Articles Tagged with travel with kids

D36 – 43, London

Published on

D London 08

D36, Jan 21, London.

When the day started sunny, it’s time to leave. We flew to London (Gatwick) from Nice airport with British Airways. It’s amazingly cheap flight, about euro180 for all three of us (we took one person with luggage and 2 others with hand luggage only, with saved 20 per person). It’s the same price as easyjet as easyjet charged additional for all check in luggage as well as food. Sometimes it’s worth shopping around although I tended not to do enough of it.

The first 30min was flying over the Alps with snow capped mountains. Very pretty. Nina sat on her own for landing.

London was sunny but chilly, and big. We took one train, one tube and one bus to get to Nicolas’ brother O’s place.  We went to a nearby playground to play, yes, in the cold, and quickly retreated to a tea house for afternoon tea. After all we were in London, the home of English tea.

What strikes me most was the colours of the doors of the semi houses in the neighbourhood. Rather homogeneous house, dashing variety of door colours!

Olivier family house was being renovated with taste and style. Like it.

Then the family all came back home one after another. A typical weekday evening for a household with 2 school kids I guess, dinner, shower, homework, a bit of tv, chat, and bed. Ah home.

D London 06

D37, Jan 22, London

Nina woke up before 6am screaming. Was she having a bad dream or just het nappy was overflowing? We wouldn’t know. But we changed her and for the first time took her to our bed to finish off the sleep. It wasn’t too bad. At least we now knew that we could share a bed when it came to it. Well, the priority in such a trip was really all about these mundane things: sleeping, bedding, eating. Plus a bit of other things such as sightseeing and experiencing.

We set off at 10 for our big day. It stopped raining, even sunshine once in a while, but freezing cold. Took bus 94 to Queensway stop, to Princess Diana’s park, aka, Peter Pan themed playground. Big, pirate ship, tepees etc, squirrels, quite cute. Nina couldn’t care less about all these themed things though. For her it’s a giant [playground with squirrels to chase after, and that was good enough. Then we had to walk through the vast royal park and Hyde park to find a lunch place as she started to make the ‘I’m hungry’ noise . We ended up in the cafe of Natural History Museum. A huge salad for £6 was more than reasonable.

The museum itself was gigantic, filled with fascinating stuff: stones, dinosaurs, whales, simulation of wind and current etc. Dinosaurs were one of the highlights – all these casts, reconstruction, models were vividly presented in front of us. I particularly – Nina too – liked the elevated walk to see these giants from their height. The building itself was highly elaborated already – I later learnt that the building was actually purposefully designed and constructed for being a museum. All these for free (well donation recommended). That’s really what showed the glory of a country.

Passed by Victoria and Albert Museum, a glance over the hall, interesting exhibition of design I suppose. An extremely good looking neighborhood I have to say – one of the most expensive ones I suppose as well. Where the French school is.

Harrods. Yes good looking tea and chocolate room, but apart from that, really just another luxury shopping mall. Not my cup of tea.

Then our mission to come back home. 3 metro lines, long flights of stairs with no lift, bus, walk… It took us about 1h30 to get back home. Do I want to live again in a big city like London?

D London 0

D38, Jan 23, London

By the time we waited for rain to stop to leave home and got off the London bridge stop, we found ourselves right in front of Bourough market. What a treat!! A beautifully curated upscale market, yet remained authentic market feel: lots of producers, small stands, takeaway, eat while walking, etc. Lots of French products we noticed. Had a confit de canard sandwich, freshly made pasta with ingredients coming from Italy as they proudly claimed, and omelet (the least successful among all).

Then walked down along the Thames. Southward cathedral that Nina loved to run wild. Luckily it’s weekday hence not much people around.

Shakespeare Globe that was rebuilt on the same site as where Shakespeare once played, an open air theatre still. I wish I could visit by taking a tour next time, or even better watch a play. Nina needed to be more tamed for doing all these with us 🙂

New Tate. Indeed a bit disappointing as there was not much that really strike me – I had a much more favorable memory from last time’s visit (10 yrs ago almost!) . But the visitors who were drawing on the tablet board next to the cafe was doing some fascinating work. The view onto London from the cafe was fabulous too.

Walked through the millennium bridge to the other side, past by St Paul’s, took our train home.

Nina started to love bath in the big bath tube, twice a day these days!

D London 03

D39, Jan 24, London

For a change I went along with S, my sister in law, to her yoga class. Flow yoga …dynamic to say the least. A real sport. I expected some muscle reactions. The class was organized with some mothers of the French school, so it’s a French speaking yoga class, in London. Life could be funny. I’m glad I got to peek into a bit of local (albeit expat) life here in London.

After lunch, I proposed to bring Nina out while Nicolas stayed home to rest, because he looked exhausted. We went to British museum. Well it’s nowhere near as interesting as Natural History Museum as far as Nina was concerned, because everything was inside a box or a case, there was nothing to touch. So I became her only source of entertainment… hide and seek, chasing … She felt asleep finally to leave me watch the tea ceremony demonstration in Japan area (one has to be patient to get his tea to drink), and the fascinating Mesopotamia area (mental note, have to visit Iran and around one day). Their so-called level access lift was a funny little device that you had to keep pressing the button to move up or down (normally often just one meter high).

The metro system in London is among the oldest (if not THE oldest) in the world. Hence, no lift in most stations. Well, I used my sheer muscle power to carry the pram (which is called buggies or push chair here). Up and down the stairs. Most of time there was someone coming forward to help nicely but not always.

The weather kept surprising me, no rain, even sunny from time to time.

D London 07

D40, Jan 25, London. 

It’s Saturday, the B. family were all free today, and we were going to eat Chinese! A quite fusion one called Yauatcha唐茶苑. Some really good dim sum. They also had a quite impressive collection of desserts, such as macaroni, a concept non-Chinese but with Chinese flavor such as red bean, peanut, five spice flavor. They had an enormous red horse at shop front and many tiny red horses in every corner of the restaurant. It’s for the upcoming Chinese New Year. Nina absolutely loved every fish in the fish tank. She is a real Chinese. E started to claim that he’s 12.5% Aussie and 12.5% Chinese because of his cousin.

Passed by several really cool shops, such as B1866 for the accessories of bikes, and a chocolaterie called Said (with really good hot chocolate according to Z a connoisseur of chocolate, and tiny cup/spoon etc made from chocolate).  This was one upside of living in a metropolitan city, with all cool varieties.

China town was fully decorated to the Chinese new year, red lanterns, horses. You name it.

Covent garden: without all these crowds it must be a lovely place. Apple had a prime place and building for displaying their gadgets.

Pub dinner with boys while 2 girls of the family went to ballet at royal opera house. Tonight turned out to be Scottish Burns Night – haggis, whiskey, poetry. Burns was a poet. Bought the very delicious pamelo. It brought back the memory of my childhood – a winter fruit, a treat normally happening around new year.

D41, Jan 26. London

Today was Australian Day. It looked another sunny day in Sydney. It’s my first Australian day as an Aussie.

We were to meet my old friend In. and her hubby E. and son A. at Natural History Museum at 2:30pm. At 1:30 we finished lunch nearby and were horrified by the length of the queue (feels like back in China), hence went to V&A next door which had no queue. It turned out I had already waited for more than 30min in the queue and were still 10 more minutes to go. We finally settled at the cafe in V&A, thanks to Nicolas who found a table among an overcrowded cafe. I have to say the cafe was extremely well decorated with the real art works and sculptures dotted around under a Victorian dome style roof. Last time when l met In it was in Shanghai, more than at least 6yrs ago. We first met in Alliance Francaise in Shanghai over our weekend French class, then a few years later bumped each other in the bathroom of ESC Grenoble in France, and since loosely kept contact through facebook. She stayed in Europe (France then England) while I moved back to Shanghai then to Sydney. Things had changed for both of us, but there was something magic about meeting old friends, as if time flew by in speed and years of life was condensed into a pot of tea.

I found Nina now was a bit more comfortable with strangers. Perhaps it was the constant change during the trip that helped her to get used to the idea of new faces and new things? She even signaled to hold A’s hands (yet been refused :)).

When we returned to the NHM to see the dinosaur, there was still a long line in front of the dinosaur section. Weekend was not a time to visit these popular places.

D London 01

D42, Jan 27, London

We woke up to an almost blue sky! Wondered off to St James’ Park as suggested by my friend Z.Y. Indeed an oasis in the middle of the city. Massive, lots of birds and animals including squirrels and pelicans. Views onto London eye. Then we saw the horse polices blocking off the road, and heard the  music. Nina wanted to see 马 /horse. I told her it’s .警察阿姨， then the whole day she was just practicing 马，阿姨. It’s in fact the guardians who were going to the relay/change ceremony (is it how you say it?), that passed right in front of our eyes.  But when we got closer to the Buckingham Palace I was shocked by the amount of people waiting to watch the ceremony. The polices were nice enough though to allow the kids and prams to come forward to see the passing parade a bit more closely.

A few days ago, Nina saw me walk into the room and said 妈妈来了. That was the first sentence she said which that actually made sense. She hasn’t since reproduced it but I’m quite happy with her progress despite the fact that she still didn’t say much to the date. She most certainly understood what she was hearing and trying to reproduce.

After having a quick lunch at pret-a-manger (many French influence in the London culinary scene), we headed out to Science Museum. Through back streets at my request. We passed by a neighborhood full of embassies.

Science museum. Nina slept 1h30 through the visit. I learnt that mini motor was revolutionary in the industry (so powerful yet taking so little space), what astronauts eat (those going to mars for a project of 3 yes will have to learn how to grow  certain things themselves), 3-wheeled cars etc. E. joined us after his school. He had his first pearl tae (called bubble tea here in England) in life and apparently loved it (got his second one then). Came back hoe with a big chocolate cake.

Likely the last dinner cooked by someone else in the months to come.

Ping pong match before dinner on the dinner table.

Nina loved taking bath in this house. I probably had already mentioned it.

D43, Jan 28, london-Paris.

After a short visit to Ravenscourt park, time to leave. Taxi came to took us to st Pancras station to take Eurostar. Immense station. In an old building, renovated. Eat. Passed the custom. Just 2 hrs of train, seeming longer as Nina was nonstop till the last 30min (of course!). Taxi through Paris to arrive chez nous ( j c & Ch’s home which they kindly allowed us to stay as they were away). It’s 1hr ahead here than London. Figured out all the switches, made the beds. I felt asleep in the couch while watching Star War.

P.S: to follow our RTW experience: Trilingual Family blog, or join Trilingual Family facebook group.

The Survival of A 36-Hour Trip

Published on
Our luggage, minus one pram and one toddler.
Our luggage, minus one pram and one toddler.

It’s a miracle that we made it to the home in France in one piece! By ‘we’, I meant Nicolas, Nina, myself, plus one suitcase, one backpack, three day bags, and a pram. By ‘one piece’, I meant all these pieces together.

The journey started way before the plane took off in Sydney, of course. It started when we planned what to pack and how to pack. You see, among three of us, we have two working human beings and one human being that needs help to work. So in total we have two working pairs of hands and two working upper bodies that can carry stuff. So our plan was: one working human being took the suitcase and carried one day bag, another working human being carried one backpack and pushed the pram with Nina in it with one day bag tugged under in the storage space and another small day bag hooked onto it.

It worked! Of course it means Nina wasn’t allowed to get off the pram whenever we had all luggage with us. Nina didn’t seem to understand this though, so we had a few occasion when one adult guarded all our worldly possessions and another adult ran after a super active toddler in public. Fun!

Anyway, come back to our 36-hour trip, composed of an 1-hour drive from home to Sydney airport (with a 3-hour most lovey afternoon tea stop at friends’ place with their new-born), 10-hour flight from Sydney to Tokyo, 5 hours layover in Tokyo airport, 12-hour flight from Tokyo to Paris, 2.5hr drive from Paris to Boulogne-sur-Mer (our very first stop, Nicolas’ home town), and a bit of airport chores as we all know that sometimes takes hours.

The first flight (10 hours from Sydney to Tokyo) was a breeze. A 10pm flight turned out to be the best kind of flight travelling with a toddler – Nina was so tired running around waiting in the airport that she promptly fell asleep when taking off before even seat belt sign was switched off! She remained in that status just one hour before arrival. She did invade both her parents’ seats during her sleep though, ruthlessly. At one point, I found myself being squeezed into the corner of my own seat by her beautiful sleeping head that I was only half sitting, so I had to drag her further back into her dad’s seat. Nicolas didn’t seem to be very impressed with that move but he was too sleepy to fight back at that point. After Nina woke up, with breakfast being served by her loving mother, she remained seated on her own with safety belt on. I thought this long plane ride thing was a piece of cake. Until I remembered that there was another long flight right after that. We were nowhere near our destination, yet.

We were in Tokyo airport. For 5 hours. When I had long connecting hours in the pre-child days, I sometimes left airport and did a bit of visiting. Or I watched a movie or paid myself a massage. This time, I was discovering the kids’ play room and parents’ room (very impressive facilities I have to say – a changing table that can convert into a small cot, kitchen for parents, hot water, a basin that is big enough to bath an infant). The most graceful was that Japan Airlines had a pram ready at the gate on arrival for us to use as our pram was checked in till Paris. We made the request at check-in in Sydney not expecting anything really, so it was such a pleasant surprise to see a smiling Japanese lady with the pram with our name on it. One had to love Japan.

The 2nd flight (Tokyo to Paris) was long. Nina slept 1.5 hrs for nap, then less than one hour just before arrival (which was 3:30pm local time and 1:30am Sydney time). She kept moving and walked down the aisle 50 times maybe. The only saving grace was that she didn’t cry or became grumpy. She was just excited about everything. The kid’s channel, the non-stop snacks (cute Japanese snacks), the magazines, the movies that her parents were watching (trying anyway, I settled on just-for-laugh episodes which were short enough and no regrets to be caused if I didn’t manage to watch till the end), the nice passengers that played game with her, the business class that she was not allowed to go to, the ‘attendant’ button in the toilet, the flush of the toilet, the ‘attendant only’ food preparation area of the plane, the lunch provided (oh, the BEST ever airplane lunch. And the sake on a plane!).

We let her play. Did we have choice not to anyway? 🙂 At some point I lost courage to look at the flight path map as it was always showing us too far away from the destination. So we decided on the new strategy: each parent would take turn to rest. It was with indescribable delight that I found 3 vacant seats at the back of the plane halfway through the flight, and I didn’t hesitate to occupy them for a 2-hour sleep (forget gracefulness and social ethic, I am a tired parent). I then reluctantly called Nicolas over for his turn and gathered enough energy to face the reality again.

By the time we finally saw my mother-in-law who was waiting for us at the arrival gate, Nina was officially exhausted. She fell sleep in the car. Me too. The only thing I realized was how early it became dark – it was already dark at 5pm. Coming from the summer in Sydney where sun sets at 8pm these days, what I had in mind was: soon, very soon, I will be sleeping in a bed… and soon, very soon, I will be refreshed enough to eat my croissant … bzzzzzzzz

 

P.S: to follow our RTW experience: Trilingual Family blog, or join Trilingual Family facebook group.

This Is What I Call ‘Have Fun As If Nobody Is Watching’

Published on

The first video ever of the Trilingual Family!

I told you in the previous post that Nina had lots of fun in the Auckland Art Gallery. In fact her dad too.

What I Have Learnt About Travelling With A Toddler, So Far

Published on

YIN_2006It is thanks to our warm-up trip in New Zealand in later November and equally importantly my experience of being a ‘full-time’ mother for the last three weeks since Nina stopped going to full-time day care that I have learnt a few things about what to expect when travelling with her during the next 9 months.

Learning #1: pack everything the night before your morning flight.

Even before the plane took off from Sydney, my biggest learning on how to pack has already took place. That is: pack everything the night before your morning flight.

I thought I did. It turned out I left a ton of things undone – all normally small things that needed 30 seconds to get done, without a toddle in bad mood. I wanted to wash three apples and bring with us as we just had time for a super light breakfast. Nina saw them and wanted to eat one immediately. I had to refuse because we were running out of time and, surprise surprise, she started to cry. Then try to put her shoes on when she was crying! Any parent who has attempted this will tell you that it might take a life time, and lots of muscles! So a simple 30-second action of ‘washing three apples and put into the bag’ turned into a 10 minutes battle. So my learning from that incident was to wash those bloody apples and put into the bag the night before. And never leave ‘just a few more things’ to the last minute.

Learning #2: Pack lunch

It was 11:15am. We visited a beautiful old cemetery in Auckland and were ready to march to the nearby city centre for lunch. Nina normally had lunch between 11:30 and 12 so we thought it would just be in time when we get to the city.

Then Nina started to be grumpy. She didn’t want to walk anymore, nor sit in her pram. She wanted to climb into our arms and started to suck her thumb. She was also pointing at my bag where I usually put a snack or two. But that day all that I had was some dry raisins (another mental notes: stock some snacks as soon as arriving in a new place). Obviously she needed to rest and to eat. Otherwise nobody got to rest and eat properly for the following 2 hours. So we just hurried into the closest restaurant that we spotted and ordered the quickest food possible. We were lucky that it was a Japanese restaurant, the food was okay, and the bill wasn’t too dear. But what if it was some food that we didn’t necessarily fancy at that moment? What if there were only fine-dining type of restaurants (anyone who had the pleasure of dining with Nina would agree with me that she’s not yet ready for fine dinging!)? What if there wasn’t any food place at all nearby?

So we quickly decided that, in the future, no matter what was planned for the day, we would always pack some lunch to take with us for the day, at least for Nina. Something simple. Something that can be supplied to Nina at any given time and given place as long as there is some sort of place to sit down (a park, a bench under the tree, a nice public square, and even better a beach!). A simple sandwich for example could do the trick. The fact that we would have the peace of mind that we always have plan B ready is priceless when travelling with an impatient toddler who wants it NOW!

Learning #3: Pack books. What about toys?

We decided to bring a few (light) books – her favourite tao zi series and tchoupi. It turned out to be an extremely wise decision, because she always asked for them! In the car, on the plane, before bed time, after breakfast, etc, etc. She never seemed getting tired of them. So far.

On the other hand, we decided not to bring any toys. They are bulky generally, and we found that she didn’t have one particular favourite toy (not like her books), and she grew out of any given toy at home very quickly. And I figured, for her, anything could be a toy when travelling. Cooking utensils were great fun. If we were out and about, it was everything in the new environment that attracted her attention. She would happily play with a fallen leave or tree branch for a while!

With this said, I am more than aware that her ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’ change all the time. Her favourite books might be forgotten soon. She might start to become attached to one particular thing that would become her special toy. As that comes, we will need to adjust what to bring, or to get rid of.

Learning #4 Go with the flow

As I wrote in the previous blog ‘Slow Travel’, we as a family found that travelling slow was a great way to travel with Nina. Planning no more than two ‘big’ things in a day seems to be working so far. Visit a museum and do grocery. Go to beach and have a nap under the tree (yes napping does count as a ‘big’ thing!). Chill out at home and write blog. Laundry. Just to list a few days’ planning.

But no matter how much planning was done, there would always be days when nothing goes as planned. A chill-out-at-home day may turn out to be a day when Nina just wanted to go outdoors- she would bring her shoes, and her parents’ shoes to us, and insisted everyone put them one. This was when I would know I had less than 2 minutes to get ready to go out.

So my strategy was to go with the flow. If it’s not what we have planned, instead of fighting to get our plan back, it’s better to just get a plan B and enjoy it. The luxury of being able to travel slowly usually made up for the missing of plan A.

Of course it’s easier said than done. I lost temper and patience a few times already in my 3-week full-time mother career. I am quite sure that I would do the same unspeakable again, and again. But hey, I am learning!

Gone are the days when we could just throw a backpack onto our, well, back, and off we went. Travelling with a toddler requires planning and patience. A lot of both. I am working on both front.

P.S: to follow our RTW experience: Trilingual Family blog, or join Trilingual Family facebook group.