Long Overdue: Spring Break in Europe!

There was a time that I never missed a week updating this blog. 

There was also a time that I never skipped a 6am workout, never yelled at my kids, could not imagine purchasing hot dogs, and definitely did not consider a few glasses of pinot noir an adequate substitute for dinner. 

That time is long gone. These days, between work meetings and world events and lacrosse practice and baseball games and guitar lessons and a dog who digs up the backyard unless he gets 1000 miles of exercise a day- deli meat and boxed wine are often the gold standard. I don't think I've posted a single thing since Seth's birthday trip to Florida. In February.

I can at least partially blame last week's USCYBERCOM Legal Conference, which required my minuscule team to not only plan the whole thing but also get hundreds of people from 12 different countries through NSA security screening and bused around the National Capitol Region and entertained for days. Event planning is most definitely not my strong suit, I confessed to Sara (who excels at it.) I am still recovering. 

Still, I can't believe I've waited this long to share the kids' first backpacking trip to Europe. It was a Spring Break whirlwind of planes, trains, automobiles, and a boat; and they collected 6 (!) passport stamps when all was said and done. For the truly dedicated, the unedited one billion photos are here, but I'll do my best to recap the adventure in fewer terabites.

We made excuses to the school district about a vague "appointment" on Friday, and took the red eye to Iceland Thursday night. 

Airplane travel never fails to amaze me. You can just wake up halfway around the world. 

We spent every one of our 30ish hours in Iceland being awed. The Blue Lagoon, like Machu Picchu, turns out to be one those few places that really are as magical as you've imagined. It's also really this color (courtesy of silica in the water, it turns out.)

We drove the Golden Circle in a tiny Opel with a manual transmission and bald tires, stopping to see the incredible Gulfoss Waterfall, hike around active geysers in Þingvellir National Park in the rain, 

and play on the stunning black sand beaches. We lucked out and even got to pet the famous freaking horses.

None of us wanted to leave, but backpacking is a kinetic experience (I told them as I hustled them onto an obscenely early flight to Gatwick the next day.) They forgave me when they got to take a real British double decker bus. Even though it wasn't red.

We spent the next couple days in the London area, and F+F loved the iconic phone booths and became pros at riding the tube.

We played in Hyde Park and had ice cream at Buckingham Palace.

We saw all the sights, ate pub food, and walked across the glass bottomed top of the Tower Bridge.

I'm pretty sure those little jerks'  favorite part was the wildly expensive trip to Harrod's. I have definitely spent less on a three course meal than I did on a macaron in a little green bag. Naturally they loved it.

We took the bullet train to Paris. Clearly a major highlight.

I had never loved Paris, or thought "Paris in April" was anything more than a line in a sappy old movie song. That was before I took Finley and Ford, who insisted on the stop because they had seen it romanticized in kids' movies. I am so, so glad I capitulated. We strolled the banks of the Seine in perfect spring weather, admired street art, and inhaled air that actually smelled like flowers while musicians played.

We did a lot of strolling, in fact. (My watch had us at 11 miles by the time our day in Paris was complete.) We had giant crepes in a sidewalk cafe, and rode the carousel at the Jardin des Tuileries. Finley even got me to buy her a beret.

It was too nice out (and we were too short on time) to go inside the Louvre, but I found myself promising "next time."

I am sure there will be a next time. The Eiffel Tower was even more impressive than I remembered- although nothing could be as memorable as the kids' faces when they rounded a corner in the street and saw it up close for the first time.

I hadn't planned it that way, but our vacation wound up having two distinct parts. While we never actually did what most people think of as relaxing, after six days of sleeping somewhere different every night, we spent the last four in a vacation apartment in Bavaria, in a small town central to places my Mom and Dad had taken us as kids that I wanted to show F+F. The kids were thrilled about the pool and the playspace, while I was over the moon about the coin laundry. The mountain view didn't hurt either.

After one more long, late night train ride to Munich, the kids were ready to hang their hats in one spot for a bit. (At least in the evenings, when we all fell into bed exhausted.)

We spent our last few days exploring Bavaria à la Walters vacations circa 1990s. We kicked it off with a trip to a freizeitpark, a nostalgic little fairytale-themed amusement park with mostly self-propelled rides. Veterans of American amusement parks, F+F were a bit puzzled at first, but wound up having a blast.

Almost as much fun as when they discovered sommerrodelbahn, the terrifying Alpine slides of my youth. True to tradition, Finley went too fast and flew off the track, but got herself back on with panache. Ford, naturally, screamed the whole way down.

We ate brötchen and butterkäse  in Garmisch-Partenkirchen before hiking Partnachklamm.

We ate spaghetti eis in Mittenwald. (The Nieman kids, like the Walters crew before them, are highly bribable.)

We hopped the border to Austria for excellent heated pools with world class views.

We visited Königssee and Herrenchiemsee and delighted in learning about crazy King Ludwig.

We sang "the hills are alive" just like in The Sound of Music.

And- perhaps most importantly- we took the salt mine tour in Berchtesgaden.

There were moments for days. Ford lost his tooth in a schnitzel, and Finley (at 8) announced to an entire biergarten, "German beer is way better than American beer!"

After one last amazing pool (and the resulting hilarious late night trip to Burger King in which Ford scored a crown and accidentally ate vegan chicken nuggets) in Munich,

and one last stamp (a long layover and an odd encounter with sardines in Lisbon),

we mic dropped our European vacation, big time.

And got home to 'murica: baseball and ice cream and Dad.

The kids were grateful to be home. I was just grateful. I had loved every exhausting and beautiful second. I was grateful to Seth for letting us spend Spring Break across the ocean guilt-free, since he was positively gleeful about skipping the miles and miles of walking, cramped airplane seats, long train rides, and Walters-style travel days. Grateful to Finley and Ford for turning (after much investment) into such tough, fun, smart travelers and adventure buddies. Grateful that we're fortunate enough to be able to to do the big- like taking our kids to see the world with their own eyes- and the small- like figuring out how to order in foreign languages, count different currency, and experience the joys of train station luggage storage. 

And I am insanely grateful to my parents, for showing us how possible it is to explore the world with kids in tow (and for demonstrating just how much can be stuffed into a day!) I think we made you proud with this one.

We're still recovering from our Spring Break adventure. And I'm already planning our next one!