Yesterday I shared that I had lost my wallet. We were still juggling some logistics last night. The mountain huts we are visiting are cash only but our guides have been kind enough to loan us some Swiss Francs. We tried to get cash last night and that proved to be very difficult with the other credit cards we have.

This morning I woke up a little early and was thinking how someone would contact me if they found my wallet. My website is the first thing that a search engine would suggest for my name and I have this Hello page. My profiles at other sites are listed there and that made me think I should check various social platforms. I went to LinkedIn not expecting much and scanned my notifications.

To my astonishment there was a comment from Martin Lienhard saying he had found my wallet! 😲

Incredible! I found the Volg store he mentioned and they didn’t open for another 45 mins. Right at 7:30a I asked the hotel to please call the store and confirm they had it. They did! 🥳

I let our guides know and took a rest day from hiking (which I was considering anyway) and made the trip to collect my recovered wallet!

After a train ride back to Guarda, then the bus into the village, I ducked the rain and ran into the Volg Guarda where the nice cashier reached under the counter and produced my wallet! Joy!

So where was it? The whole thought about the train station in Ardez was a dead end. Martin’s wife found it by one of the city water fountains — the one that we dipped our feet in. That means when I realized I didn’t have it, as we were walking to dinner, it had only just fallen out of my pocket no more than a 100 feet away.

A huge thank you to Martin Lienhard and his wife and the Volg shopkeeper for recovering my lost wallet! 🙏🤩

Makes me wonder — we’re the Goats of Guarda watching over me while we were there? 😊