My first trip to Germany with my husband and son (then a baby) was to Cologne. We flew Lufthansa and the connection from Frankfurt to Cologne is always by train. Now, this part of the trip in collaboration with ‘Die Bahn’ is called Air rail and Lufthansa has one wagon of the train reserved for its Air rail passengers.
Anyway, on this trip, i was in charge of the diaper bag and my husband was in charge of the File Holder containing our travel documents. Have in mind that it has no straps and must always be held. I had warned of the possibility of it being forgotten somewhere!
When we boarded the train, my husband handed me the File Holder while he stowed our carry on luggage in the overhead compartment. I put it into the pouch on the rear of the seat in front of me and made a mental note to remove it and give it to him once he was seated.
After an over night flight from Lagos to Frankfurt with hardly any sleep, I was eager to get to my destination. My brother picked us up from the platform and we all walked home together. His house is only a few metres away from the Train station. Convenient right? You can say that again.
We got home, all very happy and then horror came upon us. I had forgotten the File Holder in the train!
One of the very few times I had contact with it, Â I lost it!!! Now, it contained not only our travel documents but all our finances for that holiday. OMG!!!
My brother and I rushed back to the train station to the ‘lost and found’ office but it wasn’t there. Panic tripled. I would never hear the end of this. This was going to be the worst vacation ever if i didn’t go back to the house with it.
The porter in our wagon was radioed and Glory be to God Almighty he found the File holder just where I left it. We had to go to Düsseldorf the next city\ train stop to claim it. What a relief!!!
Now I could confidently go back to the house with the good news for my husband who while I was gone was pacing the whole apartment, trying to keep cool and already imagining the worst case scenario outcome. Who loses something like that on a train and is so lucky to find it again?
So this was the last trip that we traveled with our documents in something that didn’t have straps
By Iniobong.
Lol. Thank God you found it. The good thing is how organised the oyinbos are. Over here in our country, I doubt if you could even trace back the train talkless of finding it. It would have been an opportunity for the porter to help him/herself with the money.