Earlier this year, we went on a two-week trip to Europe with our daughter, our son-in-law, and their kids. And as they were thinking about taking this trip, they asked us if we would come along to help them travel with the kids. I'm Scott. And I'm
Melissa. And we're the Sunshine
the Sunshine Travelers. Our passion is travel and sharing our experiences with those who enjoy it as much as we do, or those who want to learn more about or even travel, those who just want to live as we or those do, who want to learn more about travel, or even those who just want to live vicariously through our travel stories. No matter where you fall along that journey, get ready to hear about our first-hand experiences as we visit some of the most interesting and amazing places on earth. Now to give you a little background,
background, Now, to give you a little background, our daughter had traveled to Germany many times as a child. Matter of fact, I think her first trip over to visit our friends, Edith and Erich, she was two years old. And we tell the story about her standing at the top of the stairs and yelling down, Edith. and yelling down, Edith. And so, you know, but then she made several trips after that through school and with my mom and her cousin, and then also did a study abroad in Germany. And so she's had many experiences traveling overseas to Europe. Now, Brady, he's traveled to Mexico and the Caribbean, but he always said that he didn't really have an interest in traveling to Europe. And boy, did we change his mind on that one.
He couldn't be in this family without, right? So we thought it would be informative for our listeners who are either in the same situation, don't really know anything about traveling to Europe, or don't feel like they have any interest in going to Europe, or have some hesitation about traveling with young children. So theirs are five and two about taking a trip like this.
Karen Brady, welcome to the podcast. You know, we're 70 episodes deep in this now, and we're finally getting you guys to come on. And so we're glad to have you. Tell us a little bit, you know, just getting started, like whose idea was this trip?
It was mine. I had been talking about taking a trip to Europe with Brady for a very long time, trying to get him to be somewhat interested. And I just wanted to share those experiences that I had had with him. And he loves the beach. And so I tried to always tell him like, oh, if you love this beach, like the beaches in Greece are insane. Like you have to see this for yourself. But it finally came down to, I think the pushover was getting him to want to go to a soccer game, but also just him getting to experience being Edith and getting to experience it with our kids as well.
Brady, Carrie mentioned going to the soccer game. That was one of the things that we were able to do while we were in London. You've played soccer your entire life. Matter of fact, can I tell the story real quick? I think it's
quick? I think it's
when Carrie and Brady were dating in high school, Carrie went over to his house one day and she went into the kitchen to get something to drink or whatever. And she said, Brady, why do you have my soccer picture on your refrigerator? And he's like, what are you talking about? I don't have your soccer picture on the refrigerator. And she's like, yes, you do. That's me. And come to find out they're standing next to each other and playing Muppet soccer. But in this picture, they're standing next to each other. And so anyhow, Brady's just had a passion for soccer his whole life. And so it's not inconsequential that we were able to go see a Premier League game while we were in Europe. that we were able to go see a Premier League game while we were in Europe. Tell us about how you went about planning the trip. You guys were already knee-deep into the planning before we got involved. I'll take that.
So like Carrie you she had always said, talked know, about wanting to do this. I never thought it was in the cards on multiple fronts. From a financial perspective and from a child perspective. I didn't think it was something we'd be able to pull off for a really, really long time. What it came down to was just constant talking about the opportunity to make it happen. And then shopping around a little bit with SkyMiles and hearing about the deals on Black Friday and stuff and had saved up SkyMiles over the span of 18 months or whatever it was and ended up finding a good deal on flights and calling Melissa and being like, hey, what do you think if we start here and end here? Can you guys fill everything in between? And the answer was like a resounding yes. So we booked it and I threw my hands up and said I was done with my part and let the rest of them figure out how to book it. Everything in between. So welcome to my
So welcome to my world, Brady. You mentioned anything about travel to Melissa and the answer is yes. Yes, I've got it
I've got it planned. So and we've actually alluded to this, this part of the trip or planning this part of the trip on a couple of podcast episodes before we went. But just to kind of bring everybody up to speed is that y'all were, you know, had already talked about it, looking at when the Black Friday deals came out and then kind of had an idea about when you wanted to go, which would be the shoulder season, April of this year and looking at that. And so it was about, if I remember correctly, about what, 75,000 sky miles per ticket, roughly, I think. I think that was like the base price.
I think that was like the base price. And then with the Amex discount or whatever, it was like 15% off. So it's like 62 or 65 per person.
So it's like
Okay, which is really good. And then, and we actually did, so to make this trip work, we actually booked it as a multi-city. Basically from Jacksonville, Florida to London Heathrow. Then back home from back to Florida. Athens, Greece, Jacksonville, And then we filled in the gaps in between and we'll talk a little bit about that. And then you had to just buy one ticket. Which obviously that makes it a whole lot more affordable for a family of four.
a whole lot more affordable for a family of four. And then for us, it just so happened that I needed to be in London that week. So you guys had already bought the tickets and it just so happened that my work schedule took me to London that week. So I went over just a couple of days ahead of time and had some work that I needed to get done. But that we talk about this often is being able to take work travel or something like that and then extend it out and, you know, take advantage of that. Yes. And
And I used the SkyMiles for mine as well. So and then so any word about, I guess, then how to prep and plan for the expense of the rest of it or?
I guess as like the family budget person, I think for me, it was having conversations. It can be kind of overwhelming to figure out. It's like one domino has to fall to figure out what the next thing you're going to do. So like once we got flights, then we could hone in on lodging and stuff and I could kind of build from there. I feel like once I found such what I felt was a really good deal on the flights and I knew I was really getting three tickets for free, I was so far ahead from the budget side of it that I knew whatever we came up with in terms of lodging, we could we could pull it off pretty reasonably. And
And from a lodging perspective, this is where booking.com really came into play for us. For this particular
this particular trip, we had always stayed in hotels in London. And because there were six of us, it just made a whole lot more sense to go and look for houses, apartments type of thing. So we actually booked almost all of it on booking. So it made it a whole lot more affordable. So you typically think, okay, hotels, but then that way we had kitchens and stuff like that. And then just to also kind of fill in the gap there when we booked it. So you don't pay for everything at once, right? So you have kind of some lead time, right? And then you end up paying some deposits and then it's due and then you have your food and souvenirs and stuff like that later on as well. But I did want to point out, so Carrie, several times as we were planning this trip, and I don't know if you can remember or if we like kind of a roundabout number for you guys, but Carrie, you've mentioned several times, I can't believe that we can do all of this for less than it is to like go to Disney World, for example, or what people would pay to go to Disney World, for example. When you are looking at booking reservations for your next
reservations for your next trip, we recommend using booking.com. You can choose from over a million properties worldwide from cozy country homes to sleek city apartments find the best deals with their price match promise enjoy great stays at lower cost and because flexibility matters book with confidence knowing you can cancel with ease if plans change or you change your mind make informed choices with millions of reviews from fellow travelers start your adventure now visit sunshinetravelers.com slash booking to book your perfect stay.
I think we Yeah, were actually shocked at what we were able to do and the time that we spent.
And I think it did help like we were sharing the the booking.com like flats and houses. And I think that that helped with the cost as well you we didn't plan. as, know, Since we had the
we did kids, a lot of like more simple meals or. We didn't overcomplicate it is what you're trying to say.
to say. So let's take a step back and talk about the trip that we actually took. So we've told a little bit of it in bits and pieces, but let's build the story for everyone who's
build the story for everyone who's listening. What were we able to do on this trip? Talk about the places that we picked and maybe like why you guys, because like Scott said, you guys really determined, you know, y'all had bought the flights. Here's kind of what we want to do. So why did where did we go and why did you decide that's where you wanted to go? So our daughter
daughter Palmer, the five-year-old, she has specifically always just loved the idea of London and wanting to go to London. I think we had several books when she was little that had different London landmarks. And I think mom just, you know, really enjoys London and talks about it quite often. So Palmer has just always talked about wanting to go to London. And so specifically, I wanted to go to London to take Palmer there. And she has always talked about wanting to ride the London Eye. Every time we go pass a Ferris wheel, there's one Ferris wheel on the way to Disney World. And every time she's like, the London Eye. And we're like, yeah, it's similar, but it is not the London eye. We really wanted her to get to experience that. And also being her, we looked for some kid-friendly high teas, knew she would love getting dressed up and having that experience. And then obviously London ties in well with Brady's love for Chelsea. And then Germany, obviously, we wanted to go and allow the kids to meet Edith and Arish and, you know, kind of see this town that I'm sure I'll talk about for the rest of their lives and kind of just get to experience the culture and meet them and see the house that, you know, our families made all these memories in and Brady as well. I think Brady's FaceTimed with them several times, but, you know, our families made all these memories in and Brady as well. I think Brady's FaceTimed with them several times, but you know, this is his first opportunity to meet them and get to see this town and this place that we all have fallen in love with over the years. And then we kind of wanted one other place to feel like we had somewhere to relax. And we had traveled to Greece when I was in college. Is that right before my study abroad? We had traveled to Greece and just fell in love. And I knew I always wanted to go back. And I knew that that would be somewhere that Brady would really enjoy. So we chose that as our final destination to have somewhere to kind of just decompress and relax a little bit from the craziness of the traveling from the other countries at the end. So that's kind of how we chose where we were going. And it kind of worked out with the tickets. It was cheaper to fly out of Athens, Greece. It kind of just ended up working perfectly. Yeah. Even for
for the ticket that I bought for work, knowing that we were going to fly out of Athens, it was cheaper than me buying a round trip ticket to and from London. So, you know, it ended up even just saving money, you know, business-wise to fly back from Greece than if I had done that round trip out of London. So, you know, always take a look at that because sometimes multi-city fares are more expensive, but sometimes you can get some great deals like that. Let's talk a little bit about, I was able to come and pick you guys up at the airport. So you had traveled over, I think you guys went through New York. So your first flight was out of Jacksonville to New York. And then you had a little bit of a layover there. And so that second flight wasn't quite so bad. It was a much shorter flight. So what was it like traveling with the kids and kind of their experience of Rhodes? This was his first time being on a plane. Palmer hadn't been on a plane since she was real little. So talk a little bit about that. Our kids actually were very excited about the
Our kids actually were very excited about the airplane. We got kind of lucky when we were sitting at the gate in Jacksonville. The fighter jets were taking off like right outside of the window where we were waiting to board. And they were absolutely enamored by that. They thought that was the coolest thing ever. I think the first flight was fairly easy. They were just excited about what we were doing. And then we got to New York. We had, how long were we in? I think it was like two and a half or three
two and a half or three hours. We were super fortunate with the Sky Club or Sky Lounge situation that they let us in, that they like brought the kids coloring books and snacks and all that. And like, that's, that was like hack of the century was to be able to get kids into a sky lounge.
Yeah. Huge shout out to the Delta Sky Club in New York just for, you know, making that a kid being, you know, great with the kids and bringing, bringing that and being very welcome with the kids. It was a little bit later. So it wasn't quite as busy and we weren't quite as apprehensive, but they did a great job.
Yeah. So then you, you left New york you make the flight over to london and you arrive in london you know what around 10 a.m something like that 10 or 11 o'clock in the morning and you know everyone was really tired i think by the time you got there oh yeah
yeah for sure and i think as a as a newcomer to europe trying to experience the tube and stuff was a bit, you know, you see like the stressed out Instagram posts of people at Disney trying to get on monorails and stuff like the tube was a whole nother level with however many suitcases we had. Not even, you know, having yours there with us, just the five of us, I guess, trying to figure out train hopping and going from one to the other and all that. But yeah, it was I think everyone hung in there. Great. I mean, we were we were pretty gassed by the time we got there. Like, I think if we had had another two hours, it would have been a struggle to struggle to make it. Yeah.
to struggle to make it. Yeah. Thankfully, I was able to get a late checkout through our Marriott status. And so we had the room until like four o'clock. So it allowed to come in, grab a quick shower, refresh, got the kids something to eat. And we even
we even took a nap. I think. Yeah.
Yeah. I fell asleep.
Yeah.
Yeah. Which we say is so important. You know, that's one of the things that we talk about is when we travel to, to Europe or we go east, is that when we get there in the mornings, because we're usually flying overnight, we try to get that short power nap in. Of course, we do our uplift. We do
We do our jet lag procedure. So I'll put a link to that again, that podcast episode, because I think that helps. And so we tried to do all those things with all of us and the kids the best that we could. And one other thing I wanted to say about you were able to do a late checkout. We did contact the people about our early check-in. That's usually a little bit trickier with houses and flats and Airbnb type things. They were gracious and said, we would love to do that, but we have somebody checking out. We have to clean it, but we're happy to let you drop your baggage. So just be aware of that, but it doesn't hurt to ask on either way, late checkout, early check-in, whatever you need and just see if they can accommodate
that. So anything you guys want to talk about from London? The only thing I was going to add on that topic is as someone new to traveling east like
only thing I was going to add on that topic is as someone new to traveling east like that, never had experienced jet lag at all. That first day was one of the days I still remember a lot of stuff about. Like one of it was just such a like casual evening to take a nap and then be able to go walk to Buckingham Palace. Right. Yeah. And like just walking through that part of town. And like I said, as someone that never been there, like taking in this stuff, I never understood the proximity of a city like London and the scale of it and that kind of thing. And then go into I'm blanking on all the names, but the tea place.
Oh, Fortnum and Mason. We wanted to go there just because it was right before Easter.
We wanted
And we had a couple of things on our list to pick up, but we love that. That's quite a
That's quite a treat. If you're ever in London just before Easter, go and check it out. Imagine it's before a lot of holidays there, but they have lots of special treats, candies that are in the shapes of eggs and little chicks and stuff like that. And so would definitely recommend that you check that out if you're visiting London around the holiday.
So we had three days in London. You've mentioned a few things. We mentioned the soccer match. You mentioned the tea. Well, let's talk a little bit more about that. The London Eye. What else was on your kind of must-see, must-do list for London for both of you guys?
prior to the soccer I had built this thing up game. and was so looking forward to that. And the time that I got with the days and stuff where you guys did the tea and when Rhodes and I were just able to kind of explore and I don't know how far we walked, but we just walked and did all these different things. I feel like London's an easy city to kind of acclimate into and you don't stick out like a sore thumb. And we were able to just kind of do our own thing and go get lunch and go to the soccer store or the sporting goods store, I guess, and like let him pick out a soccer ball and stuff like that. And so I think what got me the most was, like I said, looking forward to this big thing at the end for me. And then it ended up all these like small kind of casual events leading up to it, like kind of is what like enamored me with the whole thing. You know, I don't know what you had on your bucket list.
Something we talk about a lot is not planning too much with kids, not setting too high of expectations that then you're disappointed, not being able to do everything on your list. We do this wherever we travel. We do this at Disney. But also I had said to my parents several times while planning this, I just don't want to over plan London that we kind of miss out on just being there and experiencing the culture. And so we just didn't plan too much, especially because a lot of us have already, you know, been to a lot of the landmarks multiple times probably. But I wanted to just have time for the kids too. If they wanted to go to a playground that we saw, if they wanted to just pop in and get a treat or if they wanted to, you know, just run around. It's their vacation too. And that was very important to me that we just allowed time that they got to experience London in their way as well. So we had our list of things. The kids also wanted to see Big Ben. They always talk about Big Ben. So we had the tea. We did London Eye. We kind of just walked around and hit a lot of the landmarks. After the London Eye, we took the... The Thames River Cruiser.
The Thames River Cruiser. Yeah.
Yeah. River taxi. It's really the Uber. Yeah, it's really the Uber boat on the Thames. Yeah, the Uber boat. And they saw the Tower Bridge, and they saw it at night. And, you know, those are just kind of cool experiences that they might not even remember. I think Palmer's starting to get at the age where she will remember some of this. But, you know, these are core memories for us, too. But I think that they just got to experience life in a different place. And they had the time of their lives in I think.
I think. London,
Yeah, they really did. Is there anything that you guys think that you would do differently if you returned back with the kids? If
anything, I think we need more time in London. I don't think there's ever enough time in London, though.
No, there's never enough time. We're, what, seven, eight trips now to London or more.
Well, I mean, even if you lived in London and you see all these reels, I mean, you can never go eat at all those places and have all the drinks and the treats and the, you know, all the things. So, yeah, just having to pick out a few. And I think what we did here is what we often recommend is that as we would see things, we would kind of save those locations, coffee shops and different things. And so then that way, when we were near it, we could say, oh, you know, near this coffee shop. One thing that I think that was really cool is near our flat. So our flat was near Russell Square, so convenient to a tube stop. But we found a coffee shop and we ended up going there, what, two or three, three times. And so you still, then it was just neat because it was like staying in a neighborhood and then having our local coffee shop and, you know, just getting to observe some, kind of having to still having like a daily process. I did want to point out one other thing. We won't go into huge detail about the soccer match tickets. We were not quite sure how to buy these tickets right it's quite a process but we ended up scott you ended up hearing from somebody that just buy them on stubhub and yeah a few weeks before going i was at an event and talking about
that just buy them on stubhub and yeah a few weeks before going i was at an event and talking about going, we were going to go do this. And someone said, oh, we were just there. And I was like, I said, you know, we're trying to figure out how to go to a soccer match. And I noticed the guy was watching a soccer match on his phone. And they were like, oh, we did that. We just bought our tickets off StubHub. So we went online and, you know, we were scared because if you go to the official site, it says there are no authorized resellers. But then you go and you listen to these people and you go on to the StubHub site and obviously there's tickets for sale. And so it did work out. There was a bit of a issue, but easily worked with StubHub to resolve it and got the tickets. And, you know, it was just great to be able to do that, do that with them. I didn't grow up with a passion for soccer like Brady, but it was really fun atmosphere to be there and watch them play. Yeah. So we just wanted to
to add that because it was fun and it worked and you're safe with StubHub and it was fun. So then next, what do we do after?
after? Oh, we do have one thing. We talked about this when we were in London. Carrie just reminded me of it when we figured out about using Apple Maps, like it's got the option for public transit or whatever. So you can put in where you want to go and how it will map the tube lines for you. It shows them by color and I believe it coordinated with the signs, the colored lines on the tube signs and stuff. So that was like, I know the day we went wherever that park was that we then took the tube from there to where the Chelsea game was. That was how complicated it was with all the fans and stuff, and we had to jump lines and that kind of thing. That app is what saved us that day, because I didn't know where we were going. I don't think any of us did, and we were just trying to follow people in blue shirts, but then once we could put it in that app, or I put it in Apple Maps, where we were trying to go and just click. It's like a bus looking logo. And it and it told us exactly what line to jump on. It showed the it showed the line that was down that was causing all the problems, too. So it's from what we saw, it's pretty accurate. And like I've talked to folks at work that are interested in going to London. That's been like one of the things I've told them is like, I know some people are pretty religious about what maps app they use, but like Apple maps is, is one to have. If you go to London,
that it will even tell you the time. Oh yeah. When the trains are coming and stuff like that. Well, and the other thing I wanted to point out is that we also, when we were going to walk down to the, so I don't know if we did, we mentioned
Oh yeah.
this, we did the Peppa Pig tea bus through Bridget's Bakery. We wanted Palmer to have a tea experience, but we thought instead of having like a sit down tea, it was geared toward kids. It was, you go through all the landmarks and we bought tickets for that, you know, pretty far ahead of time. Highly recommend that. It was an excellent, excellent. It was interesting because it was tourists. It was locals. It was everybody on that on that bus. So that was great. But as we were walking down there, whenever you use those maps, those apps, like it's hard to figure out if you, you know, you end up walking a block and then I'm going the wrong way. I'm going the wrong way. And in Apple Maps, that was, I think, when we noticed, oh, you can see if you're headed toward the right landmark. So that's a great tip. No, that's a fantastic tip.
So that's
So anything else about London other than, I mean, we went to a pub, we found a kid-friendly pub for dinner, not for just hanging out at the pub, but in Covent Garden and seeing some of those things. We went in London.
We went in London. That's right. We did decide that on this trip, we were going to do kind of a mixture of planes, trains, and automobiles. And we got to do all of them, right? So we left London and took the train through the Channel. Melissa and I, I don't know why we never thought about this before, because we've taken the train multiple times from London to Paris. But we didn't think about taking the train necessarily from London into Belgium
That's right.
we didn't think about taking the train necessarily from London into Belgium or, you know.
Well, I think the end of the line of this one was Amsterdam, right? Some of them were going up to Amsterdam. So, yeah.
of them were going up to Amsterdam. So, yeah. weren't or some of them were going up to up to amsterdam so yeah and so anyhow we decided that we would take the train and you know we went from london through belgium up to colne or cologne and carrie you you had wanted to go to cologne and to take take brady there yeah so
yeah so i found the train tickets and i think they were, they were very affordable. I want to say it was $200 or less for our family, the four of us. So it was a very affordable option. And I kind of wanted the kids to get to experience the train as well. And just, it's a cool way to get to see the countryside in, you know, places that you obviously wouldn't see if you were on the plane. You would just go from airport to airport. I will say it's kind of a lot to have to deal with the luggage and go through the train station. But I probably wouldn't take the train over and over again with the kids. But I do think it was it was nice. Nice to do it at least one time on this trip with them. And just we stopped in one of the stops to let people off was Belgium. And then I think we went through the countryside of France and Palmer was looking for Belle the whole
time, which was cute.
was cute. And then at our final destination in Cologne. Cologne was like a great jumping off point, I think, for us to go. We were trying to decide between which German city we would like to go. But this was kind of a good point for us to go to Edith and Erich. They're right outside of Frankfurt, about 30 minutes. And then so I looked up how far it would be to drive from Cologne to their house. And it was about an hour and 45 minutes. So the day that we were traveling from London to Germany was actually Easter. So we woke up on Easter morning and took the train into Cologne. So I will say the shops and a lot of things weren't open when we first got there. But I think a lot of the restaurants and because it is, it is more touristy. I think a lot was open by the time, you know, we arrived, I think around two in the afternoon. So we were able to get food, but we didn't expect all the shops and stuff to be open because we already knew that. Well, even on
on a Sunday in Germany, they're not going to be open anyway. So yeah. And there was a lot of
So yeah. And
was a lot of people, lots of people out and about and everywhere milling around.
And you guys had never been to Cologne. So it was just a great place for us all to experience or not but for them me, to experience somewhere new. Cologne was close about an hour train ride from where I studied abroad in college. So it was fun to get to show them kind of the town that we would kind of go to on the weekends so we what we got there and we just walked around the town a little bit and had lunch and yeah tried the kohlsch beer we did get caught there was a
was a big storm i guess that's what that was a big storm and so yeah that But
that was
yeah, I got to see one of the bridges with all the locks.
Walked past the cathedral. The cathedral was a little tricky with it being Easter Sunday. I think the timing that we got there, they were about to start a service. But even just seeing the outside of the cathedral, it's stunning and hearing the bells. And we watched a thunderstorm underneath and awning just in front of the cathedral. So I think this is probably a
is probably a really good time to talk a little bit about packing and what you take to Europe. Because Brady, you learned a great lesson on this one, didn't you?
Yeah, yeah. The packing thing didn't really bite us too much in London. And I kind of alluded that the initial tube transit from the airport was in hindsight, totally fine. In the moment, it stressed me out a bit. I learned that the luxuries we have in America with rolling suitcases is not a luxury in other parts of the world. So dragging like two 48 pound rolling, rolling suitcases through like the cobblestone streets of Cologne was a bit of an experience and trying to figure out what clothes you're wearing because the weather's so fritzy over there is like, you know, you're sweating trying to carry this stuff. But the second you take a jacket off, you're cold now. And it's like it was. Yeah. And it's like it was. Yeah. So knowing a lot of things I know now, obviously, packing with kids is a whole nother ballgame. But I feel for myself, I could pack like an e-bag backpack with like three pairs of pants, one pair of shorts and five shirts. And I'd be in a rain jacket and I'd be good to go.
Yeah, because talk about when we got to Cologne and we were able to take our luggage up to the room yeah yeah so the
so the room would you describe it was that like a townhouse it's a flat the american in me would call it a townhouse but it was very tall vertical you know not very deep but very tall kind of structure i guess and the stairs were for all intensive purposes, like spiral staircases.
And we were like four floors up. But for each there was like three sets of stairs going around each floor, wall. it was a workout getting there. So, yeah, And then I was all we're good. like, right, Like this place will have an elevator or something. And then when we got in and we had to drag each thing up and then we only stayed a night and we had to come back down and it was yeah it was a lot I think that like you know we're gonna say it over and over again as someone that had never been over there I had this idea of how much stuff you had to bring and you hear all these things about the weather and how complicated it can be like I ended up wearing the same rain jacket like every day and like three or four different shirts the whole trip. And I really could have I could have tripped mine down. I'm not going to speak for carrying the kids too much, but I even think with the kids like we had the luxury of a lot of outfits, but we didn't need the outfits that we had. We definitely could have narrowed it down. I could have narrowed it down. Yeah. Yeah. And
And like I had works. And like I had works, so I had to take stuff for work and then, you know, stuff to wear in our free time. And so I had way more than I wanted to take. But I think I had like the minimum that I could take.
And I will say we didn't even pack heavily. We had one suitcase, one one backpack an e-bag and then each
e-bag and then each kid had their each their own backpack but even that felt too much in that moment so and i think another luxury of having like renting the flats and stuff is that a lot of times it did have the laundry so we could have you know we could have packed less and washed more. We just weren't quite sure about the weather too, since we were going from London and Germany and then to Greece, it was going to be warmer in Greece. So that was another factor. But yes, minimizing packing is...
And so if you need a packing guide for traveling smart, packing less, I'll put that link too, because I have like a eight or ten page guide for you trust it when
you trust it when the airbnb says they have laundry things they will have laundry things yeah because i wasn't that was what made me so hesitant was i've been i feel like in at least at airbnbs i've stayed at in the u.s you go and they say they have these things but they don't have like laundry detergent there or dish detergent or, you know, any of the like things you need to actually use the equipment that's there. So when we did end up using them, I think the first time we really did laundry was in Greece, but that they had everything at all the places was like a pleasant surprise for me that I knew like when my pants, if my pants got a little thin, they were starting like from walking around so much in the muddy weather in London that we could do laundry. And we had everything we needed. We didn't have to go to a corner store or whatever and try to find that.
And there are laundromats as well. Places that will do wash and fold. So you can drop things off and have them laundered and pick them up later. So I would say just remember that's always an option, especially if you're in one of these situations like what they're talking about where you've got to pack for maybe a couple of different climates. And so you're already packing a good bit is to keep that down. Think about using stuff like that. Well, let's keep moving because we've got still a couple of more places that we're going to visit. We did rent a car. And, you know, I tell the story is I made Brady rent the car because I was like, I don't know if I'm wanted for unpaid tickets or something in Germany. So I probably shouldn't be trying to rent a car. And so I have the distinct pleasure of getting multiple tickets on the Autobahn for speeding. I don't know how that works still to this day, but well, I do because Trippiamo told me why. But anyhow, we rented the car. That was fun because, you know, I went with Brady just because, you know, we needed to try to navigate there. And one of the things that we don't really talk about a lot is when you go to Europe and you rent a car, the default car is a manual transmission.
And I will say, I did pay extra to guarantee we had an automatic. I did book it that way. Yes. But we got the little wrinkle in the plans that shifted that on us. Yeah.
So something happened to the vehicle that he rented, and we were going to have to go to another location to pick up a different vehicle. So anyhow, when we got to the to the car rental i should say is you know they gave it gave us a car that we were going to drive because we had ubered to to the car rental to the airport or to the airport they gave us a car to drive over to where we're going to pick up this other vehicle. And when we got in, it was a manual transmission. I tried. I promise I tried. And so, you know, thankfully, I drove a manual transmission for a really long time. And so I know how to do that. But it's just something to keep in the back of your mind, is that when you're renting a vehicle in Europe, the default is a manual transmission. And so, like Brady said, you got to reserve the automatic. At least I booked it through
it through National. I have like a corporate rate through the company I work for. So that actually saved us a lot of money. So if anyone listening has corporate rates, check it because it doesn't work the same as in the US because it's like a different car offering and stuff. But it was, I did look like when we were on the phone that night to see if it was even an option and it was whatever it was going to be. And that was just like not running my corporate stuff through it. When I did, I don't recall the total savings because the way they flipped the cars on us ended up coming out a little cheaper than what I had planned. They gave us some special rate, even though they upgraded us. But it saved me probably like three or four hundred dollars from just booking on the flat rate for a van like that. But they do give you the option. Everything says like full-size sedan manual full-size sedan automatic like it's very black and white so i guess if you know you can't drive stick don't don't risk it yeah we ended up with this awesome very sweet mercedes van yeah that was really nice yeah we were the classic we fit
yeah we ended
up with this awesome very
very sweet
sweet mercedes van yeah that was really nice yeah we were the classic we fit in well in germany with that yeah so well so let's talk
well in germany with that yeah so well
so let's talk about because you might be thinking okay how'd you run the car and drive you navigated the tube you navigated the train what in the world did you do with car seats oh yeah so let's talk about the car seats because i think those the two ones that we had for the five-year-old and the two-year-old were just super options.
talk about the
the car seats because i think those the two ones that we had for the five-year-old and the two-year-old were just super
Yeah, we had talked about several different options. We had talked about, how are we going to bring them? We don't really need them in London. We don't want to lug around car seats. Should we just rent them? Can we trust that there's going to be car seats available? Is that going to be a pain? So I ended up just doing a bunch of research and I found for Palmer, she is the five-year-old. She is in a booster seat in our regular car. So we found an inflatable booster seat that packaged up really small. And then you just, it comes, it has a little straw and it just blows right up. And then, you know, it folds back down into this small little pouch and we just kept that in one of our carry-ons with us just in case and then for Rhodes the two-year-old there is a product called a rider vest and it basically just I mean it basically is the same thing as a
it basically is the same thing as a car seat it just doesn't have all the like plastic surroundings of a car seat. So all the like, it's basically a harness. It's just a harness so that like you can lace the seatbelt of a car through that harness. It has all the padding and stuff around the shoulders and stuff. So I was a little hesitant of it. Like when she told me about it, I was like, I don't know what the like safety side of this is. But once I saw it, I was really confident in what it was it had like what do they call the little like harness thing that throws over the back of the seat and clips into like the security thing it had one of those too i don't think we really used it but yeah it had a like i said it really functioned like a car seat without having to lug this big plastic car seat
around. Yeah, and I don't think you guys have ever been with us, but we've actually seen that before. Because our nephew, Leo, when they come visit and we pick them up at the airport, that's what they travel with. It's the exact same thing. And so they would always put him in that and strap him in. And so we had seen that one before.
And so this is also a great option if you are going somewhere, not renting a car, but you're going to have to rely on Ubers or taxis or that kind of thing. So let's just say you want to go to New York or you want to go to London and ride taxis or whatever. This would be an option because you're not going to go sightsee and then have to worry about your car seat. Yeah, it's like a vest.
like a vest. So you could take him out of the car with him still in this vest. You just undo the seatbelt. And then if you were going straight into another vehicle or something, you just use the seatbelt to buckle him back in.
So we'll put links to both of those because I think that was a huge.
And it has really amazing safety ratings and reviews basically on every website that I could find. Everyone that seems to be a favorite for everyone.
I've already said I didn't plan on driving on the Autobahn. So, Bray, this was an opportunity for you now to drive on the Autobahn. Tell us a little bit about that experience.
Yeah, I mean, in short, it wasn't anything special. I think I went into it hearing everything I heard as a kid, where everyone said the Autobahn is this road where you can go as fast as you want all the time. Not the case. There's sections where you can go as fast as you want all the Not time. the There's case. sections where you can go really fast, and then the speed limit quickly drops down to regular speed at the exits. I think that's how Scott got in trouble with his tickets at times. So no, I mean, I think I was pretty intimidated, I'm not going to lie. When he was like, yeah, you'll drive, I was like, oh, I thought we were just going to let you drive, and we would just, if we got pulled over, we'd just switch seats real fast. So I was pretty nervous about but like, it, you know, future me or hindsight being 2020, there was no reason to be nervous or anything. It was, I didn't know what's how the road they drove on in Germany. It's the same as here. So that was fine. It really was with having you navigating and being able to read the signs for me. And most of that drive from Cologne to Frankfurt is like straight down interstate type road. There was no turns. It was like almost nothing. So it was, I mean, if you can drive in the US, you can drive in Germany. Yeah.
So there is a way to shortcut that fear of what is it like to drive in a foreign country. And that's what Trippiamo. And so let's talk a little bit about Trippiamo.
Rent a car and drive confidently when you travel the world with Trippiamo. Trippiamo is enabling more travelers to roam safely and confidently across the planet by changing the way people learn and prepare for global travel. Their comprehensive and interactive country-specific guides created by travel experts and local driving schools prepare you for driving abroad. Unlike a GPS, Tripi Amo is specifically designed to teach travelers what they need to know to properly and confidently drive anywhere in another country. Tripi Amo provides the most extensive knowledge available for international travelers. In addition to driving information, Tripi Amo also has a guide for the UK on taking public transportation, the tube, trains, and buses. Visit sunshinetravelers.com slash Trippiamo, that's T-R-I-P-I-A-M-O, to learn more. Using our affiliate links to book your experiences and travel helps support our podcast and allows us to continue to provide new content each week. Please consider using this link when booking your next travel. There's no extra cost to you and we are compensated through the affiliate.
All right. So the real main point was getting to Langenhain where Edith and Erich live. We spent a couple of days with them. And I think we've talked, you know, about that in the beginning and stuff like that. So it was just a great time for you, Brady, to get to meet them. It's always a special place in our hearts to spend time with them. And then especially to take the kids and let the kids meet them. Because like you said, that was five generations of our family that have met. But, you know, we left from Langenhain after visiting with them. And this is now when we're taking the trip and going to Greece.
So, Carrie, talk to us about your experiences with air travel in Europe with kids and then specifically like our experience in the Frankfurt Airport.
So as we're walking through the Frankfurt airport, we're headed towards our gate. And imagine our surprise when someone stops us and says, hey, the family security checkpoint is right here. You guys can come straight through here.
if it's always like but in this this, we were the case, only people at this checkpoint. They were very They didn't rush They were explaining what to do with the kids, flexible. us. and you didn't have to pack up the stroller. It was just more family-friendly. It wasn't hustle and bustle. It was very relaxed, and they tried to get us through as quickly as possible with the kids, so it wasn't this big, stressful thing. So that was really nice. So once we
we made it through the checkpoint, there wasn't really a lounge there at the Frankfurt Airport. And so we just had to go to the gate. I got something to drink and stuff for the kids so they could have a snack because we didn't think there was going to be food on the plane, but we were wrong.
Yeah, and I would say, just so you know, we were flying a GN to Greece. So we're not saying there's not a lounge in the Frankfurt airport. I'm sure there is, and it just depends on where you are flying. But yeah, food on the plane.
The whole plane experience with a GN was incredible as far as with the kids they brought around i think when we first got on they brought around games and coloring books for the kids and they were excited about that and then they they started bringing around food for everyone and they had a specific food specific meal for the kids. And everything was like branded, all cute, like junior pilots. And I think the food was, I want to say it was like a pepperoni pizza, but something more kid friendly, something that we were excited that we were like, oh, they'll definitely eat this. But it was all a shock to us. We had no idea that it was included. And they were just overall, no one gave us dirty looks. Everyone was very welcoming to the kids. And you could just tell that. And also the tickets. Maybe you want to talk about the tickets, how you found the tickets.
Yeah. So when you actually book on Aegean, and so Aegean does not just fly to Greece. So this was Frankfurt to Greece. We used it within Greece, but there's lots of places in Europe that they fly. But basically, if you put on there that you have some adult tickets and then you have some kids tickets, it pops up and is like, oh, this is Aegean for families. It automatically pops that up. I think the kids flew for like 19 euros or something like that. I think that was
I think that was even just the tax, maybe. It wasn't even that their tickets were priced.
It wasn't even
Yeah, it was super inexpensive. They give you a discount on checking the bags because I guess they just realized, okay, it's going to be easier if you have these kids, you can check these bags. So all six of us flew from Frankfurt to Athens, Greece for less than or right at 600 euros. Like all six of This is just us. absolutely But they crazy. like don't, you don't have to jump through You don't hoops. like euros, all six of us. This is just absolutely crazy. But they don't like you have to jump through hoops. You don't have to have some kind of code. You don't have to know all this stuff. And then for those meals, you don't have to go and pre-select these meals because it's like, oh, they know that they're kids and they just bring them around and they know where they're seated. It's just.
It was really nice and very just not stressful. And I think traveling can feel stressful. And, you know, that just it just takes off a little bit of weight for parents when you're, you know, abroad and just you've already been traveling for days and it just makes it a little bit easier and allows you to relax a little bit.
Well, that's a good transition because now we're going to the relaxing part of the trip, or at least it was relaxing for you guys. I was busy working the whole time. But no, we went to Crete and Crete actually was a place that I wasn't familiar with. And I think so. Carrie had done some research on Crete. There was something around that time you and Palmer were listening to some Joni Mitchell albums, right?
Yeah. I think when I was, I think I was researching, I was researching where we should go in Greece. And mom had sent me a list of a few islands she thought maybe might seem interesting. And I started reading about Crete, and I came across in one of the articles that one of Joni Mitchell's songs actually, ironically, named Carrie, C-A-R-R-E-Y, just spelled just like my name. She had written on her journey to Crete, and I played it in the car for Palmer, and she fell in love with it. And she, she said, oh, this song is so beautiful. And it just, it became one of her favorites that she always chooses to listen to. So I, one of the place that Joni Mitchell had traveled to, Matla, she had actually stayed in a cave there. They had traveled there, her and one of her friends, Carrie. And, you know, we ended up, so we immediately put that on our list of places we would like to go because that song was so special to Palmer. And I was like, oh, that would be so neat, you know, to get to experience that town. So we did add that to our list.
And when we say she stayed in a cave, we're not talking about Santorini, where she stayed in a cave house. Literally, she stayed in a cave. It was like a hippie commune there, and they all lived in these caves. And so one of the things we were able to do was go to the beach there at Matla and see these caves and walk through them. And boy, I couldn't imagine what that must have been like, honestly.
been like,
Yeah, that just would not have been my thing. But, you know, it's interesting to be able to see that. So let's talk a little bit about Crete. So Melissa and I, we've gone to some absolutely wonderful islands in Greece. You guys had gone on a previous trip, Carrie and Melissa, one year when I was working in London or outside of London for a few weeks. in London or outside of London for a few And Crete is surprisingly a really weeks. large,
really inhabited island in So Crete is Greece. the largest of the Greek And just to, islands. for reference, it's slightly larger than Puerto Rico. So you do want to have a car. So we did plan to rent a car there. And so how did you guys, I guess, because we helped to plan a lot of the logistics, you know, where we're going to stay in different places, some of the, a lot of the transportation. I did a lot of that research, but as far as where we were going to, like the towns we were going to stay in and what we were going to do in Crete, that was really on y'all. So talk about besides Matla, like how did you decide and how did you pick where to go in Crete?
Well, forgive my pronunciation because we still are kind of we still are not sure exactly how to say some of them. But the main place that I knew we wanted to spend a lot of time in was Hania. Hania. Hania. And it is on the western side of the island.
So we flew. So we stayed in Athens that night because we flew in late. The next
morning, we woke up early and flew into Hania. And just for reference, Hania is spelled C-H-A-N-I-A in English.
So we flew in and we rented a car.
And you had already had that set up. that was Yeah, quite an experience you because, I think in know, Greece in general, it's almost like you're renting a car from somebody's brother. Right. And that's just what it feels like. Always. They got a guy. Everybody's got a guy. And so we rented this van there and the guy like picked me up at the airport. But wouldn't let me go with you. Yeah, wouldn't let you go with us.
with you. Yeah, wouldn't let you go
And drove me away. So I, you know, turned on the transponder on my phone, like guys come and get me if, you know, you don't hear from me in a little bit. But no, he took us, took me offsite to a car lot where we picked up the van. I got the van, came back and picked them up at the airport. But let me just say a little something about driving in Crete. So if you are renting a car in Crete, rent the smallest car possible that you can find. Rent a bicycle.
Or a moped. They a bicycle. Moped. Or a moped. Or a moped. They're everywhere.
Do not. Like, literally, the streets in Crete all over are very small, very narrow, especially in the towns. And they park on those streets. On both sides.
both sides.
On both sides. And they don't park well on both sides. Yes. And so sometimes you're threading a needle to get the car down the street, and here we have a van. It's still a small
a small van, but we were in the top 5% of size of vehicle in that city. Yeah. This was
city. Yeah. This was just I think a great opportunity. You guys spent a lot of time checking out different You beaches. anything know, you want to say I think about... everywhere a great opportunity. You guys spent a lot of time checking out different beaches. You
know, anything you want to say about it? Everywhere else, it was fun. I mean, you know, I mean, everywhere else we went, like, you know. I mean, the roads were a little crazy. Yeah. Yeah. That was the other thing. Yeah. Just trying to figure out. It was like two-lane roads, but basically you, we just tried to watch people and figure out. Trippie Alma does not yet have a driving guide for Greece, but we would just kind of watch people and figure out Trippiama does not yet have a driving guide for Greece, but we would just kind of watch people. And basically, you're driving and somebody wants to pass, you just kind of pull a little bit to the right and you just kind of let them pass. Even though it was kind of sort of a two-lane road, I don't know. We just tried to watch everybody else. It was
kind of pull a
It was like a 1.75 lane interstate. So you drove and then if someone was coming up, you almost drifted to the shoulder to give them room to go around you.
Should we?
It was very efficient.
Oh, it's very efficient. Yeah. They don't need all these. It was great,
it's very efficient. Yeah. They don't need all these. It was great, but it just was interesting to figure out.
This was a manual transmission car.
Yes. Yes. This was a manual transmission. I didn't drive. Matter of fact, the place where we stayed gorgeous place incredible incredible like this was a i still think a two-story apartment with the penthouse view we had a private pool we had views of the ocean like this was an amazing place that we found on booking.com. But the parking situation was that you had to park downstairs under the building. Basically, you had to go up this very steep hill coming out of the parking garage, and you had to make an immediate right turn but cars were parked on the road and it's very narrow and on the opposite side of the road were these little metal gates like they were like for like locking
like locking up a bike too almost yeah yeah and they were all the
yeah yeah and they were all the way down the side of the street and so literally one time we came out of the garage and they were like you you're going to have to do this because someone's parked like right there. And this is going to be really hard to get out of here in a manual transmission. And so I didn't see those metal gates.
We forgot to tell him about him.
And like I ran all up over one. And Hard. I like, ran all up over one hard. hard,
one hard. hard,
And, you know, we were in a brand new van. It was literally Brandon. We put the first miles on it, but, you know, thankfully Brady found some toothpaste or something and buffed it out.
We knocked it off the guy at the gas station. They had like an auto shop thing, it was i think that was the next sunday yeah and i was trying to go in and the guy was like why are you going in why are you going in i was like no i'm good i know what i'm doing just like pump the gas or whatever and he was like no no no don't go in there and i was like why and then he's like it's not open and i told him what i needed he went inside and gave me this like tube of buffing compound and it was like five year five was it euros there yeah it was like five years, five was a euros there. Yeah. It was like five euros or whatever. And I thought I was like, man, we got a great deal. Like this is awesome. And then once we got back and actually use that, I was like, this stuff is like dry years old. Like it's completely separated. You could feel the creamy part in the bottom of the tube and the liquid and the rest of it. And I, it did enough. I felt, I don't know if we ever told you that melissa clipped it earlier in the trip and i was freaking out because i was like playing flag man to guide her out and she just kind of like you know knocked it into gear a little too no just like you know knocked it into gear a little bit and caught it it wasn't near as hard as how when you did yeah i smacked it yeah you did so it was like it was the day we went to valos and you know whatever but so when we got there i was like you taking the red
a little too no just
did so it
the red clay and spitting on my shirt to try to like make like a compound to like buff the scratches because i was like scott's gonna kill me like she ran this over and i didn't like tell her because i didn't want her to know. So then when you hit it hard later that night, I was like, I'm safe. My scratches are covered. It's good. He won't ever know. Anything else you want to say about Hania?
else you want to say about Hania?
Oh, it's, yeah. Yeah, I would highly recommend anyone go to Hania. I think it was a charming little port town.
I would
a charming little port town.
charming little port town. And I think one of the coming into when we flew into Crete, one thing I just somehow missed in my research, we flew in and you look on one side and there are mountains with snow on top. And then on the other side is the ocean. And it's just this amazing juxtaposition that I didn't even know existed in Greece. Like you think of Greece and you think of, I think, you know, the blue waters and, you know, the port towns. And Crete was a totally different experience of what I thought Greece was like. And it was just astoundingly beautiful, the nature that is there. I would say that it's full of nature. But I think it was a unique time of the year that we went to still. And I think they even said that it was odd for them to still have snow at that time. So it was very unique. Like, as we were there, we could see the snow kind of melting each day.
to still
So it was a really cool landscape. Because it was really warm. Yeah, it was warm by this one so let's
it was warm by this one so let's talk about the time of the year that so this was right after easter that began very early april which is really shoulder season and so for crete so would you say good time bad time to go what what do people need to know about going to Crete and Greece this time of year as
someone that had never experienced it I thought it was great I kind of pride myself on being pretty comfortable at like in beat in a beach environment that's kind of my thing that was my hesitation on Europe in general as I thought it was just like museums and old structures and stuff and that wasn't what got me excited like beaches is what got me excited so crete was kind of like my holy grail of of the trip so no i mean i thought the weather was great i think if you're willing to tolerate like slightly colder than pleasant water it's doable and i would much rather like it was still pretty hot. Like when we'd go sit in town and have lunch and stuff like you'd sweat sitting there.
go sit in
sweat sitting there. And it was not miserable by any means. It was very I would say it wasn't humid at all. It's just like a just a standard like it was in Celsius. I can't remember
how hot it was in the it was in the 20s. I think it was like mid 80s in
mid 80s in Fahrenheit.
But it was warm like the sun was
like the sun was intense. And so it was like mid 80s in Fahrenheit. but OK, it was warm, like the sun was intense. And so it was nice. And I ended up really liking it that you could we could go do things. And I wasn't like about to combust from it. But also that like the water was still refreshing and could cool you down and all that, because the night we went out to that bar, the guy did tell us like Bollos and those other places in the summer they're super crowded and the water in those lagoons gets super warm so it's like almost like bath water i think he said in the in
he said in the in high season so in like i think like what would be now in
july he he
july he he said it would get up to 112 degrees Fahrenheit. I can't even imagine because I was already hot then. And he said that it becomes so crowded that it's hard. You have to make dinner reservations. And I think he said the bars go until like 6 a.m. And they just don't close until the people leave. That's just part of the culture there. So I think it was actually a perfect time for us with the kids. We could just walk up and eat. I don't think we ever had to wait or anything like that. And it was pleasant at the beaches. There were people there, obviously, but parking was easy. The beaches weren't incredibly crowded that we could find space and have our own space. And I think it was just a lovely time to go, especially with the kids where you can just need some flexibility. And I feel like I would
say, though, even without the kids, I would recommend that time to anybody. I think the fact that we crossed paths with some like local folks and they told us how good of a time it was and that we weren't. They told us how crazy how people wise and temperature wise it can be later in the year when i think most people would be like if i'm going to pay a lot of money i want to go get the full like you know kind of like tropical type weather experience kind of deal obviously i've never been during the crazy time i don't even feel tempted to try it from the experience that we had. Like I,
from the experience
we, we were concerned things wouldn't be open in Crete that time of year. And the only place we really saw that was in Matla and that's a tiny little town, but everything else had plenty to do. We never had problems tracking down food. We had all the shops to go to. Like I thought it was, I thought it was fantastic. Like it was, I will note there were a
there were a lot of restaurants closed and, and closed and you saw a lot of them working on, you know, renovations. And this was their time to get ready for the season. However, there were still plenty, tons of options. And I also thought it was kind of neat because I felt like in Hania and I'm sure it's always like this. But where we were, it just felt like there were tons of locals. It was like you were there with the locals. And this is just what this is where they hung out. And I mean, down right in Old Town, where we would walk and have dinner and really every meal and all the shops was the school. The kids were out having recess and walking to school. school. The kids were out having recess and walking to school. So just to be in with the locals and feeling like you're truly experiencing the culture is just another interesting part, I think. So the second
the second city that we went to in Crete was Heraklion. And that, you know, in my mind, that felt like a big, a little bigger city. still same problem with the street so you know but we had another great airbnb place that we had
you know
had another great airbnb place that we had done through through booking the best view in
the best view in the probably the whole of the city i can't think of after being down there on the
of the city i can't think of after being down there on the water and looking back up to where we were i couldn't i don't think I could draw up somewhere on that little like landscape photo that would have had a better location and view and all that than where we
stayed. Yeah. And it was, it was, you know, great location to go down. You had places, short walk where you could grab something to eat. You had the port was right there and we were able to go down and see just a spectacular sunset one evening. Anything you guys want to add about Heraklion? I think the reason
that we chose to do two cities is because Crete is so big. There were beaches that we wanted to go to on the west coast, but there were also places that we wanted to go to on the west coast but there were also places that we wanted to go more in the center part of the island as well as far further east and so it was a great jumping point for us to kind of be able to do those on like do day trips while dad was working i think an important thing that we didn't probably
i think an important thing that we didn't probably say about crete is that it's got two airports
oh yeah so we were able
able to fly into hania be on the west side northwest side of crete which is like significantly more like rugged is i guess the word i'd use beaches are pretty raw hard to get to that kind of thing but it's like insanely beautiful heracleon that side's more like the central north eastern side of the island and there's another airport there. So we were able to get into one side, experience it, drive. It was like, what, an hour and a half, two hours? Drive to the other side, to Heracleion, and still fly out of Heracleion.
to the
fly out of Heracleion. We didn't have to go back two hours to the other side, back to Haneid.
Yeah, and we had arranged to drop the car in Heracleion. Now, that was a challenge in and of itself. But we figured it out. We figured it out.
Okay. So besides where we stayed, Hania and Heraklion, we mentioned the Matla Beach, the Ballas Beach. What are the other places that you guys researched and chose that we did our day trips to?
So I'll say Carrie did most of the research. You know, people joke like when you want something, you say it into your phone and you'll start getting Instagram posts for it. That's kind of how this Crete trip went for me was once we once Carrie said Crete's where we needed to go. We started talking about it. I started getting all these posts about the beaches and stuff. So like we said earlier, Balos was the first one we went to. It was a long drive on a pretty sketchy road, but 10 out of 10 would recommend it. You hike down to this beach. Pictures online don't do it justice, but they give you an idea of what I'm talking about. So we did Balos. We did another one called Elephanasi, which you'll hear everyone talk about the pink sand in Crete. That's kind of where you find the pink sand. That was very cool. Also, it was just to me, not as like exotic of a beach. Still, I mean, like would knock any America beach off the map, basically. So we did those two. Those were those were great and then travel day is when we went to rahim no which was not really a beach but just a stop city right got to heracleon like we just said and then that was where we went to matla i would recommend matla i'm not sure what y'all's opinion of it was i thought it was this such a cool little town i know we were we were all kind of like running out of fuel at that point. So we didn't really do much other than go to the beach.
We did explore the caves. Yeah, like seeing the caves.
Yeah, like seeing the caves. It was like two euros a person, which is like a joke. So it was totally cool doing that.
like seeing
We just didn't really like do a lot of food stuff there. It was kind of a long drive to just kind of like do the beach day thing. So I did want to
want to add, we talked about whether things were open or closed. I would say the beach places we went were the things that there weren't much open, except for Matla. That was the one where we at least like, I think we went and got pizza. We found some food and drinks. But we kind of always took snacks with us. But there were still a good bit at Matla that was closed. Like Carrie
But we kind of always took snacks with us. But there were still a good bit at Matla that was closed. Like Carrie said, there were the guys laying tile still. But that is still one of the best salads I've ever had in my life.
Carrie said, there were the guys laying tile still. But that is still one of the best salads I've ever had in my life. It was like fresh beets and radicchio. And I think they had the local bee pollen on it. And it was just insanely good and all local food. So that was really cool.
But the other beaches, like we took everything. We took water, we took snacks, and there was not anything open. Whereas in the summertime, they would have had full facilities and stuff like that. So just, yeah, vendors. And so just to know that.
stuff like
Yeah.
So then where else?
And then I think after we did, after Matla was, I think, our last day when Scott was working and we went to a place called Agios Niklaus. Crete's kind of an interesting place. Like, all the beaches are different, but they can kind of be the same, too. There's either just, like, very raw, sandy beaches, or there's these big, rocky beaches where, like, you wouldn't really go sit on them. It's hard to, like, put into words how the cities are just situated in these little coves and stuff. But my takeaway from Crete was there's a little bit of everything for everyone. I love exploring around and going through tide pools and finding shells and all that stuff. And I ate that up. But also being able to go places more where you guys love going in and out of shops and getting afternoon espresso things and all but that, also being able to like go places more where you guys love like going in and out of shops and getting like afternoon espresso things and all that. But also like being near a beach. I think it like fit everything for everybody really well. Yeah, there were so many different things. Like it's I feel like there's so much more to create to try to explore. I think something we haven't
something we haven't mentioned, too, is Crete is very well known for their food and just their culinary, just all the restaurants and their local food. And because it is such a large island, you know, they make so much of what grows there. And I feel like everything was local and they really prioritized, you know, highlighting they're using local produce and meats. And it was just, it's just really neat. Yeah. And there's
there's honey, the bee boxes everywhere, bee pollen everywhere. And they have several, we didn't
several, we didn't get, we didn't get a chance to make it, but they do have several vineyards also. And they have a lot of local wine that they're very proud of. Yeah. And I
And I think it's the largest olive oil producer as well for Greece.
I think one thing I would say is when it was neat because we went into a restaurant and they had like an olive oil sommelier, but be careful
doing the olive oil tastings because it really flushed all of us out, and good thing we were heading back. So we weren't quite sure if we were going to be able to make the flight that next morning. But don't drink the olive oil.
olive oil. It's a takeaway.
It's a takeaway. Taste it. Don't drink it.
it. Don't drink it. It was a very neat experience. So I think we could talk
a lot more about Crete so that we probably will do another episode on Crete. And maybe we could compare it and contrast it with some of the other places in Greece. We talked to a lot of people and they asked us about our favorite places. And Greece comes up quite often. And we are surprised that a lot of people have not been to
Greece. So we left from Heraklion. And this is where we're going to now make the long trip back to Jacksonville. And we get to Athens. We have a few hours before our flight. It's just the way that it worked out. And I've been trying to put these lounges in just about every city. And Melissa keeps saying, no, it wasn't there. But it was in Athens that they had a really nice priority pest lounge there. And let me tell you, Palmer was living her best life in there. She had all the different drinks. She had all the different snacks and food that they had. And she was loving that place. That's just a good thing. It kind of got us to the point where we're going to get on this long flight because we're going to travel 20 hours that day getting back home. So what did
did we realize about flying home from Athens, Greece? We won't ever do it
We won't
it again. So there's not always a nonstop from Athens to Atlanta. It is a seasonal flight. And I think it had started actually just a few days before. But yeah, it's a 12 hour.
Yeah. I mean, the thing for us, again, newbie to this, never thought of it. I was like, yeah, six hours to London. That's not bad. We'll take a couple of planes to London. That's not bad. And then when the night before, like we said, we were dealing with some olive oil situations and then we're trying to figure this thing out and i'm looking at my app and with the time change i thought it was like a nine hour flight because it said we land we took off at 12 30 greece time i believe and landed 9 30 jacksonville time so i was like yeah this is that's fine that's pretty similar to what we did get into london did not think of like the five hour time jump we were going through. So we were not really prepared. I had like some real Sunday scaries about trying to fly. Well, I mean, it's like 12 and a half hours in the plane. It was 20 hours total from the time we got up there. Yeah, all the travel because of the connections. I'm saying just the direct flight from Athens to Atlanta was like, I think 12 and a half. Not counting that we pre-board early with kids and all that. So the kids sat on an airplane for like 13 hours.
During the middle of the day. So yeah, not overnight. And they moved me out of the row that we were in.
not overnight. And they moved me out of the row that we were in.
Yeah, just they had changed the plane like literally last minute. So it split them up and unfortunately we made it so i don't know
we made it
know what y'all are complaining about it was a great flight i slept up there in first class yeah so here was my what i would change about
so here was my what i would change about that while the kids did fabulous i i mean there were moments that were rough but we made it and thankfully there were there was another family in front of us. And I think they were having a hard time. So I was feeling really good about our life. But I think with everything the night before, like they mentioned the olive oil issues, we were all so exhausted. And I had put so much thought into what to pack into the kids' backpacks on the way here and each travel stop. But this one just with us packing to go home, it wasn't, I guess I just didn't even think about it. I thought we would eat. And then I thought that there would be plenty of meals on the plane. We had had, you know, we had that great experience where they brought the kids all the stuff. And then we get on this flight and I realized I essentially have zero snacks for the kids. And I'm not really sure if this was normal, but they really didn't bring around many snacks during the flight. And that was just one of the biggest mistakes I had made was not making sure that the kids had enough food.
I've flown Delta for nearly 50 years and very loyal Delta person here, but Delta needs to step it up. And I know a lot of people are saying that this week with all the travel disruptions because they're just not feeling the loyalty to Delta right now. But I think in that case, you're right. Delta really needs to step it up because Aegean had it figured out. Yeah. I do
Yeah. I do recall they made like a comment or I heard it in passing or something about like the plane didn't restock proper or something. Something that like justified the whole snack side of it. Like somebody complained. So I remember hearing something. So there could have been like a justifiable reason for that. I remember hearing something, so there could have been like a justifiable reason for that. But, you know, the lesson I learned from this whole thing on that flight is I would much rather take one more or two more days of PTO from work or whatever your situation is and like fly back to probably not London because it's expensive to go in and out of, but like Spain or somewhere. Or like we talked about Iceland, whatever the city in Iceland is that you fly over. Just to break it up a little bit. Yeah. Like, just, just like give your, like, don't, don't make yourself like suffer so hard to try to like optimize your travel that much. I'm kind of like a perfectionist when it comes to that. And I try, I was like, yeah, we'll just force it. It'll happen. We're good. And I wish now I had just like taken another day off and like enjoyed the travel more than feeling so stressed about being on a plane for 13 straight hours.
My other big mistake with the kids is immediately. And I had I had their kid Yeti water bottles with me. So this was just on me. I just wasn't thinking. But immediately put their water into their Yeti cups or whatever cup it is that you have, something that will not spill. Like, don't let them use the cups with no lids because you're just, you know. It will spill. Yeah. And it could spill on someone else. So just take my word for it and put your kid's drink in something that's not going to spill.
Yeah, because those tray tables are just so finicky and all that stuff. So speaking of the kids, I did want you to share a little bit about a couple of things that you pack. So you mentioned the backpacks, you mentioned the snack boxes, and then also how you packed their clothes, which I think ended up being a very efficient system for you.
So I'll start with the clothes. I ordered one of the over the door shoe hangers. And then I saw someone do this on Instagram, but they, you just roll an outfit together and roll it up into each, like basically where you would put your shoe. It rolls up really nicely. So then you have an outfit in each of the shoe holders. And so it ends up being so easy for you to just pull the entire outfit out of each spot. And then it's all together. You don't have to dig through your suitcase. Once you get to a hotel room, you could just hang it up on the door and then you don't have the kids digging through it. And then you're not trying to put outfits together. It was all in there. And then it rolls up actually really small into one side of the suitcase. So I had all of their stuff on one side and then my stuff on the other. So we fit it all into one suitcase. But that was really easy to just take it out of the suitcase, put it on the door, put it back in the suitcase in each spot since we were traveling around a lot too. And then as far as what I packed in their backpack, it was really nice for them each to have a backpack and then they could fill it, especially because they're different ages, they could fill it with what they wanted to play with. So we had one of the drawing pads where you can draw and then press the button and it erases. one of the drawing pads where you can draw and then press the button and it erases. Each had one of those. We went to the dollar store, got a bunch of stickers and paper for them to color. I didn't pack. I specifically didn't pack crayons and markers and stuff like that. Just something easy that they could do because the crayons are going to melt, then they're going to drop all over the airplane floor, and then you just have a mess. But they packed a lot of the Melissa and Doug reusable sticker stickers, packs. Those are really great. I think what else? they, I had ordered some of the mini magnet tiles that we kept in a little bag for them. Oh, They liked playing with those. And then my aunt had given us this tip and it was really great and I would highly recommend this but pack a pack of balloons and in each hotel room you can blow up the balloon they can play with the balloon and then you can just leave the balloon and you blow up another one once you get to the to the next spot I thought that was a really good idea really cheap really easy for them and kept them entertained
for a while so So, Brady, one last question, and I think for you, is how has this changed the way that you look at vacationing going forward? It's been a bit of a lifestyle shift, to be honest with
shift, to be honest with you. I would like to think I've always been a vacation person, like with, I would like to think I've always been a vacation like you having person, access to with, beaches locally know, in this general vicinity of the country. Spent a lot of my summertime growing up on vacation.
So I think what it has shifted for me is I think like, I struggle to see the value in big travel like this beforehand. And it's opened my eyes to like that there's something so much more than what you get. Not to undermine what we have like in the U.S. Like, I love coming down here and I love going to my mom's and stuff like that. But it's just so different. Like, it's unexplainable to somebody that hasn't been there, you know. And it's... I told
I told you. Yeah. Like I
I said, it's it's unexplainable to somebody that hasn't been there you know and it's it's it's i told you yeah yeah like i said it's it's it's changed my mind like i would we we have some crazy ideas of stuff we want to do in the future and you know if you had asked me 18 months ago if i would have ever thought of doing the things i'm talking about doing now i would not have believed you well
let's get into that a little bit. One, we have three questions that we ask everyone who comes onto the show. And so we ask the same three questions. So first of all, what is your favorite place that you've ever been?
This might sound like I'm blowing smoke. Me sitting here today, if I had to pick a spot, it was Crete. 100%. The day we went to Balos was one of the days I'll never forget. Yeah, that's my answer sitting here right now.
As far as my favorite city, it's always going to be London, I think. I just always want to go back. I just enjoy our time so much there. Oh, gosh. I think Greece just in general. I really enjoyed mom and I's trip to Idra and then now again to Crete. And there's so many more islands that I want to go back to. So I have to say the same thing.
And then what's on your bucket list?
I think we have similar places. I think we both would love to go to Australia. Funny enough, I feel like I should have been to Italy and I've never been. So Italy's also on my list. And then I would really like to go to Portugal next.
Portugal is big for me. I definitely want to go to Portugal just in terms of being unique from Carrie because we are very similar on those three. I've taken a very recent interest in wanting to go to Scotland and that stuff from hearing my brother's trip and all that and seeing the golf stuff recently. I think not only a big golf traveler, but I think it would be cool to go over there, see it, see kind of like the castle stuff. I know I kind of like said whatever about museums earlier, but I think castles would be really cool to see and doing that. And so I think like Scotland's one. And then I've seen a lot recently, this kind of goes to the Italy thing. I've seen a lot about like the French coast. Like I can't remember what the big, I said like where they have the F1 event. I think it's Monaco. Yeah. And like Nice and that part of France. I've seen all these reels lately and I'm like, this looks really cool. Like, so I don't, I don't, I don't know much about it. So I know I want to go there, but from what I've seen on Instagram, like, I think it'd be really cool to go there.
Yeah. It's cool enough that it's one of my tats there, Monaco. And then finally is you know what what is next on your your list do you have something planned or do you want to get me to take it as a couple you can do
you can
what's immediately next is we're trying to we both turned 30 this year so we're trying to find you know with talking about getting deals with the companion certificate you get with an amex we're trying to find something to do later this year where we can like skirt holiday season and go somewhere in the caribbean that's like the immediate thing i think on the longer horizon after this trip like i said i wouldn't believe you if you told me this a year or half ago we are pretty seriously considering trying to figure out a way to do like what do they call it it's like a 90-day visa thing so you can go to is it the eu where it's limited to i think it's the eu i don't think london's included in it i don't think the uk the shingan countries yeah i think i think any of those i think it's you can do 90 days in a 180 day
i think any of those i think it's you can do 90 days in a 180 day period, you could say.
Yeah, I think it's. But I think post like Brexit, it doesn't apply to the UK. So I'm pretty sure it's the EU. You can go for 90 days. with work and thinking about things financially and all that to explore the idea of maybe like this time next year or later, like in the fall of next year, seeing about doing like a 90 day thing, you know, whether it's staying in one place for 90 days in Europe and just like immersing yourself or, you know, booking Airbnb for 30 days and being like, if we like it here, we'll do it again. And if we don't, we'll go somewhere else. You had told me that would be my mindset about traveling. I never would have believed you. But we would just like to have an extended stay somewhere and just really
just like to have an extended stay somewhere and just really be able, like what you said, to immerse ourselves and immerse our kids. I think it's just with us kind of somewhat working from home and being remote, like we have a unique opportunity. And I think it's just something that we both feel passionate about giving that experience to our kids and just letting them see that, you know, the world is so big and there's so many people and so many cultures and, you know, languages and food and just they are, they are adventurers. I mean, they really are. And I think it was so cool to see them on this trip and give them the opportunity to do this. Cause I think a lot of times we're so scared as parents, like, Oh, we don't know how this is going to go. This is going to go terribly. Like this is too much. I don't know, but they did. I mean, they really did great. And they asked, when are we going on the next airplane? After we had been on, you know, three airplanes in one day, the next morning they woke up, when are we going on the next airplane? So I think that, you know, they, they truly are capable of so much and I would love to give them the chance to see more and, you know, just give them a unique perspective on the world. Sounds like
like we've raised them right. Well, thank you guys. Thanks for sharing your story. Thanks for
for coming with us. Absolutely. Anytime.
If you have the opportunity to travel with your children or grandchildren, we would highly recommend it to you. This was an experience that they will always remember and that we will always have to remember as well. What other kind of travel have you done with your kids or grandkids? Send me an scott email, at sunshinetravelers.com, and let me know. We're always inspired by your travel stories. We hope you enjoyed this episode and found some inspiration to help you with your travel journeys. If you could take a moment to leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform, it would be greatly appreciated. Your five-star reviews help us get discovered by others and possibly featured on your favorite platform. Don't forget to follow or subscribe to our podcast to get notified of new episodes as they are released. You can also find us on Instagram and Facebook at Sunshine Travelers Podcast. Remember that as travelers with one L, most importantly, please share it with your friends to help them catch the travel bug. You never know, they may become your greatest travel companion.
