Lost and Found

Having had a learning experience that we would rather not have had, we now can justify the name "Travel Survival" for this blog!!  While having coffee yesterday at a neighborhood coffee shop, Steve's wallet disappeared.  After some frantic searching, we decided it was time to quit hoping that it would turn up and began the arduous task of canceling our cash and credit cards.  Luckily we had taken digital photos of all our documents (including drivers' licenses) and emailed those to ourselves.  We also had made a physical copy of everything and have that copy in our bags.  So it was relatively easy to do what was necessary.  Thank goodness that Bev's cash card is different from Steve's (even though both are from Chas. Schwab) which meant we can still get money from the ATM's.  So we still have our passports and one cash card; a credit card is being FedExed to our next home in Freiburg.  Lesson learned:  plan on this happening and take the necessary precautions before you leave home.  2nd lesson learned: simplify what you carry so you can keep track of it!!!  With phone calls and internet work plus reporting this to the police, we lost about 3 hours of our day, but we still  took the elevator to the top of the radio tower, visited the Kaiser Wilhelm Church (many of Bev's relatives were named for this Kaiser), which was left in its post-war state, and had a great German meal last night. We also saw the start of the anti-nuclear protest rally at the Reichstag.  The picture is of Steve's pork knuckle.  Postscript:  While wandering around behind our building we actually FOUND someone else's wallet who lives in our apartment complex!!  We were able to return it to the owner.  Amazing coincidence!

It lead us to contemplate the meaning of such a coincidence. Was God asking me to change identities? Was I undergoing some sort of a moral test? After much self-examination and talking it over with Bev, I discerned a clear direction: be more careful with valuables. Have copies real or digital of everything, have international  phone numbers for all cash and credit cards, and have alternative cards in a separate place that you can use if one set is lost. In any case-ever onward.