{"id":5898,"date":"2022-08-20T02:26:51","date_gmt":"2022-08-20T08:26:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/?p=5898"},"modified":"2022-08-20T02:27:12","modified_gmt":"2022-08-20T08:27:12","slug":"european-vacation-a-few-final-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2022\/08\/european-vacation-a-few-final-thoughts.html","title":{"rendered":"European Vacation: A Few Final Thoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a>
A poster I encountered during our walking food tour of Paris. Our family was available to do this concert, and I tried to make a case to go, but was vetoed. Probably wise that we didn’t go: I got COVID the last time I went to a concert (Alanis Morrissette last September).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

4 Aug 22: I’m sitting at the DMV, a couple days after returning home, with some good WiFi. I think now’s a good time to share some of my reflections from our trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

1.) Some travel stats: 17 days, 6 separate sets of accommodations (3 AirBnBs, 2 hotels, 1 “Gasthaus”), 111 miles walked over 16 days. At least 12 museums (the definition of “Museum” in this case includes “Visitor Centers”). 3 guided tours. 1546 photos – including 57 selfies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will eventually calculate the numbers of miles flown, driven, bussed, and trained…I am definitely curious about that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.) Each flight, each train ride, and each accommodation was by-and-large as planned. No canceled flights, no overbookings of AirBnBs, our pre-purchased tickets worked properly. What a blessing during this tumultuous travel summer. Lufthansa even had a 24 hour strike on 26 July, but we weren’t impacted. We had a couple of <1 hour delays on the flights and trains…and you heard about the station closures near our Paris and Berlin apartments. The hotel we had in Munich for the last night had a bit of a snafu with the pricing, I had apparently reserved 2 rooms for 1 person each, and we had to pay a little extra for 2 rooms with 2 people each. But at least the rooms were available and were easily adjusted for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
These will be among my most treasured souvenirs: the maps we used on this trip. The Paris map needed a little tape on the folds for this photo…we used that one a LOT!\u00a0\"?\"\"?\"\"?\"<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

3.) No air conditioning in any of our accommodations. When we did experience air conditioning (grocery stores, the Caen Memorial Museum, Louvre, and d’Orsay Museums…maybe the DDR Museum?) the thermostats were set pretty high, perhaps above 80F? I believe there was some federal law that allowed governments to mandate air conditioner thermostat settings and closing of business doors during heat waves<\/a>. We were very fortunate to have not gotten into Paris until after their string of 100F+ days the week of 17 July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4.) Dress code: I wish I had brought more summery dresses. I realized I was somewhat underdressed in Paris when we were in the Louvre. The boys did fine — they had brought enough collared shirts and khaki pants that they looked good everywhere they went.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5.) Student discounts: College students should bring their school IDs! Jacob didn’t bring his college ID…he doesn’t ordinarily keep it in his wallet when at school. At all but one place, he could merely point at his Mines shirt and say “I’m an enrolled student in the U.S.” and he got the often-substantial student discount. Tim was getting the youth discounts at most places — and free admission into the Louvre! — since he isn’t 18 yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6.) Carbs: Despite all the bread, chocolate, and sweets I ate, I didn’t gain ANY WEIGHT on this trip. At least not according to the scale. However, I definitely came home with more muffin top. Dave and I are pondering whether it was all the walking, or was it the quality of the foods we were eating?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7.) Our sons did great! In a FB group I’m in, for parents of high school and college-aged kids, there’s a lot of sharing of photos of annoyed kids who clearly didn’t want to be on the trip AT ALL. I would have struggled to find a photo like that among our 1500+. Our boys took it all in like champs. We had many conversations about the differences in cultures. Many more discussions of how young the U.S. is by comparison. I’m guessing being allowed to buy wine and beer publicly helped their attitudes quite a bit. It wasn’t perfect. A couple times the boys were a smidge cranky from not getting as much sleep as they’re used to, and feeling like I had too much in the schedule. Mom and Dad might have gotten that way too. Jacob and Tim respected our aggressive schedule on the formal tour and public transportation days. Which brings me to my final thought….<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8.) Public transportation. We only rented a car for the first 4 days of the trip. Then we did all the rest of our travels via trains, buses, and subways. Dave and I, as well as our sons, are huge proponents of public transportation for environmental reasons, but realized in a hurry how much planning and extra time you need to allow to make it all work. Many evenings were spent researching the following day’s timetables and maps, coming up with what time we had to wake up, be out the door, and catch connecting travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to everyone for following along. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

4 Aug 22: I’m sitting at the DMV, a couple days after returning home, with some good WiFi. I think now’s a good time to share some of my reflections from our trip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ycQ0-1x8","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1765,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2013\/02\/jimmy-buffett-in-pensacola.html","url_meta":{"origin":5898,"position":0},"title":"Florida Discoveries 38: Our Day as Parrotheads","date":"10 February 13","format":false,"excerpt":"Dave and I went to a Jimmy Buffett concert last week! The Pensacola show was at the tail end of the Lounging at the Lagoon tour. Cross that one off our Florida bucket list! We honestly didn't know what to expect. We read about folks tailgating hours before the concert,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"concert\"","img":{"alt_text":"Our awesome tailgate setup!","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/IMG_5591-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":378,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2009\/07\/a-barenaked-ladies-concert.html","url_meta":{"origin":5898,"position":1},"title":"A Barenaked Ladies Concert","date":"19 July 09","format":false,"excerpt":"Many of you saw the photo I'd e-mailed out yesterday -- you can quickly post to your blog with your telephone and that's what I did.\"What's the big deal? So it's a blurry picture of a bunch of guys playing on a stage....it could have been anyone\"You're right, it could\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Uncategorized\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4101,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2015\/08\/weird-al-concert.html","url_meta":{"origin":5898,"position":2},"title":"Weird Al Yankovic In Concert!","date":"15 August 15","format":false,"excerpt":"Last August\u00a0\"Weird\" Al Yankovic came in concert in Denver. We got tickets for the whole family! This tour was announced in 2014 not long after Weird Al's Mandatory Fun\u00a0album was released, and our boys absolutely loved the songs and music videos. Unfortunately, with Colorado's more liberal marijuana laws, it's hard\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"We don't go to concerts often, but when we can take our kids, all the better!","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/IMG_3220-1024x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3444,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2014\/11\/jacob-the-cellist.html","url_meta":{"origin":5898,"position":3},"title":"Jacob the Cellist","date":"24 November 14","format":false,"excerpt":"Jacob took up cello at his new middle school. It's been a joy listening to him practice: the 4 years of piano has helped him get a leg up on reading bass clef and understanding things like tempo, dynamics, and rhythm. Here he is playing at his winter concert on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"cello\"","img":{"alt_text":"IMG_0615","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/IMG_0615-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2598,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2013\/09\/colorado-discoveries-12-colorado-springs-pioneer-museum.html","url_meta":{"origin":5898,"position":4},"title":"Colorado Discoveries 12: The Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum","date":"27 September 13","format":false,"excerpt":"For a Cub Scout field trip, in mid-September our family visited the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum in the heart of downtown. The museum is free of charge (donations are always welcome), and has numerous artifacts from Colorado Springs' past and current histories. The interior of the museum is beautifully maintained,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"colorado\"","img":{"alt_text":"The Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum is in the old city hall. This museum reminded me of the Old Florida State Capitol.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/IMG_7448-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":220,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/08\/cellos-were-playing-what.html","url_meta":{"origin":5898,"position":5},"title":"Cellos were playing what????","date":"23 August 08","format":false,"excerpt":"I found a pretty good radio station here, better than anything I could find in NC or in FL.\"The River\" plays a nice variety of newer rock music (Audioslave, Beck, Flogging Molly) with some \"classics\" mixed in (I heard some R.E.M. from Document, U2 from War, and old Offspring today).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"music\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5898"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5898"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5902,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5898\/revisions\/5902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}