Super thanks to Peter & Martina for hosting us in Germany for a few days. We had a great time there, in France, and later in Italy.

Now the Geek Report!

There were several unexpected equipment issues during the trip:

1. My new-ish spare camera battery (no-name BP511A clone) died on the first day. I eventually found a replacement for EU22 in Riems.

2. My backup hard drive (for photos, trip journal, etc..) died while visiting with P&M. This was a pre-production first-gen Sandforce SSD from OCZ inside a $5 DealExtreme USB enclosure. We had to run out and find the only shop open on Saturday night to purchase a WD USB drive to use for backups.

3. The Canon EF-S 17-85mm-IS lens for my DSLR started having troubles during the first week in Italy. This is my MAIN LENS for the camera, and it's quite a bit lighter in weight than the others I had brought along. So I had to put up with aggravating my injured elbow (tendinitis) and used the much heavier and less convenient EF24-105mmL-IS for much of the rest of the trip. Now that we're home, I've ordered the $25 replacement part for this common lens repair.

4. My LowePro "Omni Traveler" camera bag first lost a zipper pull, then had a seam rip, and finally saw a second zipper completely disintegrate. I'll probably try and repair it, but first need to check on warranties and availability of an identical replacement.

5. And lastly, it is my sorrow to report the passing of an icon.. no not the turtleneck dude, but rather my Aussie hat: veteran of many empeg meets and world travels. It got left in the rental car at CDG. On arrival in Milano, we found a hat shop and picked up a canvas replacement for use during the remaining three weeks of the trip. Gotta re-order the real thing now that I'm back. (I use the hat as a sunshade, since sunglasses would interfere with camera use)

Cheers

Looks like this excellent product is no longer made, so I'll have to repair the one I've got here.

Unless, that is, someone can find a new one for me? My google-fu fails on it. I don't need the companion Pelican hard case, but rather just the Omni Traveller bag itself.

Thanks

Mark, this guy in Kitchener didn't check his typos or is crazy, but he's got the pair available for sale. It looks like he'll part them out but I'm not sure:

http://kitchener.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-sel...QAdIdZ250914325

If he can get a bit closer to Milton/Guelph I'd be willing to pick them up for you and ship them to you. If you can get him to sell it to you at a good price I'd even drive out to Kitchener to get it for you.

Sounds like a great vacation Mark, even with the difficulties. While likely annoying at the time, I somehow doubt they really interfered with the true goal of having fun in some foreign countries

Looking forward to seeing the pictures if you are willing to share.

Thanks. I've sent him a message to find out -- $400 for the pair is more than new retail would have been for them, and I only want the soft case, not the silly Pelican shell.

Cheers

Losing the hat was a real bummer, but luckily we were in probably the only city in Italy where a suitable replacement could be found (a canvas version of the same bush hat style).

I've now found a Canadian outlet for the exact same (original) leather version, and they've offered to ship me one for CAD$99 incl. tax and shipping. I'll probably take them up on the offer.

Photos coming.. some day. I've weeded out the first week's catch now, only 3+ weeks worth to go. Then maybe some captions.

Cheers

When we arrived in France from Canada, we rented a car at CDG and drove to Riems (think.. fizzy drinks) for a three-night stay. Once there, our first task was to find a mobile phone for use during the trip.

Ended up getting one from Orange for EU25, plus EU15 for more than enough air time. Tiny little basic Samsung handset, and it worked perfectly for voice and texts over the following month. Very handy.

I'm an English speaker, and can also usually muddle my way around a conversation in French. I can also now understand some Italian (baby talk), but on the whole I'm pretty useless for speaking it. ("Si, Si!").

Jane is totally fluent in English and French, and has been improving her Italian since our previous trip to Italy. But man.. whenever that phone buzzed, it always took a few moments for her to shift language gears to match whoever was calling.

Mostly just the places we had reservations for later on: B&Bs and Agriturismos. They all like to touch base in advance to verify that we were still going there. And some of them even picked us up at the station/airport. The phone was very useful for all of that.

A surprising number of places in Italy were run by people who also spoke French. Which made for much easier communications, though the similarities with Italian really tripped up Jane from time to time.

It might be worthing seeing if a local clothes repair shop can do anything. I took a bulletproof vest outershell to my local one (don't ask!) and they did a perfect zip replacement for very little money.

Seconded, if the bag is, otherwise, a quality piece of gear - have a local repair done. Dry cleaners do this, or know who does. I had a similar task taken care of by a local taylor/dressmaker.

Oh, I can repair it myself. And probably will. But the fabric won't last forever, so I'm also seeking a "backup" bag now.

Cheers

Ever consider carrying an older Manual Focus Prime lens adapted to EOS as a backup lens? Extremely light and nothing to go wrong- you just have to get used to open aperture metering. If EBay completed auctions are any indication the Olympus OM 50mm 1.4 is pretty highly regarded.

Oh, I have some AF prime lenses for Canon EOS already. They're small and pretty light too.

When I travel, I generally have four or five lenses with me in total, including overlap in the sweet range of around 17mm up to 80mm. (35mm equivalent of 28-100mm).