Its true, it was really tough traveling like backpackers with the kids through Europe.  That said, areas of weakness are often the source of strength or unique advantage.  The downside to schlepping small children through train stations like they were fleshy luggage is obvious, but there were definite upsides to having them with us as well.

Beyond the mostly positive memories that we will hopefully all share, the real advantage to having kids on tour with you is that they force you to slow your roll.  Their insistence on doing things like stopping at parks and lingering near gelato stands allowed us to actually find the natural flow of the places we were in more easily while stepping out of the well worn grooves made by other travelers.   If Tania and I were traveling solo, we would likely have done at least a few tours, several more museums and certainly some romantic dinners.  While it would have been great to have had romantic dinners, I’m not convinced that we would have been better off on more guided tours or aping the same classical works alongside other tourists.  What we were doing instead – hanging out in otherwise non-descript parks, spending the extra half hour in the plaza just to chase the birds – is what had us actually spending time with locals, striking up multi-lingual conversations as we watched our kids play together.  Those were some of the moments that seem coolest now looking back on them.

Jade, who grows more astute on the daily, called us out early on in Paris about our apparent need to incessantly march from one place to the next.  “I  don’t understand why we need to keep walking forever and going from place to place.  Why can’t we just stay in this park for a while?  When we’re at home in LA we don’t keep walking from one neighborhood to another all day long.”  Hmmm, touché, young one.  Do we really need to see each of these things?  Is someone keeping score?  Generally speaking, I think the reason we subject ourselves to guided death marches through relics is that we are scared of missing anything especially beautiful or unique in the limited time that we have to travel.  But, is it possible that in rushing to ten places that we end up not really “seeing” any of them?

The gift of children on this trip was that they forced our hand and answered this rhetorical question for us.  They actually made us slow down and sit on the park benches, turn towards the spray from the fountains, and have impromptu picnics underneath the trees, oftentimes resting alongside Renaissance-era hidden treasures of sculpture or ornament.  It was in these spaces and places that we found some of our most natural rhythm and conversation, and actually got a sense of what it might be like to live in these astounding and historic cities.  Plus, there was the added benefit that the living museums – the central parks, squares and fountains that attract children of all stripes and dialects – were the only ones that weren’t swarmed with other tourists.