European Vacation...with two small children.

My family and I just returned from spending two weeks in Europe.  With two small children it was definitely an adventure and not for the faint of heart but we had a good time despite all of the hiccups.  Our trip spanned three countries:  Switzerland, Italy and France. 

When we arrived in Geneva, Switzerland and discovered that the airline had lost our double stroller we got a loaner umbrella stroller from the lost baggage department and moved on to our hotel in Bern; the capital of Switzerland.  The first day in Bern the kids and I headed out to find some breakfast and we found a quaint little bakery just off the tram line.  I was so excited to try the baked goodies and the minute we walked in my two year old daughter barfed all over the floor.  So we cleaned it up and promptly turned around and walked out and returned back to hotel where we went into hibernation mode until my little one was feeling better.  By that evening she was running around the hotel room destroying things so I knew she was feeling much better.  We met up with my husband for dinner at an Italian restaurant.  The restaurant was run by immigrants from all over Europe:  Croatia, Portugal, Italy, etc.  My daughter fell in love with an Italian speaking Croatian woman who spoiled her and caressed her little head and told her “mangia, mangia”.  We had to get a waiter from Portugal to translate the menu to his best Spanish because since everything was in German that was the closest we would get to understanding what we were about to eat. 

That night after the kids went to bed I went downstairs to use the internet and around midnight a disheveled Frenchman walked in dragging our gigantic double stroller behind him.  He said, “How many kids do you have? Two? Three? Four?”  

The next day was our last day in Bern so the kids and I went out exploring.  We first went to a toy fair that was going on outside of our hotel.  It consisted of mostly arts and crafts and handmade toys.  My spoiled American children were not impressed.  They kept looking at me like, “Where are the plastic toys?  This is lame mom.”  So moved on and explored the city of Bern which is beautiful.  It is worth visiting just to see the architecture alone.  We walked all over the city just enjoying the view. 

Overall, Switzerland is beautiful and perfectly clean everywhere you go (also perfectly expensive) and the people nothing short of delightful.  Almost everyone we encountered there spoke excellent English; the exception being the Italian restaurant of course.  Our next stop was Rome. 

Rome was an experience very different from Switzerland and France.  It was crowded, hectic, and busy.  It felt like I was at home in Bogota.  The people are hiliarious.  They really do use their whole body to talk, that’s not a Hollywood cliché.  The Italian culture also seems to be a fairly duplicitous one; they lie little about everything at least to the tourists anyway.  Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed my time there.  The food was amazing, it was much cheaper, the people were very nice and helpful, and there was so much history around every corner.  The city is beautiful and the culture of the Romans is quite kooky which made it all the more enjoyable.  Our hotel was not in Rome.  It was in a suburb called Ostia.  The description when I booked the hotel said it was 15 minutes from the city center which was a big fat lie unless maybe you have a helicopter.  It was a good 45 minutes to an hour to arrive in Rome.  However, the hotel faced the ocean and the room was much more spacious and luxurious than your typical budget European hotel.  The staff were helpful and so sweet with our children.  Our first night in Ostia we went to a seaside pizzeria near our hotel where we ate delicious pizza and pasta carbonara.  The waiter was adorable and a lifelong Ostian.  His family was eating at the table next to us and we met mom, dad, and sister.  We took a city tour and saw all of the major landmarks.  We paid for a tour guide in the coliseum whose English was terrible and had so many people on the tour it was impossible to hear her or understand her.  We also paid for a tour guide at the Vatican who arrived 30 minutes late causing us to have to skip out on the end of the tour to catch our next flight to Paris.  The Vatican tour was worth it though just to skip the mile long line outside and see the Sisteen Chapel.  This was an amazing sight to see.  While waiting for our tour guide to show up we ate at café across the street from the Vatican which we were warned against.  I don’t know how you can screw up lasagna in Italy but this place managed to do it and the bill was outrageous. 

Next we moved on to Paris.  I booked the cheapest flight I could find from Rome to Paris and guess why it was so cheap, the airport we flew into was 2 hours from Paris!  You can imagine our surprise when we arrived and I asked how much a taxi to our hotel would be.  The woman smugly answered, “About 200 Euro.”  I know taxis in Europe are expensive but I knew they weren’t that expensive.  She then proceeded to tell me that we were in a completely different region of France about two hours from Paris.  She this happens all the time.  Americans get off the plane and ask where the metro is and she says,”Oh about two hours from here.”  So we took a bus to Paris which wasn’t all that bad.  It was only about 15 Euros and it was clean and comfortable.  We arrived at a desolate bus station in Paris around midnight with our two small children and all of our luggage.  We were lucky to find a taxi right away which took us to our hotel.  We were happy to find that the hotel was actually inside of the city limits this time and did not take long to get to.  We actually rented a hotel/apartment room and when we arrived no one was there to check us in.  We were hungry, tired and cranky.  We called the hotline number posted in the lobby to try and get our keys out of the lockbox and no one answered.  We called over and over to no avail.  A kind man working in a bar next door passed by and began trying to call for us.  Someone finally answered and apparently they were no help.  The man only spoke French so all I could decipher was that the guy on the other end of the phone was an asshole.  The bartender left and we sat in lobby trying to figure out what to do.  We called another hotel where they told us that every hotel room in Paris was booked unless we wanted to pay 1000 Euros a night.  Finally a middle aged Frenchman staying in the hotel came through the door and began trying to help us.  He had the code to lockbox and got our keys out!  We were so relieved but there was no room number on the keys so we didn’t know which room was ours!  He called over and over as well.  Once again all I could decipher was that the guy on the other end of the phone was an asshole and didn’t want to help anyone at 1am.  My husband finally started trying the key in every door until he found one that opened.  We entered the dingy room that was about 30 square meters, basically a closet.  But it had a beautiful view and we were optimistic. 

We slept in until noon the next day, we were so exhausted.  We purchased a metro card and headed for the Eiffel Tower.  We had the most delicious hot chocolate at a beautiful little café facing the Eiffel Tower.  My daughter rode the carrousels next to the Eiffel Tower to her little hearts content.  We bought an Eiffel Tower from a guy from the Ivory Coast.  He ran off to get change and told me to man his station.  I sold 5 mini Eiffel Towers.  We went to the top of the Eiffel Tower.  It was amazing.  We spent one day at Disneyland Paris, yes we went all the way to Paris and ended up at Disneyland.  It was fun but not quite as magical as the American version.  The last day in Paris we walked the Champs Elysees.  I loved it.  It was beautiful and of course I really enjoyed the shopping.  I bought a purse from a guy on the street and 5 minutes later the cops had him pinned up against a wall.  My thinking is I got a really great purse for 30 Euros and that’s why the hassle with the police? 

We arrived back at our crappy hotel/apartment to find that the elevator was broken.  The night watchman (apparently he wasn’t working the night we arrived) helped us carry our enormous stroller up the stairs.  He said it wasn’t really his job but he would be helpful.  He also told us he had another job during the week and works every day because he has three children from three different mamas which makes things very complicated and him very broke, his words not mine. 

We took a high speed train back to Geneva to catch our flight back to Bogota via Paris, don’t even ask.  It was fun to ride the train.  However, people kept telling our daughter to be quiet like we were in church or something.  She’s not even quiet when we go to church.  We arrived in Geneva exhausted and went to get some lunch and then crashed in our hotel until the next morning of our flight.