jackz:
A wonderful post!
As I prepare for my first European trip in almost a decade, I have only one other matter that I hear about now and again:
American credit cards may or may not work properly when "swiped" in Europe. "Swiped" in this case means slid through a card reading device. Not "stolen!"
The advice I've heard is to have the vendor manually enter your card's numbers; then, all should be okay!
SWR