But actually one of my favourite activities on holiday is visiting supermarkets
That's almost always the first thing we do. We usually arrive sometime in the morning, get checked in, drop off the luggage, then eat if we haven't eaten, then find the closest supermarket.
I had just taken a photo of the station from outside when a man in a blue shirt jumped up and started shouting and waving his arms about.
I had nearly the exact same experience trying to take a photo in Tesco's in Prague!
Another story from the 3-week Euro coach trip:
One of the couples on the coach were American, Bob and Doris, retired teachers from Cleveland, Ohio. Bob was a scamp, always up to mischief, always joking but playing innocent, and Doris' job seemed to be keeping Bob behaved.
After two nights in Munich, we were ready to start the coach portion, with a short drive to Salzburg to walk around the touristy bit of the city, then onto our countryside hotel a little ways out of town.
As was the norm, the coach dropped us as close as we could get, and we all legged it into town from there, and our tour guide Cari took us on a whirlwind walking tour then left us to it for a couple of hours to get lunch or do some shopping.
"Everyone! We'll meet right here by this statue at 2:30PM exactly. If for some reason, you get tired or hot before then, come back to this spot, and if you follow that little alley right there where the pretzel sign is, that will take you right back to the coach. But remember, we're on a schedule, so exactly 2:30PM, right here! Enjoy!"
Off we went. We had a nice lunch and some beer and walked around a bit, then made our way back to the statue at about 2:15PM. There was Cari and maybe one other couple. Soon, other couples wandered up, and about 2:25PM, Doris came huffing and puffing, it an obvious state of distress.
"Cari! Cari! I can't find Bob! I can't find him anywhere! He was right next to me, I turned around, and he was gone! I don't know where is! Oh, Bob!"
Cari tried to calm her down, and people offered as to when and where they'd last seen Bob, and Doris imagined him murdered or lost or in the hospital, and it was about 2:35PM at this point. Doris started crying loudly.
"Right," said Cari, "Here's what we're going to do: everyone, gather together! We're all going back to the bus, and Daniel <the driver> will take you to the hotel, it's just a few miles out of town. I'll call ahead so they can get you checked in, and I'll stay here and look for Bob, then we'll take a taxi to the hotel! To the bus!"
First real day of the trip, and already an emergency.
We somberly head back to the bus, Daniel sees us, the door whooshes open, we climb on board...and there's Bob, snoring loudly about halfway down the aisle!
Doris screamed in relief, which woke Bob, who promptly looked at his watch and loudly chided, "You said 2:30PM. It's almost 2:45PM. Where the hell have you been, you're all late!"
That's just one of about five Bob-and-Doris stories.
For example.....sitting on the wall outside a tiny osteria on a small canal in Venice with a drink and a few cicchetti. Watching the locals going about their daily lives....stopping in for a drink and a chat, driving down the canal in their little motor boat with their shopping on the seat behind them, boats loaded with fruit and veg going past, others stopping at every other landing to deliver DHL and Amazon parcels. Plus the occasional tourist in a gondola of course.
