The second complete failure was the chip-and-pin debit card, in euros

The extreme limitation was a major failure of my laptop computer: a light & compact Acer with Windows 7 installed. I planned to keep up with electronic mail & writing my columns throughout the trip, &, accordingly, had reserved all accommodations in hotels offering no-charge WiFi. Sadly, that approach worked as planned for only a few days. Then, for some reason, Windows suffered a major breakdown & would not load either Windows Live Mail or Microsoft Word. Fortunately, I could limp through the remainder of the trip using the computer in "safe" mode, which allowed Net access, handling electronic mail through the rudimentary "client" capability provided by my ISP, & using the bare-minimum word processing capability of WordPad. The upside was that I am of a geek to figure out these workarounds, but facing similar issues, lots of travelers would have had to give up .

The card worked as advertised, with service all over the place I attempted. The main drawback was very poor voice quality on most calls. I am not sure why, but I do know the card routed all outgoing calls through a switchboard in the United Kingdom. Still, if you are travelling abroad & require to keep in contact by voice, I can recommend this approach. Next time, I'll try a different expertise a "VOIP" application that routes calls over the Net.


As my primary source of both reference and recreational reading materials, I loaded up my Kindle with guidebooks to the places I was one time visiting and a half dozen of what the British so aptly report as "penny dreadful" mysteries. But days in to the trip, the Kindle reported "empty battery" and would not recharge. In case the issue was with the charger, I bought a replacement along the way, but that didn't work, either; the fault was in the Kindle unit. Amazon agreed to replace the unit  and has done so  but not until I returned home. So I had no choice but to buy maps, guides, and paperbacks along the way an expensive fix, to be sure, but at least a fix. Still, I suspect that the failure was unusual, and that Kindle or some other e-reader is the best way to schlep reading materials on a trip.

The second complete failure was the chip-and-pin debit card, in euros, I bought from Travelex. I have written extensively about the issues some American travelers encounter trying to make use of our old-technology credit and debit stripe cards in Europe, and I desired to be prepared to make payments in unattended locations. The failure was that no payment machine I encountered would accept the card, but the offsetting upside was that I was one time able to make use of my elderly stripe cards very in all places, including highway toll booths and unattended gas dispensers. So far, Travelex has not responded to my emails asking for an explanation, but I'll keep trying. Until I listen to more, I cannot recommend it to someone.