I'm ok thanks, Cake
Here is a summary, if you've got a few minutes...
We had our hire car broken into whilst we were visiting Knossos in Crete. We were on our way to the airport. It was a busy car park. All our stuff was in the boot. The lock was forced and they took everything except my handbag (didn't have anything of value in it but did have my debit card and the key to our house at home) Tall's rucksack was also left which was fortunate as it had his sketchbook for uni in it. They also left 2 pairs of brand new Converse and Vans and Tiny's iPod nano, even though they took Talls iPod classic (which didn't work very well).
All our passports and tickets home went too.
We called the police who arrived quite quickly. Another couple had also had their car broken into, they were Germans. We all followed the police back to their HQ in Heraklion. We had to wait a while before we made statements. The German couple let us go first as they knew we had flights that evening.
We tried to get on the plane home but were told no. We had to go to the British Embassy and get emergency passports... only the Embassy was closed due to it being Assumption Day.
We caught the bus into the city centre where, fortunately, the British Vice-Consulate is situated... it could've been miles away on the other side of the island!
We found the place, then looked for somewhere to spend the night. It was getting very late by this time. We came across a hotel and the woman on the desk said she could put us up in one room but needed to make up the beds so to come back in half an hour.
We went to find a taverna and ALL had a beer and were brought crisp and nuts too (we hadn't eaten a thing since lunchtime) Whilst sitting in the taverna I spotted a shop that did passport photos. Handy to know for the morning.
We went back to the hotel, showered and slept on and off. At 08.00 Big rang the embassy giving them our details. We got our photos done then booked another 4 flights home. (Our car was in Bristol but the only flight that day was to Gatwick)
We couldn't get our tickets until we had a passport numbers and we couldn't get our passports until we had proof that we had a flight!
The woman in the consulate was very nice and extremely helpful. Our passports were rushed through and she told us that it was their last day but if need be she'd come in on her day off to help get us home. I really did not want to spend another day in the same clothes and contact lenses! Fortunately the passports were done within a couple of hours, we collected our boarding passes and then enjoyed the remainder of our time in Heraklion by buying a couple of souvenirs to replace all those that we lost and finding an internet cafe so we could let the cattery owner at home know we'd be a day late collecting our cat.
We caught the bus back to the airport and waited there for our flight for about 6 hours! It was cooler in the airport. The flight home seemed to go quickly. We landed at about 01.00 didn't have to wait for any bags so booked a coach to Bristol.
The coach first went to Victoria. We got there at 04.00. The coach to Bristol left at 07.30. Horrible few hours spent in the waiting room.
Arrived in Bristol at 10.10 From Bristol bus depot we caught a bus to the airport, from there we got the bus to the car park. Then we had to explain to the man at the desk why we didn't have our parking slip and were a day late... more expense.
Drove home, picked the cat up on way, arrived home, so glad I still had the door key) at 12.45 - knackered, starving but happy we all made it back in one piece.
I would go again. But I am NEVER leaving anything in a car again!
