We’re half way through our two month trek through Europe and I thought I would provide an update on how our travel gear and technology is holding up.

We wanted to pack light on this trip and so we each brought just one bag that we could carry on the plane. I have the awesome Tom Bihn Aeronaut, Lisa went with a traditional black rolling bag, and the kids are each using the High Sierra rolling backpack.

This plan worked pretty well getting to Spain, but we managed to accumulate quite a few things on the way (skateboard, soccer ball, ukulele, new clothes, gifts, etc.), requiring us to check a bag from Madrid to Rome. We’ll be getting back to traveling shape today after we ship a huge box full of clothes we weren’t wearing and gifts back to the U.S. from a nearby Mailboxes Etc.

The Aeronaut bag is a winner. Lisa somehow managed to crack a rib early on our trip (no, she was not gored by a bull in Pamplona), so she couldn’t pull or carry her bag. I was able to strap the Aeronaut to my back with its very comfortable pack straps and carry her bag without much trouble. And with the benefit of packing cubes, I’ve been able to stuff an ungodly amount of clothing and gear inside this small bag. It reminds me of the Tardis: much bigger on the inside that its outward appearance would suggest. If you’re in the market for an amazing piece of luggage from a great local manufacturer, check out the Aeronaut.

The High Sierra bags are working great too. While not as durable as the Aeronaut, the way the small backpacks zip on to the suitcase make longer walks with all our luggage much easier. The only downside we’ve encountered so far is that the backpack straps on the suitcase are really uncomfortable, so the kids are choosing to heft the cases by hand when we have to take stairs. Our Rome Apartment is an eight story walk up, so we had a workout getting our bags up here, but managed it OK.

As far as technology gear, I have had poor experience with the Kingston Digital Mobilite. I planned to use this for streaming movies and transferring pictures from my DSLR to the iPad for editing and publishing. Unfortunately, the device is just too slow to effectively use for photo viewing. It will load thumbnails, but takes upwards of a minute to load a single photo, making it very painful to review photos at the end of the day. I do use it to transfer photos from my camera card to a backup SD card and it does stream movies well, but I ended up buying an Apple SD card reader for my iPad at one of my visits to local Apple Stores (I’ve visited them all so far!), and that works like Apple products should – flawlessly.

As for blogging, I dumped Blogpad Pro for the simpler (and free) WordPress app on the iPad. Blogpad Pro is very powerful and full of customizations, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why the pictures we posted became distorted after uploading. Frustrating for such a basic thing. The WordPress app worked out of the box, plus the price is right.

My trusty Nikon D80 is awesome. It’s hefty, but the 50mm lens I’m using is light and takes amazing, bright photos, even in low light. I also brought my zoom lens but haven’t used it yet. Everything here is larger than life. No zooming required. I’m really glad I brought this camera to capture this trip of a lifetime.

by