Packing Your Car, Stacking your car, Planning You Trip Essentials, Items Retrieved In Emergency

Problem
How to fit all suitcases and bits and bobs in your car boot and interior?

Answer
Car boot - American and British names
Americans call it the trunk. The British word for the front is the bonnet. The American word for the part at the front is the hood.

How do remember the American and British words? Imagine a lady or a dress maker's mannequin laying down across the rack on top of the car, looking forwards to see where the car is going and enjoy the view. Her bonnet or hood is at the front. Her boots are at the back. By her feet is her trunk or suitcase.

Fixe of Car Boot
1 Try the empty suitcases in the car before packing.
2 Try the suitcases pyramid stacking. If the top obscures the drivers view, line everything up towards the left or right.
3 If you want to get things out en route, try stacking upright like books on a bookshelf with another other across the top.
4 If you are travelling with a friend who is arriving at your house, or being picked up along the route, ask the size of their suitcase or tell them the limit.

Stacking suitcases
1 Have all items needed for the journey or on arrival in you handbag or a small big in the body of the car.
2 Place valuables which must must be left in the car instead into a small light wheel on aircraft-friendly 18 inch bag, left on top or even in the car, so you can take it with you when rushing to the toilet at motorway stops.

Packing Suitcases
1 Allow room for souvenirs by packing a spare travel bag inside your biggest or handiest bag or handbag.

Saving Space
2 Consider taking old clothes you can leave behind
3 Use a folding device.
4 Use the roll-up method.
5 Use the nesting dolls principle.
6 Wear two layers of thin clothes.
7 Consider colour coding. For example, green case or green Marks and Spencer carrier bag for food needed on the journey.

Do not obscure the driver's vision. Keep the back window clear. In some countries a van can drive without rear vision but must have mirrors on both sides.

Animals and Babies
Take into account any animal such as a dog or cat in a box or cage or behind a barrier on the back seat.

For a baby allow for: the baby, (sitting or lying down, the cot, the baby seat, and the size of a pushchair. Add the space of baby clothes, changing mats, toys and food. Consider how you need them to be accessible at stops on the way or when unpacking at your destination.

Fragile Items
You can get souvenirs posted home and delivered by courier. Or wrap them inside towels or blankets, or inside boots and shoes. A blast sealable covering is useful. Also tupperware boxes for small items which might leak such as cosmetics.

Food and Drink
You can allow space for a cool box with an ice container inside to keep food and drinks cool for the journey amor at the destination.
Food bought at the destination can be sent home by courier to arrive after you get back.

Need Extra Space
1 Lower the back seat for skis. When buying or hiring a car, check it will take skis.
2 Check the roof rack and allow time to buy a rack plus fixing straps.
3 Consider buying a trailer to attach behind a bike or car. The vehicle manufacturer or brochure should tell you the weight and shape a vehicle can pull. Learn how to turn corners without being pulled over by the weight or endangering others if the back portion swings out.
4 Alternatively hire a big motorhome for the holiday. Transfer clothes already on hangers from your home into the motorhome.

Check the glove box contains your insurance, car handbook - print one off the internet - especially how to open the boot, open the petrol compartment - often a lever under the knee level on the driver's side, central locking and child locks, what the warning signals mean, petrol stations (gas stations) en route, cheap hotels en route inc as your journey is delayed, coffee bars en route, landmarks, maps and routes, hats, sunglasses, glasses, water, food, blanket in cold weather, first aid kit, emergency numbers.

Story
Do not over pack. I was on my way to a holiday in Wales still in England on the M4 which I was rear-ended by another vehicle. My car was a write-off. I had to empty the car of what I needed to take with me for the holiday.

I kept them waiting fifteen minutes whilst I unpacked from the smashed up car my bag of clothes and books. I was afraid I would never see again the items left in the car, which was towed to a car graveyard garage.

I had to carry all my luggage on the journey to my destination. First offloading it. Then hoisting it into the cab of the tow truck.

Then by train. First the departure station. Then the stop, with one change of train and the stairs at the station and running back to the ticket office to check the times and platforms since none were shown and I did not know which intermediate point station I needed.

Finally, two weeks later, go to the dump to collect my left behind possessions from the car. Nothing in it? There is always something. Your favourite pen under the seat. A coin. Maps. The tool kit, spare tire, towing ropes, first aid box, business card, spare key in box under wing.

You also need a photo of the damaged car to prove it was the other driver's fault (eg rear end damage). You need photos to claim for your injuries (eg broken windscreen, blood on car, or damaged driver's door showing impact. You might not even have noticed at the time, the tell-tale damage which your family or the insurers will note.

More Tips
http://www.traveller24.com/TravelPlanning/Suitcase-secrets-how-to-pack-a-car-boot-20140526
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-4549930/Practical-Princess-Ford-infographic-pack-car

Finally - car keys
Do you have the spare key with you or back home? Do you know the number of the key and where to re-order a key?

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photograph, author and speaker. I have other posts on packing. Please share links to posts.

The Secret of Finding a Seat - on trains

Finding a seat requires concerted action by the traveller, the train, bus or plane's number or seats and signs, and business hours and meetings. How can you increase your chances?

Finding a seat on a train should be simple. Live at the end of the line. Travel to the station when there's no traffic on the road. Travel on the train before or after rush hour. Just pick the nearest seat. Work early and leave early. Offices started work at ten and left at six, rather than nine to five like shops, to spread the load on the train and bus lines.

End of Train Line (UK)
When I lived in Edgware and Stanmore I was a happy traveller. I always got a seat into London.

The Return Journey
Coming home I would usually get a seat early on. Especially if I kept watching for people preparing to get off, packing up their belongings and looking alert, ready to leap up and out. I stood near them, ready to leap in.

Advantages of Last Stop
Once I fell asleep. I was woken by the station attendant whose job is to go along the train collecting newspapers and shutting doors - after waking the dozing drunks and tired travellers. That's the great advantage of living at the end of the line. You can't go past your stop. You might seem far away to visitors from the centre of the city, but at least you are easy to find. You can tell them, "Just stay on until the train reaches the last stop."

Cutting Staff Travel Time
The British Council offices were all on the Central Line. The offices were planned that way. The man who ordered the second building probably lived on the Central Line. His office was on the central line. Staff going from one office to another did not have to change trains and wait. It was less stressful for them. They could not get lost. It saved time for inter-office travel.

Seats On UK Trains
An article called The Seat on the Train by Hugh Graham in Britain's newspaper The Sunday Times tells you which stations give your greater chances of finding seats on commuter trains. Sometimes it is worthwhile spending five minutes driving to another station further out or in, to save a long time standing on the commute into London.

Reservations To and From Regions
When booking holiday trains to Wales or Derby, I try to get a reserved seat. Recently I was lucky to be near the exit. If there is a choice of seats, I might even abandon my reserved seat in order to take a free seat near the luggage stack at the exit.

Picking Seats
Unfortunately, unlike planes, where you can chose to be near a window or an exit, on trains when making reservations you often cannot pick the seat. If you book your holiday late, many seats are already taken, so neither you nor the office selecting your seat will have a choice.

Seats With Space
A seat in the middle means dragging your luggage a long way. Single seats near the doorway have room for your luggage beside you.

Seats With Tables
On the other hand, seats further in often enjoy the benefits of a table, for four. You have the opportunity to put down a laptop and work. You might also have the chance to chat to other travellers.

Watching Luggage
However, I do not want to leave my luggage in the rack at the carriage end and sit in the middle where I cannot see my luggage. Leaflets warn travellers to watch their luggage.

Theft
Tricks played on travellers include leaping onto the train before it goes, grabbing a piece of luggage and leaping off again. By the time the owner of the suitcase notices or gets up and rushes to the door, the train is moving again.

Carriage-hopping
Getting a seat on a busy train also involves watching the train as it comes in. If you have no heavy wheeled luggage nor multiple bags, and you see the end carriage has seats but the middle ones are full, you can run along the platform as the train comes in to leap into the last carriage before people start flowing along inside towards the empty seats.

Sometimes on a long journey, if I see lots of people standing at the door of the next carriage ready to exit, I will either run along inside to take a vacated seat, or leap out of my carriage and race along to leap in again and grab the empty seat. You have to be quick, to be sure not to be left on the next platform.

Success!
But, hey, the joys of sitting back and opening your newspaper and phone, or shutting your eyes. If going past your stop is one of life's worst travelling stresses, finding a seat is one of life's best travel successes.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.