Sunday started out very relaxing. We slept in a little and then met several of our group to go for breakfast. We had found a pastry and ice cream shop at the mall where we ate dinner Friday night. We decided to try it out for breakfast since nothing else opened that early except the very expensive hotel restaurant. After a light breakfast Wade and I headed back to the hotel on our own. The others went to see if any of the other stores were open. The hotel was located in an industrial area and it was Sunday morning. There was very little traffic and even fewer pedestrians. Suddenly, just after crossing a main street about 200 yards from the hotel, a nice black Audi pulled up along side of us. The occupant of the passenger side flashed his supposed police credentials. From his seated position he was close enough to Wade to rumage through his pants pockets. First he requested to see our passports. Luckily, the passports were located in the hotel room safe. Once it was determined we were not carrying our passports the self-proclaimed police officer required seeing the contents of Wade's pockets. At first Wade pulled about $60 from his pocket. The officer then put his hand in the other pocket and removed about 60 Euros and a credit card. At this point we were both sure that the nice black Audi was going to drive down the street with our Euros and credit card in hand never to be seen again. Instead, the officer replaced the items saying "you can keep your money". He then briefly explained they had received a report of an American carrying a gun. If he really thought we had a gun he probably would not have conducted the interview seated in his car. We think he was after our passports for whatever reason. Yet another mystery only to be solved on the other side of the veil. Maybe God was watching over us even though we were not in church.
The trip to the port from the hotel was brief. The boarding process was very uneventful. We were so happy to still have our passports that I left my purse with the passports and our money on the security scanner conveyor belt. Fortunately we were asked to show out passports a short distance from the scanner and I was able to retrieve it quickly before it disappeared.
We boarded the ship about noon and the reaminder of the day was spent unpacking and getting acquainted with the 12 stories of the Carnival Magic.
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