Our Gear

So--here is our gear (so far). 1: Sketchers Go-Walk shoes (Elise), 2: Kindle tablet; 3: Chromebook for Internet access and to do blog; 4: sunglasses (Elise); 5: Canon camera for photos (again for Elise who is not taking her good cameras  for a couple reasons--weight and fear of  them being stolen. I bought this smaller Canon which has great reviews--we'll see. Hopefully it will live up to the hype); 6: Passports of course; 7: iPhone (older model which could be  unlocked: 8: money belt; 9: Eagle Creek PackIt cubes (totally for Elise--Ken scoffs at them); 10: portable hard drive for storing photos; 11: PacSafe cross over purse (has wires in strap so it can't be cut); 12: power converters; 13: Eagle Creek suitcases (We got these based on the Man in Seat 64's recommendation. Here is one in all it's glory--the Eagle Creek Switchback 22. They have removable day packs and can be used either as a backpack or wheeled); 14: Rain gear. I am sure we will have much more before we leave, but the plan is to pack light believe it or not.

Our Gurus

It would be impossible to do this without the help of experts and we have four.  First is our son and wonderful daughter-in-law. We are fortunate that they have traveled much of the world including many places we plan to visit. They have been almost as excited about this as we are and have offered much invaluable advice.  Our next traveling companion is the Man in Seat 61, http://www.seat61.com/index.html#.U0d8kVe9ZPc. Mark Smith (sorry about the blurry photo Mark--it's the best we could find of you on the 'net) spends his time traveling around the world on trains (what a tough job!) and he has a website that is unparalleled in giving great information to folks like us who plan to relax for a thousand miles or more on Europe's trains. Last is an old buddy--Rick Steves. Rick is the author of what we consider to be the best guidebooks in the world. He took us through England and Paris with nary a blunder (well, maybe a few but most of them were our fault). We're counting on him to take us on this trip as well, and we are investing in his books once again. Just to prove that we not completely old fogies though--this time we're not taking the actual books. We're taking eBooks! We've downloaded them onto our Kindles and it is a lot less weight to drag with us.