Monday, December 8, 2008

It Figures

If you've been following our adventures you know that we've been more or less all around the world going through countries like India, Nepal, and Botswana, where things are, shall we say, slightly less organized than they might be at home.

Now we're in beautiful Switzerland, where the mountains tower above villages and towns with cobblestone streets. The wooden shutters on the houses have little hearts cut out of them, and the church bells ring on Sunday mornings. If fairy tales were ever to come true, they would all happen here. The trains run, appropriately, like Swiss watches, and I suspect that even the horse-and-buggies that clip-clop through the early morning mist are always on time.

Wouldn't you know it: our luggage is lost, a first on this trip. Swissport and their baggage tracing office "sincerely regrets the inconvenience caused by this baggage irregularity" and is "doing [their] best to recover [our] baggage, and will deliver it upon arrival."

One bag showed up yesterday; unfortunately, it's the one full of teabags, home made chili sauce hotter than anything ever previously made, safari animal pasta (do not even ASK), and other insanity. The other two bags, the ones with our actual clothes in them, are still AWOL. One is apparently going to arrive sometime today. The other one is... somewhere.

I hope it's my backpack that's on its way. I have a good feeling about this! Anyway, in the meantime, we've gone shopping courtesy of Swissport and our travel insurance. Yay for insurance, and yay for boots!

This is a good time for me to point out two important things; first, that we left Canada with only two backpacks, and have traveled for the whole 14 months with only these two backpacks. Only in Mauritius did we decide to increase our volume and carry another bag. After all, it's allowed, and there was so much good stuff to take home (see above) that it just made sense. The second point (which BG specifically requested -- nay, demanded -- mentioned) is that the bags were not lost in Switzerland. They were lost in Africa (we think), and the repercussions are only being felt in Switzerland now.

Keep your fingers crossed for us; otherwise, we might be having to buy some of that really nice and very practical Swiss underwear I was talking about before.

4 comments:

Monna said...

Val,
Ack! I do hope it's YOUR bag that arrives first. BG seems like an understanding sort... the kind of guy who would want his wife to get her bag as quickly as humanly possible. I've got my fingers crossed for you both. Enjoy Europe in these last couple of weeks of your journey... it's been so good to us.

Michael Glenn said...

Christie, being half Swiss agreed with BG when I told her about your lost bags story. "The Swiss don't lose bags" she insisted. But rest assured they will find them.

Jen said...

Of course your bags get lost just as the end is neigh!

I've enjoyed reading your blog and can't believe you're nearly home!

Anonymous said...

In Denver, UA now has kiosks that help you with your "delayed baggage" -- NOT, mind you, MISSING or LOST. :) We hope for the best!

Surprisingly, we made it home having only lost my "nice" pair of pants (only small stains), which I left in a random guest house.. not bad.