Lesson Learned: Travel Wisely

We were on an early train the morning we left Amsterdam to head to Paris.  The day started normal enough and had an easy check out and cab ride to the train station.  Alas, we didn't discover until it was too late that we made one of the biggest, typical mistakes of a tourist. 

When we sat down in our cabin, we took off our jackets and got comfortable.  I held the passports and kept my large bag in between my legs.  Unfortunately, we placed Mr. J's backpack in the luggage compartment above our seats.  The bag had the laptop, chargers for all electronics we had with us, the guidebooks for each city we were visiting, and all of the souvenirs we purchased so far. 

Somewhere between the Amsterdam airport stop on the train and stop after that, someone stole our backpack.  I was fast asleep in my comfy seat and Mr. J was reading the Kindle.  We are New Yorkers and should have known better, but we got lazy and we paid the price dearly. 

We couldn't do anything until after we arrived in Paris.  Obviously, by then the thief and our stuff were long gone.  We also had too much personal information on that laptop :-/

So, be careful and always keep an eye out for your bags fellow travelers.  It's never fun to report a theft while on vacation, especially when you don't speak the local language.  Nevertheless, Mr. J and I were determined not to let this incident ruin our wonderful adventure.  We spent our first afternoon in Paris setting up fraud alerts and changing passwords and then proceeded to enjoy the rest of our trip. 

Never again, I tell you.