they do a good job of managing the flow of people. And it gleams, so it's worth everyone's time to see it. It's a treasure.

After that, I went to St. Severin, another high gothic cathedral just steps away, one that gets very few visitors, is just as old but suffers from the effects of hundreds of years of candle, oil and coal smoke. It's just as interesting and historic, just not completely restored. But they're working on it, and it's beautiful in it's own way. So the day was off to a good start.

Then I decided I wanted to go back to St. Denis; my favorite cathedral in all of Paris. It's north of the city proper in what has traditionally been considered one of the "bad" parts of town because of the ethnic make-up of the populace there. But it recently got some much needed attention when the Olympic committee set several events nearby and now there is a brand new gleaming station there...just not the one I needed to go to.

Oh well, lost again; that's nothing new. I decided to just turn around, get back on the train I had gotten off of, the one that ended at that station, and ride it back to where I started because by then I was running behind schedule. The only problem was, the train didn't go back. It kept going - past the end of the line. In the wrong direction. Into the middle of nowhere. That's when I noticed I was the only one in any of the cars.

Then it stopped in the middle of the tracks. With no station, no platform, nowhere to get off.

OK, I've been in situations before; don't panic. Just think. So I figured everything would be OK as long as the engines were still running, and they were. Then they stopped. So I waited. And waited. And then I had to p*e. Of course, I had to p*e! Why wouldn't I have to p*e at the worst possible time?

The lights were still on in the cars, so I looked around to see what I might be able to do, and saw the emergency call button, so I eventually pushed it even though I expected someone to come and arrest me for being somewhere I didn't belong. And someone did come online just as another train roared past going the other direction, so I couldn't hear what the guy said, which didn't matter anyway since he was speaking French. But I figured they at least knew that some dumb lunatic was in the train and needed to be gotten rid of. Thankfully, a few minutes later it started moving again, this time back toward the end station.

At that point some other people got on so I felt a little more secure and finally made it back to where I started. I'm disappointed I didn't get back to the cathedral, but by then I was just happy to get to somewhere that was populated.

By the time I got back to central Paris, it was time to pack up and head toward my home exchange, but first I wanted to buy a cheap suitcase since I'd sent a bunch of purchases back with niece Abby on the plane in my original suitcase and wanted to replace the tote bag I was carrying. So I went to one of the hundreds of cheap nondescript tourist stores along one of the streets I was walking and bought a cheap suitcase. I thought it felt a little heavier than it should have given that it seems to just be made of plastic but I decided that was just because it was not of good quality.

I went back to the hotel to repack the stuff I had in the tote bag I had been carrying and they had held for me, and when I opened the suitcase I discovered it was full of bags stuffed with souvenir packages of baby booties. Hundreds of them. All printed with slogans like "I love Paris", and pics of the Eifel Tower.

Hundreds of packages of baby booties.

Like I said, I can't make this stuff up.

Then I felt guilty, knowing that the Vietnamese women I'd purchased the suitcase from had already dropped the price she wanted to charge me by $18, plus she'd thrown in a cheap Eifel Tower key chain, and now I had product that she wasn't going to be able to sell. And of course, I couldn't remember exactly where I'd purchased the suitcase. I had no idea what I was going to do with 300 pairs of baby booties. I asked a couple in the hotel if they wanted them to use as Christmas tree ornaments, but they declined.

So I went back outside with bags full of booties and tried to find the store where I got them by retracing my steps, because being the good conservative German that I am, I couldn't possibly throw them away; that would have been wasteful. Around and around and around the blocks I went, until I finally DID stumble upon the right place. Hallelujah! The Mama was who sold me the suitcase had gone home, but once I was able to communicate to the daughter what had happened, she was very grateful.

I felt good about having found the place, but by then was late leaving for the home exchange.

But that's a different story. I couldn't make it up either.

30/03/2025

Somebody remind me how to tell if a 15 yr old girl is really having a good time, or just saying she is because she knows that's what's expected??? I have no clue.

Abby and Maggie went back to Indiana today after a whirlwind vacay that didn't quite go as planned but ended up fine. Or, at least I think it was fine. (Back to the 15 yr old girl question.) What I do know is that I miss them already.

We accomplished a fraction of what we wanted to do, but decided that the most fun was just walking the streets, seeing what was around us, and enjoying the cafe culture. We indulged in good food, walked miles, saw the tower light up and twinkle, went to a sound and light show at Napoleon's tomb, bought from the artists near Sacre Cour (well, they did) and along the Seine. I think Maggie enjoyed talking to the Bouquiistes along the Seine and getting an hour alone in Shakespeare & Co with my credit card the most. Abby is a bit of a foodie and enjoyed going to some historic old restaurants where revolutionaries and historical figures used to eat.

We stayed in what would be a typical old apartment near Les Halles/Chatelet, within walking distance of everything. Most days tallied up to around 7 miles. We decided to walk almost everywhere except up the mountain at Mont Martre. I finally figured out how to find the funicular to avoid all those stairs, thank goodness.

Tonight I'm staying at a tiny old, old, old hotel right behind Shakespeare & Co., appropriately called the Esmerelda Hotel. It was built in 1640 and doesn't look like it's seen much improvement since then. It's the kind of place that reeks of history with rooms that have bowed walls, squishy floors and a tiny steep winding staircase with a banister that the gentleman at the front desk thinks might have been replaced once in 400 years. He is a sweet old charmer who is proud of the place being the way it is, and offered me an upgrade (to a 3rd floor walk-up) with a view of Notra Dame for whatever I wanted to offer hiim - 5, 10, 20 euro; he left it up to me. It's not luxury by a long shot but it's unique and I like it.

Tomorrow evening I move to a different place; an expected home exchange fell through but I was able to find a substitute in a place that had been a chateau, located a little south of Paris, close to several other estates, and reachable by train. I have fingers crossed that the guy is telling the truth about it being a short walk from the station.

I'm going to meet friend Teri at the airport on Tuesday and start touring Paris all over again with her. We're going to have fun. And she'll be easy; she's not 15.

Paris is always a good idea, no matter who you're with.

24/03/2025

Finally!!!

23/03/2025

Sunday, March 23, 2025

OK, so while I was out chasing after my laptop, Maggie and Abby were stuck in a Nashville hotel wondering what to do. Abby, being the trooper she is, started looking for alternative flights, the prices of which were surging by the minute and getting scooped up as quickly as they appeared online by other people who were in the same situation. Once I was able to get online, we connected and both started looking at what kind of flights might get them to London or Paris, or any of the other regional airports. We found options that went through Amsterdam, Dublin, even as far as Istanbul, which I decided was just too far out of the way. We looked at going through Frankfort, tried to get them to Gatwick and even considered Manchester or Cardiff.

Then I remembered Anne and Colin talking about Bristol airport, which is still a long way from London, but we found an Aer Lingus flight out of DC, and connived that if we could get them that far that same night, they could stay with nephew Roger and Coleen, and fly Aer Lingus through Dublin to Bristol, leaving Sunday night and arriving Monday morning. It wasn’t ideal, but it also wasn’t going to cost $10,000 which is what some of the direct flights to Paris were up to by that point. And it gave them 2 days in Washington, DC. So it wasn’t a bad compromise.

So the bad news is, they were supposed to fly nonstop out from Nashville on Thursday and arrive in London on Friday morning, which has turned into flying out of DC tonight, transferring in Dublin, arriving in Bristol tomorrow (Monday morning). The saving grace is, they’ve had two full days in Washington DC in the meantime, so their trip has not been a total bust.

We’ve lost most of our plans for London. I went to the Tower of London by myself this morning but it was no fun because Abby and Maggie weren’t there when they were supposed to be. I skipped the British Museum as well because I still had a lot of alternative plans that needed to be made. But after some more work online, we have new tickets for Windsor Castle, The British Museum, and as a bonus, there’s a live production of The Devil Wears Prada that’s only a few blocks from us, and I found three great seats together, third row, center! (I didn’t really need that arm and leg.)

It's going to be a crazy long day tomorrow, but I think we’re back on track.

22/03/2025

Heathrow is open again. The landing path goes right over Windsor and planes are coming in with landing gear down at a rate of about every 60 seconds. So they’re trying to make up time but I still hear people talking about how messed up their plans are. There’s no point in complaining about my minor issues; time to move on. I’m going to try to get into St George’s chapel this morning to take a look at Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip’s graves. And maybe see the changing of the guards at the palace.

21/03/2025

Please give this gentleman a 5 star review!

21/03/2025

March 21, 2025

Part two:

No backpack. Worse yet, no laptop.

Deep breaths. Don’t panic. Think. What to do?

I told the people at the café that I’d left my laptop on the bus, and I needed to go back to the stop to see if I could get it back, and they were nice enough to say they’d watch my suitcase, which had it been stolen wouldn’t have been nearly as bad. On hindsight, going back to the bus stop was a dumb idea, but it was the best I could come up with at the time. It didn’t work out, but the very nice driver of the next bus gave me some information on who to call to see if someone had turned it in. At that point my heart sank a little, fearing that whoever found it would keep it, break into it, steal all my information, empty our bank accounts and ruin our lives forever.

I tried calling the bus company numerous times, but of course none of them would go because ATT ranks just below Loki in terms of devil behavior when it comes to people who dare try to make a phone call from outside their normal territory. So I tried contacting them through their website, which wanted information on all sorts of stuff I couldn’t answer, didn’t matter and in the end, that site wouldn’t work either.

My next idea, since the café was now too busy for me to bother the people working there, was to go to the nearest tourist information center to see if maybe they could help me. There I met the very nice Massi, who along with the owner of the store where he is located, spent the rest of the day helping me try to get the laptop back.

Hours later, after a couple more errors, lots of out of date information on pamphlets, remarkably bad phone reception in the middle of the city and a lot more of the sinking gut feeling, Massi was finally able to contact the lost and found location for the bus company, and thank goodness, they had the backpack and were willing to let me pick it up even though it ws after hours. What a relief!

It was about 10 miles out of the city but Uber got me there and back. Once I got it, I went back to the store where Massi works and gave him a big hug.

I would like everybody who made it through reading all this to go to the scan code on the picture I posted and PLEASE leave Massi a 5 star rating. The city of Windsor eliminated his job and he’s trying to convince them that he is needed. So he needs all the 5 star ratings he can get. He’s certainly going to get one from me, and he really needs as many as he can get. So help a nice guy out, and just leave 5 stars.

Next up: What to do about Abby and Maggie? They’re still stuck in Nashvillle!