Europe Through the Back Door Family Style

We did it! We survived a two week whirlwind trip in Europe with a 2 and 5 year old. Not only that, we managed to get back into the travel style we adopted when we read good 'ol Rick Steve's Europe Through the Back Door some years back. Carry-on only, 35-40 litre packs and only just the basics. Buy the shampoo when you arrive! I have no idea how we got so off track but when we had kids we started to travel with double strollers, carseats and enough clothes to dress the kids 3X a day. In reality it was all the stuff that made travel with the kids so much more stressful. Could we do Europe with each little carrying their own pack and forgo all the checked baggage?


Photo evidence:

One small pack each, the diaper bag full of activities, a bag to stuff the Ergo carrier into and a stroller that folds down to the size of a purse. That's it. No electronic devices, no suitcases. We flew through airports, skipped the lines, jumped onto buses and trains and walked across towns from train to Inn with no problems. With Caelen in the ergo on Joel's back and Austen in the stroller we even managed to have them both sleep while on the move. So, it was a great, relaxing and fun family trip and we are really energised to travel so much more with the boys.

Postcard from Oxford

Avebury

Our cottage

Walking across Oxford with all our stuff, yay traveling light!

Postcards from France

Europe On The Calendar Again!

Our last trip to Paris was in 2011

We did it! We booked our first trip to Europe with the kids in mid-July. It's going to be the four of us, traveling light and as simply as possible. A week in France for a reunion with our dear friends from Singapore and a week in the UK visiting my second cousins and great uncle and seeing a castle or two.

We land in Paris and spend a night in a quaint Inn in the Marais, stroll some of the sights and then catch a train to Bordeaux for our Singapore friends visit. After about 5 days in Bordeaux, we will take the train to Paris and chunnel to London to spend a night there (and a day exploring - Austen is determined to see Big Ben so we better do that) before heading out to our thatched cottage we have rented for a week in Oxfordshire.  It's the most we have ever moved around with the kids and are hoping they aren't too upset by the changes. Finding the space to travel and make it feel unhurried is our new challenge. We also are not bringing Joel's bike, the big double stroller, car seats, electronic devices (aside from phones), or anything that doesn't fit into a carry on bag. That is my mission anyway. Pictures of this actually happening pending.

Our baggage pile on the way to Montreal in 2016. This is what travel hell looks like.

Transition

Joel comes home with a desk chair, this is getting real.

2018 might be known as a year of rapid change and growth for us. We began in a low patch, both essentially unemployed, and no travel or fun on the horizon at all. By February I was working full time again, on several really engaging contracts and Joel was consulting at some companies and circling around one role he was really interested in. In March he landed that job and in April he started his new journey working from home right beside me. With side-by-side desks, we've discovered all kinds of new things about one another we've never really considered in the past 17 years together. We're actually pretty compatible co-workers, often working the same hours late at night, listening to audiobooks and sipping tea.

We have returned to some of last year's travel plans that were put on hold but are now possible once again. I'm going to reveal our next destination very soon. Until then, happy spring, onward and upward!

Happy Christmas And A Tiny Bit Of Snow

We have had a full house since late November. Joel's parents came down to stay with us for Caelen's 2nd Birthday for a few weeks. We took the chance to do a mini trip to Monterey and used points we acquired by hosting a Home Exchange last summer to stay in a great little cottage not far from Cannery Row for four days.

Our dear friends from our Singapore days, Gemma and Fre and their daughters helped us celebrate Caelen's special day, even hosting us there for cake after a big day walking around the aquarium. Caelen was so thrilled to have the happy birthday song sung to him. He's been to lots of birthdays for bigger kids with Austen but didn 't have a recollection of ever having his own before this. One of his presents was a little wooden birthday cake which he has continued to carry around to ensure we celebrate his birthday every day since. In fact, as the Christmas decorations went up he declared that these were also for his Birthday. Usually one feels badly for the kids with the December Birthdays getting lost in the shuffle of the holiday events. It seems Caelen might just find a way to co-opt the holiday altogether.

My brother, Adrian, arrived on Christmas Eve and we celebrated a very cozy and delicious Christmas day. My parent's flight arrived in the afternoon on boxing day and we reprised our roles in the kitchen for the second evening of feasting. The following morning we left on a trip to Tahoe to seek some snow and a little holiday. 

We didn't find much snow at all but, here and there we found a little patch and made the most of it tobogganing. Austen did one day on the bunny hill learning to ski with daddy. The rest of our week was spent cozy by the fire, cooking elaborate dinners -- even baking bread and making pasta from scratch. 

2018 began with a night of board games and a little ringing of bells from the doorway of our cabin. This will be a busy year for us to be sure. Joel is searching for a new job which will likely have the biggest impact on our plans. We can't even circle dates for a Summer holiday because we have no idea where we'll be or what we'll be doing. I'm building up some contracts for this spring after the slow speed of midwinter. We're trying to choose a school for Austen to start kindergarten in the fall and find an appropriate preschool for Caelen to begin in June.