Osprey Farpoint 40 travel pack

Yes, it’s on here again.

Caroline and I both have one and they’ve proved their worth again on our recent week in Lisbon. Both did their stuff once more and there were a few people checking them out as we headed to our digs in Lisbon and at both Liverpool and Lisbon airports as we waited for our flights out and back. And yes, they do fit in easyJet’s hand luggage cage – we checked!

It’s good to see though that the Farpoint 40 has also picked up the Best In Test kudos in the August edition of Wanderlust Travel Magazine here in the UK:

http://www.wanderlust.co.uk/magazine/issue/august-2015-issue–on-sale-from-2-july

A couple of recent purchases were inside my Farpoint 40 in the shape of the Slim Sonic Toothbrush and the Fisher Space Pen. The Slim Sonic Toothbrush is quite a neat package that runs off one AAA battery that comes complete with a good cover for the business end of the brush which protects both the replaceable head and the all important on/off switch.

My example came from Amazon here in the UK, as did a four pack of replacement heads to keep things sweet for future use:

The Fisher Space Pen is something that I’ve looked at several times over the many years that it’s been around. Yes, I’ve heard the comments before (in an episode of The West Wing no less) about the Americans allegedly spending money developing the pen for use in space whilst the Russian cosmonauts  used pencils…

The Space Pen is compact when it’s not being used, but once the pen top is removed and put into place at the non-business end of the pen, the whole thing is well balanced and a joy to use.

Mine was stashed either in a trouser pocket or in my reading specs case whilst we were in Lisbon (it now stays in the reading specs case all of the time when not in use), allowing me to have a decent pen with me for use whenever I need it. Am I impressed with it? Yes, as is Caroline, but she quickly handed it back to me when she found out how much it was!

This was another item found on Amazon here in the UK:

The purchase of the Slim Sonic Toothbrush and the Fisher Space Pen were both prompted by the mentions made in a very useful Kindle Book – The Modern Nomad’s Backpack: A Guide To Packing Light For Round The World Travel by Anne Richardson.

There’s a host of other useful ideas in the book that can be followed, especially if you carry tech items with you on your travels…

Our accommodation in Lisbon – Lisbon Dreams Guest House – was booked via booking.com. I’ll be writing about Lisbon Dreams in a future posting about our week in Lisboa here on wisepacking, but I have to say that one the usage so far, I’m quite impressed by the service offered by booking.com, so much so that I’ve also used the site to find a place to stay in London and for another trip Caroline and I have planned for later in the year.

What we have found is that a couple of places I’ve booked have been via the establishment’s own web site and the when I’ve clicked on the booking button on those websites have led me to booking.com‘s facilities.

In other cases, the places we’ve booked have been sighted before in examinations of either the appropriate Rough Guide or Lonely Planet to the country in question. In one case, a guide book quoted a hostel’s double room as being 44 euros a night, the hostel’s own website was quoting 44 euros a night for each person in that double room and booking.com came up with a cost of 50 euros a night for a double room in that same hostel…

And finally we come to easyJet. It’s the first time we’ve used that airline and the choice was made on the price of the flights compared to the prices on other airlines we looked at. Neither of us have flown from Liverpool Airport either so it was a case of two firsts on the same day!

The easyJet booking process was easily done with seats chosen for both the outward and return flights. Baggage wasn’t an issue thanks to those Osprey packs and the online check-in was a doddle to sort out once we’d got Caroline’s son to install a new computer printer for us!

We’d stayed at one of the hotels at Liverpool Airport on the night before the flight out and it was easy to walk across the road from the hotel, find the automated ticket check post, get through the paid-for Fast Track Security and then relax airside with a coffee whilst we waited for the flight’s gate to come up on the screen.

The flight was quite reasonable and the approach to Lisbon interesting as Caroline was spotting places on the ground. Service on the plane was good with no overselling taking place and attentiveness happening when needed, even when the father of the youngster sitting in the seat behind Caroline announced to the cabin crew that his son had had a wee on the seat as the plane approached Lisbon Airport…

And the return flight – not too bad either, but we did have a longer wait in Lisbon Airport for the flight home as we got to the airport much quicker than expected thanks to the Lisbon Metro system and the swift bus ride between Lisbon’s Terminal 1 and Terminal 2.

Would we fly easyJet again? Oh yes, the flights are already booked, but we will be wary of apparent damp patches on the seats when we board the plane!