By LisaTravels
My husband and I met as backpackers while in our yearly 20s. We have always have had a soft spot for the allure of travel and the opportunity to discover new countries and cultures. Having 2 young sons but a crimp in things for a while, but we wanted to share our passion with our kids and expose them to the same experiences and memories that we had cultivated along our travels. So we decided to cash in our airline points and take our 2 boys, aged 8 and 10, abroad for a month during the summer. In order to get their buy-in we asked the boys where in the world they’d like to visit. Based on their limited knowledge of the world they decided they wanted to visit Paris to see the Eiffel Tower and Italy to eat pizza – both great countries with lots of things to do, see and eat. We decided to combine these countries with a stop in Germany to visit friends.
My last ‘grand tour’ of Europe was as a thrifty backpacker during my college days. My gilded memories were filled with the thrill of seeing things that I had only read or heard about. Seeing Europe through the eyes of my 2 very active young boys was a TOTALLY different experience. It wasn’t the scenic vistas, beautiful art (according to them the Louvre was filled with a bunch of naked paintings and statues) or the ancient and narrow cobble stone streets that got them excited. What thrilled them were the unexpected people and experiences that weren’t part of our carefully laid out plans.
While they found the maze of Venice’s canals and small bridges interesting, what they really found cool was the small playground in Venice run amok with small lizards. And it wasn’t the gorgeous countryside or wonderful food that they loved in Tuscany, but diving for olives freshly plucked from the trees surrounding the pool at the agritoursimo in which we were staying.
Also unexpected was all of the kids they met from around the world, like the 7 year old from England who they couldn’t believe already spoke 3 languages or the 4 year old boy from China they played IPAD games with despite not sharing a common language or the kids from Holland they romped around the agritourismo with for hours although they too were unable to communicate. As for food, it wasn’t the fresh ingredients or elegant simplicity of which they were impressed, but the abundance of chocolate hazelnut products available throughout Europe.
Is this the experience that I had envisioned for my boys – eschewing world famous paintings, gorging on cheap chocolate and chasing around small reptiles, not really, but do I think it was valuable – for sure.
I mistakenly believed that ‘a bunch of old stuff’ (in my boys’ words) would delight them much the same way as it had my 20 year old female self.
So they didn’t develop an appreciation for art, ancient cultures or architecture, what they did learn was much more valuable – in my opinion. They realized that while all countries and cultures are different, we are more than same than we are different. Each country that we visited had its own things that made it distinctive; such as the speed at which you can drive on the autobahn in Germany, the variety of 2 wheeled vehicles and the chaotic way in which they drove it Italy and leisurely meals spent at outdoor beer gardens, piazzas or squares.
No, their behavior wasn’t perfect, they are brothers and they are boys, but watching them swim while lounging in a chair surrounded by olive groves, vineyards and rolling hills sure beats hanging around a crowded city pool on a hot sweaty day in North America. In the coming weeks I will share more detailed information on what we did with our boys on our adventures in each country.
About the Author: Lisa Singer is a Toronto based mom and communications professional. Her love of travel was set in motion on her own backpacking trip across Europe where she met her now husband. Lisa also loves food and tries to weave in learning about local food and its growth and production on all of her travels.
