Packed to Go

Tomorrow evening, I leave on my 16-day trip to Germany and Switzerland.  Since Sunday I have been staying at Alejandro's family's house since it is closer to the airport.

As I wrote earlier, the reason for my trip is to visit my Swiss cousins and to attend the 70th birthday party of my cousin Werner.  Since Lufthansa airlines has direct flights from Mexico City to Frankfurt, I decided that I would fly to Germany, do a few days of sightseeing there, and then take the train to Switzerland.  I will use Frankfurt as a base from which to do day trips to Heidelburg, Cologne, and Wurzburg.  I have already purchased and printed out the train tickets for two of those excursions.  I will have to buy the tickets to Heidelburg when I get to Germany.  I also have my tickets to travel by rail to Zurich and to return to Frankfurt for my flight home.

I used to be able to travel to Europe for two or three weeks with nothing more than carry-on luggage.  Each night at the hotel I would wash out my clothes in the bathroom sink and hang them to dry.  However, with a bunch of gifts to take to my Swiss cousins, that will not be feasible.  I will have one suitcase to check, and my backpack to carry on to the plane.

My suitcase has been packed and ready to go since last week.  Back at the apartment, I weighed myself on the bathroom scale and then again holding the suitcase.  It weighs less than the 50 pounds allowed by the airline.  One side of the suitcase is filled with presents, the other side with clothes and personal items.  There wasn't enough room to pack clothes for each of the 16 days, so I will still have to do bit of washing in the hotel sink or at my cousin Brigitta's house.

My backpack is almost ready.  I will pack my laptop and medicines in that tomorrow.  Today, I will print off my boarding pass and the confirmations of my hotel reservations.  This retired teacher will then be ready for my European adventure!