backpacks out of the basement, the pre-trip begins

"four sleeps until we go to Sweden" was the first thing Elwyn said today when he got out of bed.

Our plans are set and we are down to the last few things to arrange before leaving for nearly a month of holidays in Europe.

We are debating the pros and cons of taking our different luggage. Do we take backpacks or do we take airport roller luggage? That is the question. what will be more easy to control two excited kids with? I'm just not sure, though I'm leaning towards backpacks. The 20 kg per person limit of our cheap airfare is also playing on my mind. Whatever we do, we need to do it light.

I've mapped out our general route for the summer: london, paris, rotterdam, köln, stockholm (via overnight train through berlin and malmö), klippan, copenhagen, prague and back to london. Only the trip to and from Prague will be by air, otherwise we ride the rails -- at on at least four different bullet trains that I've booked so far.