Dispatches from the road, newest first. Written by whoever had the energy.
Throwback update: Slovenia
Inspired by an evening trying to help Luke retroactively fill in some missing days in his journal, I realize we should probably write something about Slovenia (which we visited more than a month ago!). We really wanted to go to at least one place that was a little off the beaten track. For a variety of reasons we settled on Slovenia, but due to all the moving chess pieces of flights, trains, and Air BnB availability we only had three days in the country. So we took the most beaten track possible in Slovenia to its number one tourist destination, Lake Bled.
Lake Bled is often described as something out of a fairy tale, and well...yeah.
It's a deep aquamarine lake, surrounded by mountains, overlooked by a castle sitting on top of a cliff, with an island in the middle that has a 500 year old church (that also kind of looks like a castle). It's pretty great.
Although a lot of people in the US haven't heard of it, it's become fairly Instagram famous in the last few years. In its first paragraph, The Lonely Planet guidebook for Slovenia talks about how crowded it is and how much some people are disappointed because of that (it also has a picture of Lake Bled on the cover). There were a few times when the crowds were pretty overwhelming, but we were pleasantly surprised with how empty it could be if you went out early in the morning, took a slightly less traveled hiking route, or went out in less than ideal weather.
So Lake Bled lived up to the hype for us. We were able to visit our first castle, which seems important on a European vacation.
We took a traditional Pletna boat out to the island. These things are actually rowboats that fit around 20 people, with the rower standing in the back of the boat. The rights to own one have been passed down within the same 23 families since the 1700s, and no one else is allowed to operate them.
And we swam, a whole lot. Because of our typical lack of research, I just assumed Lake Bled, like any mountain lake fed by glacial runoff, would be freezing. I didn't realize that it's fed by warm underground springs and that the water temperature can get up to almost 80 degrees in the middle of the summer. We hung out at a swimming area with a water slide one day, and the next walked to a different area and rented a stand up paddle board. I don't think anyone actually stood up on it for more than a few seconds, but it was a great thing to jump off of and sometimes that's what counts.
So we think Lake Bled deserves the crowds. It was a magical place, and we wish we could have spent more time there (and not waited a month to write about it).
Kids and museums
It's our first morning in Copenhagen. It's 64 and drizzling outside right now. It feels GLORIOUS.
Reflecting back on our time in Florence, I have a few thoughts that very much confirmed some preconceived notions I had going into this portion of the trip: 1) Florence is basically one giant, beautiful, 600 hundred year old open-air art museum; 2) 5 year old children don't have much of an interest in art museums.
We did go to several actual museums. I was able to take Luke to the Uffizi and all of the kids were mildly intrigued by the secret passages tour of the Palazzo Vecchio (even if it did give Sawyer a bit of heat exhaustion). But the best museum we went to, according to all of the kids and perhaps one grownup, was the Museum of Illusions. I tried to explain to them that Masaccio's mastery of linear perspective in his 1423 Holy Trinity is sort of, like, the original optical illusion, but they weren't particularly receptive.
Ultimately I think truly great works of art can sort of osmosis their way into being appreciated by kids (and adults), even if we can't verbalize exactly how we feel about them in the moment. So I'm very glad we spent those 7 minutes inside Santa Maria Novella, and equally glad we spent those 3 hours in the Museum of Illusions.
Time travel update for the Dolomites (by Aria)
The hardest thing about this trip is the hardest thing about being a parent back home in Brooklyn — what the f@#k are we supposed to eat for dinner and lunch?! We rarely eat out in Brooklyn so the kids also don't have practice waiting for food. Last night we ordered and 90 seconds later, Luke asked, "Where is our food? Why is it taking so long??". Not an appropriate question for long, relaxing Italian meals. Also, sodas are more expensive than wine. Seriously.
This is just one of the reasons the Dolomites are so magical, though. When you hike in the Dolomites (these pics are from Seiser Alm, this amazing plateau 6,000 feet up — Chris will check my facts on all things mountains/hiking), you just eat lunch at a beautiful mountain hut that you stumble upon. Usually the food is delicious and there is a playground right next to the restaurant that the kids can play at while you wait for your food.
This trampoline video is not from a mountain hut but from a restaurant that is perhaps the most beautiful place that Chris and I have ever eaten?? The kids jumped on an epic trampoline while Chris and I got 15 minutes of alone time to drink wine and enjoy the view. And the pizzas were out of this world. My body is fully 90% cheese at this point.
All in all, I can't recommend the Dolomites enough. I booked our spot (with little research hence the aforementioned lack of internet) and was sooooo worried that we would hate it. But the village was tiny and adorable and made me sing the "Beauty & the Beast" song, in a good way, every morning. If you don't know what I'm talking about, see here (and yes, I'm a horrible singer). Even though I'm the beach vacation person and Chris is the mountain vacation person, this might be my fav place so far!
Oh and before I forget, the public pools we've experienced so far have been great. This one was a 15 minute public bus ride from where we were staying and 5 euros to get in. The reviews online were mixed — some said it was great, some called it rundown, had too many rules and the aperol spritzes at the cafe weren't great. HAVE THEY BEEN TO THE SUNSET PARK and RED HOOK POOLS?? I just feel for these people when they come to Brooklyn in search of a public pool and they see what we have on offer — and this is coming from someone who loves and utilizes Brooklyn public pools whenever I can!
The Colosseum
I’m sure fighting to the death in front of thousands of screaming Romans was unpleasant. But ya know what else is unpleasant? “Feels like” 100 degrees at 9pm.
Powered by gelato and frozen water bottles the kids were still able to enjoy this very cool (no pun intended) slice of history that sits in the middle of Rome. Before the trip the Colosseum was the thing that Sawyer was most excited to see, so we’re glad that a little heat exhaustion wasn’t able to get in his way.
Update delays
We spent an amazing week in the Dolomites based in the village of Fié allo Sciliar. Our Air BnB was in the center of town, next to a beautiful 12th century church, and shockingly cool and pleasant despite the lack of air conditioning. However we missed the fine print that specified "no internet," which is necessary to update this website. So apologies for the lack of posts. We'll (again) try to retroactively add in some updates from our time in the Dolomites and Innsbruck.
We're currently in Florence - it's 7:00pm and 100 degrees Fahrenheit right now, and the forecasted high for our stay here ranges from 106 to 99. The air conditioning at this place works great, so we're all quite happy. Picture of Fié allo Sciliar below, more updates to come soon (hopefully)!
Hintertux glacier
I'm always like "let's just go lay on the beach on our vacation" but Aria is always like "no, let's go freeze on top of a mountain in an ice cave underneath a glacier". Marriage is all about compromise I guess.
Luke's via ferrata update
We took a short walk to the via ferrata. We asked some dudes for some rental stuff, and they were very lax about when to return it and told us that if they were closed just put it in the wooden box. They also explained how we should never take both hooks off at the same time or we could fall.
We then went to the start of the route and did a practice climb and then we were ready to set off up the mountain. The first part would have been possible without the rungs and wire but it got more mandatory to use the placed rungs and wire the farther we went. There were also ropes courses along the way that were pretty difficult, (especially for dad) but that’s because it was built for short kids not grownups that are 6 '3.
We also had to unclip one of our clips every once in a while to move over obstacles and whatnot, but sometimes we’d forget and have to down climb a little. Unclipping and reclipping became almost third nature, our hands also got very dirty from the wire and my head hurt because the helmet was small.
When we got to the top we had to hike down and go home, me and Sawyer had an argument about whether if you get sliced by a sword, is it moving you or is gravity moving you. I was right, it was the sword that was moving you.
At the end of the final ropes course there was a zipline that me and Sawyer got stuck in the middle of and the other two had to push them to the other side.
Another beautiful mountain lake
The kids have done a good job of going swimming on most days of this trip, even as we move higher up into the Alps and away from the beaches of Greece. We're currently in the ski resort town of Zell am See, heading up to a mountain hut tonight (if the weather cooperates). Hopefully one of the kids will talk about the amazing adventure playground / hike we went on yesterday when we get back.
The definitive ranking of Salzburg playgrounds, according to our kids
1: The one by the public pool. Because it's by the public pool, and because it has the two best things: the bouncy things, and the round spinny thing.
2: The one after the trick fountain / palace tour, because it had a zip line and a spinny thing and a bouncy thing, but the bouncy thing and the spinny thing aren't as good as the first playground.
3: The rock climbing playground. Even though we didn't have equipment to go rock climbing, it still had fun stuff.
4: The one on the way to the rock climbing playground. It had cool slides, but that was about it.
5: The one at the 17th century Augustine monk beer garden. It was just a slide. We had more fun playing Oh Hell at the table.
What do Australia and Austria have in common?
Nothing. The kids are very confused by this.
Full days, small Air BnBs, and slow internet service have all conspired to make these updates far more infrequent than planned. We did in fact visit a whole other country (Slovenia) so we'll try to retroactively fill everyone in on that when we get a chance.
In the meantime, Salzburg is beautiful. Luke and I checked out the castle nestled above the city while Aria and the younger kids saved their energy for the playground and a beautiful and shockingly empty public pool (it's really hot here this week). Hopefully we'll get up into the mountains and some cooler temperatures in the next few days.
The Portera
According to our kids' D'Aulaires Book of Greek Myths, Theseus slays the minotaur and escapes the labyrinth with the help of Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos. She runs away with Theseus, but at some point Dionysus gets the hots for her and Theseus, rather than fight over a girl with a god, drops her off somewhere between Crete and Athens.
The exact spot he dropped her off was a small island immediately off the coast of Naxos. In the 6th century BC, 100 years before the Parthenon was built, the tyrant Lygdamis began construction of a massive temple to Apollo on that island (no idea why it's not a temple to Ariadne). Lygdamis was removed from power and construction of the temple was halted, but not before a really, really big door had been built.
With the help of a causeway to the island built in the early 1900's, that door (or Portara) is now — in addition to being the definitive symbol of Naxos — a really awesome place to watch the sunset. Apparently we weren't the only ones with this idea.
We leave Naxos tomorrow, headed for Slovenia. Greece has been an amazing first stop on this journey. Hoping that the next stops have more of the same in store for us, and that Aegean Airlines takes better care of our bags than Delta.
Update by Sawyer
We went to a secret swimming beach and had ice cream at the waffle house. We played tag in the water at the secret swimming beach. For ice cream I gooootttt… lemon sorbet.
We also climbed to where Zeus's cave was. Me, Luke, Dad, and Cam peeked inside. I got pricked a couple of times by these prickly bushes but I'm okay.
We made it!
24 hours of travel, one missed connection, and one lost piece of luggage, but we're finally here!
We got to our AirBnB in Athens at 9 last night, so all I have to share is this grainy post-dinner nighttime picture of the Acropolis behind Cam. It's Friday morning, all the kids are still sleeping, and Aria is out trying to buy a new wardrobe.
The kids have handled all of this amazingly — thankfully Delta hasn't managed to figure out a way to lose their iPads yet! Parthenon tour later today, then Naxos and some well deserved beach time tomorrow!
Best laid schemes
With something like 17 different stops over the course of this vacation, we knew some sort of travel delays would get us at some point. We just didn't realize it would be so soon.
Our original flight to Paris was cancelled 10 minutes before we started to board. We were rebooked a day later, but the germs lurking in an airport lounge buffet had alternate travel plans for us. Aria is recovering from food poisoning, and we're hoping to start making our way to Athens later today.
Paris will have to wait for another trip, but hopefully the next update will include pictures of the Parthenon and happy, tanned children playing on a beach. Wish us luck!
Site is live. We haven't left yet.
Hello family and friends! We built this little website so you can follow along without having to rely on social media (Chris has too many followers already, ya know?)
With a 5th grader graduating, a kindergartener stepping up, and a second grader participating in chess, fencing, and a lot of "imagining," it hasn't been the ideal time to get ready for a big trip. But we're working on it!
We really will try to update this site, maybe not daily, but at least at each stop on this crazy odyssey. None of us have any web development experience at all, so if there are any issues — like most things in life — blame AI.