Impressions at 2 months
I’m pretty sure this is the longest vacation I’ve ever been on. We’ve been in Europe now for 2 months. We spent July in Capbreton and August doing a long road trip around western Europe. I’m looking forward to moving into our apartment, feeling a bit more settled, and getting into a routine.
We had planned to drive to Belgium to see friends and spend some time in Malmedy in August and so we decided on an impromptu road trip around that as our final destination, looping through western France, Paris, Belgium, eastern France, Switzerland, and back to the Basque country. Needless to say, we saw a lot of places and a lot of interesting things.
Our intent for this trip is to expose the boys to a lot of new people, places, cultures, and ideas. Our hope is that this will open doors for them in their lives. Our challenge is to find the right balance between exposing them to new places, historic sites, and cultures while keeping it fun and engaging for them and for us. Everyone has a slightly different agenda, and often what we as adults think will be exciting or interesting doesn’t quite have the impact we expect.
I’ve started to realize that our mentality as adults has become a checklist mentality. We want to see the sights to “check them off” our mental list of things to do...”I’ve been to Paris and seen the Eiffel tower”, for example. For the boys, this isn’t the way they look at experiences right now and it’s a good reminder for me too. They are not concerned with making sure they saw such and such a historic place, they are interested in experiences, which really makes more sense.
We find ourselves as parents saying things like “look out the window so you don’t miss the view” when they would rather be reading. Or, we are telling them about historical events that they may not relate to. I can try and point out the mountains as we drive through the alps “Aren’t they huge? amazing?look!” I’ll say, but what they relate to is swimming in the river that comes down from those mountains. It’s definitely a learning lesson. Maybe they will look back on this time and realize that we tried to show them all these things and they can feel satisfied about having “checked” them off the list of things they’ve seen, but I don’t think so. I hope they really have the experiences they want to have that will make this trip memorable and I will be more focused on making sure that is what us adults search out.
So far what has stood out to them: (from what I observed and also what they say when interviewed about it)
Playing soccer in the Parte Vieja of San Sebastian, with Taiwa and Ren Nelson. Here they met some local kids and learned to play even though there was a language gap. They stayed for hours into the night while the adults hung out on the sidelines.
Staying in a castle in the Loire, especially since they stayed in the castle while Mandy and I stayed in the guard house.
Seeing the lights at Chartres cathedral at night was a visually stunning and they both were very impressed. Luke also really liked our tour of Chartres with Mr. Miller, our legendary tour guide.
Spending time in Malmedy with the Mignon boys was a major highlight for them. There they lit wasps nests on fire, rode mountain bikes, and ran around the woods. They played marco polo in the pool until 1am. They played soccer and basketball. They really get along well despite any language barriers. Luke got a real taste of the freedom of living in the country where you can be independant all day. He went on long bike rides with Arsenne that included crossing rivers, getting muddy, riding some risky terrain, and getting back home later than expected. Luke was recounting his adventures for days after this.
Going to a place in Maastricht called “I love burrito” for our only venture into Mexican food and especially because the hot sauce was so spicy it made us sweat and tear up.
Driving through the extremely long tunnels in Switzerland. I think the longest was about 17.5km
The river in Verzasca valley. Here the boys swam in deep water holes, watched daredevils take high dives from bridges and cliffs above the river, including what Luke called a “death dive” from a young French guy off the cliffs.
The waterslides and high dive boards at the pools by Lago Maggiore at Lido