Transportation in Europe

It's not just about airplanes and trains when taking a big trip to Europe. We traveled by many different forms of transportation.

 

 There was the bus in Venice (as well as the bus in Rome).

The gondola in Venice was one of my favorite memories. Not exactly romantic with the kids along, but it was one of those things you just have to do while you are there.

The trolley in Poland (various cities) was a big hit with the kids.

 Sweet Son loved that the doors opened automatically while Sweet Daughter loved talking to everyone (even if they didn't speak English).

I loved that everyone let me sit down with the kids when it was crowded. It certainly helped when the kids were over tired.

This is another of my favorite memories from the trip. We rented a car in Poland because we were going to so many cities, many without public transportation. In Krakow we went to visit the castle and dragon's lair. There were signs around the area that were white squares with a big blue P on them and an arrow pointing to these spaces. Turns out that means private parking, not open to the public. When we got back to the car we discovered the boot. That's also when wonderful husband realized he had forgotten his wallet (with his drivers license) at the home we were staying in. We were able to track down a police officer who said he would send over the parking officers in a few minutes.

While we waited in the car wonderful husband tried explaining the situation to the officer. That's when we discovered a couple of other issues. Wonderful husband doesn't have an international drivers license, which is required in Poland. Luckily the officer was impressed that my husband is still fluent in Polish (now with an American accent) and decided to overlook that fact. However, he couldn't overlook the lack of any license at all. So, since I had my license on me, the ticket was written in my name and had me listed as the driver. This was an issue because the car is a standard and I don't know how to drive a standard at all, much less in a crowded, foreign, tourist area. I'm happy to say the exceptionally nice officer looked away as my husband drove us away. There were also multiple fines. The first one had to be paid on the spot in order to remove the boot. The second had to be paid by cash or money order after the fact.

For future reference - get an international drivers license, don't forget your wallet, and always be polite and speak in the local language if possible.

Train in Italy

To get from Venice to Rome, we scheduled a train ride. The kids love all types of transportation and this was their first big train ride.

Here we are with all of our luggage in the train station getting ready to board. 

Family photo from our table inside the train.

Giggles as we start to move.

Watching the countryside go by out the window. They also loved that they could fold the table open and closed over and over and over.

Just over half way through and still loving the ride.

This was actually taken on a train in Germany. The kids loved the airplanes and trains throughout the trip.

Venice like a local

While the tourist parts of Venice are amazing and not to be missed, our favorite parts were the more local areas. Venice is not a big place, so it's fairly easy to find your way off the beaten path (and find your way back).

 This might just look like another walkway, but this is not a tourist area. You can see laundry hanging out to dry and those are not tourist boats, those are family boats. On the side we are standing on there is a sidewalk, but from the other side people step straight from their boat into a door (or window) and into their home.

 

Every city we visited on this 3 country trip, we found a playground. While walking around for 8 hours wears us out, our kids still had energy to burn. It also gave them a chance to play with other kids and hear more of the local language. Even small differences like the swings made an impression on my kids. In America most swing seats are flexible plastic, while these were a hard piece of wood.  This park was just down the street from our hotel so we could easily stop by on our way back if the kids didn't look tired enough.

This may be the most important travel tip for anyone visiting Italy. All of the fountains have potable water. There are small taps around the city that just constantly have water running from them. These are a great way to refill water bottles. From the biggest most impressive fountains to the small taps, you will see people filling bottles, washing produce, washing hands, and drinking the clean water. I wish we had something like this around here.

You can't go to Venice without trying the gelato. I had the strawberry, sweet daughter had the banana, and sweet son LOVED the lemon. I don't remember what wonderful husband had, but he finished so quickly he was able to take this photo. haha

 You know you are starting to enjoy Venice like a local when you let your two year old run ahead of you because she knows where she is going. The best part? We were only in Venice for 2 full days and felt this at home. This is easily my favorite city we have visited just because it feels so different from everything else. So many places start to run together or remind you of someplace else. I never had that feeling here.

Don't put off planning a visit here because Venice is sinking, the soil is breaking up and floating away, it's tilting to the East, and flooding is causing a lot of damage to the monuments. While we hope to take the kids back in another decade or two, it might not be an option.

Birds in St. Mark's Square

In 2008, Venice banned the feeding of pigeons in St. Mark's square. This was done for the health of everyone as well as cleanliness factors. There are still quite a few birds hanging out hoping some of the tourists didn't get the message.

 We were sitting on a curb eating lunch and when they finished the kids wanted to go chase the birds. Clearly, they had energy so we let them. In this photo you can see the pigeon at the top flying away from the two year olds chasing it.

The kids found groups of pigeons and for some reason these pigeons decided to run away rather than fly. That just made the game more fun!

 

O.k. pigeons, new game plan - run in different directions. Hmmm, these children just won't give up!

I've never seen a look of clear panic on a bird before. However, deciding which way to go can be challenging. Two year olds on one side, a building on the second side, a large dog on the third side, and a group of people eating lunch on the fourth side. The bird whipped it's head around a couple of times and flew straight up.

Walking Around Venice

Yesterday, I posted about the many bridges in Venice. Today's post is all about the walking. We would set out after breakfast and walk all day. We would usually eat lunch sitting on a bench or curb and eat dinner at a restaurant. Other than that we were on the go all day. My kids are troupers. They would happily walk for 8-9 hours without complaint or asking to be carried.

 The kids loved exploring "tunnels" or what the locals call walkways.

We did pick the kids up for photos. Sweet son isn't happy about being carried. He would rather be walking.

 

This was toward the end of the day. The kids ask if they could sit to watch some boats. Then we walked for another hour before dinner and bed time.

The more of a "tourist" place we visited, the more we required them to hold our hands when walking. We ended up in some big crowds a few times.

She will always smile for a camera, even if she did demand to get down immediately after.

 

A family photo with tour groups in the background.

Mama, can we ride a lion? (I'm holding her on the back.)

One child smiling for the camera while the other doesn't understand why he can't look at the gondolas instead.

There's a happy kid! Clearly we aren't in a tourist area (lack of crowds) and we had just finished watching the garbage boat go by, so he's thrilled.

For a couple of two year olds they did wonderfully. They also slept REALLY well at night. For kids who normally would sleep 12 hours at night and take a 2.5hr nap, on vacation they would sleep about 13 hours at night. After a few days of that, we would schedule a day with a nap just so they weren't crazy sleep deprived children.

Bridges in Venice

For kids who love steps and bridges, Venice is the perfect vacation spot. There aren't a lot of kids in Venice and very few people take their kids on vacation here. That being said, all of the locals seemed to LOVE kids. We were constantly given special treatment, extra attention, and the kids were constantly entertained.

 We heard from others how difficult it is to get around Venice. We didn't find that at all. The neighborhoods are all clearly marked and if you know the general layout - where the neighborhoods are in relation to each other - it's simple. Many of the tourist maps aren't well marked so we didn't even get one. By our second day, the kids could even navigate around.

 This was outside our hotel. Across the street waterway is the public bus boat stop. It takes awhile to change the way you think and explain things.

 Every bridge is different. For two year olds this means every bridge is equally exciting and new.

We also regularly stopped to watch boats and gondolas. Here you can see the gondolier is bent at the waist in order to pass under the bridge.

 What about the most famous bridge? The Rialto Bridge is a major tourist stop for everyone. Here it is viewed from our ride on the public boat.

 The middle of the Rialto bridge is lined on both sides with booths selling anything and everything to tourists. Unlike most tourist traps, the prices here were actually reasonable a couple of places. We had walked all over and decided what we would buy and what a good price would be based on the 100s of shops we had already passed. When we saw the small masks cheapest here, we were thrilled! They even sold us the mask sweet son dropped and broke at half price. 

This is the view from the top of the Rialto bridge. The sides of the bridge were so incredibly packed that it took more time to wait for a chance at this photo than to walk across the entire bridge in the middle section.