Funniest Thing for November

Tell ITN about the funniest thing that ever happened to you while traveling in a foreign country. There are no restrictions on length. (ITN prints no info on destinations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean.) The ITN staff will choose each month’s winner, who will receive a free one-year subscription to ITN. Entries not chosen cannot be acknowledged.

This month’s winner is JOAN THOMAS of Hamilton, New Zealand:

We recently returned from a great European coach tour, ending with two nights at the Vienna Hilton Hotel. On the last morning of the tour, a city tour and a visit to Schönbrunn Palace was included. As we had previously experienced these magnificent sights, we opted to sleep late and explore independently later in the day.

All of the “tour room numbers” had been registered for an early morning call at 6:45 a.m. To ensure we were not disturbed, I personally went to the front desk the previous evening. The receptionist took out the manifest and kindly marked our room with the appropriate notation, “Not to be called.”

Well, sure enough, the next morning at precisely 6:45 we received a call. “Good morning, ma’am. This is your wake-up call,” a man said.

Somewhat indignantly I responded that we had specifically requested not to receive a wake-up call.

He politely replied, “I am very sorry. I’ll cancel it then.”