Charade
<font color=royalblue>I'm the one on the LEFT side
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2005
- Messages
- 26,073
My wife an I just got back from 10 days in Europe. What a trip. We went there to be with my wife's friend while celebrating her son and daughter's bar/bat Mitzvah and to vacation as well.
We had a traveling partner with us (a close friend of my wife's friend) who turned out to be an over medicated neurotic. She showed up wearing sweatpants (she's a big girl to start with) that were 2 sizes too big. She also informed us that she wasn't wearing any underwear. She's a heavy smoker and pathetically slow at just about everything.
Before we even got off the ground the plane had to be rolled to a secluded part of the runway because they had a confirmed passenger's baggage on board but no passenger. The had to remove their luggage. No real problem with time because the pilot made up the time in the air. We had a hard time getting comfortable even though it was a wide body jet. We sat together in center 3 seats. Shortly after my wife was finally able to fall asleep, our traveling partner managed to pour her glass of water down my wife's back.
We arrived and our host (my wife's friend who lives in The Hague) picked us up. We went their to be part of her children's bar/bat mitzvah on Saturday. We were also to make favors for the guest so we spent all afternoon popping 50 bags of popcorn and dripping chocolate and m&m's on it all spread out over her dining room table. Then she started with the "rules". What to use, what not to use. She actually yelled at us a couple of times.
We were supposed to be at the Synagogue the next morning at 9. Our friend sent one of her kids up to wake us up at 7:45. Oh, and my wife was supposed to do her friend's daughter's hair and get herself ready (along with 8 other people in the house) to leave in less than an hour. Then my wife got a severe migraine and told her friend we would be over later. Then my wife fell/slid down the stairs (14 steps) on her butt, back and head. Her butt still hurts. Needless to say we weren't heading to the Synagogue. A little later she was feeling better and we finished making the favors for the party that night. The party went well. However, later than night her friend came our room (we were sleeping in her 13 yo son's bedroom complete with glow in the dark stars on the ceiling) and broke down crying. Apparently earlier in the day her son had some friends over and someone left the basement bedroom window open (they don't have screens) and an cat came in and killed the boy's hamster. Welcome to manhood. Guess who got to clean up the bloody mess? Me.
While my wife's friend was out running around preparing for the party my wife wanted some water so I went to the basement to look for it. I found a bottle that looked like fancy bottled water like we have here and the nutrition info was all 0's. I assumed it was water. I gave it to my wife who proceeded to open it up and take a drink. It wasn't water. It was vinegar. Most everything there is in Dutch.
Oh, and did I mention that her friends father died earlier in the week 4 days before we were to fly there? Her friend flew back the the US for his funeral and then back the next day to her home in the Netherlands.
The next day (we're only on day 3) the friend who traveled with us got stung on the finger by a bee. In the kitchen. While the ladies were out shopping, my wife's friend decided to take our traveling partner to her doctor. He recommended putting vinegar on it. My wife offered to lick her finger since.
On Tuesday we took the train to Paris. Very cool train ride. Very fast! The ironic thing was they never checked our passports when we passed through Belgium and then into France. Not even at the Paris train station.
The hotel in Paris was very nice.
The funniest thing that happened when we were in Paris at the Moulin Rouge show. We had seats right at the stage. I had my back to the stage while my wife had a seat across from me facing the stage. The performers (think partially clad women) were often right behind me coming on and off the stage. I was watching the center stage when all of a sudden I got whacked on top of the head with some part of a performers costume. It must have been something with beads on it. It shocked me more than it hurt and we laughed. A few minutes later I noticed my glasses were gone. I thought I might have put them on the table and then they fell on the floor. Looked around. No glasses. Then the young woman sitting next to my wife said they got caught in the performers costume and went flying onto the stage!! We looked but didn't see them. I thought maybe they were lost for good. My wife decided to go ask the manager if they had them backstage. She came back a few minutes later with my glasses. The funny thing was the manager asked "are these your husband's glasses?" like this happens all the time. What a hoot!
The Amsterdam portion was really nice. The hotel (Hotel Pulitzer on one on the canals) was fabulous. I really liked Amsterdam. We went to the Anne Frank's house. A very sobering experience. We took a canal ride and visited the Red Light District. Interesting. We had a great steak dinner at an Argentinian restaurant. Really good food. We walked around and did some shopping. Very relaxing and peaceful!
We planned poorly for the Paris leg of our trip not realizing how confusing the streets were and that the nice restaurants didn't start serving until 7 or 7:30. We were to be picked up at 8:15 for our river cruise and show so we had to eat in the hotel Jazz bar. The food was good but we were hoping to get some real French food. The next day we had breakfast at the hotel. Expensive and s l o w service which ate into our time. We took a cab over to Luxembourg park (used in the film "GiGi") to see if we could find some of the areas used in the film but couldn't so we just walked around a bit and took some pictures. Then we took another cab back the train station for our Amsterdam leg.
The "fun" didn't end there.
We're really glad to be home!!!
We had a traveling partner with us (a close friend of my wife's friend) who turned out to be an over medicated neurotic. She showed up wearing sweatpants (she's a big girl to start with) that were 2 sizes too big. She also informed us that she wasn't wearing any underwear. She's a heavy smoker and pathetically slow at just about everything.
Before we even got off the ground the plane had to be rolled to a secluded part of the runway because they had a confirmed passenger's baggage on board but no passenger. The had to remove their luggage. No real problem with time because the pilot made up the time in the air. We had a hard time getting comfortable even though it was a wide body jet. We sat together in center 3 seats. Shortly after my wife was finally able to fall asleep, our traveling partner managed to pour her glass of water down my wife's back.
We arrived and our host (my wife's friend who lives in The Hague) picked us up. We went their to be part of her children's bar/bat mitzvah on Saturday. We were also to make favors for the guest so we spent all afternoon popping 50 bags of popcorn and dripping chocolate and m&m's on it all spread out over her dining room table. Then she started with the "rules". What to use, what not to use. She actually yelled at us a couple of times.
We were supposed to be at the Synagogue the next morning at 9. Our friend sent one of her kids up to wake us up at 7:45. Oh, and my wife was supposed to do her friend's daughter's hair and get herself ready (along with 8 other people in the house) to leave in less than an hour. Then my wife got a severe migraine and told her friend we would be over later. Then my wife fell/slid down the stairs (14 steps) on her butt, back and head. Her butt still hurts. Needless to say we weren't heading to the Synagogue. A little later she was feeling better and we finished making the favors for the party that night. The party went well. However, later than night her friend came our room (we were sleeping in her 13 yo son's bedroom complete with glow in the dark stars on the ceiling) and broke down crying. Apparently earlier in the day her son had some friends over and someone left the basement bedroom window open (they don't have screens) and an cat came in and killed the boy's hamster. Welcome to manhood. Guess who got to clean up the bloody mess? Me.
While my wife's friend was out running around preparing for the party my wife wanted some water so I went to the basement to look for it. I found a bottle that looked like fancy bottled water like we have here and the nutrition info was all 0's. I assumed it was water. I gave it to my wife who proceeded to open it up and take a drink. It wasn't water. It was vinegar. Most everything there is in Dutch.
Oh, and did I mention that her friends father died earlier in the week 4 days before we were to fly there? Her friend flew back the the US for his funeral and then back the next day to her home in the Netherlands.
The next day (we're only on day 3) the friend who traveled with us got stung on the finger by a bee. In the kitchen. While the ladies were out shopping, my wife's friend decided to take our traveling partner to her doctor. He recommended putting vinegar on it. My wife offered to lick her finger since.
On Tuesday we took the train to Paris. Very cool train ride. Very fast! The ironic thing was they never checked our passports when we passed through Belgium and then into France. Not even at the Paris train station.
The hotel in Paris was very nice.
The funniest thing that happened when we were in Paris at the Moulin Rouge show. We had seats right at the stage. I had my back to the stage while my wife had a seat across from me facing the stage. The performers (think partially clad women) were often right behind me coming on and off the stage. I was watching the center stage when all of a sudden I got whacked on top of the head with some part of a performers costume. It must have been something with beads on it. It shocked me more than it hurt and we laughed. A few minutes later I noticed my glasses were gone. I thought I might have put them on the table and then they fell on the floor. Looked around. No glasses. Then the young woman sitting next to my wife said they got caught in the performers costume and went flying onto the stage!! We looked but didn't see them. I thought maybe they were lost for good. My wife decided to go ask the manager if they had them backstage. She came back a few minutes later with my glasses. The funny thing was the manager asked "are these your husband's glasses?" like this happens all the time. What a hoot!
The Amsterdam portion was really nice. The hotel (Hotel Pulitzer on one on the canals) was fabulous. I really liked Amsterdam. We went to the Anne Frank's house. A very sobering experience. We took a canal ride and visited the Red Light District. Interesting. We had a great steak dinner at an Argentinian restaurant. Really good food. We walked around and did some shopping. Very relaxing and peaceful!
We planned poorly for the Paris leg of our trip not realizing how confusing the streets were and that the nice restaurants didn't start serving until 7 or 7:30. We were to be picked up at 8:15 for our river cruise and show so we had to eat in the hotel Jazz bar. The food was good but we were hoping to get some real French food. The next day we had breakfast at the hotel. Expensive and s l o w service which ate into our time. We took a cab over to Luxembourg park (used in the film "GiGi") to see if we could find some of the areas used in the film but couldn't so we just walked around a bit and took some pictures. Then we took another cab back the train station for our Amsterdam leg.
The "fun" didn't end there.
We're really glad to be home!!!
Hey, you're a funny guy. 
