Finished Packing

Today we finished our packing. Concetta and I use a rolling duffel bag as our main piece of luggage. These soft-sided carriers, we think, are best because they compress easily when the Schwarzenegger-like guys loading the bags on the plane throw eleven tons of luggage on top of them. The have a number of side pockets for easy access, double zippers for locking said zippers closed, and a rhinoceros-like canvas hide that stands up pretty well to abuse. Our particular bags have a lower zipper compartment for things you want to keep basically flat like sport coats or slacks. The compartment is about four inches deep which accommodates lots of stuff. The upper duffel part easily holds all the shirts and pants you need. I put my socks and underwear in the zippered side compartments. For our carry-on luggage we use a small case that measures about eighteen inches square and eight inches deep. In mine I can easily put the laptop, the camera equipment, and all of the various power cords and related electronic wires, gadgets, and gizmos for the phones, etc. This little bag also has rollers and a handle to make them easy to move them down the jetway. We both also carry a purse-like bag for our reading books, ear phones, and other important items that you'll always need on the plane. So, there you have it. We're all packed and ready to roll, literally.

Packing at LAST!

I wanted to start packing ages ago, but for some reason today is the day it actually happened. My target weight for checked luggage is 50 pounds, no more. I know that U.S. airlines tend to allow you 60 pounds, but some European carriers only allow 50. To keep from having to feverishly throw things away in some airport lounge, I stay with 50. That also keeps me from bringing home souvenirs which will ultimately end up in next year's garage sale. For the first time on this trip I'm trying out vacuum bags, which are the plastic bags in which you stuff your clothes and then vacuum out all the air to make them take up less space. They require a little patience (which I lack when dealing with such things) but do seem to save space. You only have to worry about them getting an air leak, expanding to their original size, and causing your bag to explode in the cargo hold of the plane! Just kidding. No, if you can stand the irritation of trying to squirrel four or five shirts into one of these skinny plastic bags, then rolling them up to force out the air, it's probably worth your time. So, as we speak, I've got everything in my bag except for a couple of small items and it weighs in at 46 pounds. Right on! Now to tackle the carry-on luggage.

Trip Book

A number one requirement for me when I go traveling abroad is having a Trip Book along. This is a stiff cardboard folder full of plastic page protectors into which I put things like airline flight schedules, B&B confirmations, and car rental reservations. It's always proven to be extremely handy to have these materials available in my carry-on luggage when frustration sets in, when some clerk declares they don't know what I'm talking about when I tell them I've had a car reserved for six months. In essence, every piece of important paper where someone has confirmed something in writing or by email, I include. Naturally, you'll want to digitize most of this stuff and put it up on the web as well (see the post below for information on web storage).

Paperwork

One of the toughest aspects of world travel as I see it is trying to anticipate what paperwork might be required of you on the best days as well as the worst. In other words, having the confirmation of your flights, your various hotels, and your rental car is just common sense. But the need for paperwork doesn't stop there. For instance, you'll need an international driver's license if you intend to drive a car. They're only good for a year, so you will need a new one nearly every time you go abroad. And if you were to lose it, what would you do? Well, I make a digital image of mine and store it on the web so it can be accessed from any computer worldwide. I'll explain what I mean by, "on the web." I have signed up with a company called "Filesanywhere.com." If you don't exceed one gigabyte of information, you can securely store anything you like on their site and they make it accessible only to you -- FOR FREE. So, not only is a copy of my international driver's license stored there, but digital images of just about any piece of paper I think might be useful while on vacation is stored there as well. Things like passports, medical prescriptions, and credit card emergency numbers are up there as well. I also have proof of purchase documents for my laptop and my camera equipment. And how about birth certificates? I bet you can think of a need for one of those should you have to replace your lost passport while vacationing. So, there you have it. Think about establishing your own secure file storage for use in emergencies. Filesanywhere is not the only game in town. I've heard that "Dropbox" is good, too. Happy traveling, as Rick Steves would say.

The Cruise Packet Arrives

Yesterday the packet arrived from the cruise company. Though the envelope was pretty beat up and half open, it appears as though everything that was supposed to be inside is actually inside, including the e-tickets, the baggage tags, and a list of our fellow passengers. Counting down now as there is less than two weeks to go.

Ordered Euros

Wow, you wouldn't believe just how easy it is now to order Euros. I just go to my Wells Fargo Bank website, click on "order foreign currency," fill in the amount I want to spend, tell them whether I want to pay with my checking account or with a credit card, and presto, the currency comes to via FedEx. What could be more elegant that that?

Gobal Bag Tag

We're signed up with GlobalBagTag.com. Gobal Bag Tag is a wonderful way to keep track of your luggage. This is how it works: you buy registered tags from GBT and put them on your luggage. On their site you fill in your trip itinerary, including addresses and phones of various places you'll be. Then, if your luggage is lost, the airline (or whomever) can access the site, find out where you are that day, and send your bags to that address. Truly an outstanding idea and not very expensive.

Travel Shoes

I've decided that the whole airline experience requires some changes in thinking on my part. Last trip, the one to the U.K., I wore my hiking boots on the airplane, mostly to keep the heavy critters out of my luggage. But for this trip, I've decided to pack the hiking boots, weight be darned, and wear Crocs on the airplane. I'm thinking that Crocs will be much easier to wear and remove going through the metal detector experience. And Crocs will be so much more comfortable for the hours and hours of flight time. With all those holes they will be cool and comfortable and I won't be looking for a way to remove my shoes when my feet get too hot. I think I'm going to be able to wear the Crocs (I'm taking a chocolate brown pair) on the boat with any sort of attire, from shorts and dress pants and sport coat. Right on.

Travel Insurance

I have spent some days now trying to decide whether to buy "Trip Cancellation Insurance," and, if so, what company to go with. After much bewildered rambling on the internet I discovered sites called "Squaremouth.com and "Insuremytrip.com." These sites will allow you to feed in your trip criteria and then it pulls up all the insurers who would be able to provide you with insurance. We were also interested in medical coverage for foreign countries. Oddly enough, even though we had trip insurance for our vacation to Italy in 2006, I didn't even give it a thought for our trip to the U.K. in 2008. Oh, well, good thing I didn't need it. Rick Steve's recommends a handful like Travel Guard (we used this one for Italy), Access America (Connie's travel agent cousin uses this one), and Travel Insurance International. After much thought I decided that maybe my USAA card (offered to military and ex-military personal) might offer travel insurance recommendations. That idea proved to be my salvation as they recommended Travel Insurance International. I got their "World Wide Trip Protector" plan plus medical coverage for $700.00, or about 6% of the cruise and airfare cost. Naturally, I'd love to save that money, but when you're going on a cruise, delays and cancellations of anything can leave you standing on the dock watching the ship sail into the sunset. Not a happy thought.

Airline Flight gets changed

Well, changes have begun already.  Our flight from Athens to Rome after the cruise, which was to have taken place at 9:00 A.M., is not going now until 1:00 P.M.  Not sure just what we’ll ending up doing for the morning, but I guess if nothing else, we’ll just hang out at the airport and do some reading.  Airlines just love to tinker with your flights once you’ve paid for them.

Brightroam

The Brightroam SIM card for our world phone has arrived safely. This will allow us to avoid the hassle of trying to figure out the phone system in the various countries we will be visiting. Folks in the U.S. will be able to dial our stateside, toll-free phone number and reach us wherever we are on vacation. Pretty neat.

International Drivers License

I discovered recently when I dug out my International Driver's License that they're only good for one year. So, off I went to have a sheet of passport-style photos taken of myself and then to the AAA (Automobile Club) Office for a new license. Now AAA will also shoot the photos for you at a nominal charge of $10.00. But I got my photos taken at my local grocery store for about four bucks. The license at AAA costs $15.00 so the whole affair is very cheap. One thing I didn't know until today is that you have to carry not only the International license, but your United States license as well. I had never read the fine print before and had not taken it on our trip to England or Italy. Good thing no one asked me for it. While at the AAA Office the lady told me that if I had the more expensive membership (I have the basic), they would pay to fly me home from whatever country I was visiting if I were to become ill or injured. That sounded like a good deal to me for the extra $40.00 per year. So, there you have it. One more chore out of the way. Still to do is deciding just what we're going to do in Italy. Concetta wants to see Scily, but aside from that, we're just going to wing it and see how that works.