Breakfast was great again.  We then took the bus to the train station and caught the train to Berlin. I played cards with Amber and Judy, and worried the whole way about whether we would be too late to check in at the Birth City Hotel in Berlin.  Eventually I was able to reach the hotel, and there was no problem.  I wrote the below email on the train:

Text of an email to David:

I’m not sure when this will get through – wifi has been pretty intermittent. I’m writing it shortly after we traded emails about $$. I’m sitting on a German high-speed ICE train for Berlin. To my surprise, I’m finding Deutschland to feel much more comfortable to travel through than Belgium, simply because it feels more familiar even after all these years. I guess you never forget the fatherland.

As you may have intuited, it’s been a rough several days. Jet lag was a bear – much harder to adjust than when I was younger – and then we got stuck in Ireland, and then we crossed to Belgium arriving at night and the hotel we booked turned out not to exist (or perhaps it did; the street was filled with prostitutes and gutting it out isn’t really an option with young family in tow).  And then we had to book some nights in a row on no day’s notice, which is almost impossible with five people. (I think it would be literally impossible without occasional wifi and a cell phone).

But we’re booked now for the next week, and I’m hoping things are finally looking up. As you know, foreign travel is, among many other things, a set of logistical skills, and I’m a bit rusty.  All of the burden of planning everything, from rooms to trains to navigating public transport to finding things to do has been falling on me – which is fine, since the others are still getting over the shock of being away from home, and it means that I get to pick what we do – but I do sort of miss traveling with a group of people who can share the load a bit.  But like I said, I think I’m finally ahead of the curve a bit and can relax. Litigation is the same way – when a case first starts, there’s a shitload of stuff to do that all requires careful, exhausting attention, but once it gets slotted into it’s tracks, it almost runs itself.

Anyway, London was a big hit, despite the jet lag. I think it may be my favorite city. The tube is great, the people are friendly, there’s tons to do, the days are really long, and life there just seems very pleasant. At least in summer. At least when you don’t have to work. I got a million utterly charming pictures of the girls riding the tube, or sitting at the base of Westminster, or eating fish and chips.  The great thing about traveling with little kids is that it’s always a perfect time to take another picture.

We stayed a night in Dublin on the way to Killarney, but of that, the less said the better. Whatever the charms of a giant town full of Irish pubs to the single crowd, it’s all sort of an embarrassing nuisance when you’re traveling with kids. The spot we crashed was an absolute rathole, but the room had bunk beds, so the girls thought it was the greatest hotel in the world. Which is another great thing about traveling with little kids.

Turns out we did NOT go to Killarney when we were in Ireland, because I’d never been there.  I’m not sure it’s worth all of the hassle of the ferries just to get there (but then again, the girls LOVED the ferries), but it was a beautiful spot – especially coming from Phoenix where nothing is ever green or wet. We stayed at a budget B&B that turned out to be basically a house in the suburbs belonging to a working class Irish woman who drove us around when we needed to go anywhere. Sort of an odd accommodation at first, but ultimately an authentic and memorable experience. She had a daughter and a trampoline, so the girls were on the moon with that one.

To escape the emerald isle, we had to go back through London and then take the Chunnel train to Brussels. It’s definitely the way to go – two hours and you’re there. Brussels was fine, a nice European city, but I guess nothing too spectacular. We we really only there for a day by accident.

And then we spent the last couple of days in Brugge (aka Bruges), in northern Belgium, which was really spectacular if you are looking for atmosphere. It’s an entire city that has been preserved from the 19th century, including many buildings from the 1600s and a main square that dates back as far as the 1100s. The streets are all cobblestone, the city walls are intact, and there is even a system of canals snaking through it. I’m sure you can find pictures on the Internet. It’s mostly tourists, but they seemed to all be European tourists, so it actually retained a bit of a Europeans on holiday feel to it.

And now we change gears, to Berlin, to see how cute the girls will look standing in front of various WWII atrocities.