Geneva, Switzerland
One of the funniest hotel experience I had was in Geneva, The Hotel De La Paix. I won two nights stay in a Junior Suite with panoramic lake views and right in front of the Jet D'eau worth £600 a night. I was unfortunate enough to have my luggage taken on the way by an old lady that looked like Barbara Woodhouse (Google it)
leaving me only with the clothes I was standing in and a case full of old lady's clothes, large knickers and lots of polyester. I left the case at the bus station to be picked up by its rightful owner and with no sign of mine and the plane ready to go, I decided it was better to get to Geneva and worry about it there, after all I had my passport and credit card what else do you need?
On arriving in Geneva I headed straight to the local H&M shop as it was the nearest to the train station and good value for Switzerland. Once kitted out my partner Trish and I headed towards the hotel, stopping off at a local wine merchants for a couple of bottles of wine to celebrate actually getting there at all. I put the two bottles of wine in my H&M carrier bag and proceeded towards the hotel.
Walking in through the front doors I placed my H&M bag with the wine, on the floor with minimal clanging of the bottles. The receptionist then thrust upon us two smouldering hot wet towels; looking at one another, thinking what the hell are we supposed to do with these, we decided just to leave well alone. The receptionist then looked at our booking on the computer and looked decidedly puzzled as to why we were staying there free of charge. We must have looked like the coolest guests ever or more likely the most uncouth either way all the staff were baffled.
Once the formalities had been done she called over the bell hop who immediately tried to grab my carrier bag I resisted for a few seconds but he was too persistent. He picked it up and with a smirk on his face then picked up Trish's case and marched towards the lift. I was doing all I could to stop laughing whilst we were merrily clanging away along the corridor on route to the magnificent suite that was going to appear before our ears behind a beautiful oak door.
Thrusting the door open, the bell hop was unsure how to place the "luggage" on the floor so I put him out of his misery right away. He just glanced at us, pointed to the fresh fruit on the table, the television and the Jet D'eau outside and five Swiss francs later he was gone.
So we settled down had a wine and stood out on the balcony above the Royal Family of Monaco's Suite and admired the magnificent view before us. A millionaire's lifestyle for buttons.
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Around the world for free
Non-FictionHere are a few stories of my travels around the world and the best part they were all free. These holidays were all won online entering many competitions spanning over five years. In one year, 2009 we managed to go on seven holidays all paid for by...
