Our family trip to Europe!

In August Chris and I took Cade on his first trip overseas and we had a BLAST. Despite the fact that his first year molars decided to come in the first week we were there, and the fact that the airline lost Cade's luggage from Sevilla to Venice, we had an amazing time spending our holiday with our family. Cade got to meet his Uncle Mike and Tita Logi for the first time. They live in Sevilla, so we rented a big van and went on a whirlwind tour through Spain. We had a delayed flight so we decided to take a quick cab tour through Barcelona as our first taste of travelling with a toddler. Cade did pretty well despite the jet lag. From Barcelona, we flew to Sevilla. It was fun meeting our spanish relatives! Jose Ramon, Marie Carmen, Daniel, and Marie Carmen took us out for a fun night on the town. We walked along the river and listened to flamenco music. Sevillanas are very proud of their city, and they should be! It is probably one of my favorite cities ever in all of Europe and I love all the moorish architecture.

Here's a pic of us in Toledo. The streets were so narrow, and Cade was feeling anti stroller, and anti hand-holding so we put on the baby backpack / leash that our good friends lent us to keep him from jumping in front of his beloved scooters. Cade was not a fan!! Look at the pained look on his face. He kept looking at the dog, and saying "doggie?" and tried to get away from the dog, to no avail.



Cade is mesmerized by the Flamenco guitarrists on the streets of Granada.Granada is an amazing city. Here we are in the Albazin ( the moorish marketplace). Cade had a good time smelling all the teas and spices and curries.
Here is Chris, my Dad, and my brother Mike in the big Cathedral in Granada.
So Spain was great, but after checking in and out of hotels, and driving for hours on the road we were REALLY looking forward to checking into our cruise and being able to stay in ONE PLACE for the duration of our trip.

By far, the highlight of our Mediterranean cruise, was the actual cruise ship itself. We chose to travel on the Costa Victoria, which is an Italian cruise liner. They are known for "cruising it - European style". It was fun vacationing with the Italians. The passengers were 90% italian, and the rest were either Spanish, German, and there were maybe 10 total Americans on the whole ship. Which meant that the food was INCREDIBLE. The people were GORGEOUS. Seriously...picture beautiful italian ladies, hanging out near the pool with their bikinis and high heels. Picture ladies in long formal evening gowns, salon up dos, and blinged out with jewelry , 24/7. It was like the freakin Titanic!

I was just glad to be able to run back to our room for more sunblock, or another swim diaper, whenever we needed to. And travelling with our parents and siblings was just heavenly. We thoroughly enjoyed the ship and all its amenities, so consequently most of these shots are from the cruise itself.

Cade loved our porthole. He spent so much time just staring out the window as we moved from port to port, shouting out whatever he could name..."Bus! Boat! Wa!"

viva la cruising!
Cade kicking it with his bottle.
Cade loved the food. He was in pasta heaven every night!

Oh yeah, enough about the cruise already...how about the ports that we visited? Well they were all great. Our favorite port hands down was Mykonos. I so heart Greece and am totally coming back one day for an extended holiday. So romantic.

Here are the windmills in Mykonos at sunset.
My beloved family in Mykonos.

Me and Mom.
here is Santorini. The water was as blue as I always thought it would be. Maybe bluer. Pictures do not do this place justice.




TOP TEN TODDLER TRAVEL TIPS

So some people have asked me to share some of the top things we learned about travelling with a toddler, so here are our top tips:

1) BRING YOUR PARENTS (the more laps, more hands, more entertainment , the better)

2) Bring a roll up high chair tray mat (its nice to always have a clean place for your toddler to enjoy his cheerios and cheese)

3) LOTS of hand sanitizer (most restrooms dont have changing tables so you end up doing diaper changes on the run....for us, the reclined baby jogger doubled as his bed, and his changing table alot of the time)

4) Bring the BOB. It might seem like a big bulky ride, but trust me...those big wheels were meant for un even cobbly european streets. Plus, if you have a group of people they can take turns pushing it, and it also is handy for carrying bags, purses, water bottles and cameras. Even with the steps in Venice....for the on the go naps, it was SO SO SO worth it to not have to be back in our cabin for naps. An umbrella stroller, though lighter, would never have cut it on a trip like this.

5) ALWAYS pack WAY more diapers, wipes, food, than you think you need. You never know when you'll run into issues (plane delay, trapped on board, teething....all these things happened to us). Hope for the best, plan for the worst!

6) Bring medicine

7) Take lovies on your carry-on luggage (we packed Cade's lovie in his suitcase for the one hour flight from Sevilla to Venice....and that was the flight where they lost his bag - - not good!)

8) Pack as light as you can.

9) To avoid the liquid restrictions for carry on luggage, place Desitin in a contact lens case. (Also helps to avoid potential mixups with the toothpaste! :)

10) Always play the baby card (it gets you onto cruise ships faster, and gives you fast passes in other situations too...like if you miss the time cut off for something...point to your baby and say "dientes" (teeth) and they will usually sympathesize enough to let you past.

11) Bring a DVD player for long trips. Especially if its dark outside and there's nothing to look at!

12) And my number one suggestion.....Don't hotel hop! Cruise or Resort so you're always 5 minutes away from your room to reload suppies, have a quick bath, go down for a nap, spread out, set up shop, while SOMEBODY ELSE cooks, cleans, and pampers you during your stay. I am serious. This is the only way the Burdicks are going to go abroad again until the kids are older.


I will sign off now with a video of cade, thoroughly enjoying his perch in the porthole of our cabin. The best part of our trip was not the gorgeous greek islands, and not even the opulence of our cruise ship, but simply having two full weeks with my family, and giving cade a chance to spend time with both mom AND dad for an extended period of time.