We have enjoyed a couple of relaxing days catching up on errands, exercise, laundry, school work, enjoying our beautiful new town and orienting ourselves to the area.

The kids came up with a fun art project to do with shells that they collected from our beach.

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They have also been busy learning about dolphins. Leila is working on a persuasive writing assignment about why she believes dolphins should be considered the MOST intelligent animal and Josh is trudging along on a week-long dolphin research book. We had a lot of inspiration when we went out for a dolphin watching tour. This area has the largest resident group of dolphins in Europe and we probably saw 20 different dolphins on our two hour cruise. Some were swimming and playing so close to the boat that Leila actually got a shower courtesy of a great big dolphin splash.

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Leila has also been busy cooking; this girl always manages to find the most complex (also delicious) recipes. These cookies took 3 days and involved grinding seeds, beating with an electric mixer (which was my right arm since we don’t have one of those) and multiple rounds of kneading/rolling/chilling. I’m picking our next Irish recipe!

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Other than that, it has been lots of time running down to the playground, exploring the beach, touring the lighthouse and settling in. This place is truly magical.

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Talk about stark contrasts. We have spent the last month living the city life in Strasbourg, Paris and London. We have now arrived in the countryside…and it is gorgeous! For the next three weeks we are staying in Kilbaha, County Clare, Ireland.
This area is known as the ‘Wild Atlantic Way’ and the name is very fitting. The wind and ocean is fierce, crashing into the cliffs and flattening the beach rocks into the smoothest of pebbles. We have a wonderful and rather large (compared to what we have been used to) house right on the pier and surrounded by the ocean, fields and cows.

There was no holding us back this morning. After I took a quick run, the kids and I spent hours climbing around the rocks and exploring the tide pools while Sean ran. This is the best backyard ever!

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After that the kids were anxious to run down to the town playground on their own. We are in a tiny village and with barely any traffic I feel completely safe letting the kids run down to the few small spots in town. Less than a 100 meters from our house is a restaurant, a small store and a great little playground. The kids are so excited to have some independence and venture out without us. The restaurant, Keatings, apparently has the best scampi and chips, fun live music and it claims to be the closest restaurant to NYC in all of the European Union…that’s prime real estate!

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After lunch, we took a full family outing to the grocery store which is 30 minutes away. Driving on the other side of the road and navigating this area is still a two person job so no solo outings yet. This will be quite a change from the daily walks to the grocery that we have become accustomed to. Scenery like this sure helps with the long errands though.

Finally home for school work, reading and getting ready for a relaxing evening in this amazing home. We have really spoiled ourselves with this one and plan to enjoy and appreciate it thoroughly!

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Our final day was the icing on the cake (or perhaps the jam on the scone) of a wonderful week in London. The morning started with a long overdue haircut for Josh and Sean. Josh was not at all comfortable with the idea of having his precious hair coiffed outside his regular barber shop but boy was he pleased with the results. He came bounding through the door super proud to show off his fancy London do…and Sean was pretty excited about his matching cut as well.

Now that the boys were presentable, we were off to the London Science Museum just a few blocks away. Another museum which totally blew me away and again…was FREE! One could easily spend a whole day here but we only had a couple of hours. We divided our time between two main areas. The first was the outer space section where we enjoyed a presentation on all of the animals that have traveled into space; from the first fruit flies all the way up through monkeys. It was actually pretty incredible hearing about how quickly bees adapted to be able to fly in space and how long it took a spider to figure out how to weave a web. Our second stop was the exhibition on mathematics. Both Leila and Josh love math so we were pretty excited about this area which focused on how math is used in industry, government, medicine, military…everything. It demonstrated how math has shaped some of our most fundamental human concerns including war, peace, life and death. My favorite section focused on math’s role in medicine and the importance of using math to spot trends, understand statistics and help improve lives. Long story short…we all got our geek on today!

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After the museum we all hopped on the tube to head back to Covent Gardens. Josh and Sean planned to pass some time watching street performers (one of our favorite activities) while Leila and I were next door at the Royal Opera house DANCING! About 6 months ago I came upon this opportunity to “Dance With The Royal Ballet”. Getting the tickets for this was no easy feat and I may have broken the “14 and over” rule a tad, but I couldn’t pass up this opportunity for Leila. Leila was a bit intimidated when she realized she was the only kid in the room and I was very intimidated when everyone else (well 90%) busted out their leotards and ballet slippers…I thought this was supposed to be for beginners! No fear, we both held our own. One of the lead Royal Ballet ballerinas was our instructor, the orchestra’s pianist provided live accompaniment and we were dancing (at least I was trying to) the intro for the Romeo and Juliet ballet in the Paul Hamlyn Hall of the Royal Opera House in London. Unreal!

Afterwards, we met up with Sean and Josh and enjoyed a few more performers. Josh’s haircut must have made him irresistible because he was pulled up by not one but two different performers to participate in their acts! The second act got a bit too much for Josh and he bowed out half way through but I was pretty proud of that guy for getting out there and he can now legitimately claim “street performer” on his resume.

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We visited China Town for our final dinner and then spent enough money to buy 500lbs of M&Ms on approximately 5lbs of M&Ms at the seizure inducing M&M world. We have done so much in London and it has been such a fun time. I feel like good luck has really been on our side; we have enjoyed so many wonderful surprises, incredibly kind people and once in a lifetime experiences.

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Post Note: This would have been posted yesterday when I was working on it in our kitchen…but then a mouse ran across the room and I ran out of it! I have to say, that is going to make leaving London just a little bit easier. Sudduths out!

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We headed in separate directions again today as Leila couldn’t possibly visit London without a little Harry Potter tour and Josh just wasn’t that interested. So, Sean and Leila spent the day together enjoying a long Harry Potter walking tour which began at the King’s Cross station and went all the way to London Bridge.

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They also got to see the ‘8 Hearts for 8 Victims’ mural which is in honor of the 8 people that lost their lives in the London Bridge Terror Attack. Beautiful.

Josh was so excited for another bike ride, and I was pretty excited to have him as my experienced tour guide. We wound our way through Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Green Park, St. James’ Park and ended up at Buckingham Palace. We stopped to have a snack picnic on the grass and when we got back on our bikes a whole lot of commotion started right in front of us. I assume this was part of the ‘Changing of the Guards’ which I had not been that interested in seeing but our surprise viewing of the cavalry portion and our front-row seats (bicycle seats that is) made it pretty special.

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We had another surprise viewing about an hour later when some dignitary was making their way over for a palace visit and crossed our paths in a quiet section of the park.

After a few hours of biking and Josh’s hysterical laughter at my hat blowing off, my shirt being covered in dead gnats (like a car’s windshield) and a little talking to by the British police due to an accidental wrong turn it was time to return our bikes. Still full of energy though (Josh, not me), we spent a couple hours at the playground before heading home to rejoin Sean and Leila.

Inspired by our lovely ‘Tea’ yesterday, I fixed a yummy breakfast for the whole family of scones, eggs and berries and we enjoyed a (relatively) slow start to the morning. We were out the door by 9:30 to travel, by tube, across town. In just a few days we have taken full advantage of the underground/tube/subway system here which is unreal. It conveniently goes everywhere, is super clean and the staff, fellow passengers and the announcements are so polite with pleasant notifications of each stop and reminders to “mind the gap”. Oh…and the kids are free. I love it!

Our first stop for the the day was the HMS Belfast. This Royal Navy warship has an impressive history going back to WWII and it offered an amazing tour. We had a great audio tour which provided really interesting information and the kids’ version even included a quiz, which made Leila very happy. We were able to visit everything from the “heads” to the engine room to the gun loading stations. We climbed up and down ladders and sat atop the anchors. The ship also had several former navy men who had served on the boat and other individuals who had been affected by the war in different ways. We spent a bit of time speaking with Anna, who was a young child in Budapest when the war began and she shared her tale of being relocated many times, at times subsiding on grass and leaves for food and eventually being saved by the American soldiers. She told us how horrible war was and I think her personal story really resonated with the kids. Next time one of them complains about my dinner I will be sure to remind them of Anna and her meals of grass!

This was an amazing tour that all of us truly enjoyed.

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After the ship, we headed back home for lunch and then we were off to Covent Garden for the afternoon. This is where Leila and I had enjoyed the street performers yesterday and we were anxious to share this wonderful area with Sean and Josh. We spent a couple hours watching different performers, eating ice cream and taking in the area. The performers are so much fun; you could be entertained here all day going from juggler to illusionist to musician and more.

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We had our first dinner reservations of the trip. Following in the footsteps of my brother’s family, who were here in December, we treated ourselves to a delicious meal out at Cichetti’s in Piccadilly Square. YUM!

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Day 2 was another big day. We started out all together at the Natural History Museum; just a few blocks from our house. This museum was unbelievable. Free, as are most museums in London, it is enormous and full of an insane amount of exhibits. With a time crunch we probably only managed to see about 20% of it, dividing most of our time between the very cool human evolution section and the mammals.

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By noon we had to separate as the ladies had some big plans to keep. Leila and I had made plans months ago to enjoy a traditional afternoon English tea and see a ballet performance at the Royal Opera House. It was amazing! The tea was over the top and it was so incredibly peaceful and relaxing (sorry boys, but we needed a break).

After tea, we wandered through Covenant Gardens, enjoyed some amazing street performers, picked up a few new books at the bookstore and made our way to the Royal Opera House. Exploring the Opera House with Leila and participating in her excitement over the ballet costumes, theaters and history was so special. We loved the ballet performance and Leila is so excited to return in a few days when she has the opportunity to DANCE with the Royal Ballet.

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Apparently the boys had a pretty great time biking too! Josh has been missing his bike SO MUCH!!!

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We all met up for an evening at the playgrounds and then home to cook, shower and collapse. We are loving our time in London and excited to see more tomorrow.

We had such a warm welcome to London last night. I’m totally confused by the fact that we are speaking the same language as everyone around us and am overthinking “how do you say hello, please, thank you, goodbye” because I am so accustomed to that being an effort. I’m truly not sure if I miss the language barrier (I really did make an effort and was always proud when I had a successful interchange) or love the break from trying so hard.

A very friendly cab driver (a classic black cab no less) delivered us to our adorable little house in South Kensington for the week. We quickly loaded up on some groceries and enjoyed a cozy dinner at home.

In the morning, Sean and I both took turns going for a run; just a half mile from Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, we have miles and miles and miles of park ground to explore and cover – it’s awesome. After that it was off for a day of adventure.

We started out with a hop on/hop off tour where we did a little of both (busing and walking). We had a live guide and she was awesome, having to manage the fact that the tour route was a little off due to navigating around a race taking place.

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We took the bus tour all the way to the other end of London and the Tower of London. The Tower was so crowded (apparently we have landed in London during a week long school vacation), but we managed to whizz through and see some (but not all) of the highlights.

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Escaping the crowds, we headed straight for lunch. Three servings of fish and chips and one order of the best hamburger ever (according to Josh) set just the right tone for our London visit.

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Next stop was Tower Bridge where we were really in for a surprise. We expected the highlight to be our sky high walk over the glass bottomed walkway.

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What we didn’t expect was that we would somehow get caught up in this circus experience going on on top of the Tower Bridge. The “ring master” escorted the kids to the front of the line and then entertained them as they moved from the top of the bridge down to the engine room with various acts over the next hour. I still have no idea what was going on or how we got pulled into the excitement but the kids both agreed it was the best part of the day!

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After that we found the tube and took our first trip on the underground. Sean and Leila headed back home to fix dinner and relax while Josh and I headed to the park. We all successfully navigated our first tube rides (SO EASY) and Josh had an absolute blast at the ‘Princess Diana Memorial Playground’ in nearby Kensington Gardens.

It was a long but wonderful day in this amazing city. Ready for more tomorrow!

Paris and I have a sordid history. As a backpacker, I traveled with a friend through Paris in college and loved it. I distinctly remember buying baguettes and cheese from the grocery and relaxing in the park next to the Eiffel Tower (I couldn’t afford to do much more than that). I remember feeling the immensity of the city and loving its culture. A few years later I spent some time working and living in this city for awhile…and I struggled. The city felt harsh and intimidating. I recall a lack of patience with my concerted efforts to learn french, frighteningly aggressive men and a general response that anything I wanted (dry cleaning, a calling card, a plane ticket home) was “impossible” (said in a stern french accent).

I really wasn’t super excited to return but it was very high on Leila’s list of “must see’s” and it does seem somehow wrong to go to France and not spend some time in Paris.

Josh has been looking forward to our “home” in Paris for about 6 months; because of the “dungeon” he and Leila were going to sleep in. It did not disappoint. Our airbnb was tucked down this very quaint alley in the heart of the Latin Quarter and just a couple of blocks from Notre Dame. Both the main floor of the apartment and the “dungeon” down below were very cool and certainly added to our Parisian experience.

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Our arrival day was a tiring one. After a busy morning and a 2+ hour train ride, what should have been a 15 minute cab ride to our apartment had taken well over an hour, thanks to police closing down a number of streets. We barely made it out for dinner.

After a solid night’s rest we were ready to make our one full day in Paris a memorable one. Stop number one was of course a trip up to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Great weather, a clear day and minimal crowds since we were nice and early made for a great trip up.

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Stop number 2 was a boat tour on the River Seine (after a quick crepe of course). We have done a number of “tours” on our trip so far and they have really all been amazing. A great way to see so much of the city and learn a bit about history. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case with this one. The audio wasn’t working and after many attempts to correct it we just gave up and enjoyed the boat ride and the beautiful day. We were all a bit bummed but c’est la vie.

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After the boat we took a nice long walk to this amazing little cafe a bit off the tourist path. Lunch was delicious and we were able to relax and enjoy the scenery, a little wine and even lingered for coffee under the awning when a brief rainstorm passed through.

Once the rain passed we took a long 2 mile walk to Le Jardin du Lexembourg, a big garden that was touted as having one of the best playgrounds in the city. Unfortunately, the playground turned out to be under construction so we ended up killing most of our time at the boat pond just outside the palace. Josh spent well over an hour chasing his boat around the pond with Sean while Leila and I relaxed and played the old-school hand shake games I remember from being a kid (Concentrate, Miss Susie Had a Steamboat, Miss Mary Mac Mac Mac, etc.).

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We racked up another mile of walking from the park back to our apartment, stopping at a few sites along the way, and were so exhausted we ended up picking up dinner and enjoying it at home.

With only a few hours to enjoy Paris on our final day, we decided to check out the Montmartre district. We visited the Sacre-Coeur, the Love Wall (where “I love You” is written in every language) and the colorful streets of this unique area of Paris. With the first hills and stairs we have seen in almost a month, this area reminds me a lot of San Fran. It was great to check out a new spot.

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Paris is still far from my favorite city in Europe but we really did have a great time. Leila said Paris wasn’t really what she expected and when I asked her what she expected she said “more like Strasbourg”. I think the smaller cities fit us both a bit better. That said, I hope the kids both come back to Paris some day. We barely touched the surface of what there is to see and do here and there is much more to be discovered.

Now…off to London! It is going to be really strange to be around English speaking people for the first time in two months!!

Our last night in this unbelievable city and I am so sad to leave. I knew so little about Strasbourg when we added it to our itinerary, and honestly still very little even when we first hopped off the train here…but I have completely fallen in love. There is so much that I want to make sure I don’t forget, but most of all I hope to return one day. There is a pretty amazing college here so perhaps in about 8-12 years?

A few things I hope to always remember:

Street Musicians. Every day we can open our living room window and be serenaded by all sorts of live music. Guitar players, accordionists (is that right?), singers and full bands with dancers, chalk artists and other performers in tow.

Bikes Rule the Streets. Everyone bikes in this city and they even have their own dedicated bike paths (that means no cars or pedestrians) on most streets. These bike lanes are wider than the whole street was in Praiano so I hope they know how lucky they are.

Storks a Plenty. In Strasbourg you see storks nesting on rooftops, chimneys and trees. While we were here, the nests were all filled with baby birds and stork fly bys were the norm at the park.

Family-Friendly For Real. Strasbourg (and really a lot of other places in Europe too) seems to have taken family-friendly to a whole new level. With reduced and often free tickets for kids, playgrounds aplenty and kid areas in even the fanciest of museums – I was so impressed. My kids have always been pretty happy to go to museums but now it has become one of their favorite things to do.

You Can’t Just Walk Past Bakeries. I mean it’s impossible. This whole city smells like a fresh baguette; and croissants just taste better when eaten in France.

Clean Streets Come at a Price. They like their city clean here and that means there is constant trash collection, there are people whose job it is to clean cigarette butts out from between cobble stones and they wash the streets…every day…VERY EARLY…and not very quietly.

Speaking of Cigarette Butts… I rarely see anyone smoking at home anymore and it is so common here (not just Strasbourg…so far that is the case everywhere we have been). Cigarettes and e-cigarettes are everywhere and I have probably inhaled more second hand smoke in the last 2 months than I have in the last 20 years.

Armed Soldiers. Strasbourg is a picturesque, quaint city filled with beautiful canals, idyllic architecture, the friendliest locals, endless children and a generally happy/peaceful vibe…and then there are these four soldiers armed with some very serious looking guns that just walk the city all day. I have been startled more than once when popping out of a bakery, hopping down a cobblestone street with Josh or enjoying a peaceful day at the park to turn around and come face to face with this mini-militia. It’s not scary per se (for many it is probably reassuring) but I find it extremely unnerving. I immediately feel the need to be quiet, grab the kids’ hands and not make any sudden movements.

Patisseries (not the same as bakeries – even if it was they are worth a double mention). The pastries are artful masterpieces here. They are stunning to look at, delicious to eat and with hundreds of options it is just so hard to choose.

Cobblestone Streets. I’m convinced my knees will never forget (or recover from) the streets of Strasbourg. Already fragile, I have done a real number on my knees walking and running this city. We traded the endless hills of Praiano for the completely flat city of Strasbourg…but it came at a price. Luckily, everything else more than made up for it.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to Strasbourg. I’m sad to leave for all these reasons and so many more. I’m happy I got to share this city with my kids and my mom…and a few days with Sean too. I’m happy to have found a new place that I truly love and feel blessed to have lived in for a few weeks. I feel lucky to have discovered kugelhopf and to have not gotten hit by a bike. I’m not sure if I will ever again have the chance to live right on top of a bakery and I’m not sure if that is a good or a bad thing. I’m proud of my crew for walking hundreds of miles these last few weeks and determined to do more of that when we get home. I hope I have the opportunity to return to this city again one day and discover even more. More than that, I hope one day Leila and Josh take their families here and tell them what it was like when they were kids and got to “live” in Strasbourg.

Today we saw ALL the cities of Europe, they just happened to be made out of lego.

It was last Thanksgiving with my family when we decided to add Strasbourg to our trip list. I don’t remember who it was but someone said…”oh you’ll have to go to Legoland”. It was a non-negotiable after that, even when we found out it is quite a distance from Strasbourg, train/bus would not be an option and a rental car and 3 hour trip each way was the ONLY option. We made it happen though, and everyone had a ton of fun.

Since it was a Wednesday, and everyone else in Europe was at school, we practically had the place to ourselves. The lego creations were so cool…with all the famous city sites, moving trains/boats/even cable cars and the biggest lego soccer stadium ever.

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After that it was non-stop rides. I don’t have any pictures of all the crazy rides we went on (roller coasters, fire truck relay races, the techno (more like psycho) teacups) but they were a blast. Josh did his first (and second, third, fourth and fifth) roller coaster ride and was hooked. I love that both of my kids are roller coaster fans!

It was a long ride home after that crazy day. The autobahn might allow you to go 200km/hr but there seems to be construction traffic every 30 minutes which brings you to a grinding halt. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day was at the gas station we stopped at to refuel the car before returning it. The gas station had an impressive supermarket and sold chinese dumplings. I couldn’t wait to show the kids what I had bought for dinner since this is one of their favorite foods and a regular staple back home.

A pretty super day!

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