travel with kids

Porto – Last Stop – Days 355 – 360

Mike PLeave a comment
Blue tiled building in Porto along waterfront

Our time in Portugal was drawing to a close and Porto was where we would end things before returning to Canada. We were having mixed feelings about our decision. We already missed the beach lifestyle but Porto definitely had areas to explore and a lively vibe. The kids were excited about Harry Potter tourism. I was excited about checking out the Camino Portugese. And once again, we stumbled across a city during a big festival. Not a bad way to end things.

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Child rolling ankle on cobblestone walkway

At first, Porto felt unpolished and gritty compared to the other Iberian cities we had stayed in. There was construction everywhere with cranes in the background of most of our pictures. We assumed most of the construction was attributed to its recent emergence as a tourist hot spot. The walkway along the waterfront was swarming with people for the duration of our stay. Fortunately, it felt like locals still lived in the downtown (i.e. not everything was rented out to tourists as an Airbnb) so it had a more authentic feel. The buildings were beautifully tiled and the cobblestones were aplenty. The roads were curvy and hilly. Throw in the streetcar tracks and it was easy to foresee some trip-and-fall incidents on the horizon.

child with bruise on head

We continued our recent trend of accumulating walking-related injuries. My knee was still swollen from Cinfaes and I tweaked it again with the cobbles. Paigey went running, got her foot stuck in the streetcar tracks and rolled her ankle badly. She would limp for the duration of the trip. And to top it off, Isabella tripped on the sidewalk and scraped up her shoulder and face pretty badly. We almost had to sling it again. It felt like a sign we should be more careful as the trip drew to a close.

We knew that J.K. Rowling had lived in Porto and some locations were tied to Harry Potter lore. We tracked down the bookstore that was an inspiration for the moving staircases in Hogwarts. We bought timed tickets online and then queued with the masses. Credit to the staff as they kept the queue flowing. But in the end, we really just ended up buying tickets to a bookstore. We didn’t try to take a picture on the famous staircase. Instead, we opted to photo-bomb everyone’s pictures (sounds harsh but there was nowhere to move). I figure the success rate of any pictures taken there was less than ten percent.

On our last day, Paigey let me do a 30km leg of the pilgrim route on the Camino Portugese. I would wake up early and hike to the nearby town of Mautosinhos by myself. At 6 am, I took off from Porto Cathedral following the coastal route for the next 8 hours. I was giddy the entire time. I counted pilgrims, took pictures of route markers and forgot about my throbbing knee pain. I downloaded the Buen Camino app, read about every point of interest I passed and arrived at my “destination” (a hostel for pilgrims) right on time. But since I wasn’t actually continuing the Camino the next day, I had to find my way home instead of booking a room. I hiked to the closest train station and rode back to the town centre. It was the first time my watch had passed the 40k steps threshold. Upon arrival at the empty Airbnb, I promptly iced my feet and went to bed for three hours. Paigey and the kids were out playing mini-golf and when they arrived, shook their heads at my sorry state.

distance marker on hiking path near industrial zone

Coming clean, on the second night in Porto, we made the decision to switch the ending. After seeing the Harry Potter Store, we had this crazy idea to do a last-minute detour to the Harry Potter Experience in the UK. We killed a couple of hours planning this deviation to London but despite our best efforts we couldn’t secure tickets to the event. Not dismayed, we pivoted and figured out a way to accommodate a 2-day detour to Paris. We hacked an EasyJet flight and some hotel bookings and clicked buy. Our final destination would be Disneyland.

children in queue for admittance to tourist site

The evening before our morning flight to Paris, we came clean and told the kids about the surprise. They were ecstatic and went to bed early. While they slept, Porto partied hard as it was São João Festival . There were fireworks (which we could fortunately see from our Airbnb), plastic hammers (that you smash on people’s heads) and thousands of paper lanterns. I hadn’t ever seen a paper lantern festival (outside the one in the Disney movie Tangled). I was like a kid watching them burn out and crash in the neighbour’s tree, the street, and all over the town.

Lantern festival in night sky with crane in background


Where we stayed:

By the numbers:

  • Souvenir Fabric Fish Purchased: 0 – decided we would sew one at home ourselves
  • Decorative Fish Hangers Purchased: 3 – they were never hung at home
  • Time Mike spent on the Buen Camino App: 16 hours
  • Time Mike spent hiking on the actual Camino: 8 hours
  • Hours of sleep the kids got before the morning flight: 8 hours
  • Hours of sleep Mike got before the morning flight: 3 hours (who was the more anxious kid)

Ciao for now

Mike

Cinfães – Wine Country and a Pool – Days 351 – 354

Mike PLeave a comment
Child under tree in Portugese town centre

We were tanned, well-nourished and relaxed when we started our 10-hour journey to Cinfães in the Douro Valley. Our time at the beach was over and we were going to meet Paige’s friend and her family again (we’d stayed with them earlier in Jordan). We rented a large, modern house in the countryside with a pool. The kids could play together as a large group and the adults could take turns supervising. Additionally, a three-day reprieve from school work was in place!

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Lisboa – Bring on Portugal and the Custard Tarts – Days 333 – 342

Mike PLeave a comment
Family at a lookout over Lisbon

Unfortunately, I never finished the blog about our trip. For some reason, Paige and I stopped writing with just a handful of cities left. So, a full two years later, we’re sharing what we remember from our ten days in Lisboa.

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Madrid – More Street Entertainers, City Bus tours and Park Warner – Days 321-332

Mike PLeave a comment
Two children smiling in front of egyptian temple in Madrid

The kids had Madrid circled on the calendar. It had been more than half a year since they had seen their little cousins and they had major plans! The four of us were so anxious, we arrived in the city a couple days before my brother and his family. This ensured that we could scout the area surrounding their hotel and advise them on the good playgrounds. We would spend the next 10 days touring the city, partaking in kid-friendly activities and continue our search for street performers. The girls were happy to cause mischief with their cousins while Paige and I were happy to have other kids around!

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Valencia – Science, bikes and a birthday – Days 308-320

Mike P2 Comments
Landscape of science complex in valencia

I was sad we weren’t in Italy and the previous week travelling along the Mediterranean coast had some hiccups. Unlike Barcelona, we walked into Valencia unaware of what we would do for our extended stay. The focus was Julie’s birthday and we hoped there would be enough for the kids to do. We quickly realized Valencia was perfect for our little family as it is a kid-friendly European city. For the next two weeks, we would base ourselves with Paige’s mom in an Airbnb on the Plaza de la Reina in the heart of the old town. Paigey would dine with her mother at a Michelin-star restaurant, while I would dine with the kids at Mcdonald’s. We were both happy.

Located right on the main square, we were a mere 7-minute walk from the Turia park system that runs through the heart of Valencia. The first day, we rented bikes (bike rentals were crazy cheap!) to explore the 7km park. The kids hadn’t been on bikes for months and Isabella blissfully biked care-free and “car-free” for the day. Unfortunately, we had a parenting fail with Julie. She had forgotten how to ride a bike (apparently that can happen!). While the rest of the family went off exploring on their own, I ran beside her for the first day as she got the hang of things again. She fondly remembers her crash into the public artwork and her accidental “jump” off the edge of an elevated walkway.

Biking mishaps aside, we visited the park almost daily. Every second day, Paigey and I would do a morning run with the locals (by the end of our two weeks, we were dreaming about all the running gear we would purchase back home). The kids would fly paper airplanes (occasionally hitting strangers) and spend hours in the playgrounds. There’s a popular playground in the park in the shape of Gulliver from Gulliver’s Travels. It is a massive plastic contraption with slides, ropes, and walls. It has to be at least two stories tall and watching them clamber recklessly across it was nerve-wracking for us parents. Fortunately, the only one who got hurt was yours truly as I got a friction burn going down one of the slides!

Children running to playground on sand

It seemed like every day we would do a new activity in the city with the kids. The Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciencies kept us busy when we weren’t at the parks. The vast complex includes a science museum, a movie theatre and a top-notch aquarium. We have been to a lot of aquariums and outside of the actual ocean, this is as good as it gets. We spent hours trying to find animals from our snorkelling exploits a few months prior. Once we had exhausted all the CAC had to offer, the kids were treated to the zoo by their nan. That was an added bonus of having another family member with us. Somedays, we would split up the kids. Other days Paige and I would go off on date night. And occasionally, Paigey would hang out with her mother. During those times, the kids and I would venture into the city to find as many street performers as possible. We closed the gap to the goal of 100 Julie and I had established in Barcelona.

Street performers in Valencia

Did I mention that we were also in town during one of the large festivals in the calendar? We didn’t really understand what the Feast of our Lady of the Forsaken was, but the city was alive and jumping the last weekend of our stay. There were concerts, performers, food stalls and an enormous parade throughout the weekend. The actual procession passed right below our apartment’s window and for three hours we watched the celebration. The kids couldn’t believe the dresses and outfits worn by those involved and we probably took a bazillion photos. They tried to stay up until the fireworks but they kept the futility streak alive by falling asleep about a half hour before the culmination of the festivities.

Woman on bike in spanish countryside

But even that festival paled in comparison to the birthday blowout we threw for Julie. When she woke up, the apartment was decorated with a banner, streamers and balloons (we all forgot how much kids love balloons). She loved the desperately needed new clothes and dove right into her new Lego set. But the highlight had to be dinner as Nan made Julie nachos which she had been dreaming about for months. There was none left for leftovers. Paige special ordered a Nutella chocolate cake for the occasion (yep a cake full of Nutella! Seriously how has no one thought of that back home?). We knew the birthday was a success when Julie went to bed complaining about a stomach ache from the Nutella cake.

Where we stayed:

By the numbers:

  • Duration of the procession for the festival: 3 hours – watched it from our window
  • Minutes it rained during our time in Valencia: 60 minutes of torrential downpour that coincided with the last hour of the procession
  • Visits to the Market with Nan: +10 – it became a daily activity
  • Calories in a slice of Nutella cake: 25,000 – it was so dense and rich, light could not escape from it
  • Number of times we visited the beach: 1 – it was 15 minutes away but we had so much fun doing other things, we just overlooked it
  • Paella consumed: 6 – we went on a paella binge the first week (including a paella festival) and then had to scale it back a little bit
Seafood paella in pan with spoon being served
Child getting a bowl of paella from street stall

Ciao for now

Mike

Barcelona – Bring on Spain – Days 304-307

Mike PLeave a comment
Two young girls sitting on a park bench in front of Barcelona tourist bus

All credit needs to go to my wife for this one, as she was the driving force behind our three-day whirlwind through Barcelona! She refused to bypass this part of Spain on our way to Valencia. We mixed things up for this “weekend getaway” by staying in a hostel in the suburbs. The kids were excited as that meant bunk beds. We were excited as it meant spending as little time in the room as possible. It was our first time in Spain and we had food to eat, sites to visit and tours to take.

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Siena – Our Tuscan life – Days 292 – 299

paige mLeave a comment

After Rome, we decided that we wanted to spend some time in Tuscany. Mike does not like renting cars in Europe (long story) and we did not want to be in the chaos of tourists in Florence. Instead, we decided to go to Siena – still full of tourists but fewer than Florence. We realized that most people were taking bus tours to Siena during the day but staying elsewhere, so we fell in love with the feeling of the city in the evening when everyone cleared out.

I booked an Airbnb that was perfect for us. It was an old Italian apartment with giant rooms and completely outdated elegant furniture. The kitchen had every gadget you could imagine so I enjoyed zesting citrus while the girls used the parmesan cheese grinder. Unlike these cookie-cutter Ikea Airbnbs, this one was the kind where they took their grandmother’s house, cleaned it up, and turned it into an apartment to rent. It even kind of smelled like a grandmother’s house. It was exactly what we wanted for this part of the trip. The kitchen alone, with its dining table, made this place magical for us. The view was also spectacular as you could see the skyline of Siena from our balcony.

Siena has some beautiful sites like a Duomo Cathedral and a tower well worth climbing. The outskirts of the city were pure Tuscan magic and we hiked one day amongst the olive and cypress trees. We also attended a soccer game since the Stadium was less than 100m from our apartment. Julie and I lasted until halftime but Isabella stayed for the whole game with her dad.

We took two day trips, finally getting to show the kids how the Eurail passes worked. We went to Florence one day and took another walking tour. Both Michael and I had been to Florence before but we had fun walking the city and showing the girls places like the Ponte Vecchia. Then a few days later, we went to Pisa and got the required photo at the leaning tower.

Siena was a great week of adventure coupled with fun daily living stuff. Living in a more “complete” home meant that we caught up on school, did lots of laundry, and cooked. It was amazing having not only a great grocery store nearby but also the Siena Agricultural Consortium which was like a treasure trove of Italian goodies. We were craving home-cooked rather than restaurant-cooked meals and were not disappointed. I even cooked a roast chicken dinner since we’d missed a few holiday meals and Julie told me that she did not remember what “stuffing” tasted like. For the record, she approved of the taste! Now we leave Italy on our most epic travel day yet (7 trains in 13 hours).

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Rome – Europe time – Days 280 – 291

paige m2 Comments

So we are very behind with the blog. My mom encouraged me this week to finish writing it, saying that we wrote for nine months and will always regret it if we leave it hanging in Amman. Michael is currently uninspired to write so I am going to try to write a few posts and re-inspire him to finish it with me.

To be honest, Rome is a very strange post for me to be doing because Michael loves Rome more than any other place in the world. He has been 3 times and was so thrilled to bring the girls. For him, a trip to Italy is not complete without a few days in Rome. We arrived a few days before Easter (yes, I am now admitting how far behind this blog is) and did not realize how chaotic Rome would be for Easter. To compound the situation, I had booked an Airbnb near the Vatican where a lot of the Easter celebrations take place so we were in a tourist-filled crazy zone. But our place was nice and we were happy to be in Europe finally, albeit sad because we knew that this was our last leg.

Mike hardly noticed how crazy Rome was over the Easter period. He was in his happy place and oblivious to anything around him. He would wake up every morning and go walking because he discovered that he could have Rome to himself at 6 am. He even took Izzie walking to the Colosseum and Pantheon before 7 am so that she could see the building from the outside without the hoards of people.

After 4 months in Southeast Asia, we were not prepared for the spring weather in Rome. The only pants the girls had were Boho elephant pants that were not thick enough to keep out the cool breeze. So Day 1 involved shopping (which I did not complain about). Julie got cute Camper shoes and Izzie was fully decked out by Benneton before we checked into our Airbnb.

Despite the fact that the apartment was so close to the Vatican, it was far enough away that we were in a real neighbourhood where people actually lived. We had a great Roman pizza shop across the street and loved looking out at the action below our giant floor-to-ceiling windows.

With both Michael and I having been to Rome before, we did not obsess over seeing all the sites again. We went to the catacombs one day and walked the Ostia Antica. We did the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps but mostly we just walked around exploring different parts of the city. It was nice to experience Spring and even the days of rain were nice since it hadn’t rained on us in months.

What will the kids remember about Rome? Probably their “special days” which are the days when we separate them and let them have one-on-one time with a parent. Julie had mom this time and so we went to an Art Supply Store and bought watercolours. We watched a Youtube video about how to watercolour paint and sat for hours mixing colours and painting. Then we cooked a 4 course meal. It might sound strange to some but painting and cooking are Julie’s favourite things so she was in heaven.

Isabella and Mike visited a park, threw paper airplanes and ate at McDonalds. Our kids love to travel but after nine months they are craving days where we do less. I guess that we are too!

Mike’s cousin Lorron came to Rome and visited us too. She brought her boyfriend Jamie and they were quite the opposite, visiting every site and cramming more into their week in Italy as we did in a month. Seeing Lorron was great and it even gave Michael and I a chance to go out to dinner by ourselves for the first time in a long time. We found a cute little Osteria and had a great meal.

We spent ten days in Rome and it was a great starting point for the European leg. We still have France, Spain and Portugal to go with many visitors planned. Off to Tuscany next!

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Jordan – Visiting Friends in Amman – Days 273-279

paige mLeave a comment

Some of our stops are based less on destinations and more on people we want to visit. My friend Laura and her family live in Amman, Jordan, and we’ve always wanted to visit them. We planned to spend six days and were all very excited to see our friends and live in a home again (with toys!). Laura picked us up from the airport and took us back to her house where the kids could get acquainted with hers since they had not seen each other in several years (thanks COVID). It did not take long before all four of them were playing together and destroying Laura’s living room with Lego everywhere.

Laura and her partner were amazing hosts. Although we had not made plans to leave Amman during the six days in Jordan, they were adamant that we could not come to Jordan and not visit two places: Petra and the Wadi Rum. Before we arrived, they had gone ahead and booked hotels and tours in these two locations for a weekend trip together.

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Abu Dhabi – Days 270-273

Mike PLeave a comment

We were on our way to Jordan for the next leg of our trip. When booking our flight from Thailand, we realized we could add a stopover in Abu Dhabi for a pittance. This would be one of the best decisions of the trip as I loved our 3-night stopover. The city is clean, the waterfront is landscaped, and they have beautiful sidewalks and walking paths. With Ramadan commencing, the city had a different vibe and the children had plenty of questions about fasting. It provided quite the contrast to our last week in Bangkok.

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