There are several reasons why I hate packing, but let me explain why.

Every time I have to pack my suitcase, it means that we’re one step further along to the end of our current journey. While living out of a suitcase does have its downsides, repacking it means we’re leaving one city and moving to the next. Usually, this leaves me with the thoughts of how much too little we had time to do or see there, and whether we will be back, and that I don’t want my trip to end and have to go back to the routine of everyday life and hope we can take another trip soon.

It’s true it gets a little tiring moving to a new city or village every few days. On this trip we will have visited Milan, Luzern, Munich, Vienna, Salzburg, Bertchtesgaden, then back to Munich, then back to Milan to return to the US in 17 days. Some places we stayed a day or so, others, like Vienna, 4 days. We don’t get to Vienna as often, as it’s a bit of a longer journey to get here, but when we’re here, we really enjoy it.

We’re extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to travel internationally as much as we have, and there will be many countries we’ll never touch-just so many places to see, and some favorites we always like to visit if we can on each trip.

Then there’s the physical part of packing. It reminds me of what I brought I didn’t need (again) and that things just don’t go back in the suitcase the same nice neat way I started out. Over the years, we’ve both managed to get to the point of bringing one roll-on suitcase, and a backpack or purse.

In my case, the backpack contains all of my camera gear, tablets (no PC this time), chargers, external batteries, power strip (completely necessary) a USB charging hub since the power strip isn’t really enough (and hotels don’t usually have enough outlets) , and electric plug adapters. Inevitably though, by the end of the trip there are clothes I brought I didn’t ever wear or gear I brought I didn’t use, but had to lug around for two or more weeks.

I think about this when I’m pulling my suitcase up and down stairs in places where there is no escalator or elevator, running to catch a train, pulling my stuff down the street (thank goodness for wheels on suitcases!) to the hotel or to the train station or U-bahn, and resolve that next time, I’ll pack lighter.

Maybe next time.

Photos on Flickr, as usual.