Gigi

We had just left the pier to float down the Grand Canal in lovely Venice on the "bus". I hear a clink and briefly look around at what might be the cause and of course was immediately distracted by our surroundings. <BR> <BR>Only when we arrived at the dock and needed to look at our map did my husband discover the lens of his glasses had fallen out! <BR>He still had one left, but got such a bad headache looking through it that he abandoned them entirely. <BR> <BR>I was left the rest of the trip to do the map reading, book reading,...you get the message. <BR> <BR>I was glad it was toward the end of our vacation. <BR> <BR>We have never left without a spare pair since! <BR> <BR>What have you left or lost? <BR>

Janice

I know the "best" thing that I lost... <BR>(I would do it again, too!)

sandi

Mine is not too great but I left the family toiletry bag on the train as it stopped in Venice. It had all the toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo etc..and extra prescrition medicine in case we got sick and allergy and migrain med. too. It was a hassle to replace it all and I never found products that worked very well, ESPECIALLY the deodrant. It was like spraying hairspray under your arms and worked about as well. Talk about needing that laundrymat in Florence!!

wendy

I left my soap dish in the shower in Dover. I realized it when I got to Paris and had to wash with my shampoo. Soap dishes in Paris were difficult to find, and the grocery store across the street from my hostel had only two kinds of soap.

Jean

My husband. We were packed onto a bus in Florence, he, in the middle, I at the front (being the polite midwesterner that I am allowing everyone to proceed before me). <BR>Suddenly, I felt a movement towards my waist. Despite the fact that I had an arm around my purse, I moved my hand to my purse opening only to find a man's hand rummaging through it! I grabbed his wrist and pulled it out and the nearby women and men started yelling at him! <BR>The bus stopped and I got off with the surge of people only to see my husband still on the bus and left behind. <BR>We met up a few hours later.

gb

I lost my 9 year old daughter in Westminster Abbey. When I went to security,one security guard said to another in an aristocratic British accent-"Well, we have never lost one permanently before-have we, Peter?"

Gomer

I lost a contact lense in the first 8 hours of my trip! I was taking them out so I could sleep and it just disappeared! I ended up wearing an older presecription for the next 18 days. What a bummer.

betsy

Oh, just reading the title of this post nearly brought me to tears. We were leaving our hotel in Paris. Our five year-old son had his backpack on with his beloved teddy bear peeking out. By the time we reached the train station, the little bear was nowhere to be found. His dad and I boarded the train with heavy hearts, knowing we would soon have to break the news to him, not an easy task. He, of course, was heartbroken. He's 21 now and has gotten over it, but it still makes me sad to think of his first important loss.

mooney

My then 11 year old daughter brought a backpack to Europe with her cd player, all of her cd's and $60 of her own hard earned money in it and proceeded to leave it on the underground in London. It was never recovered and it was not a great way to start our trip.

Lee

As I was getting off the underground in London, minding the gap, I watched as my gold bracelet fell off my arm and fell down the gap! After the train pulled out, I could see my bracelet laying down in the track....it might as well have been a hundred miles away. so, I did report it and was told that the chance of getting it back were very slim, but to call back to the office again the next day. We did a lot of sightseeing the next day and were so tired, we almost didn't bother going to check, assuming it would be a wasted trip. I was very pleasantly surprised when the supervisor handed me my bracelet. The cleaning staff had turned it in and made me very happy.

still unhappy

I lost my boyfriend to a girl we met while at the Tate in London. She was a visitor from the US. Lousy, bloody deal, it was. <BR>American women, sly seductresses! <BR>And beleive me, British men aren't the <BR>Great Lovers some proclaimed on a previous post!!!

s.fowler

I have a Mexican gold-wire pin of a sun that my mother gave me. I often take it when traveling because it is big enough to sparkle up a plain sweater and, while modestly sentimental, doesn't have a lot of $$ value. Plus it's light weight etc... <BR> <BR>We had lunch in Paris at a wine bar on the Seine. [One of the l'Ecluse's] and I didn't notice that somehow I had lost my pin, probably as I was putting on my coat. That's the only place we could think that it had been lost. ]I should note that the clasp had never given me trouble before.] <BR> <BR>So back we went the next day -- me in my polite, but miserable, French -- "et voila!" -- they had it! You can bet we came back there for lunch again and that I check the clasp on that pin carefully now.

M&J

We driving into the Canadian mountains when we stopped for a "photo moment." Several hours later at the hotel, my wife discovered her brand new very expensive reading glasses purchased only three days earlier were missing. We determined that when we stopped for the photo, she had slid out of the car taking the glasses with her. <BR>So, we drove back, trying to remember the site. No luck. Nothing looked familiar with the now setting sun. Finally, we turned around on the road shoulder---right there at that very spot were her glasses !!!!

adeleh

I lost my rolex watch in south of Frace and never even found out how it happened. My husband thinks my two-year old threw it out of the car on the road.

Judy

Mine is not a poignant story like the teddy bear, but I lost my very favorite turquoise and silver antique bracelet somewhere in Rome!(SIGH!) It was an heirloom and I learned a valuable lesson about bringing my favorite jewelry on trips! Never again! <BR>Judy

Pierrette

Last June on the way to the airport from Camden when transferring trains I didn't mind the gap and lost my shoe! Stood there on the platform with only one shoe on until I remembered I had another pair in my suitcase. My helpful husband pretended he didn't know me. Still blushing.

Quicksilver

<BR>[LONG!] <BR> <BR>I was working as a coach tour guide. In mid-week we arrived at our Washington DC hotel to find it overbooked, and the staff profoundly uncooperative. It looked like either the bus driver or I was going to end up sleeping in the bus that night, as everything within a 60-mile radius was booked solid. To make matters worse, the client thought it would be really helpful if he stood beside me at the desk and tore a strip out of the hotel staff, needlessly escalating the situation. He had the maturity of a 12-year-old: he became downright huffy when I suggested that he get comfortable in his room while I handled the situation. <BR> <BR>After hours of frustration and humiliation (I *apologized* to that jerk client, just to pacify him for the remaining 3 days of the trip!) I finally resolved the problem and retired to my hotel room about 11:00 pm. I had put in an 18+ hour workday by now. <BR> <BR>That's when I noticed I didn't have my wallet. Credit cards, bank card, and birth certificate were sitting on the shelf of a candy store in colonial Williamsburg--3 hours away. I cancelled my credit cards and began trying to figure out the name of the store--I couldn't even remember! Luckily, I pick up tons of promotional material wherever I go, and an ad in a colonial Williamsburg magazine triggered my memory. I began trying to phone the store, but they had no voicemail/answering machine. <BR> <BR>The long-distance carrier offered a service where they would record a message for me, and then dial the recipient every half-hour until the message was received. Unfortunately, one had to pay for it by credit card--and I HAD JUST CANCELLED MINE. I phoned a groggy family member (it was 2 am by now) and borrowed a Visa number to pay for the messaging service. When I tried again, however, the operator told me they were "renegotiating their agreement with Visa and could only accept Mastercard temporarily". I pleaded with her, explaining that I had cancelled my MC because of my lost wallet, and I *really* needed to contact the store where I had left it. <BR> <BR>God bless her, wherever she is today... she put my call through for free. <BR> <BR>The store got my message, and they HAD my wallet. Bless them, too: they sent it to DC by courier and I had it before my departure from DC. <BR> <BR>There *are* good people everywhere, wouldn't you say? <BR> <BR> - Quicksilver -

dorothy

Sitting in the Musikverein in Vienna I noticed my husband with a worried look on his face. I quietly whispered "what's up?" He turned white and reported that he could not find the key to our hotel safe deposit box, which held our money, passports etc. Our tour bus was scheduled to leave 7 am the next morning for another country. My husband left me at the concert and taxied back to our hotel and proceeded to dismantle the entire room, and its contents searching for the key. No Matter-- it was never found!!! The hotel management was not very cooperative as they claimed there was no way to get into the box, and they would have to summon someone from town the next day as it was already past midnight! We were panicking- would the bus leave without us? As it turned out they were able to get a locksmith there in time- however, they charged us $250. for the privilege. Now, my husband always gives me the safe deposit key to hold!

nancy

While learning to windsurf in Tobago, many yrs ago. <BR>I fell into the water, and an old ,heavy silver and turquoise bracelet, that I had not taken off in over 15 yrs, (and was difficult to remove) just disappeared into some fairly shallow and extremely clear water. <BR>search as we might, it was gone to the water gods.

stacey

I've worn the same thin gold chain for 16 years (my best friend and her dad gave it to me for my 16th birthday). I was in Germany and it broke - I wrapped it and my grandmother's (tiny) diamond pendant in some platic wrap and tucked it into my suitcase. <BR> When I got home, I emptied everything - found the diamond but not the chain. I was devastated. I called the hotel, but they hadn't seen it. <BR> Over a year later, I finally caved in and bought a new chain so I could wear my pendant again. Three days later- my husband was packing for a trip and walked over with his fist clenched and said "been looking for this?" and dropped my original chain into my hand. I cried all over again.