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I’ve noticed in recent years, even though I’ve paid for a motel/hotel room in advance, the check-in clerk always wants my credit card for incidentals. That’s so I don’t skip out without paying for that Coke Zero and peanut M&Ms I scarfed down, or that five-dollar bottle of water in my room. Even though we pay for most things with a card these days, I still like to travel with a little cash in my pocket for incidentals. If I’m traveling in a foreign country, I like to take a few dollars and some of whatever their currency is. I try to spend all my foreign currency before I leave that country.  Usually, I can’t quite use it all up, so I end up bringing some back home. At least I’ll have a little for the next trip.

You know that pleasant surprise feeling when you put your hand in the pocket of an old coat and pull out a twenty-dollar bill? Much to my surprise, before we rode the Rhine, I put my hand in my cookie jar and discovered 160 leftover Euros. That was about 174 dollars in American money. That’s certainly not enough money for a week-and-a-half in Europe, but I figured it would be enough for me to pay for, you know, the things I really didn’t need anyway.  After all, how many coffee mugs and tee shirts from who knows where can one person use?

I learned to count American coins at an early age. Euros are still a work in progress for me. That’s because we basically have four coins that we use. Yes, we have half-dollars and silver dollars, but we usually don’t carry those. There are eight denominations of Euro coins and they carry them all. Not only do the Europeans have one-cent coins, but they also have two-cent coins. I guess that’s so they can put in their two-cents worth! They also have one-euro coins and two-euro coins, as well. We have two-dollar bills, but we don’t spend those either. We give them to our grandchildren…so they can ask, “What is that?”

I found a touristy looking laminated map of the Rhine River. It was a bargain at seven euros and some-odd change. I pulled out a handful of euros and began trying to count it out to the merchant. Suddenly, he reached in my hand and counted out for himself what he needed. I felt like a kid again. My mind went back to my occasional visits as a child to Mr. Shirey’s Rainsville Five-and-Dime Store. Money was hard to come by in those days, but when a little did manage to come my way, I managed to make my way to town soon afterwards. Rarely, did I have folding money, but rolling money rolled my way once in a while. When I did manage to occasionally have a nickel or two in my pocket, Mama often said it was burning a hole in there. I could never find that hole, but I was afraid my money might slip through it before I could get to town and spend it! I had not yet learned the value of a penny saved. I would hold out my hand to show Mr. Shirley my coin, or in lucrative times my coins, and ask him, “What can I get for this?” He would pick out coins and hand me candy until my hands and pockets were empty. Finally, I began to realize that it might be a good idea to hang onto a little bit for the next trip.