My favorite “American abroad” story was when my wife and I were at the Louvre on our honeymoon. An elderly American couple decked out in US flag gear walked by bitching about how “no one is this damn country speaks English”.
I went to Amsterdam on the Eurostar a couple of years ago & had a close encounter with an American family who were *furious* that they'd missed their train to Paris. "We didn't have to check in for Edinburgh," apparently.
Related to this, the Transport police officers at St Pancras are quite large.
Once saw an elderly lady trying to get her Eurostar ticket to scan at the St. Pancras barriers, a member of staff looked at her ticket and her train had left hours ago - she hadn't realised you have to get the *specific* train you're booked on and thought you could catch any one you like
I once got on the LNER at Kings X and found someone in my reserved seat. He insisted he had reserved it too. Turned out he’d reserved a much earlier train but thought his reservation was for all trains!
I once got on a train on crutches and someone else was in my reserved seat and refused to move. Someone else went to get the guard who said "come with me, madam, there's a seat in first class for you." 😁
It's all down to how you approach the problem, isn't it? Whenever I've had problems with the Eurostar the staff have been enormously helpful, but this family were very shouty and cross. Nobody was going to put themselves out to help them and the police were called.
When your ticket says "you need to be checked in by [time] so you need to be at the gate by [earlier time]" you make sure you're there at the right time. It's like flying. You don't rock up at the airport at 1pm for a 1pm flight, but that's what they did.
Indeed. Though nothing would surprise me after hearing from a business owner recently that she recruited a woman to a first job and when told to come in at 7-45, she said "when is that?"
I’m all for not shaming people for what they wear/are comfortable in especially since I became sensitive to most fabrics. But this feels like an update of Innocents Abroad by Twain… scathing account of American travelers.
Also my mum (in 1978) was stranded in a Euro train station overnight while traveling with a friend I was supposed to go with them on this tour. I have a wardrobe of clothes more comfy than pjs for travel and yet dressy.
Last December we were walking to our concourse in O'Hare and saw a woman walking the opposite direction barefooted. I said "Oh god, we share a concourse with Spirit, don't we."
oh god I got trapped at check-in the last time I went to America because of a massive family all wearing matching Disney 'Dad/Granddad's 70th birthday' shirts that took forever. Why weren't the kids at school?!
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Related to this, the Transport police officers at St Pancras are quite large.
We did.