Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for April 10, 2013

I want them to have a good time.

It’s mostly about attitude! This is part of the adventure! and hey, Paris is a BIG city, find another place if all else fails.

Never take hotels near railway stations! I learned that the hard way …

Oh no, don’t make the trip a total failure now! :o

Doesn’t the one holding the hotel door remind you of Val’s collegue Rena?

They should have stayed in Peoria…

NOT WITHOUT THAT WATER-HEATER YOU FRENCH PEASANT!!!!(Insult Lvl. 10 = Fire-Breathing-Dragon)

This is an awfully laborious set-up for a “There’s no place like home” scene.

i know this is supposed to be a humorous trip but it would be really nice for them to have a great time.

Hot water heater = Redundant

At least there’s water. Years ago, in a hotel in Ensenada, Mexico my wife had used up all the hot water. I needed a shower so I braved the cold water and lathered up using the Ivory soap supplied. Just when I went to rinse off, the water stopped completely!

You haven’t lived until you’ve gone around all day with chunks of thick Ivory soap flaking off your body!

It would have been a memorable trip even without the bed collapsing and a number of other “pleasantries” that happened.

We stayed in a hotel in Rome 3-4 blocks from the subway. Too far away for this to be true?

I DO NOT like this story line.

Skip the shower. Wear the same clothes. Enjoy Paris!

go native

Piakster: I think she’s playing on every American’s idea of an overseas vacation, i.e., I’m glad we’re a civilized country!

Heathens!

I’d hate to think what they REALLY think about us! Of course, I’ve read/heard the complaints WE have bout THEM!

well that will wake you up in the morning!!!!!

Please make the coffee hot!!!!

I agree with Piaster above – please let them have a good time!Enough bad luck already.

Move to a (youth) hostel, quick!

Remember he won the trip…he most likely didn’t plan the hotel. Eh, stuff happens. We stayed in a hotel on the beach in Ft. Lauderdale that the elevators didn’t work. We took the 3rd floor room. I thought it was about to be renovated because it sure needed it! But it was on the beach! I called it a ‘character’ hotel. My husband wasn’t as forgiving.

I am not overly choosy about a hotel, but it has to be clean and have a big bed and good bathing facilities. During the July trip last year we stayed one night at a motel near the Circus museum (so we could see the shows we missed the first day). On arriving, we took in our bags and I went right back to the manager’s office because there was just one of those tiny little soaps between the sink and tub (enough towels- OK). I asked him how he expected 2 people to bathe with no more soap than that (and I was even more explicit). Manager promptly produced 3 more larger bars of a better soap ;-D

“Love is”? I read it everyday at another site (along with Six Chix, Zits, Between Friends, Sally Forth etc.) I used to have them at AzCentral local newspaper, but many papers offer them free to local subscribers.

Someone tell me when they get back home. I’m not looking at this strip until the nightmare is over.

For Somebody Short:

Welcome to Euro-Socialism! Won’t it be great when we have it here?

Well at least they havent seen the bathroom. I went to Paris to in 99 and one place the bathroom had no toilet. So you nad to squat in a hole

Did the cold-shower thing in Edinburgh. Didn’t care — I was still in Edinburgh, having a brilliant time. Keep it in perspective when you travel.

Showering won’t be good with just cold water.

Love is…never having to say good bye.Love is…gone but not forgotten sniff

Granted, most of Europe uses tankless water heaters these days, but maybe it’s different in the hotels. This does remind me of a trip we took to visit my in-laws and I took a cold shower. Because we had just gotten married, I didn’t want to say anything (and be considered a rude, demanding American), but I mentioned it on the side to my husband. Apparently, the tankless water heater needed to be switched on and they forgot. (no idea why it wouldn’t be on all the time…)

you ain’t in the USA anymore.

cold showers are refreshing in Cambodia, otherwise I prefer my showers at least warm.

The hotel in Peoria would have had hot water.

I visited Paris in ’84 and the hotel had hot water. The bidet was a bit of a puzzle though, never having seen one before.

Relax. Val just fell asleep again, and this is another dream.I hope!

there goes any hot shower you were hoping to have

Stop making them have such a difficult time! Let Joan and Wally enjoy their first trip to Paris. Let the laughs come from the rest of the family back home.