New Luggage

I begin this post with a true story. I first travelled to Europe as part of the Camrose Lutheran College Choir Tour in the summer of 1980. I took everything I needed in one large brown fake leather type of suitcase. This piece of luggage got heavier and heavier as we went along because along with my clothes and personal items I was constantly adding souvenirs and gifts to bring back to Canada. These included a (fake) wood carving of the Last Supper, 15 LP records (this was before CDs) and, unbelievably over 10 pounds (5 Kilograms) of Norwegian goat cheese (Gjetost - somehow they let me bring that into Canada when I came back)! Near the end of my time in Europe I found myself lugging this heavy suitcase over a kilometre or two from the train station to a hostel in Copenhagen. This was so awkward and difficult that I decided to spend the rest of my money the next morning on a cab fare back to the train station. The cabbie grabbed the suitcase to heave it into the trunk of his taxi, and when he lifted it off the ground the handle broke! So now I had to struggle with this over-stuffed, heavy, handleless suitcase the rest of the way home. It was not fun.

So not wanting to repeat such a circumstance this trip to Europe Beth and I went out and purchased some new luggage yesterday. We went to a local luggage store (where one of the members of our church works) and after a little investigation came home with two new suitcases. But these aren’t your regular suitcases - they can be transported by three different means. First they have wheels and an extendable handle on them (like most luggage these days). They also have handles on the side so they can be carried like a standard suitcase. But the coolest feature is that they can be also used as backpacks, with straps and padding built right in! So we should be able to move our luggage around regardless of whatever circumstances we might encounter. Now we simply have to figure out how to pack enough clothes and other items in these two suitcases to get us through all 6 weeks in Europe. It’s a good thing we still have a lot of time to figure that out.

P.S. I’m not even considering bringing Gjetost back with me this time.