The Halftime Report

Last fall we used a “tourist map” to navigate around Western Australia. It was one of those glossy colorful brochures that only showed a few main roads and was decorated with drawings of the big attractions and local animals. Needless to say when we took a wrong turn, the cartoon picture of kangaroos driving a convertible didn’t help much to get us back on track. By February, we had a thick detailed road atlas that covered every part of New Zealand, even those with very few roads. Finally, we spent the summer in our Peugeot with a built-in GPS and it spoiled us. Every tiny path through fields and villages was in the database, and it never got upset when we took a detour and it had to recalculate. So, it was a big decision in Ireland whether to go back to old fashioned maps or get a GPS. The rental prices are outrageous, and in the end it turned out to be cheaper to buy one since we’ll be able to use it in England, Portugal, and Spain too. We’ve only had it a few days, but I’m already happy with the decision.

We used the GPS to find our way from Kilkenny to Killarney and great weather followed us. The folks at the B&B called it a “glorious” day, and we thought it was perfect for hiking the Gap of Dunloe. You can decide based on this view:

After Norway, we are heading back to the US for a few weeks to visit some friends and family on the East Coast, as well as re-charge a little before the next phase of our trip.  Our flight took us through London, so we decided to stay a few days.  Since we’ve already seen a lot of the big tourist sights here, we went looking for something a little different.

We read about a place called Stanford’s, the worlds largest map and travel bookstore, and made a beeline for it.  Kid-in-a-candy-store doesn’t begin to describe me.  I’ve never seen so many maps, guidebooks, and travel literature in one place, arranged by continent and then country.  The entire bottom floor is dedicated to just maps and historical books about England.  It’s wonderful and we left with a bag full of Mark Twain and Paul Theroux that will probably put our luggage over the weight limit for the flight home.   Can’t wait to start reading! 

On a lot of the travel forums and message boards there are debates about whether to take a laptop or not on this type of extended trip. I know there are internet cafes just about everywhere, but I still feel like there are times when you just want to hang out in your hotel room and surf. The other key concerns people express about traveling with a laptop is the extra weight and potential for loss/theft/damage.

We found a cute little PC that addresses most of those worries. Our new Acer Aspire One is just 2.2 lbs and cost about $399 (so if anything happens to it, we’re not out huge $s). The keyboard is about 90% size, so while it’s not quite as comfortable as a “normal” PC, it’s much better than most of the mini PCs out there. It runs Windows, which means we can take along Skype, iTunes, and our camera software. We bought it now to start getting it up set up before we hit the road.

Aside from online bill paying and blogging, there’s the most critical reason we’re taking it… We can update our fantasy football lineups from anywhere in the world!  League members, be warned.

Along with this post, we’re also adding something new to the blog. There is now a “Gear List” along with the other permanent pages at the top right (below the Itinerary and FAQs). It’s not final, but we’ll be adding to it as we make final decisions about what goes and what stays.