Toddler Travel Archives - Page 13 of 16

Aug 11 2014

Amenity Kit Repurposing for Parents

Lufthansa's current first class amenity kit bag can double as a tablet holder — Lufthansa’s current first class amenity kit bag can double as a tablet holder

Here’s something pretty clever my wife came up with that I’m sure others have thought of. Yesterday, we somehow left the house and drove half an hour before we realized we had completely forgotten our diaper bag. Oops. Luckily we were with friends who lent us some diapers, but that’s a situation we didn’t want to be caught in again.

The stuff inside doesn't really matter too much — The stuff inside doesn’t really matter too much

We decided to leave “emergency” diaper bags in our cars – but the question was what to put them in? Well, our recent trip to Europe has left us with four amenity kits and four sets of pajamas, each with bags. If you travel international business class a lot, these amenity kits start piling up. I’d turn them away but I find I always need one thing on them (usually that I forgot). Like this time, I forgot my toothbrush so the amenity kit came in handy.

Why not make the amenity kit useful? Diapers and wipes go in... — Why not make the amenity kit useful? Diapers and wipes go in…

Anyway, I guess even Lufthansa has figured out that these amenity kits can be wasteful. They told us our kit could double as a tablet case, which is true. More importantly, there was a smaller bag inside that is perfectly sized to be an emergency diaper bag. So we took one of the amenity kits, the bag that held Jess’ pajamas and the bag that held mine, and made three emergency diaper bags! One for each of our cars and a spare, two diapers and some wipes in each.

Pretty simple, but this is the most use we’ve gotten out of an amenity kit for a long time. Between this and letting Little M play with them (she likes to take everything out and put it back in), amenity kits are definitely on the upswing in this household!

Anyone else have alternate uses for amenity kits?

Aug 07 2014

Bavarian Summer: Food in Germany and Austria

It has now come time for me to write the “food post.” I was considering not writing one, but some loyal readers (read: 2) requested it and who am I to turn them down!? Here are some of the types of foods we ate – and I’ve made note to highlight some of our most memorable culinary experiences as well.

Pretzels, Beer, and Wine

Let’s start out with some of the lighter stuff. Germany is home to many, many pretzels. You can find them on every street corner, every pub, even in some restaurants. I would not say that the pretzels are amazing – but they are solid and I averaged one per day during our time in Germany (they weren’t as readily available in Austria).

Obviously Germany is pretty famous for their beer. While we weren’t visiting during Oktoberfest or anything like that, beer was everywhere and was a staple of almost every meal. Unfortunately, I don’t know too much about beer, my buddy over at A Pint Half Full would be able to do a much better analysis of what I drank. I stuck mostly to the hefeweizens or “weissbiers” – wheat based stuff.

I also bought a few bottles of monk beer – I guess back in the day there was a lot of monastery brewing. I wasn’t too impressed with those.

Besides pretzels there are lots of other baked goods to be had

In Austria we had a lot more wine than beer. Austria is a major produce of Gruner Veltliner, a type of white grape – we drank that almost exclusively. It’s nothing super complicated or refined, but a great wine to drink with a meal. I wish I could describe it but I’m not wired like that – but from Wikipedia: “Master of Wine Jancis Robinson notes that Grüner Veltliner is usually produced dry with spicy, peppery notes. It is often full-bodied and with age can take on aromas and flavors similar to white Burgundies.” So there you have it!

Main Courses

There were some pretty staple dishes that we had over and over again, so I just thought I’d talk about them here.

I, um, ate a significant number of these

Sausages and Wursts

These are ubiquitous. M loved them after we peeled off the skin so we ate some type of sausage almost every single day. There are small wursts, thick wursts, wursts filled with cheese, spicy ones – if you can think of it – it probably exists. In Germany the bratwursts were often served with a dollop of mustard on the side and french fries, so you know I liked it. My recommendation – if you eat meat just try them all until you get sick of them – and just don’t think too much about how the sausage is made.

Kasekrainer, Vienna's version of a cheese dog — Kasekrainer, Vienna’s version of a cheese dog

A special shout out to the Kasekrainer, a special type of sausage cooked with cubes of cheese inside of it. So it’s like a cheese dog, except the cheese is INSIDE. Crazy.

Hearty Food

A lot of Bavarian food consisted of hearty meats – stewed beef, roasted duck, etc. It was like people just hunted wild animals and cooked them for dinner. Well, it felt like that it least. A lot of the dishes came with thick brown gravies and large potato balls. I thought I’d like the potato balls more but they were a bit too sticky and chewy for my liking.

Roast duck with the standard potato dumplings

Another big thing in Bavaria is the Schweinshaxe, or pork knuckle. This thing looks crazy and generally comes with a gigantic knife stabbed into it. I’m not sure if we ordered it at the wrong places, but I found that it generally looked better than it tastes (often too salty and I am an American when it comes to how salty I like my food). The fried skin was also too tough for my liking (I’m more used to fried duck or pork skin). Still, I think if you’re in Bavaria you have to try this.

The pork knuckle is not for the faint of heart

Vegetables, as always in Europe, seemed a bit hard to come by – though the salads in Germany and Austria seemed more like “American” salads. It feels like whenever we order salad in Italy we get like pasta salad with only a tiny bit of vegetables or something. We finally started ordering roasted vegetables with like every meal because we were getting sick of potato based starches.

Bavaria also featured a lot of great soups – mainly beef broths and consommes with large dumplings inside of them. In Austria, a lot of these times these soups would come with “pancakes”, strips of egg that are kind of like thick crepes. Apparently back in the day they’d take leftover dessert crepes and throw them in the soup the next day. Here’s a recipe if you’re interested – that stuff was GOOD.

Schnitzel

Schnitzels deserve their own category – as I understand it, schnitzel basically means any meat that you pound thin and deep fry. Again, if you’re not vegetarian – how could you go wrong with this? There were tons of versions of this.

Wienerschnitzel, the classic, is veal that has been pounded thin and deep fried. I find that it tastes tougher than veal normally does, which makes me question why they even need to use veal in the first place (I generally don’t eat veal).

Deep fried meat and potatoes - Bavaria in a picture — Deep fried meat and potatoes – Bavaria in a picture

Schweineschnitzel is pork – think chicken fried chicken but with pork instead. I generally preferred that.

The best wienerschnitzel we had was in Vienna in a place called Plachutta’s. In fact, that was one of the best meals we had period along with Gastof zum Neuhaus in Berchtesgaden.

You can get this stuff anywhere and everywhere

Tafelspitz

The most unique thing we had to eat was Tafelspitz which is considered to be the national dish of Austria which we also had Plachutta’s. It was a pretty cool production and worth going into detail.

Tafelspitz is essentially boiled beef – but it’s boiled for a long time along with the bone marrow. The soup absorbs a lot of the flavors. You start your meal by drinking the soup. You can ask for a bowl with nothing in it, with pancake, or with Austrian dumplings.

The beef is presented on your plate after you finish the soup

After you finish drinking the soup, you put the bowl aside indicating to your server that you are ready for the next course. They then come and take the meat and bone marrow out of the bowl and plate it for you so that you can eat it. There are plenty of vegetables in the broth as well.

An up close look at the potatoes, my favorite part (are you surprised?)

Overall, Tafelspitz is a huge meal and we all pitched in to help Jess finish it. It looked amazing though and I wish we had gotten to order it more than once on our trip. I only seem to recall seeing it on the menu in Vienna, though.

Dessert

Vienna is pretty serious about their coffee

Obviously, we ate a lot of gelato. I was surprised out how good the gelato was out there, there are a lot of stalls run by Italian immigrants and their stuff is legit. I’ve already shown tons of gelato pictures throughout the rest of this trip report so I’ll hold off on too many here.

Jess - "Best strudel ever" — Jess – “Best strudel ever”

Jess is the dessert expert, and she was constantly saying that she hadn’t realized how seriously Germans and Austrians take their desserts. We had a ton of cake and apple strudel in Bavaria – though we did not once have a Black Forest cake. Guess we’ll have to hit up western Germany for that someday. Vienna took desserts to the next level – it almost felt like Paris with the number of cafes lining the streets serving dessert.

Iced Chocolate at Cafe Tomaselli (where Mozart supposedly bought chocolate)

Of particular note was Cafe Tomaselli in Salzburg and Demel in Vienna. We had some great ice cream at the former and an amazing chocolate torte at the latter.

Ritter Sport — 59 cents for each Ritter. Still can’t get over it!

Finally, you can’t leave Germany without having some chocolate. From the Lufthansa first class cabin to the supermarket, chocolate is everywhere. We bought 12+ Ritter Sports. That’s probably all I should say about that.

Vienna Film Festival

My favorite eating experience was at Vienna’s Film Festival. Apparently they just set up a giant screen in front of the Rathaus (city hall) where people can watch movies at night for like a month in the summer. Around it is what I would describe as a giant outdoor food court. It’s like you’re at the mall, but outside. Restaurants from all over Vienna set up booths – there’s a ton of variety and even a Magnum Ice Cream store! What!?

The atmosphere around the film festival is live

There were a ton of people there every night – tourists, locals, everybody basically. The food was great, the atmosphere was great, it just was pretty difficult to find a seat. You can however move to the benches in the nearby park. There are people coming around to grab your plates when you are done and things like that so you don’t even need to bus your own trays. If you are good at babysitting tables and don’t mind people hovering around you, I highly recommend checking out the Film Festival if you’re in Vienna in the summer. Even if you don’t like that – go anyway – there’s always takeout.

No idea what kind of fish these were but they were great

Final Thoughts

To be honest, I wasn’t really all that excited about the food options in Germany. I much prefer Italian pasta and pizza, or so I thought (that stuff is readily available all over Bavaria if you’re interested). I was actually impressed with what Germany had to offer food wise – there were some unique dishes that I really enjoyed eating. I wouldn’t say it’s a culinary wonderland or anything, but if you like hearty, wholesome food – Germany and Austria have your number.

Other Posts in this Series

Introduction

Final Preparations for the Little One

Lufthansa First Class with a Toddler

Slow Days with a Sick Toddler

Sightseeing in and around Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Observations After a Week in Germany

Climbing to AlpspiX and Neuschwanstein Castle

Zugspitze and Mittenwald

Sound of Music Bike Tour in Salzburg

Lazy Sunday in Salzburg – not

Rainy Days in Berchtesgaden

Visiting Museums and Biking in Vienna

Food in Germany and Austria

Rating the Toddler Friendliness of Our Hotels

Lufthansa First Class Terminal – Good for Toddlers?

Aug 04 2014

Tips for Surviving Europe with a Toddler

I thought life with Baby M in Italy was easier, but life with Toddler M was more fun

Since getting back from Germany, I’ve been thinking about what might have made our travels with our toddler a little bit easier. This definitely was a tougher trip than when we went to Italy with M as a six month old baby. I recognize we will never be traveling to Europe with an 18 month old ever again, but hopefully some of these thoughts might help some of the other parents out there!

A couple notes – all my thoughts are as a parent of ONE child, I’m sure some other bloggers at Saverocity know a lot more about traveling with multiple kids. Secondly, as Tip 1 will quite clearly illustrate, we traveled in a unique situation that made life a LOT easier.

Tip 1: Bring backup

If you’ve been paying attention to our travels in Germany, you’ll no doubt know that my parents came along with us. In fact, we had the entire Lufthansa first class cabin to ourselves on the outbound. I recognize the blessing it is to have a wife who gets along well with her in-laws AND grandparents who are willing to travel with us AND grandparents who have healthy mileage balances so they could pay their own way.

Having my parents around made a huge difference (obviously)

But I’m sure I don’t have to tell the parents out there that having backup makes a huge difference. My parents watched M on two different occasions, giving Jess and me the opportunity to bike and hike. They also watched M once when she was asleep so we could run down to the bar to grab a drink.

Parents are also useful as distractions during gelato procurement

Any hour, or even minute, you get as a parent to mentally take a break from the stress of parenting is invaluable. Not to mention the fact that there are two more pairs of hands around when navigating transportation, dining, etc. So if you have a nanny, or good friends/a group willing to travel with you, or in-laws wanting to spend more time with their grandkids, why not use them if it makes sense?

My parents babysitting also made our Sound of Music tour possible!

I bet this even could apply to families who travel domestically together, say, to Disney World or something. At least that’s my best guess!

Tip 2: Take it easy and build in lots of R&R

One of the reasons I love Europe is there is so much to do – museusm to see, castles to visit, food to eat, etc. I once made Jess get a 2-day Museum Pass in Paris (not to be confused with the overpriced Paris Pass btw) and we hit up six or seven sites in less than 48 hours (she still hasn’t forgiven me). Those days are long gone.

It is, of course, easier to eat at a cafe when your kid is like this

Instead, toddlers force you to embrace the slower paced cafe culture that Europe offers. Sit at a cafe, let your kid run around in a park or one of the many city squares, take a long after dinner stroll. We rarely planned to do more than one big attraction per day and that generally worked out pretty well. We went to Germany knowing we would miss some great sights and thus weren’t disappointed about missing anything.

We weren't as successful keeping things relaxed for M on the flight home - but hey at least I got to lie down — We weren’t as successful keeping things relaxed for M on the flight home – but hey at least I got to lie down

We kind of worked around nap times – either we would use them to rest ourselves, or if M fell asleep in the stroller we’d take advantage and visit some place where we needed her to be quiet. I’d just recommend relax-y schedule works for you and going with it. You’re gonna be tempted to push it every once in awhile – just pick and choose your spots.

Tip 3: Split time at “grownup” museums or just stick to the kid-friendly ones

Jess and I are big fans of art, but the reality is art museums aren’t very conducive to screaming toddlers (including happy screams). Neither are museums about heavy material like World War II. While we were in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and greater Bavaria, it wasn’t really a big deal because museums were either small or pretty low key. Salzburg and Vienna were a different story though.

I mostly chilled at the museum cafes — I mostly chilled with M at the museum cafes

Here’s what I’d recommend. I generally ended up missing most of my time at the museum anyway because M would need stimulation. She was pretty bored (or antsy) at most of the bigger museums we went to so I usually took her to the cafe for a snack or played with her in the open areas. Jess was able to visit the museum during these times, and then we’d switch. Not ideal, but we both at least got to see something. I think with one kid, divide and conquer can work pretty well for the more reserved museums.

Or else we went to the ones with fun exhibits

The alternative, of course, is to skip those kinds of museums altogether and stick to kid friendly ones. M was a huge fan of the Naturhistoriches, the natural history museum in Vienna. Both Vienna and Salzburg had children’s museums, and some of the music museums are pretty fun for a toddler because there are a lot of interactive exhibits (either media or even stuff you can bang on). I think Haus der Musik would be great for toddlers and when we went (after 8 PM) it wasn’t very crowded at all.

In front of the Natural History Museum (a big hit)

Ultimately, don’t expect to spend an entire day at the Louvre and you will set yourself up for success (though the Louvre is so crowded I bet nobody would notice a tantrum here or there anyway).

Tip 4: Always carry distractions and snacks

This one is pretty obvious but I write it here because it’s so easy to forget your “bag” and then you’re suddenly in the Prado with nothing! There is a LOT of awesome stuff you can get at the dollar store that can distract toddlers for extended periods of time, but for my money nothing is better than the one dollar sticker rolls you can get. Yes, we left stickers in random places like Lufthansa First Class but it kept M occupied.

I also think it’s important to leave the hotel every day with water and snacks because you never know what’s going to happen. Having food options for the toddler is a must. We bought some Manchego which we cut into “string” cheese (M doesn’t peel it yet so she doesn’t know the difference), grabbed an apple from the hotel, etc. etc. Crackers and biscuits you can get in Europe are great, hit up the local grocery store and stock up. Oh, and ask the hotel to clear out the minibar so a) your toddler doesn’t get you charged by those electronic ones and b) so you can store your food and milk.

Tip 5: Bring your favorite child carrier

I am sure some kids don’t like being in a carrier (Beco, Ergo, Bjorn, or whatever), but ours doesn’t mind and it proved invaluable on this trip. There are times when a stroller won’t cut it, or you need compression and calm to help force a nap, or simply times where you are tired of rolling over cobblestone. We didn’t use our Beco everyday, but we used it many times – it’s also useful in those art museums – if you can get the toddler to sleep you can explore relatively unencumbered. As an added benefit you get a ton of exercise.

Tip 6: Picnic or takeout to make meals easier

If you’re going to Europe I think buying your own bread, meat, and cheese for a picnic is a great way to eat whether you have kids or not. With kids there’s the added benefit of simplicity and control that comes from making a picnic. Go to Spar, Tenglemann, or any local grocer and grab some supplies. You can people watch in a park where there is tons of space for your kid to run around. The best benefit? You save a bunch of money too.

Tip 7: When you’re presented with difficult situations, just go with it

This is kind of a catch all and of course parents do this whether they are at home or abroad. But you’re gonna run into situations you weren’t prepared for – lack of changing table, tantrums, places where strollers aren’t allowed, flash storms – it’s important just to stay calm and to go with it. One of the examples that stood out to me on this trip happened at a museum – I took M to change only to find there was no changing table in the men’s room (this after walking up and down a flight of stairs trying to follow some poor signage). I then walked in circles with M looking for Jess until we gave up. Ultimately, M got her diaper changed on the bathroom floor. Am I proud of it? No. Did it get the job done? Yes. Just do what you gotta do to survive.

It's not always easy but it's worth it! — It’s not always easy but it’s worth it!

Final Thoughts

These were seven things that stood out to me from our time in Europe with M. I think some of these points can be applied generally if you have multiple kids, but those of you who have them probably know better than me already. So far we haven’t been to a country that didn’t seem to love kids, so that’s a definite positive for visiting Europe. It seems Italy, Germany, and Austria all seem to love babies so that really helped us in our travels. Feel free to sound off in the comments if you’ve found any tips or tricks that are useful for toddlers (or kids of any age) in Europe!

Jul 30 2014

Bavarian Summer: Visiting Museums and Biking in Vienna

M lounging on our chaise in the Hilton Vienna Plaza

We had a three and a half hour drive from Berchtesgaden to Vienna – managing to get through with only one toddler meltdown (too hot in the car seat). After we got to Vienna, I dropped everyone off at the Hilton Vienna Plaza and then drove to drop the car off at the other Hilton in town. To be honest I wasn’t sure what to expect from Hilton, but we ultimately really enjoyed the city and it was a great way to end our trip.

Dinner our first night was at the food stalls set up for the film festival at City Hall (the Rathaus)

We spent the first day visiting two museums – the Kunst Historiches and the Haus der Musik. The Kunst Historiches is one of Vienna’s premier art museums – it has an excellent collection the majority of which I did not see because toddlers just have a hard time staying quiet! M was bored so we mostly just played with her stroller and sat in the cafe.

Jess, M, and some random lady outside the Museums Quartier

The Haus der Musik was much more kid friendly – there are a lot of interactive exhibits and plenty of things you can touch and mess around with. We actually went to this museum at 8 PM (after dinner), when it becomes half price. We only saw a little over half the museum in our hour and a half there – I actually think it could take up an entire afternoon if you are into classical music.

The second floor of the museum is…kind of weird. First of all, it’s all kind of dark like a haunted house. I think the idea of the floor is to break music down scientifically – there is a lot of stuff on harmonics, sound generation, etc. The problem is, it feels like a haunted house! The first room, I kid you not, is designed to simulate the sounds you once heard when you were in the womb. Completely with weird projections of babies onto some half orb thing. Despite the exhibit being kind of new age-y and even a little scary, it actually is quite a bit of fun. You can tap on a gigantic drum, there are various buttons to press to play different sounds, and quite a few interactive stations (mostly computers with headphones).

"In the womb" Okayyyy.... — “In the womb” Okayyyy….

The third floor of the museum is the real star of the show as far as I’m concerned. It has ten rooms dedicated to nine composers who are related to Vienna. Each room has its own specific feel and flavor, with some items related to the composers (including big boys like Mozart, Beethoven, and Haydn), and again plenty of interactive exhibits to pass the time by. We were actually rushing at this point but M was really enjoying the music in the different rooms. Apparently the proper way to dance to a Mozart Sonata is by waving your arms around like you just don’t care.

The most fun part of the third floor is this exhibit where you get to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic. Since they were at the Salzburg Music Festival, this was our only chance to see them. You use this plastic wand and can choose from one of six pieces to conduct. It’s a lot of fun though a bit janky at times. Here’s M finishing up her set.

By the end our daughter was pretty delirious so we headed home. The next day was my parents’ last of the trip, so they took M to another children’s museum while Jess and I got a morning off. We took advantage by renting a couple bikes from Vienna’s bike share program.

It only cost us 1 Euro total for the morning since we kept all our rides under an hour (it was 1 Euro to sign up). Simple and painless and we did it with our credit cards (you don’t even need a chip). Much cheaper than Boston where 24 hours costs $6 and 72 costs $12.

Yes that's a treble clef in front of the Mozart statue — Yes that’s a treble clef in front of the Mozart statue

The city is super easy to bike around – we took a tour around the city ring using Rick Steve’s guide, stopping at a few places along the way. It was flat and smooth ride. Eventually we ended up at the Belvedere, one of the palace museums in Vienna. Unlike most palaces, it’s not just looking from room to room, it’s been converted to an art museum. I appreciated that since frankly I’m kind of sick of looking at palaces at this current point in my life. Seen one seen them all!

Cafe at the Belvedere - I guess we ate dessert twice that day — Cafe at the Belvedere – I guess we ate dessert twice that day

Jess and I capped off our date with lunch at Cafe Landtmann which boasted a serious coffee and dessert selection, of which we did partake.

On our last full day in Europe, my parents were off to the airport and the three of us took a trip to the Naturhistoriches Museum (Natural History). M slept through the first hour, and then woke up to the sight of more ducks, elephants, and dinosaurs than she had ever seen in her life.

It’s funny seeing a toddler light up when they see their favorite animals. There’s a song we sing to her in Chinese about how big an elephant’s “nose” is; if she didn’t understand the reference before I am sure she does now!

We finished our time in Bavaria and Austria with a lot of walking around Vienna and some good food. After we put M down for bed, it was time to pack and get ready for our flight home. Seventeen days is a long time to be away from home and I personally was ready to get back.

Final Thoughts

Vienna definitely exceeded my expectations as a city. It’s very walkable (or bikeable), which is a major plus for visitors especially if you don’t have kids. I think there are enough kid friendly museums and activities to spend your time with, and if you let your kids eat dessert they will not go wanting in the least. After the rainout in Berchtesgaden, Vienna was the perfect coda to our trip.

Enough vacation already... — Enough vacation already…

Other Posts in this Series

Introduction

Final Preparations for the Little One

Lufthansa First Class with a Toddler

Slow Days with a Sick Toddler

Sightseeing in and around Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Observations After a Week in Germany

Climbing to AlpspiX and Neuschwanstein Castle

Zugspitze and Mittenwald

Sound of Music Bike Tour in Salzburg

Lazy Sunday in Salzburg – not

Rainy Days in Berchtesgaden

Visiting Museums and Biking in Vienna

Food in Germany and Austria

Rating the Toddler Friendliness of Our Hotels

Lufthansa First Class Terminal – Good for Toddlers?

Jul 29 2014

The Most Annoying Things about Coming Home from Vacation

I bet M misses drinking in the First Class Terminal too

Vacations are great. Coming home, not so much. My friend asked me today if I’m going through vacation withdrawal, and while I honestly answered no (I’m glad to be back), there are still some issues that are annoying me in the 24 hours since we got back. Not including finishing the trip report. 😛 What really inspired me to write this post is my lost mail – so let me start my venting list with that.

Organizing Piles of Mail

Usually I really hate sorting through all my junk mail when I get home. Back in the day, it was pretty easy to throw out…well, basically everything. But these days I have to be on the lookout for special mailed credit card offers, or reimbursement checks, or various other things related to this hobby – so it takes some concentration. Not a ton of time, but time nonetheless.

I sure wish I had one of these right now

Well, what usually is a 3 on my annoyance scale got upgraded to like a 7 today when I realized I don’t even have any mail to sort. We generally have the US Postal Service hold our mail when we are gone and it always shows up the day we get back. Well, disconcerting sign #1 was the fact that when I got home last night there were like 5 or 6 pieces of mail in the mailbox (i.e., delivered before the end of the hold). Disconcerting sign #2 was the three pieces of mail I got today – as opposed to the fifty I was expecting, including some new credit cards (old accounts with card reissues).

So…that all kind of sucks. I didn’t check the mail until after 5 PM so I had nobody to call and I really hate waiting for this kind of stuff. I can’t even say my mail is lost in the cloud…

E-mail clean up

While on the subject of the cloud, another tedious task that needs to get done is cleaning my e-mail inbox. Again, this was easier when I didn’t have to keep an eye on various hobby related offers. It’s just something that takes time and energy and a reminder that you are no longer in Bavaria eating pretzels all day. Well, I guess I could still be eating pretzels all day. But yeah, first thing I do when I get back is clean out my inbox and make sure all my bills are paid (or that nothing went awry since they’re all on autopay).

Dishes

In terms of “things I like most about traveling”, not having to do the dishes is towards the top of the list. Sure, I had to do them a few times when we were staying in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, but when you’re in a hotel – no dishes! I’ve done the dishes about 5 times in the 30 hours we’ve been back, which is kind of ridiculous.

“But Joe, why don’t you use a dishwasher?” one might ask.

My response: Good question. As always, I’m kind of stupid about a lot of things

I should consider using these as more than just drying racks

Jetlag

Either I’ve been hit by reverse jetlag or I am fine considering I am up at 1 AM writing this and not tired at all. The new wrinkle though is dealing with M and jetlag. Really, readjusting her to “normal” sleep habits is going to be interesting overall since she was sleeping in the same room as us for the last week and a half (and even in our bed once or twice). She kicked things off by waking up at 2 AM ready for her day (8 AM in Europe). If anyone has tips for dealing with toddlers and jetlag, please share!

Unpacking

Our house is a disaster zone right now since we haven’t found the time to unpack or haven’t had the energy. To top it off, our dog just weaves in and out of suitcases and laundry baskets depositing her hair over all of them. So, I’d better get on that post haste. Jess would kill me if I showed a picture of our living room, but luckily USMNT Soccer player Alejandro Bedoya had a tweet about the same subject this morning.

Real Life

Of course, the worst and best part about coming home is real life. I don’t have to go to work yet so I don’t have much to complain about – but in general it’s so tough to adjust mentally and physically when you get back to your normal life and routine. I don’t envy people who travel for a living though. In the end, despite my complaining, I love home and don’t mind being back.

Final Thoughts

This is just a silly post I’m writing while frustrated about a specific situation. But it did get me curious – a lot of the times the talk is all about the destination (and how we get there) – what annoys people about coming back? I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts. Let me know in the comments!

Oh and if you were following along our trip to Germany and Austria and curious about what we ended up doing regarding souvenirs: three bottles of wine, a bunch of free ducks from Lufthansa, a couple of Christmas ornaments, and tons of Ritter and Haribo. Think that will do just nicely.