JanB
What I want to know is how did you get upgraded to first? I have been upgraded to business on two transatlantic flights just by being dressed well, very polite and a tiny bit flirtatious.

I have a luggage story. On our recent trip to England the return portion, my family and I were on the Stansted train coming back from Italy. We had two cases, two carry-ons and two kids. There was an unusually attractive man on the train. I noticed that he was watching me as I talked to my husband (his back was to the mystery man) and my kids. When I would look at him he would look away and vice versa. It was like high school all over again. Once we pulled into the station, the gentlemam saw that we were struggling to coordinate two restless kids and our luggage. He picked up both cases and took them to the platform for us, gave me a very nice smile and disappeared into the crowd. My husband barely noticed, but I was stunned and impressed by his kindness. S

As Ms. Scarlett would say, " I always depend on the kindness of strangers"...or something like that.

I don't think I would ever let anyone carry my luggage. I'd be expecting one of those scams I always read about or I would expect the helpful gentleman to abscond with my luggage.

He would have made away with lots and lots of dirty clothes and some Pope Snow Globes.

when ya let your body get to the condition that ya cant lift a suitcase over your head is a surefire sign that your spending too much time at the keyboard posting a bunch of silly questions on a travel forum!

don't "rethink what I really need". just think!

>)

I can't lift my suitcase over my head but I can lift this giant piece of cheesecake up to my mouth! Does that count?

LOL, Calamari!

Well, this morning I found that I can lift a 65 lb pup onto a table!
Suitcase should be easy peasy~

65 pounds and you call it "pup," Scarlett?

Talk to the suitcase manufacturers! Most "good" suitcases are too heavy to lift over head with nothing in them. I'm looking for a solid suitcase that is LIGHT if anyone has any suggestions.

As a man aged 67 with a slightly dodgy right arm I travel the Balkans on the assumption that if I ask young men pleasantly, and in good time, they will heft my bag up on to a train and then on to a rack. I had never been disappointed yet. I weight the odds by looking for young men in the company of young women.

We sleeper travellers have an advantage. The younger conductors are happy to lift my bag from platform to train, and the compartments have space enough to put a suitcase on one end, on the floor, near the coat hangers and washbasin.

I never learned light packing: I like enough white shirts for a clean one a day for a week. Books are a special case. I hope I do not breach copyright when I copy from a book I have bought a few pages for the one city I am to visit in that country. And I have a whole routine of buying paper and string and taking those and books that I no longer need to middle European post offices to mime my need to post the books to England. This is always challenging, and often great fun. No book has ever failed to reach me.

Younger and fitter, I used to buy 30 bottles of hock in the Rheingau and carry them as hand luggage to my house, but I am afraid those days are gone.

[email protected]

Those days may be gone, but you sound like an amazing traveller with much more adventure ahead of you. Lucky boy!

Ben Haines, a man after my own heart ((F))
Statia, yes, he will always be my pup ((&)) Standard Poodles get pretty large~

Scarlett
My mom used to have a standard. Is yours white or black? I just saw a couple in Malibu with their standard unclipped. It was like having a giant white bear run up to me. I must have one!

Tate the Pup is chocolate brown :)

I love to let his hair grow out in the winter, although brushing it all the time is tiresome, but yes, they do look like bears!
Right now he has his la dee da cut ((&))

Elaine
Your idea of cable locking your luggage when it is out of sight is a good one. However, the cable locks with a combination lock can be a problem. I have had 2 of them fail . Fortunatly I was home at the time I tested them. Imagine being on a train with a 5 minute stop and not be able to unlock the cable. Talk about panic time!
I would recommend using a security cable with a keyed lock instead of a combination lock. This goes for the small combi locks you use to secure the zippers on your luggage.
Incidently the combination locks that failed were made by two different manufacturers. I purchased them at travel stores.
From now on it's back to the key for me.

Janda try this:
pack your suitcase, lift it above your head, stick out your left foot as if to trip the person trying to take your purse from your shoulder, hunch your shoulder so he can't take it, quickly turn your head from side to side to make you you are entering the right train, swing your left foot back again to push back the people behind you pushing to get up the train stairs, hold out your right hand to push the people in front of you who have stopped to chat, step up some steep stairs (about four), squish yourself to the wall as if to let some more people out of the train, put down your bags run out of the room as if to stamp your ticket that you forgot to stamp, come back and pile your suitcase atop three others and try to balance them while pretending the train is now moving at a rapid pace and people around you are yelling at you in a language you can't understand. Close up the zipper on your purse after slapping away the hand that is in it, then make sure you have the right train car, then pretend to argue with people who are sitting in your reserved seat and are ignoring you. If you can do all of this in under three minutes, then you will have graduated to train travel 102.

nocinonut, that is hilarious!! :D

You forgot to imagin also managing two kids, one whinning because she is starving and the other one has just wet her pants.

Gosh, now I guess don't need to go on vacation.

Nocinut, you are so funny!! Yes I lived through that also this past June!!!!

Nocinonut - yikes! That's not at all how I imagine it will be! I like the idea of a handsome stranger helping me! However, I will definitely pack light! Are pickpockets really that awful in train stations?