This weekend we started our part of the Australia visa application process.  It was going along quite smoothly, the columns of Yes’s and No’s lining up evenly, like good little soldiers.  Until we reached question #103:

Have you ever been asked to leave any country?

The proper response here, should one want to be granted said visa, would be “No.”  Simple enough, right?  Why would Gina and Dena have any trouble answering that question?  You’ve seen the pictures and heard the stories from all of their worldly travels, and not once have they ever suggested that perhaps they were not welcome wherever it was that they were.

Well, we all have a few little secrets, and ours was making this question a trifle difficult to answer.  See, a few years ago, we were biking along the Rhein River in Switzerland when we came upon a sign pointing us across an old wooden bridge to the tiny country of Liechtenstein.  “Liechtenstein!”, we said, “let’s go to Liechtenstein!”.  So cross the bridge we did, setting foot and front tires in the fourth-smallest country in Europe.  We leaned our bikes up against the bridge rail, preparing to enjoy a light bite in Liechtenstein, when the orange-vested men approaching from across the way caught our eye.  “The bridge is closed!” they said, only they said it in German, so we had no idea what they were telling us.  Finger-pointing, however, is clear in any language, and we quickly caught on that they were asking us to leave the country.

Does that count?