Thanks, Suze, I'll remember that. I'll try to only refer to the "home" column when I have to call hubby, so I'm not calling him in the middle of the night.

Wow. I thought *I* was a planner. Maire, you and your laminating and hole-punching put me to shame....

I have a dressy Swiss Army watch that has the usual 12 hours on the dial, and tiny military-time numbers closer to the center. I was not cheap (a gift), but I imagine Timex makes something similar.

You poor people, can't read a watch ;-) Now this IS someting funny :-)

Lesli…I’m getting these great tips from the fodorites and guidebooks, so I’m trying to get things as organized as possible. Unfortunately, I’ve only managed to do these relatively insignificant things so far. If I don’t figure out an itinerary, plane reservations, etc. pretty soon, all this other stuff won’t matter.

I asked Mme. Robespierre if she thought having a dual-timezone travel clock was a good idea.

"Not on my watch," she replied dryly.

I have a 3 time zone watch(for where I live/where I commute to work from/ and for where I am in Europe). Its fabulous and quite the conversation piece-just wish that it lit up at night like my Timex indiglo!

I bought a Casio digital Illuminator at K-Mart for about $20 prior to my last trip to Europe. The 24 hour feature saves the trouble of doing arithmetic when looking at train schedules.

Hopscotch, that's just what I'm looking for...anything to avoid arithmetic always gets my vote. (-:

It would be great if somebody here could explain, why they're having difficulties adding or substracting "12" to/from any given number. No, I don't get it... Now don't complain how expensive everything is in Europe ;-)

Back when I first was getting used to the 24-hour clock, I'd occasionally subtract 10, not 12, without even thinking. So I'd see 14:30 and see 4:30. Probably because I was also mentally converting currency amounts and thinking of, for example, 120% as 20% over 100, thus getting into a base-10 mode.

I'm sure that I'm the only idiot who did this, right? Gosh, I wish I never made mistakes, either.

logos999,

You KNOW that everything is expensive in Europe. Except Birkenstock sandals in Germany, wine in Spain and Portugal, watches and knives in Switzerland, beer in Holland, vodka in Poland, and the rest of the list.

I have lived with the 24 hour clock for many years but I still get confused at times. I have many things in my mind, I get tired, I get sloppy, I make mistakes, I am a human. On my last trip I made an appointment at a station and screwed up the time thanks to the 24 hour thing. It messed up the evening for my daughter. That was despite having the 24 hour wristwatch staring me in the face.

What still amuses/amazes me after decades of traveling trains in Europe is that the station clocks are still predominately circular 12 hour jobs while every schedule and departure is on the 24 hour clock. One of these days they will all get automatic digital atomic clocks and make life a tad smoother for us train travelers.

logos999...

I’m sure there are many reasons why someone would want this type of watch.

Speaking only for myself (as I mentioned before), I have a form of dyslexia that sometimes causes problems with telling time. I don’t have trouble with words, but I do with numbers.

And, to paraphrase KC, some of us do make mistakes.

Marie-
I do understand. (My mind work a bit different than others too.)
The easiest way for me to "tell time" with the 24 hour clock is to subtract 2 from any time above 12:59 and ignore the "1"
For example 14:28= "drop/ignore" 1 and take away 2 from the "4"= 2:28.

Now 20:05/22/23/23:05 is subtract 2 from 10 (again the constant is dropping the "1" or ten place value.

Now, others may think that this is simply idiotic, but as I said before, my mind processes that way. ANd isn't it easier to ignore and number and subtract 2>

Will a military watch really help? If I had to catch a train at 14:45, I'd want to think 2:45pm. And see that time on my watch (yes, i know that 14:45 and 2:45pm are the same, but we're talking about processing issues here)

"If I had to catch a train at 14:45 ..."

Speaking of trains, some of us may remember the old railway watches. My father and uncle had them, gold pocket watches that had to keep time within certain standards. I have a modern wrist watch that is certified for railroad operating crews. It shows the numbers 1 to 12 as numerals, and then in slightly smaller numerals, the numbers 13 to 24. The hour and minute hands are black, and the second hand is red. Yes, it's as ugly as it sounds, but it is highly legible. Accurate, too, which would be important for any country that wants to keep its trains running on time (or a passenger who wants to ride one).

Anselm