Over the last few days, as our departure day is getting closer, I've been reflecting on the differences between booking this holiday compared to doing a similar task when we travelled around Southern Europe 11 years ago.
Mobile Apps
I was already a frequent computer user back in 2012, so all my bookings then were stored as pdfs on my PC. Back then though, most of the pdfs had to be printed on paper to be able to be used on site. Since then Mobile Apps have become the dominant booking and ticketing mode. They form a hugely more significant part of the process than they did in 2012.
This screenshot from the travel apps on my phone shows only one of the pages of apps which relate to this year's bookings.
Trainline has my tickets from Taffs Well to London (and back), Eurostar from London to Brussels (and Paris to London), Deutsche Bahn has tickets for all my German train travel - then IHG (International Hotel Group) and Booking.com which between then have all bar two of my hotels. Then there is Omio for the two cross-border bus journeys and Eckero Line and Viking Line for our ferry tickets following this there are another range of apps for local metro and bus tickets, many of whom will be purchased in advance of arrival - on the above screen these include Berlin, Vilnius, Riga, Helsinki, Stockholm and Hamburg, there are more on the second screen! I hope they all work as easily as they were to set up - we shall see (and report on the blog).
Drew also sub-contracted the job of downloading and sorting the passwords on the apps he needs to use train tickets etc.
Imminent preparations
It is also good to have cleared most of my emails ready to travel (not an easy task, but I've been a strong believer in efficient email filing for many years now).
A quick look at my mailbox, in the photo above, shows the current emails are all about being ready for the holiday.
Moving from bottom to top:
- Matsudai Ramen confirming our booking for dinner this evening - we try not to cook the night before we go, so we don't have dishes/rubbish to sort early tomorrow morning.
- Holiday Inn Express confirming our accommodation for tomorrow evening in the Holiday Inn Express Brussels - Grand-Place
- Eurostar - notifying us that the seating plan on our train (tomorrow afternoon) has changed - oh look, the new coach and seat number has appeared on the app and in my Google Wallet, so no need to reprint the boarding ticket, as we would have had to in the past.
It all makes it feel very real, ready for tomorrow's trip.
