Skip to main content

Trafalgar's European Explorer 2006 memoirs part 4

Trafalgar European Explorer 2006-March-28

Trafalgar European Explorer 2006-March-28

Trafalgar European Explorer 2006-March-28

More pictures from my 2006 trip, a Trafalgar's bus tour, on an itinerary called the European Explorer.

The tour director's name was Mike Scrimshire. I must confess I really only "remember" this because I found his name on an old luggage tag from the trip.

From the very start, I had to have dealings with him, and fortunately he was a very forthright, helpful, and tactful person. There was an elderly gentleman on our tour group who did a few inappropriate things early on, and unfortunately, I had to rat on him.

For example, early in the tour, the tour director collected contact information from everyone in case, on or after the tour, anything came up, as I recall. Anyway, when the list was passed on to us, this gentleman took the opportunity to copy everyone else's information!
He then proceeded to forcibly chat with me all through the bus trip while our tour director was trying to give ups helpful and useful information. As kindly as I could, I tried to refocus things onto the tour director, but it didn't work. Later on, he'd take shots at me, saying "that's Singapore, who won't chat" or something or other.

There was supposed to be a seating rotation so that everyone could have a chance at the front of the bus (it was a double-decker, so the front meant you had an unobstructed view out the glass front cover), but it was quickly lost as several couples basically strategically sat away from this fellow.

I had to avail myself of Mr. Scrimshire's help around halfway through the trip when my luggage disappeared. Which was a great mystery because the bus driver clearly saw it, and it was so distinct, being a single backpack, that it could hardly have simply been misplaced. After much ado, it turned out to be simply behind the front desk in the hotel lobby.
Afterwards, I remember being not terribly surprised because the lady at the front desk had been very harried the night I spoke with her. She had just had one irate customer right before me, and actually delayed my inquiry to show her some empathy for the rough day she was having. She seemed grateful, but recovered her composure and professionalism and refocussed on me. I didn't get my backpack at the time, and in hindsight I figured she had simply been too overwhelmed to realize it had been turned in.

*

With regards to what to do if one should find someone else's misplaced luggage, our friendly and seasoned tour director's advice was to first check for style, then for fit.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Trafalgar's European Explorer 2006 memoirs part 3

A picture from my 2006 trip, a Trafalgar 's bus tour, on an itinerary called the European Explorer. I can't remember why I had this couple in the picture, but I do vaguely remember this to be in London, on the first official day of the tour group getting together. Their insistence on my helping them take a picture caused the three of us to be late getting back to the bus. The local tour guide had a "rule" about lateness, that we had to buy chocolate to share with everyone. As it turned out, later in the trip, on at least two occasions, we were stuck on the highway on either a long commute or a traffic jam, and I had chocolate and chocolate-covered marzipan to share. About the chocolate-covered marzipan -- Apparently we were in Austria just as they were celebrating Mozart's birthday with special marzipans wrapped in foil with the famous composer's picture. I'm pretty sure it was Mirabell Mozartkugeln . Anyway, there were enough to go around the en

Trafalgar's European Explorer 2006 memoirs part 10

The last of my pictures (at least the ones that survived the cheesy disposable cameras) from my 2006 trip, a Trafalgar 's bus tour, on an itinerary called the European Explorer. Below is the obligatory group photo. Not sure everyone's in it, actually. I'm pretty sure this one was taken by the tour director, Mike Scrimshire as I'm in the back row, on the right side.

Trafalgar's European Explorer 2006 memoirs part 9

More assorted couples on my 2006 trip, a Trafalgar 's bus tour, on an itinerary called the European Explorer. An American couple who joked about being from "the land of the giants" -- and with good reason, because both of them were really tall! A cute Jewish mother-daughter pair who ducked out part-way to divert to Israel. I vaguely remember the issue of the daughter being an orthodox Jew was highlighted in France when, to make things easy, she just declared herself vegetarian for the wait staff. I also remember there was some logistics error in France because our party size was way underestimated or simply relayed incorrectly, and there was a shortage of food at dinner. Dessert came as an unopened can of yogurt. It did not seem like they tried to make it up to us later, either. Plus there was smoking every which way in France, and I had a helluva time with that. We were also in a hotel that seemed tucked away in the burbs, and not walking distance from anythin