麻豆传媒

It鈥檚 now five months into our great European adventure and as the days tick down with the end in sight, we find ourselves asking whether we consider the trip was a success.

Was it worth selling our house and upturning our kids鈥� lives by taking them out of school to travel around Europe? It may be too early to answer that one; we鈥檒l have to see what life holds for us when we get back. And it may be that our kids will offer a completely different answer than we will.

Hopefully, we鈥檝e shown them that there鈥檚 a big world out there that is beautiful and inspiring and worth exploring some more. Maybe we鈥檝e also given them a few unique memories to hold onto. (Though we鈥檙e still waiting for the thanks on that one. Sigh. It may yet come.)

Perhaps we haven鈥檛 seen as many countries as we thought we would have by now, nor as many sights, but we have been lucky to walk along some gorgeous streets, look upon some beautiful countryside, and meet some interesting people along the way.

After 21 weeks of travel, we鈥檝e also learned a few lessons we would not have expected before we set out. Here are a few.

Natural wonders always beat historical wonders: Much to the surprise of my husband and me, some of the happiest days on this trip have involved not the great historical landmarks of Europe, but its natural scenery. Our days chopping wood in a cottage near Killarney, Ireland, for example, were so much better than our days wandering Dublin. Our kids much preferred hiking in England鈥檚 Peak District over visiting what they called 鈥渂oring鈥� Liverpool. The beaches of Sitges, Spain, still trump the architecture of nearby Barcelona in our kids鈥� eyes. And when the kids are happy, the whole family is happy. Yes, my husband and I would have preferred to see more museums, but family harmony is paramount on trips this long.

You can鈥檛 do it all: If we had had all the time and money in the world, it would have been nice to research the perfect itinerary for travelling Europe in the winter. But with neither, we could only pick a few must-sees and fill in the blanks as we went. In the rush, we probably made a few wrong calls, staying in some places too long and others not long enough, doubling back unnecessarily while missing other highlights altogether. But you can鈥檛 always know what you鈥檙e going to love about a place until you get there, so it鈥檚 important to let go of the idea of the perfect trip and just work with the decisions you鈥檝e made.

There are lots of down days: Five months in Europe sounds like it would be filled with sightseeing and leisurely lunches every day, but the truth is long-term travel with kids is more like real life with a few mini vacations in between. Most of our days have been spent doing just ordinary stuff, such as scrubbing the bathtub at our apartment rental, grocery shopping and laundry folding, or teaching the kids how to add fractions with unlike denominators (Ugh.) These ordinary days can sometimes feel like squandered 鈥渓ost鈥� days, but they are the reality of long-term travel and are what allow for the fun days.

You鈥檙e going to lose stuff: Unpacking and repacking multiple times per month with two scatterbrained kids means stuff is just going to get lost. The boy started this trip with three T-shirts; he鈥檚 down to one. He has no idea how that happened. We have battled our way through many bad apartment rentals and I have to say, we lost a lot of good socks out there, but we haven鈥檛 lost anything major. We did manage to 鈥渇orget鈥� an e-reader in the back of a taxi, but thanks to my negotiating in cringe-worthy Spanish, we got it back the next day. I鈥檝e fumed many times over all the little lost things, but as I鈥檝e had to remind myself, all we really need are our passports and our wallets; everything else can be replaced.

Bigger is better: 鈥� At least, when it comes to apartment rentals, which is a lesson we鈥檝e learned the hard way. It鈥檚 fine to cram four people into a studio apartment in Paris if it鈥檚 just for a few days, but the longer we travelled, the more we craved personal space. When you鈥檙e spending 24 hours a day with each other, there are many times you just want some space of your own to go read a book or catch up on the news back home. That鈥檚 hard to do when you鈥檙e on top of each other. Thankfully, since we鈥檝e been travelling in the low season of winter, we鈥檝e found that renting bigger places isn鈥檛 a whole lot more per night than one-bedrooms, and as we鈥檝e gone on, we鈥檝e realized it鈥檚 well worth spending a little more for a little more space.

Travel days get easier: I will admit I started this trip as a disastrous mess of a traveller, stressed out and worried we鈥檇 either forget something, not be allowed to board a flight, or that an apartment rental would turn out to be one of those . While racing to the airport before each flight I would call out in a panic: 鈥淒oes anyone know where the passports are??鈥� 鈥淲e have them. Settle down,鈥� my husband would answer coolly, my daughter rolling her eyes (Again. Because that鈥檚 what kids her age do to mothers like me). But it鈥檚 gotten easier as the trip has rolled on and disasters have been averted. Even our kids, who used to get completely befuddled by subway turnstiles, have become expert travellers, breezing through security checkpoints without even breaking conversation. Travel days have in fact become their favourite days, they tell me, because they mean change and going somewhere new.

We can only hope this excitement for travel becomes the greatest gift this trip gives them.