Travel Chuckles:

Everybody has them occasionally and we’ve had our fair share along the way. Since laughter is said to be the best medicine, here are a few items to help your well-being!

Linguistic stumble

On our first trip to Paris, I studied and practiced my French lessons leading up to our departure. We go into a Patisserie and everybody orders, when it comes to my turn, in my best French I say – “make it trois!” So much for those lessons.

A little something for your trouble

In London, we stayed at a lovely hotel that provided extra amenities. One amenity was free movies and since we had a rainy evening, we decided to take advantage of the offer. We were in London, so what better movie than “Monty Python’s Holy Grail”. The guy at the desk told us they could make us popcorn if we’d like, just call down to the desk. When we were prepared to watch, we called down and in just a few minutes, a gentleman knocked with our popcorn. Sue thanked him and handed him a couple of pound coins as a tip.

The next morning when we returned the movie, the receptionist and another man were laughing as it turned out that our popcorn guy was the owner of the hotel and didn’t know how to react to our tip.

A little eye bleach, please!

You just never know what you’ll see whilst traveling!

Driving is easy, except…

… when you confuse the road signs and drive straight down a one way street – the wrong way!

… when you drop your wife off at the hotel and then just go around the corner to turn around. Fifteen minutes later, you actually get a break in traffic to turn around. Thirty minutes later, she says I was hoping you were coming back.

… when the street is so narrow that you have to fold in your mirrors and go inch by inch to make it down the street. Luckily, steady nerves prevailed that day.

Someone should have taken a nap

We were in Paris for my 50th birthday, which meant we were there for Christmas. We decided to go to midnight mass. First, the kneelers were like medieval torture devices. We both ended up with nasty bruises on our knees. Then, when the priest preached, instead of a joyous holiday homily, he delivered more of an angry fire and brimstone homily and was staring at me the entire time. Needless to say, we didn’t hang around after mass for a holiday meet and greet.

Up, up and away… eventually

On another occasion in France, we visited the Loire Valley and decided to take a hot air balloon ride. We had a beautiful morning and despite the language difference, everyone was very pleasant. Once the balloon was inflated, we were ready to go. We just had to get in the basket. That’s when the fun started. We weren’t a bunch of Olympic athletes, just ordinary people trying their best.