"EVERY day in Europe is a good day. Even a bad day in Europe is a good day."
That has been my mantra throughout this trip.
I've stuck by it even when our youngest son and his partner bought shuttle bus tickets to Pompeii with a global tourist company and then couldn't find the obscure meeting point, were kicked off the tour company's other coach when it was discovered they had made a mistake, and were left in the middle of nowhere to find their own way to the train station and home at their own expense, causing untold concern for us when they missed their scheduled 7.30pm arrival time and didn't get home until midnight.
I've stuck by it even when we knew we'd been ripped off and had to pay undisclosed service fees or for bread and water we didn't order but appeared anyway at Venice restaurants.
I've stuck by it even when the GPS sent us up a bus-only road at Madrid's Atocha Train Station and we found ourselves getting a reprimand in Spanish from the traffic police who pulled up beside us.
I've stuck by it even when our hire rental car company took three hours to deliver the "people mover" we booked six months earlier for 8am for a long trip from Barcelona to San Sebastian, leaving four 20-somethings minding all our luggage in a gutter near busy Sagrada Familia with no communication/wifi to notify them of the delay because we'd already checked out of our apartment.
I've stuck by it even when a stomach upset from a disagreement with the water had me searching for the nearest toilet every 20 minutes and having to pay for the privilege, then stressing about a 90-minute vaporetta ride without facilities to Venice Aiport.
I've stuck by it even when hundreds of photos of Rome, Florence, Barcelona and San Sebastián were lost either because of two faulty camera memory cards or a damaged iPad connection.
I've stuck by it even when we arrived late in San Sebastian after a long day of driving to be told our pension house had been overbooked and we had to sleep two couples to a cramped family room in another pension house and then got no sleep because husband and son snored all night.
But today, my positive outlook is wearing a little thin.
That's because our youngest son came in and wake us at 8am this morning - not because we needed to get organised for our planned trip to beautiful Malaga on the Costa Del Sol, south of Granada, but because his partner's laptop was missing.
A tidy up and search of the apartment in Granada's Old Town proved fruitless.
It seems some time after 2am, when they went to sleep, someone walking down the Albayzin alleyway steps next to the apartment has put their hand through the closed but unlocked window and hit the jackpot.
The opportunistic thief would have had to push the hinged timber shutters open, place his hand through the "jail-like" vertical bars on the window, undo the charging connector from the laptop sitting on the window ledge, then raise the heavy computer vertically through the bars - all while the couple slept immediately next to it on a sofa bed.
With limited power and a password needed to unlock the laptop, it will be of little use to the thief or subsequent buyer except to sell for parts.
Of more concern is the loss of holiday snaps, resumes, original music recordings, and other personal information.
The pair also were using the laptop as their major means of communication while away.
Our hotel manager was helpful and sympathetic, calling the police for us and giving the address of the nearest police station.
We spent the next two hours finding our public carpark, getting to the police headquarters and waiting while a statement was given to a translator over the phone ... instead of driving to Malaga.
Hopefully, travel insurance minus the excess will cover the loss once back at home.
But if nothing else, this is a cold reminder that the GFC hit Spain hard and that desperate people will always be willing to take advantage of others, no matter how careful you think you are with your money and possessions. A tough lesson to learn.
Don't get me wrong: we'll always have our memories of a great holiday and family time in Spain.
But with two more weeks until touching down in Brisbane, every day in Europe from here on will really need to be a good day in Europe.
WANTED: The missing laptop, as seen in Santorini.
