By Larry and Joan Dolinski
Arriving in Cardiff an unexpected and unwelcome adventure awaited us.We went to the campsite to retrieve our gear, then parked the car next door at the Welsh Institute of Sport where we had a prearranged dinner awaiting us with the bike group. We were at dinner for about 1 1/2 hours. Upon returning to our car we found our rear window smashed and lots of valuables stolen. Included among the missing items were all of the clothing belonging to David and Lisa (our automobile partners), bike bags containing our electronics (email device, camera, audio recorder, etc.), and both Joan's and David's rain gear. Thankfully, by the next morning, all of David and Lisa's clothing had been found by the police (discarded along a remote road a couple of miles away). What remained missing, however, were all of our electronics and both sets of rain gear.
The aftermath of the robbery was very wearing...we had to have the window replaced in the wee hours on the night/morning immediately following the incident and, of course, had to have reports prepared by both security personnel at the facility where the incident took place and then independently by the police. Then in due time came the reporting protocols to both the automobile and homeowner insurers and the documentation that had to accompany those reports. Finally, we had to begin the task of replacing the stolen items. Some items were available for purchase locally. Our replacement emailer (pocketmail device) had to be procured in the US. Thanks to our daughter, Jeri, "the paragon of efficiency", the device was immediately purchased, registered, and FEDEXed to us in record breaking time.
Thank goodness we are fine and our loss is only stuff. The most frustrating loss, however, is the loss of the information we had stored in our email device.
Finally, freeing ourselves from the aftermath of the break-in, we left Cardiff and headed out into the countryside of Wales and on toward the coast. The travel through Wales was a most lovely one, featuring greenery, hills, meadows, and cows and sheep grazing quietly. We will pick up at this point in our next update.
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