On the Road, Again

Part 1: Caceres, Salamanca

Lucy is christened a gypsy.

9 days, 5 different hotels, more destinations than any numeric configuration could allow… that sounds like a brilliant plan hatched by adults with twenty years combined parenting experience.

Spring break traveling with kids, a baby, and an awful weather forecast. Meet your intellectual power couple.

For once I was happy to carry their coats. I am not made for the middle ages, or anything below seventy degrees. The girls on the other hand… had to be talked out of making snow angels in leggings at one point on the trip.

Ask them, they’ll tell you the snow was their favorite part. Ten minutes in heaven out of a week and a half.

Parents: “So you’re saying… feeling bone cold was better than anything else on the trip?”

Snowball to the heart.

Was the trip educational? We toured the University of Salamanca and learned how to baby proof every Airbnb we entered.

Was it kid friendly? We were very nice to them. Does any of that count?

Essentially they were troopers for a trip centered around mom and dad’s Spanish bucket list. The weather was perfect for cathedral and palace tours, art exhibits, history museums, and very little else.

We christened our legs in the old city of Caceres on our way to central Spain.

A small impression until we were forced to consume a kilo of palmeras in order to use the sticky plastic bag to pack Lucy out. Blown out on the trail. I can’t see a palmera without thinking of the incident. Thankfully, they still hold appeal.

Once we managed logistics each day, it was great to be tourists again.

Yes, TOURISTS. We stand out, we turn heads. Travelers stare at us.

And what did we learn in the famous university town?

Nothing new, but a good reminder. The girls do not need “entertaining,” only goals. How many towers can we visit in Salamanca? Leave no stair unstepped!

If the spiral staircases could talk (and you were able to hear them above the roar of the girls),

only the adults were grumbling.

We took some well-deserved breaks.

There is only so much architecture a child with a filled croissant can absorb. Rose would not abandon her immediate view to consider the Pontifical University towering behind her.

That’s fine, she ignored the street performances too. We all tried to.

We used the backdrop to engage them in important catechesis,

and lunch to tell the loaves and fishes story.

It’s okay if you drop one Lucy, we can still feed the 5,000.

Lucy: “You are pulling this as soon as you take the photos, aren’t you?”

Parents: “Not with that defensive posture. I think this is one where we hurry to eat as much of our lunch as we can until you gag on a big piece.”

Our version of the Amazing Race continues… to Avila next!