Europe Trip 2010 Itinerary...

Jar Savings: 2.22 USD

Here is the Europe trip Itinerary so far, and this is without discussion from other members of the party besides me and my mom.  This is the first thing we do when we have a trip in mind.  I have rewritten this about 6 times, done some research and wrote it over again.  Our first itinerary did not include Spain, but for some reason, my mom really wants to go to Spain, and I am not about to argue with my mother.  Plus, I love Spain.  Sangria here we come! There has to be a little more work done on Prague, but so far the consensus is, Prague has less to do?  I'm not sure about that, so do you guys have suggestions?  I have been there before on New Year's Eve but only over night and it was a wonderful.  

April 9 San Diego-Rome

10 Travel

11 Rome

12 Rome - Vaticano

13 Rome -Vaticano

14 Rome- Day Trip Italy

15 Rome

16 Rome-Florence

17 Florence

18 Florence Day Trip Italy

19 Florence  

20 Florence-Venice-EU

21 Prague

22 Prague

23 Prague-Barcelona

24 Barcelona

25 Barcelona Day Trip Spain

26 Barcelona

27 Barcelona-London

28 London

29 London

30 London-San Diego

So if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to post them here, and we can discuss further options.  =)

Decline in Airline Attendants and their Service

I always bring a bottle of children's benadryl or children's cough syrup on the plane, and luckily have never needed it. I absolutely refuse to give them to my kids unless they are really sick or need it. I have been doing some research, and I did read about a fllight attendant drugging a kids' milk (sued and fired). I also heard of things like kids getting thrown out of planes because their kids were misbehaving. With this being said, I have also noticed a dismal decline in service from most American Based Carriers- United, American and Northwest being the biggest of these after 9/11, I have been traveling for about 20 years now, and absolutely refuse to use American Carriers with my kids unless it is absolutely necessary. I think the flight attendants and employees of these American carriers are beginning to use Homeland Security as an excuse not to be nice anymore and taking their "disgruntled employee in a customer service" attitudes and using Homeland Security as a way to empower themselves. And noticably, if you fly Air New Zealand, British Airways, Virgin, China Airlines, Cathay Pacific- any carrier that is not American, you get great, attentive service with airline employees that appreciate you, and will help with you with you and your children. I hate to be a basher of particular brands, but personally, I haven't had great service from United or American on board any of the flights I have travelled. Any. That's really saying something.

Nothing exciting...

Jar this week: 20.90 USD

Planning, planning and more planning.  There is nothing exciting on the trip planning front this week.  We are just on correspondence and retrieval and information gathering mode.  Soon... there will be an announcement. =)

Hallo?

We have been absolutely horrible this past week of updating the blog.  But, I swear, this is all related.  We have been busy getting my sister to Roma, and in the meantime having her help with the transitioning of being with her help and soon- to having her be gone, far, faraway.  Anyway, good times and cheers to my sister for becoming completely fluent in Italian and moving to Italia! She will be missed, but thank goodness for scype (sp?) email and all that stuff.  Plus, we will have a nice contact in Roma when we get this trip going!  

Jar Savings this week?  $27.22 

Win a GREAT Summer Reading Book! NO TOUCH MONKEY By Ayun Halliday

We've decided to have a contest for those of you people who are following or starting to follow... 

Send in your questions, comments, travel experiences, stories or just say how much you like us and I'll pick the best piece and send you a free copy of this book! Last day to enter is: 31 May 2009.  

"I laughed hard on nearly every page of this shockingly intimate travel memoir and deeply funny book."  -Stephen Colbert, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 

 

Keeping Mosquitoes and other Annoying Biting Flies Off Your Family!

Jar Savings $12.23

The hardest thing about going to South East Asia with a 3 month old, was trying to find the perfect mosquito repellant before we left.    With Malaria, Dengue Fever and a slew of other diseases brought on by those little pests was enough to make me crazy.  I narrowed it down to a few products.

California Baby Mosquito Repellant- safe for infants, smelled nice, and wasn't oily or greasy.  It lasted a few hours and didn't give the girls or us any kind of rash.  Main ingredient was Citronella. 

Avon Skin-So-Soft Line-  There is a bug reppeller/sunscreen at SPF 30.  It didn't stink, and it kept off almost every kind of bug.  Also, the regular skin so soft oil has always repelled mosquitos although I find it to be too oily.  

Patches: Made By OFF!

We found these in Asia, but I haven't had a chance to look for them here.  You could stick on clothing or the baby carrier that repelled mosquitos for 8 hours.  This was perfect at night, so you wouldn't have to keep reapplying.  

It's hard, finding stuff without DEET that was effective for the baby.  The Toddler on the other hand, was okay with kids stuff.  I recommend putting stuff on their legs first to see if they react to it.  There are also numerous companies that make mosquito nets for portable cribs, carriers and strollers.  Which really worked out well for the baby when we were outdoors eating or something.  Also, a random tip that is somewhat related, be careful when you put even "safe for babies" stuff on their skin, (this goes with sunscreen also).  We forgot and put the stuff on the back of Memmy's arms and she rubbed all over her eyes and she ended up with sore, stinging eyes.  Poor thing.  

Baby Changing Stations

Before we had kids, we never noticed if there was a baby chang-ing station some-where.  We never looked for the avail-ability of hot water, or even for places that offered baby food.  We found ourselves in the beginning of the trip, bumbling around looking for places to change Myla in the UK. Fortunately, our week long road trip to Utah when Myla was 5 weeks old, trained us well in changing the baby anywhere.  Basically, if you have a clean flat surface you can change your kid.  Of course, we try to refrain from changing them in eating areas.
A lot of countries are child friendly.  For changing stations, we were pleasantly surprised how nice the UK was about having changing stations in the major attractions.  For instance, in Edinburgh, Scotland, the castle had an over the top changing station.  It turned one of the castle rooms into this baby changing hexagon.  Within the walls of the castle, temporary walls were set up (like bathroom stall walls).  There was a sink with very hot water, changing tables, benches, plenty of paper towels, and rocking chairs for nursing mothers.  In their eatery, there was a baby food/bottle warmer, they sold baby food as well as other things.  

In Taipei, we were pleasantly surprised to find there was a hot water station almost everywhere you turned.  And the changing station at the airport was a traveling parent's dream!  Clean and sterilized, with signs everywhere to tell you so.  Changing stations, a crib and a carriage, a couch, separate stalls with cushions for nursing, free wipes and diapers, even a big enough sink to bathe a baby or a small child as well as a hot water station and a purified water fountain.  This post will be an ongoing one, as we travel we will take more pictures of the nappy changing units.