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In November of 2014, EF Tours invited me to a teacher conference in Rome. It was a super quick trip – I would have to leave on a Friday morning and return on Tuesday evening, which would burn all my personal days. I almost didn’t go, but my husband made me.
“When are you going to get a free trip to Italy again?” he said.
So I took it, and I’m so glad I did. I got to Italy and was like, “My students HAVE to see this country.”
When I got home, I began looking at tours to Europe, and now, almost three years later, I’ve just gotten back from one of the best trips of my life.
What began as a trip with thirty-some kids enrolled grew to a trip with 59 kids enrolled, plus 8 awesome chaperones who did an amazing job, rolling with the punches and unexpected twists of travel with kids.
Originally, our tour was scheduled to start in Amsterdam and end in London, but it was reversed for some reason, so we began our adventure in London. The days were sometimes a blur, so forgive me if I mix them up!
We began our trip on two separate flights – me with a few chaperones and 24 kids on the first flight out of Wichita, and the rest on the second flight out. I was so nervous that the second group wasn’t going to make their connecting flight in Atlanta because EF gave them such a short layover, but it all worked out! After a 7.5 hour flight out of Atlanta, we landed in London. These flights aren’t too bad these days because every person has their own personal TV (even in coach) and so I watched a few movies and we were there!
Many people were nervous for us to go to London, but I wasn’t. I kept asking myself if I was just being naïve or not really thinking things through, but kept reassuring myself that I’ve done this before – I’ve worried about safety and then gotten there and it’s been fine. Just like I thought, we got there and it was perfectly safe. My motto is that we’ve let the terrorists win if we allow them to scare us into never leaving our homes.
We started our first day with seeing St. Paul’s cathedral (which I believe is the second largest in the world, after St. Peter’s in Rome – I’ve now seen the three largest cathedrals in the world!). Of course, I had to get Starbucks to start my day off (although I’m more of a local coffee shop girl). We then moved on to Buckingham Palace, where the queen was that day, but we didn’t get to see her. Many of the kids swore they saw her in a window.
Realizing the princes were coming by in a parade!
One of the things that I was SUPER nervous about was getting all the kids onto the metro (or the “tube” as it’s called in London) without leaving anyone behind, and making sure everyone got off at the right stop. I’m happy to say that we never lost anyone! We were metro-riding pros by the end of the trip. So awesome for kids from small-town Kansas to learn to navigate the metro in a city of 9 million people.
We stayed in London a few days, tried lots of amazing food including fish and chips and meat pasties. We drove out to Bath and toured the Roman Baths. It was such a pretty little town! After seeing Stonehenge, we went back to the hotel and prepared for our trip to Paris the next day.
Holding the pigeons in Bath, England
To get to Paris, we took the EuroStar train under the English Channel through the “Chunnel,” which was only about 25 miles long. In all, the trip was only a couple hours from London into Paris.
Riding the EuroStar, ready to go to Paris!
Paris. Oh my gosh. I actually had pretty low expectations only because people had told me that Paris was their least favorite out of all the European cities. I LOVED Paris. It was so awesome to finally get to use the French I had studied for three years – it was weird how quickly it came back to me. We were sitting in a restaurant and I ordered a croque monsieur (basically a delicious sandwich with ham and cheese), and without thinking, the French just spilled out of my mouth, “Are there fries with the sandwich?” to which the waiter replied that they were 2 euros extra. So, of course, I got fries!
After that lunch, we hurried up to the gates of Versailles for our tour. It. Was. So. Hot. We had so many sunburnt kids. Someone told me Europe was having one of its hottest summers in the last 10 years, and I believe it. It felt like Kansas in July. But it was so beautiful!
The gardens at Versailles
At night, we boarded a boat on the Seine to tour the city. We didn’t get to see the Eiffel Tower lit up, but it was still a beautiful tour.
The following day, we toured the Louvre. I never realized how large the Louvre was until our guide told us that if you looked at each painting or sculpture for 10 seconds, it would take you almost six weeks to see the whole museum. Insane! We only had two hours there, so we saw a very small part of it. I was shocked at how many people were trying to get a picture of the Mona Lisa. I just took a picture of the crowd and was like, “Ok, I’m out!”
How I felt at the Louvre
While we were in the Louvre, some sirens started going off, warning us to evacuate the building due to a safety issue. Luckily it was about our time to meet up with all the kids, so we quickly gathered them all and left the museum. Apparently it was a false alarm, but we did see a guy running around on the roof with helicopters circling him. So, who knows?
After Paris, we drove out to a small town called Beaune, where we were served homemade boeuf bourguignon in a small restaurant in the country. Favorite. Meal. Ever. Seriously, so good! I would attempt to recreate it, but we all know how my cooking usually goes. I can easily mess up a box of mac and cheese.
Beaune, France
Beaune was so adorable and quiet enough that the kids had a little more freedom. They wandered the tiny town in small groups, exploring the old church and the small restaurants where people were enjoying the warm evening on the patio.
After Beaune, we headed for Switzerland, where we stayed in our lodge-like hotel in the Alps. It was a nice reprieve from France’s 90 degree weather. The kids played soccer out on the field until well after 10 pm, (sunset is about 10:30 and sunrise about 4:30) while my friend Lindsay led some yoga classes off to the side. It was truly heaven.
Switzerland is beautiful, but super expensive. One day for lunch, Andrew and I each had a small bowl of pasta, a side salad, and one bottle of water to share and it was over $50 American. So crazy. I asked if tap water was free and it was $6 American for one glass. I guess it does come from the Swiss Alps, so it’s like holy water, but still!
The water is safe to drink straight from the fountains around town!
We stayed in Switzerland a couple of nights, then loaded the bus again for Italy. We spent an afternoon in Verona, looking at shops that were way too expensive for us and eating gelato as we walked along. It was super crowded. If you plan to go to Italy, go in the winter. Nicer weather and less people.
Venice was our next stop, where we had a gondola ride and ate more gelato. We toured a glass-making museum where many pieces were worth more than my house. I kept telling kids, “Don’t touch anything!!” I was able to get a pair of earrings for a friend and that’s about it as they were the only reasonably priced thing! I wanted one of the glass horses that they made by hand, but the tiniest ones were like $150 and the big ones were over $1000.
After Venice, we headed north, where we stopped for an afternoon in Salzburg, Austria. Here comes the part where I begin to not know any of the language or anything that’s going on around me. I am seriously going to learn German! We wandered through the farmers market along the river, where I bought a handmade stuffed elephant for my new nephew who was born while I was gone. I also met a super nice lady from Peru at one of the booths. I asked her in Spanish if she was from Peru and she said, “Yeah, can you tell?!” motioning at the ponchos hanging on the wall, llamas embroidered all over them. “That’s how I knew! I was there a couple summers ago,” I said. It was so nice to find someone I could communicate with!
Salzburg, Austria
We loaded the bus again and headed for Germany, where we stayed in Munich and then Heidelberg. You guys. Someday I am going to live there. I just know it. It was seriously so beautiful. We toured both cities, seeing the Olympic Stadium in Munich from the 70s, and walking through the BMW building, snapping some pictures with a Rolls Royce and several BMWs.
Andrew and I in Heidelberg, Germany
BMW World
One of the most difficult parts of the trip was touring Dachau Concentration Camp. Over 30,000 people were murdered in that camp. Walking into what was once the gas chamber was extremely humbling and terrifying at the same time. We saw footage of the camp from the early 40s, as well as footage from when it was liberated and the people living nearby were brought in to see what had been going on right under their noses the entire time.
We ended our trip in Amsterdam, which was also a beautiful city. However, I have never been so terrified to cross the street anywhere else before. It made it worse trying to get kids across the street, but there were bikes, mopeds, the tram, buses and cars. Our tour guide was standing near the street and a bus’s side mirror hit his backpack. That’s how narrow the sidewalks were.
Sitting on the "I Amsterdam" sign, with Dylan photobombing us!
In Amsterdam, we walked through the Anne Frank house and saw the hiding place where she and her family and friends hid for two years from the Nazis. I think it was good for the kids to see that she was just like them – a young teen girl with posters still hanging on her bedroom walls (they literally were still hanging there – it was a little haunting walking through her room). I tried to imagine being stuck in that hiding place for two whole years, not being able to move or run water during the daytime.
After two nights in Amsterdam, it was time to head home. We seriously had an amazing trip. I know that many of the kids will remember this for the rest of their lives, just like I’ll remember my high school trip to Spain forever.
And now to plan the next trip….