All Ears® Guest Blog

Guest Blogger Beci Mahnken, owner of MouseFanTravel.com begins her blog....
Beci's husband Chris, has the earlier blog entry.

Day 1 - May 23

Europe in 4 bags or less

We are about to embark on 16 nights of city hopping starting in Seattle and visiting many places including London , Barcelona , Rome and Monaco . This adventure actually began 24 hours ago when the realization hit that I should actually start packing for this trip. In a mad frenzy of laundry and checking weather.com against the weather channel – who coincidentally don’t seem to agree on if it will be 70 or 79 in Rome … I found myself confronted with the sad truth that I was about to break my own cardinal rule. “Never travel with more the one checked bag.”

It’s amazing how you begin to negotiate with yourself, when faced with such a dilemma of packing for 16 days and for almost any occasion. “This will be good for the shore excursions, this will be good for the sail away party and I can wash this in the sink if needed… and this will be ok for formal night since I don’t actually know anyone, let alone actually own a beaded gown myself. Then come the doubts… but what do I do if it rains? Better take this shirt … but what happens if the polar ice caps melt… better take this life preserver… oh right… plenty of those on board. Finally just when you think you have managed to get both what you need and want you want in one tidy suitcase, you realize its definitely over 50 pounds. Dang! Break out the 2nd bag. I felt better when Chris told me he also decided to break out bag 2.

We are on the way to Sea Tac airport in a few hours. It’s a mid morning flight that will take us from Seattle , connecting in Chicago to London where we change planes yet again on the way to Barcelona . The best thing about this part of the trip is we have saved, and saved, and saved air miles to fly in first class. I am one of those people who cannot manage to sleep on a plane in a sitting position so am hoping the flat beds offer at least a few hours sleep to help avoid jet lag.

Beci