After the trip thoughts - packing

So I decided I wanted to keep posting for a little bit on some of the tips and tricks we learned, and what we did that worked or didn't ... when we were preparing for our trip I scoured the internet for blogs from "normal" people for their packing tips, especially for packing light in small carry on backpacks for those budget airlines.

For the 2 people that read this who aren't my family, I thought I'd share about our packing. 

I packed in a 38 liter Gregory Jade pack. EasyJet's carry on requirement was 50x40x20cm, just barely under the "normal" carry on size we are used to in the U.S. The other issue is that they only allow 1 bag per person. Not 1 bag and a purse, but ONE BAG. And they checked. So when packing, I had to be sure everything fit in my backpack, but that it also had room to squish my purse in it last minute before boarding. The plus with a backpack - they were a little more lenient if they saw you carrying a reasonable sized backpack. They didn't question us, but we did see people with slightly larger, more packed out backpacks get stopped and checked for size.

 The above photo shows my full backpack, with the outfit I wore on the plane - heaviest/bulkiest clothing. It worked well to carry my coats over my arm, if I needed a little extra room in my bag.

 These pictures detail everything I packed for our 3 week trip. Our trip was in the fall, and the weather was much colder than expected, so I was very happy with all the layers I brought.

Clothing:
2 tanktops
2 t-shirts (quick dry)
1 longsleeved t-shirt
1 sweater
1 warmer baselayer
1 flannel
1 pair Lululemon cropped tights
1 pair shorts
1 skirt
1 pair of skinny-ish jeans
1 pair hiking pants
3 short smartwool socks
1 long smartwool sock
4 pairs quick dry undies
1 sports bra
1 regular bra
2 scarves
1 hat
1 pair gloves
1 belt
*All of this, I fit into 2 small packing cubes. ROLL all of your clothes, as tightly as possible. Those packing cubes can hold more than you think, and when packing in a backpack are invaluable. You don't want to have to take out all of your clothes one item at a time when finding something at the bottom of your bag.

Shoes:
Keen low hikers
Born leather boots
Toms (wore twice)
Chacos (wore once)

Jackets:
1 rain jacket
1 warmer fleece jacket
1 lightweight down jacket

Extras:
1 pack towel (helpful for squeezing out extra water from clothes when doing laundry)
1 travel-sized brush
glasses case, glasses
1 quart-sized bag of liquids (including packets of Woolite for doing laundry in the sink, and 1 pair of extra contacts! With all the trains/planes, my contacts dried out super fast!)
1 small makeup bag (necessities only!)
1 necklace, 1 extra pair of earrings
travel sized package of face wipes (a MUST for waking up after a night train...)
1 small bag of electronics (phone charger, camera charger + batteries, multi-country plug adapter)
camera
Kindle
Small purse
(I did not bring the water bottle shown)

Jeff brought our travel clothesline (which didn't really work), extra chargers, the iPad, the Surface, which we were going to use to offload pics onto (which didn't work), and his own clothing, etc.

Things I would have packed differently:
Underwear - definitely a must to have quick-dry undies, but would have been nice to have 1 or 2 cotton pairs for variety
Pants - would have liked one more pair of pants, jeans or otherwise, but space-wise, might have been hard to fit.
Shoes - didn't wear Toms or Chacos like I thought - our hostel showers were spotless, since we were in private rooms, and it was much colder than we planned, so another pair of nicer walking shoes would have been nice.

Overall, all 4 of us were happy with what we brought, and maybe would only change a couple things about what we packed. We had to get creative with mixing and matching... we were sick of our clothes by the end of our trip, but so glad we packed light!!

Funny money and things

Tonight Jeff went to exchange currency, and came back with funny money!! Ha! It's so bright and colorful! US money looks so boring compared to the Euro and Swiss Franc. I can't remember if taking pictures of money is illegal or not, so I'm not going to post it here. ;-)

We are down to the last minute details - downloading Rick Steves' audio tours, music, books, movies (for those long flights) ... it sure is funny traveling with so much technology these days. Deciding which devices we're bringing is quite the adventure. I'm so grateful for all the book suggestions I got from Facebook land! And excited - I want to start reading the ones I downloaded now! But I read so fast, Jeff is making me wait.

Weighed our packs last night and packed them with every single item we plan on taking - they both weighed in slightly under the "max", and then Jeff researched the details on the baggage policy for EasyJet, the small airline we are taking 3 times in between countries. He found out there is NO weight limit for cabin luggage, aka "carry on"! For our long trips there and back on Icelandair, we get to take 2 bags as carry ons, so we can separate our stuff into our backpacks and "personal bags" (purse for M and tiny stowable backpack for J) that we plan on using for day trips, so the weight thing isn't an issue. A big HOORAY!!!!

Now the only thing that's left to do is...

WAIT! 4 days!!!

Getting closer!

Practicing many things tonight. Packing and repacking my bag, blogging with photos via my phone... We will have to figure that out, but in the meantime, I will just have to reference the pics since I can't put them where I want them.

So this afternoon I decided to really look at what I had packed, because I really really really want to bring my boots. So I pulled out a couple more shirts, socks and other items, and I found room for them! They actually pack down pretty small so I don't have to wear them on travel days to save space, unless I want to! Yay!

Picture 1 is of what I will likely wear on travel days. Biggest shoes, jacket, and bulky clothing. Pack weighed in at 21.6 lbs with extra liquids, so I should be okay!

Picture 2 is of everything in my pack. Clothing, toiletries, electronics (minus my kindle and cell phone), shoes, etc.

Picture 3 is of all my clothes. I think I still have a LOT of clothes, and I want to bring one cardigan, but I can't figure out what else to cut out so I can fit it in.

This is my "I hate packing" face...

We are 9 days away from departing! We are sooo excited! But as I expected, I am having a wardrobe crisis now that the trip is getting closer! Did I mention that I actually hate packing? I really have a hard time with not being able to change my mind about what I want to wear or with changing weather conditions. I like to be prepared and have choices, and packing light light light makes that difficult!

Well, I think I narrowed things down, but as soon as Amy gets here and shows me what she packed, I'm sure I will want to completely rethink everything I decided on! Ha!

For accountability's sake, I will share that I decided against my boots! This will be really helpful for space but I will miss the option. Of course, I suppose there is always the "option" of finding some awesome ones over there... ;)

Test run

All right - here goes nothin'! Last night we pulled out our packs, and did a test run. We don't have quite everything we need and are planing to get before we leave, but we tried putting everything in our bags, subbing some things for items we know will be in there later.

Here's my bag, stuffed with all the things I pulled out last night - it didn't include any toiletries, electronics, or paperwork, etc. but there felt like there was plenty of room to still stuff things in the corners. It weighed 18.6 pounds, so I still have about 3.5 pounds of flex to still be able to carry on those budget airplanes...

This picture is sideways, but it is a general look at some of the clothes I was trying to fit in. I used packing cubes, and I'll post some more pics later, because we might need to borrow some smaller ones from my parents, but I fit a surprising amount of clothes in my pack by rolling and stuffing them in the packing cubes. More than I thought, but it will definitely still be tight. I think I've narrowed down my shoes, too, to Toms, Chaco flips or sandals, Born Boots, and my low Keen hikers. Will wear all the heaviest/bulky stuff on travel days, but I'm really glad I got this pack - I put my Keens and my toms in the lower "sleeping bag" compartment, and the outside front pocket is perfect for stowing my flip flops, a rain jacket, beanie, etc.

Jeff's pack weighed in at 16.7 pounds - same deal. Not all the exact items were in there, and no toiletries or electronics, but I think we're both in pretty good shape!! We both eliminated at least 2-4 items of bigger clothing, 2-3 pairs of underwear/socks each, since we are planning on washing clothes every couple days in the sink.

I will need to pick up a more versatile pair of jeans, that I could wear by themselves and tucked into my boots. Also, need one or two more quick-dry, mix & match-able tops. Other than that, I think I'm pretty good. Looked at the weather last night, and it's going to be between 50's and 60's the whole time in almost all the places we'll be. A little warmer in France. This is why layering is important! We still could run into snow in Switzerland while hiking, and pouring rain in Scotland while hiking, and be hot in France! Who knows - we'll keep our eye on the weather.

24 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And 23 days until James & Amy come up to Seattle, and we will probably second guess everything we all decided we wanted to pack once we look at each other's gear! HA! :)

Let the packing begin!

After hours of research, playing with packs at REI, annoying the employees at REI with our questions, and constantly changing our minds, we finally bought our packs tonight!

We both had other packs we could have used. But none were small enough, yet big enough for all our gear, to allow us to carry on the small inter-country airlines which have much stricter carry on size limits.

We wanted packs that would be comfortable for carrying all our gear around town for the days we will be gone, but practical for getting into our stuff once we reach our destinations.

Jeff decided to get the Deuter 32 Act Trail, because he liked the pockets, front panel access and stuff pouch. I got the Gregory Sage 38 after much deliberation, because of the pockets, front panel access and suspension that doesn't take away from pack space, as well as the separate bottom sleeping bag compartment I plan to use for ny dirty shoes. These packs should serve us well on this trip, but we also bought them plannig to add them to our backpacking gear, for more ultralight and shorter overnight trips.

Now the trial and error of real packing begins. Stay tuned!

The Shoe Saga...

If you know me and my shoe obsession, this shouldn't be a surprise that I'm having a hard time deciding what shoes to bring on our trip. Actually, I enjoy wearing the same shoes for days on end, but having the option to choose is nice. So having to pick only 2 (maybe 3??) pairs to bring is really hard! Especially because we will be traveling in a variety of climates and enjoying many different types of activities - from long days of walking in the city, to hiking in the Swiss Alps, to enjoying the fashionable streets of Paris, to trekking in the mountains & countryside of Scotland.

These are the shoes that I'm trying to decide between... and most of the decision will rest on the types of outfits I end up putting together, but they also have to be comfortable enough and durable enough that I won't end up with blisters and soaking wet feet.

Trekking/hiking/supportive walking shoes: either the Keens or Vasque tennies. Both have the same issue, they are about 1/4 size too big, so I get blisters if I wear them super long, and end up bruising my toes when I am doing intense downhill hiking.

Casual walking/optional dress up shoes: either Toms, Clarks flats, or Born boots. It's just so hard to decide! I could also bring the super flat/light weight sandals as another option... The boots are heavy and bulky, and I could wear them on travel days, but we're doing so much in between travel, that I'd be wearing them a lot... they're super comfy, but I just don't know if I want to wear them that much.

Chacos. I could write pages on how much I love these. I need sandals for hostel showers, and they're super supportive, and I could walk for days in them, but we're going in October. Sandals in October in Switzerland? Not sure. They're also super heavy.

We have places to sleep!

We have officially booked each night of our trip! Or, in one case, decided not to book something. Yes, we plan to stay up all night, and/or sleep in the airport during our final layover in Reykjavik, Iceland. Wow. This is happening!

Jeff and I have started a list of things we want to do in each city/area ... any suggestions?
We'll be in:
Berlin, Munich, Fussen, Germany
Lauterbrunnen & Gimmewald, Murren, Switzerland
Bordeaux region, Paris, France
Edinburgh, Western Coast, Isle of Islay and Isle of Skye, Scotland

Now, on to the packing... since we're traveling budget airlines, we have to pack lightly!

12 weeks away!

We are finalizing all of our lodging for our whirlwind trip to Europe... and as we nail down multiple details, we figured a central place to jot down the memories and things we do on this trip would be fun to share with you all.

We leave September 28th - that is less than 12 weeks away. Just 3 "month" clicks ahead on the calendar! It's been a long time coming, but now it seems there is so much to do before we leave.

We are traveling with our best buddies James & Amy, and look forward to this crazy adventure!

We will be starting our trip in Germany, heading into Switzerland, then to France, Scotland, and ending in Iceland. We'll literally be traveling by trains, planes and automobiles, staying in hostels, hotels, B&B's, a castle, and a night train!

Stay tuned as we figure out exactly where we'll be, what we're bringing, how we're packing, and how we're not-so-patiently waiting to board the plane!