Travel Accessories, Part 3: Camera "Bag"

2010 EuroTrip
4/28/10-5/17/10


B. Makowsky "Manchester" Purse in Midnight Blue = $113.90 + Tax (On Clearance)
(Personal Photo)

When we got our camera (Travel Accessories, Part 2) we didn't buy a bag or accessories with it. Instead of going the traditional route, we decided to buy a roomy (but not too large) purse. Here are the reasons why:

-1- No obvious camera brand logo. We didn't want something with the words, "Canon," "Nikon," or "Expensive Camera That Needs a Bag of This Size." Also, the purse brand isn't clearly visible or obvious with any logo.
-2- We wanted to spend money on something that we (read: I) would be likely to use again after we return. So, note that it is my own fault for being a very picky handbag person and preferring designer brands.
-3- While in cities, we are going to use this bag for short trips. Going out to dinner is a good example. A bag like this will allow us to take our camera with us, but scream more "Local" than "Tourist." And a big goal here overall is avoiding looking like a tourist (read: Easy target for theft).
-4- A small bag is much easier and less suspicious to bring inside museums, restaurants, and shops (where you don't intend to purchase a lot).

Quick Note: This bag is NOT to replace use of a money/security belt. Having your camera ripped off is not as bad a deal as having your camera, passport, currency, and ATM card all ripped off at once.

Here are the reasons that we chose this particular bag:

-1- The straps are long enough to allow the bag to be swung over my shoulder comfortably, but short enough to allow the majority of the zipper and bag to be protected by my arm. I also plan on unfortunately hiding the "cute" side of the purse in order to keep the zipper of my bag in front of me where I can see it, rather than behind me where somebody could much easier weasel their way in without my knowledge.
-2- Call me picky, but I liked how the color will always match what I wear. I plan on wearing denim every day, and this color automatically compliments denim. Big plus to help not look like a tourist.
-3- Its large enough to comfortably fit the camera, memory cards, and batteries, but not too large to be unreasonable to pack. It also has a small amount of additional room, in case we come across a small souvenier on our shortest of trips.
-4- It was a little on the pricey side. But that is because I sacrified some dollars to get something I would like and use when I got home. In general, the bags we saw (that read Canon or Nikon, or were just the appropriate size) were $50-$60. Still half the price, but not exactly cheap either.

So I suppose the point here is that if you don't want to look like a tourist with a Canon bag slung around your neck all day, and better yet if you are taking the lovely woman in your life, we think this (or something similar, in your own price range and style) would be a good idea.

My only recommendation at this point is if you opt for a much cheaper bag or purse, to be sure that the material is high quality, or at least thick. Better padding, and better protection from potential slice and dicers.

And hey, I get a new pretty bag! ;)

Travel Accessories, Part 2: Camera!

2010 EuroTrip
4/28/10-5/17/10



This is a personal photo of mine, of the London Eye taken last year.



This is also a personal photo of mine, of the Space Needle taken last week.

Both pictures were taken on a moderately cloudy day, around noontime, with no flash, but with completely different cameras.

M made a good point upon purchasing a new camera, that you go on vacations like these "just to take pictures."


(Canon PowerShot SX20 IS)
Canon PowerShot SX30 IS = ~$410.00 (including tax)

12.1 mp, 20x zoom (can reach 80x but not always clearly), stability, the ability to turn around the LCD screen to make taking pictures of yourself easier and better focused....it is our dream camera for this vacation. Cons: slightly heavy and not inconspicuous in the least.
The quality of pictures that this takes is better than any camera I have ever seen. We literally have a, "WOW OH MY GOD NO WAY" everytime we see the pictures we have taken with this thing. As described to us by the salesman, "It is as close you can get to a professional camera, without paying all that money for a professional camera." From what I have seen, there is no option for changing lens, and most of the options appear to be simply basic options (portrait mode, sports mode, video recording [although this one records in HD], panoramic ability, etc.)

We cannot wait to see what kinds of pictures this camera takes on our trip. I must say there is no arguing that shelling out for a decent camera is well worth it. I considered it an investment, as we will not need to purchase a new camera now for a very long time (unless, knock on wood, something happens to this one!!)

Here is another, if not better, example of the difference between old and new:




A personal photo I took OF my new camera, WITH my old camera. I leave my giraffe Giselle and llama Lloyd in the picture with no shame.



A personal photo I took OF my OLD camera, WITH my NEW camera. Same lighting, no flash added, taken within the minutes it took to change the memory card from one to the other.

No need to say more.

Total spent on Camera : ~$410.00 (with tax). Paid for by us, with addition of a $50 giftcard from my folks :D!
Purchased at: Best Buy

Travel Accessories, Part 1: Luggage and Daypacks

2010 EuroTrip
4/28/10-5/17/10

Looking back, one of the biggest things we would have changed about our trip to England last year was that we brought 2 huge suitcases. We packed each case full of things we "thought we might need" and "just in case." Granted - we were staying with a family, and not doing much traveling outside the city of London. And when we did go up to Liverpool, all we brought was a daypack, or should I say, student-sized backpack.

This time around, we knew that suitcases large enough to probably fit us if we tried weren't going to work. Since we have such a train heavy trip, we took into consideration the fact that we might have to quickly hop off one train and catch our next one in a matter of minutes. So, we are taking 2 small roughly 21" tall cases, with rollers. These suitcases are ones that we had before (or are borrowing, hopefully) so these are at no additional cost to our trip.

The idea is that these bags will be what hold everything we are bringing from home: clothes, toiletries, etc. Because of this, we realize we will be using the lovely Laundry Services that each of our hotels promised that they had. We know there will be fees with this, which we will talk about when that happens on our trip. With bags as small as these, we can pack about a week's worth of clothes. We will be gone for about 3 weeks.

Now, what is inconvenient about this is that the luggage on their own would not have enough room for any souveniers we may want to bring home. They also aren't reasonable to take with you on a day trip out to the country, or on a walk through the city. They basically barely hold enough to keep you fresh and clean for the week. This is where daypacks come in.

We are bringing 2 bags, one smaller (for carrying with us into the city, and our guidebook) and one larger pack (for longer day trips out of the city, for larger or more fragile souvenirs, and a laptop).


(

RickSteves.com (links to Appenzell Day Bag))
Appenzell Day Pack : 39.95 +tax +shipping

Yes - we love Rick Steves. To be honest, we did buy this bag to be supportive of our European Traveler Hero, but it also promised to be a smartly designed, waterproof bag, and from what we saw decently priced.


(RickSteves.com (links to Convertible Carry On Bag))
Convertible Carry On: : $99.95 +tax +shipping

Another Rick Steves! Both bags come in a variety of colors, but we chose a basic and unassuming black for each bag. Having seen this bag in person now, I must say it amazed me. At first glance, it appears to be as small as the Appenzell, but once you start stretching and pulling and unzipping, it becomes very nearly as large as our luggage bags! Plus, as I like to say, "there are pockets for pockets for pockets!" A nice perk to the Carry On, is if you are having a short trip (Steves takes it for 6 day trips) it will fit everything you need. It features a regular briefcase-style handle, with optional hide-able backpack straps.

We were intending on purchasing two Convertible Carry Ons, but we decided that with our budget the Appenzell would be a perfectly fine accompainment, especially for inner-city day travel, when dropping off souvenirs is merely a minutes walk or ride.

However, time will tell if we really needed "all that bag" with the Carry On, or if we needed more space with the Appenzell.

Our plan: use the Appenzell as a carryon for the flight. Check our 2 pieces of luggage. Leave the Convertible Carry On (at least mostly) *empty* packed in one of our luggage cases. We will be using the Convertible to help carry back on the plane small souvenirs from the trip.
Note: most of our "souvenirs" are going to be Hard Rock Cafe shirts, x2. Light and easy to carry, but takes up a lot of space!

We hope this works, and we hope it's enough!

Total amount spent on Luggage & Day Packs : $168.52 (includes tax and shipping cost)

2010 Trip Overview incl. Travel

2010 EuroTrip
4/28/10-5/17-10

The reason we even started looking into doing this trip is due to the Eurail pass.
The Eurail pass entitles you to travel by unlimited rail to a pre-set amount of countries and/or in a pre-set amount of time. We were going to do a 21-day pass and try to squeeze in as many countries as humanly possible. Turns out, as many countries as humanly possible in 21 days isn't a whole lot of countries if you actually want to see anything. Still, we narrowed it down to the six country/seven city trip we are planning today.

What then became the biggest deterrent to me was the fact that with a Eurail pass (or any other Euro-train type pass) you are not guaranteed seating on international trains. In fact, many international trains AND overnight trains require that you have a reserved spot. So then you are paying an arm and a leg for a pass, to then have to go and purchase reserved seats.

Eurail passes would then still be alright, if say, you were staying at hostels or with someone, or if you had a whole month or two or three to see everything. First, we decided against hostels. You can't lock doors, and you can't protect your valuables. We are not backpacking - we are bringing (small) luggage. Therefore, we had to purchase regular hotels (see previous post) which means then that we *have* to be in each city on a certain day at a certain time. I don't know about you, but we are not comfortable enough with Europe or its train system yet to be risktakers, and we wanted to have reserved spots. Also, in our 21 day trip, we realized we would not be needing very many trains at all. Purchasing our point-to-point tickets has been very easy and efficient.
Perhaps in the end a pass would have been cheaper. I do not know. But what I do have is peace of mind of knowing when exactly I'm going to be where I need to be.

Now, just to back track a little bit, let me tell you about our plane.
We decided to go with Iceland Air. The reason is simple enough. They are the cheapest way in and out of mainland Europe that we could find. Granted, there is a layover. In Reykjavik. Even with the layover, this is the quickest non-direct flight we found, for a reasonable price.

Plane Tickets To and From Amsterdam Schiphol, 4/27/10 and 5/17/10, with a layover in Reykjavik each way = ~$1050 including tax (each)

Back to inter-Europe travel...

Our first international trip is on 5/2 and is between Amsterdam and Berlin. After doing extensive research, it turns out that a train ride between the two major cities could take up to 8 hours. And booking for those fill up fast, and are prone to be expensive. This is one of those times then that we opted to follow our time budget rather than our financial one (tho it remains to be seen if we actually spent more). We chose to fly from Amsterdam to Berlin. A plus, a layover in Copenhagen!. We are stopping in Copenhagen because we are using Scandinavian Airlines, the cheapest and quickest non direct flight we could find. (Direct flights are ridiculously expensive.) The flight, with layover and airport check in and security time, will probably take a total of 5 hours.

Quick note: There are many major airlines that do inter-Europe flights besides SAS. A key thing to remember, however, is most will stop in their home port as a layover. You can use British Airlines to fly from Prague to Munich, but do you really want to fly all the way to London in between? Picking a major airline with a hub 'on the way' can help to save time, and money.
Also, you will hear a lot about budget airlines within Europe. We found one that would take us from Amsterdam to Berlin, Transavia, but it would not accept my American card, or any card that I reluctantly then tried. Other lines (Ryanair is a popular one) have very limited places that they fly to. If you find one, go for it, but we could not for this trip.
If you want more info on Budget Airlines and more reasons why or why not to use them, read my favorite European Expert Rick Steve's take on the matter

Plane Tickets To Berlin Tegel from Amsterdam Schiphol, 5/2/10, with a layover in Copenhagen= ~$212 including tax (each)

Here is the information for the rail that we have used for the rest of our trip:

Berlin to Prague: 5/05. ~$125 (each)
Munich to Bern: 5/9. ~$200.00 (each)
Bern to Paris: 5/11. ~$83.00 (each)
Paris to Brussels: 5/15. ~$37.00 (each)
Brussels to Amsterdam: 5/16. ~$48.00 (each)

Quick Note: No. We do not have Prague to Munich yet. Some trains in Europe you can buy 90 days in advance, some 60, and some 30. So, as of right now they are not purchasable. We can view schedules, but cannot get fares. We are hoping they come up in a couple of days at the 60 day mark.

We used RailEurope.com for our rail needs. They are very American/Foreigner user friendly.

When you travel with RailEurope, you get your tickets in about 2 days, with free shipping if you spend over $250.00.

When you get your tickets, they will look like this:



And this is what a reservation will look like:





Overall Total spent on Travel (so far): ~$1755 (each)

2010 Trip Overview incl.Hotels

2010 EuroTrip
4/28/10-5/17/10

The first leg of our flight lands in Iceland on 4/28 at roughly 7am. We only have an hour of layover before we take off again for our first stop: Amsterdam.

We will be in Amsterdam until 5/2. We are hoping to include a day trip to Rotterdam and the Keukenhof Tulip Gardens during our stay. We also will be staying during the national party time of 4/29 (queens night) and 4/30 (queens day).

Our hotel for this stay is the
Eden Hotel Amsterdam

Cost for a double room for 4/28-5/2 = $904.22.
We picked Eden Hotel Amsterdam for its picturesque location off of a Canal, the convenient street name it is on (Amstel), and its closeness to the city centre. For the price, there was no better option to be in the middle of the Amsterdam Action.

On 5/2 we will be heading off to the great German city of Berlin. We will be in Berlin until 5/5/10.

Our hotel for this stay is the
Melia Berlin

Cost for a double room for 5/2-5/5 = $375.75.
Again, we chose Melia for its location. It is merely a short walk from Berlin's largest and most important train station, (Berlin HBF), and it is a relatively short distance to all of the main sites in Berlin. Most (but not all) of the sites we wanted to see in Berlin are on the West, so we chose a westward leaning hotel. I believe we paid a little more for this hotel, but again: location location location. Most people realize their financial budgets, but you also have to realize you are on a time budget with trips like these as well.

Next, we will be heading off to the beautiful treasure of Czech's Prague. We will be in this easternmost city of our trip from 5/5-5/7.

Our hotel for this stay is the wonderfully named
Hotel Rott

Cost for a double room for 5/5-5/7 = $241.00.
Hotel Rott is conveniently located around the corner from Prague's famous Astronomical Clock. It also a few blocks down from Charles Bridge, which leads up the Prague Castle (the church-like structure featered in the hotel picture above). Also, it now sits upon the new location of the Hard Rock Cafe-Prague. We are a tad farther out from the train station here, but again as you will see with all of these, we chose the hotel in the center of the action. The less amount of time you spend walking to a sight, the more time you have to see it! Besides, taxis and trams and busses are so efficient in all of Europe, that a trip to the train station while father out is not inconvenient at all.

The next major city after Prague is the Bavarian city of Munich. We are hoping for a trip to see the fairytale-esque Neuschwanstein Castle, a couple hours away in the deep Alp-ridden south of Germany. We are also hoping to spend a lot of time at the traditional beer gardens! We will be here from 5/7-5/9.

Our hotel for this stay is the:
Le Meridien Munich

Cost of a double room for 5/7-5/9 = 294.72.
This time, the convenience of Le Meridien Munich is its proximity to the train station. This is nice due to the fact that the largest portion of our stay will (hopefully) be spent catching a train to and from Neuschwanstein. Luckily as well, it is also central to main sites and downtown areas of Munich.

Next we are sticking with the Alps theme and hopping a ride into Bern, Switzerland from 5/9-5/11. Bern is the capital city of Switzerland. It also has chocolate, bears!, and a convenient closeness to the Matterhorn-hugging Alpine village of Zermatt.

Our hotel for this stay is the appropriately named:
Hotel Bern

Cost of a double room from 5/9-5/11 = $446.17
As you can see by comparing the price of this short stay to our other short stays, Switzerland is not a cheap vacation. In fact, Switzerland is considered to be the founding country of modern-day tourism, appealing to the rich British as a relaxing and adventurous place to stay. To this day Switzerland is a very popular tourist destination for people from around the world. It is also important to note that Switzerland is *not* on the Euro. Anyway, with Switzerland you have to be willing to cast aside your hope of finding a cheap but still decent place to sleep. So here, we "splurged" for location, yet again. Hotel Bern is right in the heart of the city.

After Bern we head off the classically romantic Paris. Here we have opted for a slightly longer stay, from 5/11-5/16. We are hoping to spend one of these extra days on a trip to Bayuex, the closest city to Normandy Beach.

Our hotel for this stay is the:
Novotel Paris Les Halles

Cost for a double room for 5/11-5/15 = $980.70
The biggest problem with Paris is the cost of hotels. You can get yourself in a real trap here, paying out big bucks to stay in the equivalent of somebody's attic if you are not careful. Yes- it would be a place to lay your head, but a big thing with being on vacation is being comfortable and feeling safe, right? Another huge complaint you will hear about Paris (tho it seems to apply to Europe in general) is the general smallness of the rooms. This is where Novotel Paris Les Halles comes in. We saved money by choosing a hotel *away* from the Eiffel Tower. Instead, our hotel is closer to the Latin Quarter, the Louvre, and is a stones-throw away from Notre Dame Cathedral. The hotel is a newer structure, with a newly renovated entryway, so the rooms are more spacious than you will find in older hotels. Here, what you sacrifice in charm you will gain in comfort.

After good ol' "Pair-ee" we are hopping a train up to the EU Capital of Brussels. This is the shortest stay of our trip, 5/15-5/16, but we will have time to do the 2 things I know I want to do here: Drink Beer and Eat Chocolate!

Our hotel for this stay is another:
Le Meridien Brussels

Cost of a double room for 5/15-5/16 = $156.58
Le Meridien makes beautiful hotels. Brussels is also a very cheap place to find luxury accomdations. We are only staying one night. Needless to say, we decided to go with luxury, and again prime location. It is nearby the Grand Plais, the main square in Brussels.

Last, we will be ending our trip full circle with another night in Amsterdam, again at the Eden Hotel Amsterdam.
Cost for double room for 5/16-5/17= $133.87
We choose the same hotel, because it really is a great hotel in a great location for a great price. It will also be something familiar that we can find quickly and easily to save time to see the city and mainland Europe for one last day.

Finally, on 5/17 we will be leaving Europe and again flying home via Iceland. This time we will have a 3 hour layover, so hopefully we will be able to see the city.


Overall total cost for hotel rooms, includes tax = $3533.01
We used Hotels.com for all of our accomodation booking needs.