Eurotrip 2008: Michael, Hagar, Uri, Shai, and Tal

Michael and Hagar Return to Backpacking, This Time, with an Entourage

Day One: Where the kids take Hagar on the "sleep train"

So Hagar got this crazy idea to meet Michael in Paris to start their three-week vacation. For a few weeks, she took the kids on trial runs around Copenhagen and Denmark just to get them used to the idea of traveling. Once, Hagar and the kids took a five hour train ride to a youth hostel on the island of Romo. Because they had no car and were not allowed to rent a bicycle because of the large number of children in tow (or who would have been in tow had a successful rental occurred), the trip consisted of sleeping in the youth hostel, looking at a pony, eating fish-n-chips, and going home on another five hour train ride. Success? You bet.

After taking the training wheels off the traveling-with-kids operation, Hagar got ready to go from Copenhagen to Paris. Via train. Actually two trains. And a ferry. And six lines to get the appropriate tickets. Plus, she had to take a half-day trip to Valenbek (don't ask us how to pronounce it, or even how to spell it) to purchase a backpack from some guy who smokes, and apparently may have smoked inside the backpack at some point in the past. Quite remarkable, really. How did Hagar find him, you ask? She learned how to say backpack in Danish. Turns out it's "backpack."

As they started off to the central train station in Copenhagen, the kids took to calling Hagar "the sandwich" because she had the big backpack in the rear and a food backpack in the front. Tal was the first to call out, "Ima, you're the cheese!" Uri concluded that the backpacks must be the bread. Shai was hungry. They boarded the train at 11:42am. The kids drew pictures for many hours and then all of a sudden they had to get off the train to find themselves next to a large truck inside a boat. Yes, that's right: the train rode onto a track inside a ferry that crossed the Baltic Sea to Germany where it met a rail on the other side. Much excitement was had.

After finally arriving in Hamburg, the crowd requested Hamburgers. Hagar provided fish-n-chips. They walked around, came back to the train and set off for Paris at 8:30pm. Kids slept quite well, woke up at 6:30am but stayed quiet for a whole hour. The two roommates were duly impressed from their couchettes. The four Dickmans finally arrived in Paris at 9:15am after more drawing and eating in the dining car.

And then the Great Meltdown started. Considering the 18-hour trip to get there, it was remarkable they hung on that long. But hang on longer they did not. They cried through three train ticket lines. The youth hostel that promised space was now full so Hagar and the kids were stuck in Paris with nowhere to sleep. Hagar called her travel department (Michael) which found a hotel on the northwest side of the city at a reasonable price. The kids cried during the metro ride to the hotel. Hagar wanted to cry but didn't, opting instead for a nap. Kids cried during lunch. Michael's plane from Stockholm was late (don't ask why he was in Stockholm -- where else would he be since he lives in Copenhagen and works out of Helsinki?). Kids cried about that, too. After bread and nutella, bed.

Day Two: The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and the best ice cream in Paris (depending on if we went to the "right" store)

The kids were excited to see Michael in the morning. They jumped on him. Yes, there. Ouch. After breakfast at the hotel, we went to the Eiffel Tower. Such excitement!! Uri did some kind of dance move he learned from the big kids at his Chicago elementary school, Shai pulled out some Michael Jackson and Tal hummed like Winnie-the-Pooh. The three of them ran happily towards the tower, with Shai occasionally asking if that was the "real Eiffel Tower". We stood in line for an hour (are you picking up on themes of the vacation yet?), during which the kids earned many happy comments from the surrounding people who enjoyed their display of energy and fun. Behind us was an Israeli couple from L.A. with two sons: Tal and Gal. Tal (our Tal) just loved saying, "That's my other friend, Tal. I'm Tal and he is Tal. There are two Tals." Shai asked where their Shai was. Gal felt left out.

It was an unusually cold morning, and we spent half the time enjoying the view, e.g. Uri: "I can see ALL of Paris!", and the other half of the time freezing, e.g. Uri: "I'm freezing." After another line for the elevator on the way down, we took the train to the Louvre and had quite a nice time until the inevitable Afternoon Meltdown. Prior to that, however, we saw the Mona Lisa, with which the kids were not that impressed. Sorry, Leonardo. Shai liked the picture of "Christ Mort". Uri wanted to see more war paintings. Tal liked touching the walls. After some walking around and seeing some prehistoric Egyptian artifacts the kids have had enough, so we went out and played in the water fountains, looked at the glass pyramids and ran the kids around in circles. We then went in search of the "best ice cream in Paris", which apparently was the goal of all other Rough Guide users, as the "Bethillon" ice cream company (store? company?) branched out beyond its single storefront so that every corner boasted the "Bethillon" brand. We think we went to the right place because it tasted good, but who knows. Anyway, we had ice cream: apricot sorbet, chocolate nougat (x2), cappuccino, and honey nougat. Two points to anyone who guesses which Dickman had what flavor. We walked around cute little streets with cute little stores, bought baguette, cheese, and vegetables, and watched a clown do a street show. Then it was time to put the kids to bed as we anticipated that soon we too will have a melt down.

We're having a blast. The kids are enthusiastic about anything from metro rides to moving clouds to fire hydrants. They dream of returning to the sleep train some day (five days from today when we go to Venice, actually). We're backpacking with three kids in Europe. What could be better? Michael, Hagar, Uri, Shai & Tal; a.k.a. "The Dickmans" (Chicago/Copenhagen branch)