Traveling with technology

Traveling is so different now than, for example, when I was in Europe in the 70s.

Cash machines: it is so easy to get cash, the bancomats are all over. Hint: get a Capital One card, there is no international transaction fee, it is 3% for many cards.

iPods: I have two, one for backup. Wynette has three, tiny, small, and big so that she has her whole music library. I am listening to “Big ideas” lectures. We have natural sounds for sleeping on the plane.

iPad: with a bluetooth keyboard, just about as good as a laptop and very small and light. Wynette is playing Scrabble with Logan and Mr. CPU (who has an amazing vocabulary). It has the Kindle app so we have all our books. We have an ssh app so Wynette can edit her web sites. We load in the pictures from the camera using the photo adapter. We use the WordPress app to blog and add photos to the blog.

Kindle: I am very happy with my Kindle. I got one of the third-gen ones. I have several books for reading. We also have four guidebooks: Frommer, Lonely Planet, Rough Guide, and Rick Steves. It is handy to have them all available. The downside is that you can’t look at two at the same time but have to go back and forth. Also it is hard to page through them or switch between two places. Also only one of us can look at them although the other one can use the iPad. The maps are a bit too small to see on the kindle at our age. We use the iPad to expand maps that we can’t see on the kindle. Overall though the kindle is a big winner for books and guide books.

Cell phones: we got Italian SIM chips for our t-mobile phones, 15 euro each. It is very handy to be able to call back and forth when we are meeting. Also handy to call hotels about reservations.