9 weeks and 6 days

In just over 9 weeks the X-man and I will be on the way to Europe :) Not that I'm counting or anything ...

His passport has arrived, and we now have the overnight Thello train reservations to take us between Paris and Venice so, apart from any day trips or city transport, all our transport and accommodation is booked. We could pretty much turn up at the airport and go!

But of course, there are always other things to buy in the meantime.

Recently I bought a copy of Frommer's Paris: Free and Dirt Cheap, which has lots of great info on NOT going broke in Paris. I won't take it with me (we're travelling light), but I'm in the process of reading it for the second time and making lots of notes on maps. 

The Paris Mapguide (by Michael Middlemitch), however, I will pack. It's a small Paris street directory that should be a little less conspicuous than a large map.

I'll also take the Everyman Mapguides: Rome - another small map book, divided into six sections, each of which has a small foldout map with information on the reverse.

I've bought a small Pacsafe bag for the X-man (because he wants to carry his own camera and a few items), a Pacsafe RFID-blocking wallet to hold our passports and cards (RFID readers are apparently cheap and widespread these days - not something we really came across two years ago. The wallet is relatively inexpensive, small and provides a little more peace of mind), two adaptor plugs (one with two electrical outlets, two USB outlets and a short power cord, and the other with just one electrical outlet and two USB outlets and which plugs straight into the wall - I'll probably just take the first one), and a spare camera battery each.

Today I bought new walking shoes, so I have time to wear them in, and I took the plunge and ordered a Cabin Max 44L bag. I'm going to try travelling even lighter this time, and the bag isn't terribly expensive.

Yep - no wheels. Just 680 grams in weight, 55x40x20cm and can be carried as a bag or a backpack. My theory is that if I want to travel light, I need a small bag that I have to carry (rather than relying on wheels) so I'm not tempted to take extra things just in case. I'll wait to see what it's like once it arrives before deciding which bag the X-man will take - I'm not too hung up on going carry-on only, and we already have a few options available, but there's also a convertible wheeled/backpack version of this bag available. It's a little heavier than this one, but still lighter than anything we have already. 

The preparation is half the fun!