And What Have We Learned?

This trip, as with our previous travels, supplied us with memories of beautiful scenery and great food. It also taught us valuable lessons for future trips. Here are a few:

• Traveling light means constantly searching for laundromats or paying hotels to do laundry for you. Cut yourself some slack and pack extra socks and undies. They don’t take up much room, and are probably what you’ll need to wash the most.
• Paying $85 for your “Known Traveler Number” (KTN) from the Department of Homeland Security will only help you on flights originating in the US. In other countries you’ll still have to take off your shoes and pull out your laptops. We could only use the KTN for one flight on our itinerary. Unless you do a lot of domestic travel, it’s not worth the money. At least the KTN is good for five years.
• Avoid changing planes at the Vancouver Airport. The distances between arrival gates and customs are long, and can be overwhelming to the mobility-challenged. If you have a short turnaround time, you could miss your connecting flight.
• It helps to have a plan B when things go awry. Our rental flat in Lyon had a non-functional refrigerator. Fortunately, we were able to transfer to the hotel where we stayed last year without losing any money.
• Regardless of the country, having to go to an emergency room while on vacation sucks.
• If you find a free parking space for your rental car in a European city, grab it and don’t move the car unless absolutely necessary.
• Despite the cute shoes we saw in Lyon, the average French man has the same sense of style as an American software engineer, with two exceptions: They wear more stylish eyewear, and their hair is a bit more groomed. The current style among hipsters is close-cropped on the sides and back, and longer on the top. Consider this a reverse mullet, or early Justin Bieber. If said hipster is going bald, he shaves his head; however, he has a beard to compensate. The beard may be a few days’ worth of scruff, or a bushy specimen worthy of Santa Claus.

Once the jet lag wears off (eventually), I’ll have more to report.