more questions for seasoned travellers

[ritaxis]

What kinds of clothes do you take to Europe in late August? Or more to the point, what do you take for an extended trip? I'm doing experiments with my clothes to see if they drip dry because Zac says that laundromats tend to be inconvenient. But clothes don't say "drip dry" on them anymore, they have all this bs, fussy directions for taking care of them I guess so theycan't be caught on a false promise.

It says here it rains 60-70 mm in August for both Amsterdam and Berlin. What does that mean? One or two big downpours, or a little drizzle everyday, or what?

Emma's going to have whopping big bottles of pain relievers and muscle relaxants. What kind of documentation does she need for the snoopers at the airports? Does she need a letter from the surgeon? Or just the prescription things? I'm going to have whopping numbers of non-scheduled prescription drugs, and I don't want to take all the bottles with me -- I just want to take the little boxes with the days marked out. If I have the prescription receipt things I get at the drugstore, will that be enough documentation?

And why is modern luggage so ridiculously heavy? I understand about the wheels, but what about stairs? I need to be able to lift the thing easily.

We have a couple of duffels, and that's what I mainly want to use. They're easy to carry and easy to stow. We might even be able to get all our stuff into carry-ons.

Comments

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to second ellarien's suggestion for clothing.

Really just think layers. For city sight-seeing you need light weight tops or blouses (T-shirts and shirts for the blokes) and either thin sweaters or cardigans to layer over them in case the weather turns chilly, which it might in the evenings in a few week's time. Smart jeans or light weight trousers will be fine most of the time and can be dressed up with a nice top if you want to eat out in a restaurant in the evening. In addition you need a waterproof but lightweight jacket something like this. (Which reminds me that I must buy another one to replace the one I managed to lose at O'Hare airport.)

For beach or country walks, whatever you wear at home for that purpose will be suitable (shorts or jeans), but as ellarien said, in town you need to be somewhat smarter, but casual. By the way, if you're staying at some kind of holiday village in Denmark, I would think there would be a laundromat.

At present it's very very hot on this side of the Pond. How long it will last is anybody's guess! It was cool and occasionally grey and drizzly two years ago in Copenhagen, but hot (with one very spectacular thunderstrom) last year in Amsterdam.