When my in-laws visited us here in Germany over Thanksgiving, we took a trip to Rothenberg. While waiting for the Nightwatchman's Tour to begin, we heard someone calling my father-in-law's name. It was his doctor...all the way from Amarillo TX!!

We were sitting outside the Macdonalds (they serve beer and have clean toilets !) opposite the Pantheon in Rome with our twin daughters at that stage 8 years old when a young girl said hello to them, it was their nanny from when they were five, she was back packing thru Europe !

When I was twelve and living in Sao Paulo, Brasil... I was washing my hands in the ladies room of a restaurant when a tall blonde woman came out of one of the stalls, took one look at me and said, in English, "I know your mother". Yeah, right. I just wanted to get away from her and walked back to my parents at our table, trailed by the woman. My mother gasped, jumped up and the two hugged. Turned out they had worked together in NYC at the company where my parents met. So she knew my father as well.

The second time, I was in Oahu in 1987 and someone sitting next to me on the beach got up to say hello to a guy walking toward him. I looked up and it was someone I'd gone to high school with in Brussels in the mid-sixties. Talk about "let's catch-up" time !

Patricia

This is one of my favorite stories! When I lived in Paris, I was in the Musee D'Orsay, and saw - I kid you not - the head cheerleader from high school (isn't that the person one always runs into in movies?). It was lovely to be able to say: "What are you doing now? I live here."

Another time, I called up my college friend, a German from Frankfurt, who had been an exchange student at my small town university (in the U.S.). I thought I'd take a weekend trip to visit him in Frankfurt. We both laughed at the coincidence that that very weekend, another friend of ours from my small town was also visiting him in Frankfurt. They ended up visiting me in Paris, and while touring Notre Dame, a woman (also from our small town university) was surprised to run into us.

I also ran into a friend from Shanghai (where I live now) in the middle of a temple at Angkor in Cambodia.

Last September in Paris, one day after lunch I felt I just HAD to go see the patisserie/boulangerie on the cornder of rue de Rennes/rue de Mezieres. I wasn't that hungry but I remembered the place from my previous trip, it has a beautiful, old façade, I wanted badly to try their pear-chocolate Alsacienne. While coming out of the shop I met a former colleague from my studies in The Hague. We hadn't met for 2.5 years, I knew he lived in Paris but had been unsuccessful in trying to contact him before my trip. He happened to live right across the street and invited me over (needed to climb 7 flights of stairs to get there). His ex-boyfriend was just visiting and all three of us had a lovely talk accompanied by some great Alsacienne cake. My first visit to a (tiny) Parisian apartment. I then went on to take a look at the Objets d'Art department at the Orsay and later fell in love with some Bonnard paintings. What a day!

I ran into two friends in San Marco Piazza in Venice unexpectedly. We knew we would be in Italy at the same time, but according to our schedules, we were not going to be in the same cities at the same time. So my aunt and I are sitting outside a restaurant sharing a bottle of wine and people watching, and there are my two friends walking by. They had a change in schedule.

I ran into a coworker one weekend randomly at a rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike (we are from Virginia).

In Ronda, Spain, I met a woman who teaches at a high school 10 minutes from my hometown on Long Island. Also in Ronda, I randomly ran into a family I had met four days earlier in Sevilla, and we didn't know we'd all be in Ronda at the same time.

Karen

During cocktails, cheeses, etc. on the top of our barge in Chalon; waiting for the next to shower etc before we set off for the evening... the next boat over were laughing and speaking in English;
Australians on their annual 6 week trip to the barge THEY OWNED (totally cool IMO), anyway they turned out to be first cousins of 3 people in our group!
They still write and e-mail.

In the summer of 2003 we were staying at the Hotel Porte Doree in Paris which is run by a French man and his American wife who is from the Sacramento area. Our newpaper had printed an article about the hotel. We were walking across the street in front of the hotel and heard "Hey John!!!" Turns out one of my husband's golf buddies had read the same article and asked their travel agency to put them up in the same hotel. On that same trip a few weeks later my daughter saw Kelly Osborne while crossing the Kufudam in Berlin, and then a few days later I was in the Market Square in Bruge and ran into some of my students and their parents. It is an amazingly small world.

On our honeymoon 9 years ago in Fethiye (sp)Turkey, sat at a cafe having a drink before dinner, when who should walk by, my boss. I was aware she would be in Turkey at same time but she was visiting relatives hundreds of miles away. I recall joking before we went that we might bump into each other....strange!

Teacherlady, I read that article and wondered about the hotel. It seemed very inexpensive and a great deal, but nobody ever mentions it here. What did you think of it?

Sunday in Reims I was on the Mumm champagne tour with a gentleman and his wife. He was born in Ft Wayne, Indiana. I am from Indianaplis.

Yesterday when I checked into my hotel in Nancy, the owner told be he had a sister who went to the teachers colleger at Ball State in Muncie, IN.

Sorry about the punctuation. Though luckily a QWERTY keyboard, the single and double quotes come out è and È. Not sure why.

Indy! How's Paris? Gotten nice and warm for your visit?

Also interested in the hotel, TeacherLady. The photos are very nice and it almost seems too good to be true. Please tell us how your stay went at the Hotel de la Porte Doree. Thanks in advance . . .

A few years ago my husband and I purchased a new car and became quite friendly with our salesman. He mentioned that he was getting married the following spring. We promised to keep in touch, but, of course, we didn't. That spring my husband and I decided out of the blue to take a trip to Rome. If anyone knows what the crowds at the Vatican can be, you'd be surprised to be able to spot anyone anywhere. It's a blurr. However, as my husband and I were rushing towards the entrance gate to buy our tickets, who did we literally run down, but our car salesman and his new wife. He was there on his honeymoon, and was thankful we weren't driving the Jaguar he had sold us the winter before!

Well I have never run into anyone I know and maybe this is not the place to post this....but I often see people who are "dopplegangers". (is that what they call them?)..they just look exactly like some one else I know. I have to catch my breath often because the resemblance is so striking.

I will try to top my entries that describe the Porte Doree but if it doesn't work, I will tell you about it...

Info about Porte Doree included in thread about going to Europe with teenager and living to tell the tale...

The night before leaving for Hawaii I met a couple at a party. 2 days later I ran into them there while crossing the street.

About 6 years ago I was having lunch at a restaurant in Big Sur and 2 co-workers just happened to walk by.

On another vacation in Hawaii I went whale watching and struck up a conversation with a woman who was dating a man I know who lives in Winterset, Iowa.

2001 while shopping in Paris I started talking to a couple. Turns out the husband works at the same studio as I do and we have a mutual friend who we have both known since 1975

Ran into a co-worker at JFK 2 years ago. We were on the same flight. We both live in CA.

My wife and I were walking down this narrow street in Rome, it was a crisp but sunny day, with the shadows of the stone buildings creeping onto our side of the street, when suddenly, out of no where, this couple we had never seen before appeared. We were just stunned. We didn't recognize her at all, then, when he turned toward us, we didn't recognize him, either. Talk about a SMALL world!

Then, to top it off, while in Paris on a very cold day, I was standing at a urinal, and there was this little one-eyed guy. But he totally p*ssed me off. I had a serious discussion with him, which kind of shook him up. That really put him in his place, so then I left.

--Marv

5 years ago, on my first trip to Florence, I was walking through a piazza when I heard my name called. I ignored it, because I didn’t know anyone in Florence. They called again, this time using my first name (I use both my first & middle names). Turned around and it was an old family friend and his wife. Now, not only does he live in the same city as me, but at the time he worked up the street from me as well. I had NEVER run into him at home. Hadn’t seen him in a few years. Had to go around to world in order to catch up with an old friend!