Mesh pockets and Mesh Cubes

I received the mesh pockets and cubes yesterday from magellans.com and I have already spent a bunch of time figured out how much stuff I can pack in there.  I'm pleasantly surprised!  I think this will really make unpacking and re-packing much easier; we will be doing this severl times during the trip.  I think Brett was a little skeptical at first, but when I pulled out my bag and showed him how well they fit and how much they could hold, he had me order some for him as well.  The large cube holds about 6 rolled t-shirts and the medium cube holds about 9 pairs of socks.  They just really help keep things separated and organized.  I have included some pictures of the cubes in the slideshow.

The pockets are going to be great for holding make up and other toiletries...mostly because you can see what you're looking for.  I have also included some pictures of these.  Notice, I did buy a very teeny-tiny hair straightener that fits into a small mesh pocket.  I am going without a hairdryer since both hotels and the apartment are supposed to have one.

Another task I can erase from my to-do list is deciding figure out how many liquids are essential.  After some editing, I decided that I cannot fit any mouthwash or hairspray into my one-quart bag, so...that's what BRETT is for, right?  lol...I KNOW he will only take about 3-5 liquids, leaving me plenty of room in his bag for the remainder of MY stuff.  I'm sure he won't mind...I think I have my list narrowed down to about 10 items...he'll be so proud!

The only other new decision is that we will be taking a day-trip from Rome to Pompeii.  I think it will be very interesting.  This will most likely be the topic of my next post.  Until then...arrivederci!

Eurostar Tickets Purchased!

Well, we have to get from Paris to London some way. What better way than in a tunnel for two and a half hours under the English Channel??? To us, it sounds more fun than flying, so we booked our tickets this weekend. I read online that booking them in advance is a good idea since they are similar to plane tickets and get more expensive as time goes by. Also, we won't have to worry about getting to the airport and going through security and all of that mess. We simply go to the train station and get on-board! We are leaving Paris at 0807 and will arrive in London at 0924 (London time is one hour behind, so we'll gain an hour!).

Otherwise, I have purchased some packing cubes and mesh packing pockets as well from magellans.com which should keep us more organized during our trip. I'm sure I'll have more details when we receive them in the mail. Until then...I'll get back to teaching myself some Italian (with a Texan dialect haha)...Arrivederci!

Rome apartment information

The couple we are renting our Rome apartment from are AWESOME.  They purchased their apartment for their daughter who plans to live there after she gets married.  But, they are renting it out in the meantime.  They work for the Bank of Italy and are fluent in English (very helpful with discussing housing in detail).  I sent them all of our flight information and they replied with a VERY detailed e-mail with everything we need to know about the apartment.  It sounds like the easiest way to get there is to take a bus to the "Termini" station (main metro station), then to take the underground metro to our place.  Hopefully this will be as easy as they make it sound.  There is so much information to remember just about the apartment.

For instance, there are 4 keys to the apartment: one for entry into the building itself, 2 for the doorknob and the dead-bolt (which have to be opened and closed in a certain order), and one for the basement.  Why, you ask, would we need a key to the basement of the apartment building?  Well, if we blow the breakers of course!  So, also included is details about the electrical outlets and voltage converters.  There is a breaker box in the apartment; but if this doesn't work, all you have to do is:

"Go to the ground floor and open the white door that is on the left of the staircase with the 'basement key' and look for the 'circuit break" #36'. " 

Man, I hope I don't forget to bring these instructions...more importantly, I hope we have the electricity thing figured out by the time we get to Rome!!

There are also specific instructions on how to get hot water to come out of the shower-head...I hope we have success with this!  They do have free WiFi at the apartment, so hopefully I will be able to check my e-mail and possibly update the blog.  We will each have an iPod touch, but no computer.  So, I'm sure our time online will be brief.

Most importantly, they have given us great suggestions on where to shop for groceries, directions to the open-air food market, and where to eat great authentic Italian food.  Hopefully, we will be able to try out some of the local cafes and pizzerias!

I am so thankful for their suggestions and quick responses to all of our questions.  Hopefully, we will be able to meet them in person while we are in town.  That's all of my new thoughts for today!! 

Luggage

Call us crazy, but we will not be checking any luggage on our 11 night stay. With airlines charging $15 to $25 per checked bag, we can cut back on our travel expenses just by carrying on. I know it seems difficult, but I've read several travel websites and forums and have even talked to some people who have successfully completed the carry-on feat. Of course, the trouble is getting 11 nights worth of luggage into one carry-on and one back pack.

The key for us is doing laundry half way through the trip. This way, we only have to pack 1/2 the stuff we would normally have to pack. Several websites sell travel-sized laundry soap and clotheslines. However, we are lucky enough to have an apartment in Rome with a washer AND dryer.  And, believe me, dryers are hard to come by in Europe...electricity is very expensive!

Well, there is a lot of strategy that goes into this packing technique. Our first step was to purchase good luggage within carry-on requirements. We know we'll be flying on American Airlines for the flights to and from the U.S.A., so all we had to do was search their website for carry-on limitations. Here's the link for the AA carry-on allowance:

http://www.aa.com/aa/i18nForward.do?p=/travelInformation/baggage/carryOnAllowance.jsp&anchorEvent=false

Our only other flight is from London to Rome - which we booked just today!  We will be flying British Airways.  This is supposedly one of the best airlines around, so we're pretty excited.  They have very similar carry-on allowances which are easily accessible through their website as well:

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/bagcabin/public/en_us  (note: they call it "hand baggage"...I think I'm going to love the UK!)

Here are the bags we picked:

Mine is the green one and Brett's is the man-ish looking black one the transforms into a duffle bag and a backpack...pretty cool!  We have already used them once during our trip to Las Vegas with Brett's mom and stepdad in August. We used carry-ons only on this 5 night trip and it was surprisingly easy. The most difficult part is deciding what things are necessary and what items are not needed. 

And, of course, the liquids issue. But, I've found that condensing liquids is not difficult either. I was shocked when I figured out that I could wash my hair about 7 times with 2 oz. of shampoo! If you're not familiar with the TSA liquids carry-on guidelines, you can read more here at http://www.tsa.gov/311/index.shtm

I know Brett will have no problem with the carry-ons only plan, but it might be a bigger struggle for me. However, with proper preparation, I think it's possible. At this point, I've got 62 days to figure it out...thank goodness!

What's planned so far...

Thus far, we've booked our flights, 2 hotel rooms, and an apartment. Now, that might sound like a lot to most of you, but there are so many other things to do!!! Firstly, we're flying American Airlines out of DFW to Paris non-stop on Sunday, March 22. We arrive in Paris the following morning around 9:00. I'm a little worried about having to sleep on the plane, but I'm sure we'll make do.

Once we're in Paris, we've booked our hotel stay for 2 nights at Hotel Valadon. It's a small boutique hotel with 12 rooms that I found on http://www.tripadvisor.com/ and it looks just like our style! You can view their webiste here:

http://www.hotelvaladon.com/index.htm

After 2 nights here, we will travel to London via the Channel Tunnel. We will stay in the Hilton London Tower Bridge - http://beta.hilton.co.uk/towerbridge - for two nights and do some sightseeing here. We will then fly to Rome for a six night stay in an apartment.

We are going to stay near the Vatican area. This is definitely out of the center of the city, but our place is very close to the metro station, so it should be easy to commute to all of the big attractions. Here is a link to our apartment:

http://operapartment.vflyer.com/home/flyer/photogallery/1431870

It took a lot of research to find this apartment. But my long hours on the internet have paid off and we have put the deposit down and reserved our spot! We will leave Rome April 2nd and fly to New York City before returning to Dallas.

Intro

We've always wanted to travel to Europe together before we have any children. Well, our wishes are becoming a reality. We have booked a trip for March 22 to April 2, 2009! There are so many options and destinations to choose from, and deciding where we will go has been the toughest dcision yet.

We are flying from DFW to Paris non-stop and will stay there for two nights. After this, we will stay in London for two more nights before flying to Rome for six nights. Hopefully, our remaining decisions will come easy...we'll see. I hope you enjoy reading about our plans and eventually, our trip. Feel free to leave comments...your suggestions and any advise are appreciated!