3 day until our Trip of a Lifetime

I know that we have been super excited about our Trip of a Lifetime but I didn't think anyone cared about all the little details in my planning. So I'll catch some of you up real quick.

Passports
Our passports arrived in about 10 days...imagine my surprise that the US govt could work so quickly.

RV & Apartment
I made all final payments for these so it's a relieve that I have the big ticket items payed for. We received our key to the apartment yesterday so that just helped to add to our excitement.

International Drivers Licence
We spent some time getting International drivers licenses at AAA since it's mandatory in Austria & Italy.

Euro's
We also exchanged dollars for Euro's with no so called fee from AAA. They say no fee but the company they use, uses Western Union who has a much higher exchange rate. So we paid $1.37 per Euro vs the $1.30 listed everywhere else. I'd say that 7% difference is sizable.

Guidebooks
Speaking of AAA the best guide book we purchased was from AAA. It was their Paris guide in spiral back. This was buy far the most thorough guide book. We also got the individual Michelin Green Guides for France, Germany & Italy. They are OK but don't offer as many details as the AAA one this could be because they are for the whole countries vs just a city. We also purchased a few Rick Steve's guide books for Cinque Terre Italy and a phrase book. These are much better then I expected considering all of the nay sayers out there about him.


Credit/Debit Cards
I did a ton of research looking for cards that did not tack on 3% conversion fee for foreign purchases. I of course had the answer in my wallet the entire time. What's in your wallet :), yes it was Capital One. I had both a credit card and a debit card so no new cards to deal with. I had thought about getting a pin & chip card (used through out Europe) instead of our swipe & signature cards we use here. These would come in handy anywhere that we would need to use a c.c at an unmanned kiosk ie:gas stations, toll booths, metro stations. But decided against it.

There are many other little details I haven't listed. If anyone needs any help planning their trip let me know I'll be happy to help where I can.

So I'm off to my last day of work and then packing for our flight out on Sunday. I wonder if I'll get any sleep between now and then.