Traveling around the English countryside on several visits to England, has given me the opportunity to experience various hotels. However, several hotel visits stand out above the rest.

When you arrive at The Days Inn on the M5 near Portishead, England you can't help but notice the rabbits. I'm from Texas and I've seen my fair share of rabbits. I probably see at least one rabbit 300 days out of the year. But, these aren't ordinary rabbits. They are HUGE rabbits. Not just one or two loitering around the place, but dozens upon dozens grazing everywhere! I think we counted twenty five just between our car and the entrance. It is the cutest thing . They do not seem at all bothered that the hotel has guests and continue eating as you walk by.

We sometimes do not make reservations until we know where we will end up come nightfall. As we get close to a town we call ahead and make reservations often not being familiar with the area or any particular hotels in the area. This particular time we had made reservations in a hotel that had just newly opened. We had to laugh when we got to the room to learn that the room did not yet have a telephone. Where the telephone should be there was a note that read "Coming Soon! Your Phone!" We still joke today when we enter a new hotel room wondering if we will someday find a note saying "Coming Soon! Your Bed!"

This hotel name shall remain nameless in order to protect the innocent (us).

We checked in and sat down on the bed. Within moments we felt the bed lowering itself from one of the legs ‘bending' near the headboard. The leg was broken and it appeared that someone had just propped it up hoping no one would notice. Since it was late, we decided we weren't going to make a big deal out of it since we didn't want to have to haul our entire luggage out and change rooms. We figured the guests in the adjoining rooms would appreciate that as well. Besides, we could just prop it up too once we were ready to check out.

My teenage daughter went to the restroom and locked the door behind her. She immediately sensed a problem when the knob clicked, yet kept turning. She calls out to me in a scared little voice, "Mama!". Being the calm one in crisis situations, I don't even get up from the broken bed yet. But, panic mode struck my daughter and she decided she would lose all air in the bathroom within seconds if we didn't do something quickly. In an effort to hold down the panic and not awaken anyone, I got up to try the door myself and assure her it would be a simple fix.

My husband and I both tried the door. Yup, it was broken alright. The door was rather sturdy and worse yet, the hinges were on the inside. We just thought she was panicky before.

I went down to the lobby to ask for assistance. Surely, they had someone on call to come help rescue my now sobbing daughter. I was mistaken. The lady followed me back to our room and took one look at the door and one look at my husband, and then back to me. In her dry English accent, she said rather matter- of- factly, "Your husband will just have to kick it in".

About ten kicks later we were able to rescue my daughter, but not after destroying the door. This was a door that was far sturdier than need be for the entrance to a hotel bathroom. Since the hotel clerk needed to get back to her post and she didn't want to awaken all the nearby rooms, cleanup would have to wait until morning.

We checked out the next morning. Can you imagine the look on the cleaning staff's face when they discovered a broken bed and a demolished bathroom door?! I'm sure they thought we had a wild time.

At the Holiday Inn near Gatwick Airport in London they have the really nice refrigerators stocked with all kinds of drinks. Neither my husband or myself had ever seen this particular type. My husband was anxious to put our own drinks in the refrigerator so he simply removed all of the hotel's items and set them on the dresser. After completing this task, he read the note on the dresser top. It indicated that the refrigerator contained sensors. Any item removed from the shelf would automatically (for your convenience!) be added to your hotel room bill. The only way to have this charge removed was to bring the items to the front lobby. Guess who got to pretend to be the ditzy American? Yes, I gathered all the various bottles into a large bag and dutifully hauled them to the front lobby to face what I assumed would be a smug Englishman who would scold me for being so stupid. Instead, as the young male clerk saw me approaching he began to chuckle. I told him with big puppy dog eyes, "I bring good tidings". His only response, "is it all of the items contained in the refrigerator?" "Yes, sir....every last one of them". He laughed and told me he'd take care of it.