Travel planning

So what am I up to these days you ask?  Well, I'll tell you.  I spend most of my free time, (which of course as a mom just means "time that I SHOULD be doing something else like washing the dishes or going to the grocery store or fixing dinner but instead I am neglecting house and home") doing a little travel planning.

We're going to Europe in a few short weeks.  It's the trip of a lifetime, really.  We're so excited.  We're taking the kids, so that will be a new adventure.

We sorta figure it's probably now or never, and we've been saving up for this for several years now.  So we're trying to make the most of it.  Cause really, Nick will be a senior in high school next year, and this could be our last opportunity before kids start growing up, and moving out, and going on missions, and off to college, and getting married, and I may sound crazy and alarmist, but I see it happening all around me...

But there's so much to think about.

I'm not complaining, really.  I'm just explaining what is consuming most of my thoughts and attentions these days.

Travel guides, and websites, and videos and maps and notebooks...

Lodging, transportation, activities... How do we make the most out of every precious minute and dollar (or Euro...)    The first time John and I went to Europe, we had no idea what to do, so we pretty much just drove around.  For reals.  Despite doing some research, (this was my pre-devotion to Rick Steves' era) it was still just all too much, and we just kinda winged it, which can be fun, but I sorta think we'd probably make different choices if we had it to do over.

And then throw four very different kids, including Christopher, into the mix, and I find I need to plan everything down to the minute, and yet, be as flexible as possible.  We've already started bribing Christopher.  "You be good and we'll get you ice-cream.... Don't touch the pictures (in the museums) and we will buy you ice-cream...No screaming or crying and you can have ice-cream..."  I have a feeling there will be lots and lots of ice-cream.

And then there's the other questions- Which things are worth going out of the way for?  Like Stonehenge?  I hear it's not convenient to get to.  Is that worth the better part of a day to look at really old rocks?  And how many Cathedrals is too many?  How many museums and old castles before Christopher falls apart? What's the bestest/fastest/cheapest/most memorable-est way from point A to point B? Car? Plane? Train?

And how much time do we want to stay in each place?  What's the right balance between fitting it all in, and really delving into a place and soaking in all it has to offer?  (Like my first trip to London where we were so pressed for time we took a bus tour of the city, and while I have several lousy pictures of stuff taken from a moving vehicle, I really feel like I actually saw nothing at all...)

And where do we stay?  There's not tons of Marriotts over there, and very, very few of them are Residence Inns. (we like those because they are the most family friendly) In fact, the very nice Marriott in Paris only allows 2 people per room. That's three rooms.  Which means we will be using up those points at least three times as fast.  And it probably means that Christopher and I will be sharing one room, and John will be with one of the other kids, and that's definitely not ideal. 

And by European standards our little family of six is freakishly huge and practically unheard of, so that can complicate matters...

So we found a couple reasonably priced, fairly central apartments after days and days of scouring websites and reading reviews and studying maps...  "Sure, the price is right, and it's a pretty big place, but it's right smack dab in the middle of the red light district...." Or, "It's only a 45 minute train ride outside of the city....." Or, "That apartment is pretty much perfect for us, except it's a little pricey and we wouldn't be able to afford to eat, or do anything, or go anywhere at all that week..."

And then there's the matter of John working during part of the trip, so certain parts of the trip will be very inflexible.  Like, we HAVE to be in London on certain days, but the upside to that is that work will pay for lodging on the days John works, and attractive as that thought is, we would also like to actually spend time with John on our FAMILY vacation. So, you know, we need to figure out a good balance there.

And then of course I'm trying to include the kids in all of this.  Trying to get their input, discussing options, watching travel videos, looking at pictures.   We even have the occasional foreign language lesson around here, and since I'm no linguist, it's probably a case of the blind leading the blind... Sometimes they are into it, sometimes not so much.  I'm trying to have them feel some ownership in this whole thing, but I get the feeling they are content to just come along for the ride.  Kids.  What are you gonna do?   (To be fair, they have made some requests- The Eiffel Tower, the Doctor Who Experience, Platform 9 3/4, 221b Baker Street, the Alps, Castles, the Berlin wall, and lots of good food.)

And I think I am driving John absolutely batty at times.  Work is a huge stress right now for him, and he comes home on the weekends all tired worn out and all I want to do is discuss travel plans.  I do tons of research, but he's the travel expert, and I really need his help/input.

And I haven't even begun to think about packing. I tend to be an over-packer, but my goal is to go pretty minimal this time around.   (Wish me luck!)

So, yeah, it's fun, and exciting, and time consuming, and overwhelming, and yeah. There's a lot to think about.  But I should be able to pursue that career in travel and tourism when I'm done.