After an early start from the hotel, and a ride back down the cog railway, our tour was headed for Liechtenstein. Well, long enough to grab lunch and get our passports stamped, anyways. I didn't even manage to make it to the post office on our quick lunch break.

Leaving Austria, we stopped at passport control. Since neither Switzerland nor Liechtenstein are part of the European Union, we could get our passports stamped. With a bus carrying fifty people from around the world, this was quite an operation. We amused ourselves during the wait by observing the soldier with the Swiss army who was studiously playing Tetris on his computer. We cheered when he made each new level. After several minutes, one of his co-workers alerted him to our attention, and he laughed. But he also turned the game off on his computer. Perhaps those Swiss guards aren't so hard working after all!

After another hour or more of driving through the beautiful Alps, we reached the take off point for the day's optional excursion: white water rafting. I have no interest in this, so I was one of the group who opted out. We dropped off those who were taking the trip, and the rest of us got back onto the bus. Which didn't start. And didn't start. Finally, we lucked out: another tour group arrived. Amazingly enough, four men were able to push our bus, loaded down with our luggage, into position to get a jump start from the other bus.

We lounged, eating popsicles and checking our email, at the small cafe where the rafters would rejoin us, and then we headed on to Innsbruck.

My goal in Innsbruck was simple: to have cake and coffee "mit schlag." (This in fondness for Elizabeth Peters' Vicky Bliss mysteries, which feature an Austrian character who is quite fond of anything "mit schlag," which means, "with whipped cream.") I also ended up being lured into shopping, because there were numerous shops selling Christmas decorations. This is how the second mishap occurred.

I had finished my shopping, and my snacking, and I headed back to the square where we would be meeting the bus. A man, watching me taking some pictures of the hills, asked me to use his camera to take a picture of him. I did so. Then he asked me if I recognized... my i.d.! I gasped, and thanked him for returning it to me. It seems that my wallet was loose, and the i.d. had slipped out while I was shopping. Since this i.d. can also access my checking account, it was quite lucky he had returned it.

The next day, I realized that my ATM/Visa card had also slipped out. I called to cancel it, and wiped my brow, thankful that I had at least one way to access my checking account.

Interestingly, two months later, my credit union called me, and gave me the Visa card. It had been sent to the Visa headquarters in Austria, who had forwarded it to me in the U.S. All in all, these mishaps were only minor bumps in a good journey.

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