JOE LAUFER’S WORST TRAVEL EXPERIENCES:

 

1.    When a member of my group had a heart attack and died in Innsbruck, Austria and I had to inform the family at home and stay behind to make all the arrangements…

 

2.    When, upon landing at London’s Heathrow Airport, we were greeted by mortars being lobbed onto the tarmac by IRA terrorists and being stranded there with my group for 24 hours while the other half of my group was in Paris.

 

3.    When a member of my group fell down the marble stairs at the entrance to the cathedral at “The Valley of the Fallen” in Spain.

 

4.    When I fell and tore a ligament while admiring the façade of the Cathedral in Balogna, early into our “Grand Tour of Italy”.

 

5.    Whenever a member of my group lets his or her guard down and is pick-pocketed while on tour.

 

6.    Arriving in Rome alone in the middle of the night in a rain storm with no taxis to take me to my hotel, and getting lost in a strange neighborhood while trying to find my hotel on foot.

 

7.    The several occasions when a member of my group strayed from the group and was “temporarily” lost for a period of time.

 

8.    An overnight “coachette” (train with sleeping compartments – six to a unit) from Barcelona, Spain to Nice, France.

 

9.    The evening boat ride down the Seine in Paris in the middle of a thunder storm and major downpoar.

 

10.Travel group members who are insensitive to the needs and sensibilities of the total group (by being late for events and assuming privileges to the detriment of the group).