bye 2017..............hello 218

I can't believe how fast 2017 went by. I am sure I say this ever year but, 2017 felt like it flew by. Personally I had an amazing 2017. It was AMAZING. Traveling to Europe for almost three weeks was just a dream come true.

These two are my favorite pictures of 2017.

If you have known me for a while you know that traveling to Paris was my dream for years. I had plan and un-planned this trip so many time, because as always life gets in the way. But I remember telling Pablo, we are going, no matter what, nothing is refundable, we are going to Europe. I am so glad we went. It was such an amazing experience, all the people we encounter were so nice, the paces we saw were amazing, the food was delicious, and the memories will last us a life time.

The Museum of Ice Cream in San Francisco was so much fun. It was a rainy day but we took Bart to SF and had a fantastic time. All the ice cream they gave us was so yummy but the cotton candy was my favorite. I love this picture and those smiles. Thank you so much to the Berendes for the birthday tickets, it was such fun experience. 

There were a zillion and one concerts (okay maybe not that many but close). The year started with 21 Pilots, then watched Bon Jovi, Backstreet Boys (twice), went to my first concert alone to see Ricky in Vegas, saw Fall Out Boys, Bruno Mars, Lady Gags, Ricky again, One Republic, New Kids on the Block, 98 Degrees, took the boys to Kids Bop, and ended the year with Poptopia, with Chainsmokers, Ed Sheehan, Taylor Swift, and Niall Horan.

We also saw some good movies - Star Wars was so good!!! I want to go see it again. I honestly can't remember what movies we watched but I do remember that we had a wonderful time watching all them. I did really enjoy Justice league even thought I hadn't watched Batman vs Superman (or something like that).

I read 35 book. I mostly read the Chronicles of Kerrigan. I stared the year with that series and read all 15-16 books throughout the year. The last book I read was Daughter of the Pirate King that came in an OwlCrate box I ordered at the end of the year during their left over sale. The book was really good. I definitely like reading YA books. I know I am a grown woman but there is so much adulting my life, I do like to read fiction that is fun, with adventure and not serious things, there is enough of that in my life already.

I think the biggest change of the year was when I had pink hair. totally got out of my comfort zone and love it. I miss it more than I thought I would be, but honestly as much as I love it, I just don't have the time to keep up with it. My hair grown pretty fast and my roots show and it drives me nuts.

I finished all my credential courses for the Educational Administration program, I just need to summit all the paper work and pay for the credential. I still have a couple of courses to get a third, a THIRD, masters degree. I am hoping to be done by June.

2018.....

2018 started great. We spend 1/1/18 with Michele and her family, we had ceviche and hanged out. It was a fun day. I took the boys ice skating in San Francisco, it was so much fun. Matthew is getting the hang of it, and he finally decided to take ice skating lesson before soccer starts again. It will be fun. Maybe Pablo and I could take lessons as well later on in the year.

I already read two books. I felt so sick last night and so congested that I couldn't sleep so I read and read and read and I read a whole book. The new John Locke book, form the Donovan Creed series, it was so good. I also read Fooling Hearts, that book came in the OwlCrate subscription my mom gave me for Christmas, I loved everything in the box and the book was really good. I have a couple more books I want to read before the January OwlCrate box comes later this month,

I do have a couple of concerts coming up this year, no crazy amount like in 2017, but some good ones. Foo Fighters, Ricardo Arjona, Marron 5, and hopefully Justin Timberlake here in San Jose and in LA, hopefully my friends will be able to get tickets, fingers crossed.

I have gotten a lot of questions about what trips we are taking this year.  We do have several trips. Originally we had a family cruise plan from Florida, that was the only trip we had planned, but then I got some vouches from Alaska Airline sand of curse we had to use them and take advantage of the price, so I have an LA trip with the boys and my mom, a San Diego trip with Pablo for a long weekend - we try to take one alone trip during the year, we chat, sleep in, eat yummy food, and explore where we are at. A New York trip came into the books when I was able to snag two tickets for the Curse Child. Matthew and I, will be watching the play but all four of us are going, we are pretty excited as the boys have never gone to NY and we can't wait to explore that amazing city together. But the most exciting trip this year will be our trip to Guatemala for our nephews wedding. The date was changed at the end of 2017 as we are excited to plan and cannot wait to see family and friends.

I know you guys always want to know how I book trips, but because I am not sharing date in here or social media I will write a blog after the trip and let you know what was planned, what we did, what we recommend, etc. Specially things that can be done with kids at each place.

Today I started my first class to complete my Masters in Science degree. It is a two month class, and I have 8 assignments to turn in, and I am sick so it kind of suck!!! If you are a mom and working full time and are starting a degree (any degree) time management is really the hardest part to get down. I printed the course description today so I can highlight and makes notes. I have a planner that I use just for school assignments, where I will go and write everything when it is due, I usually make everything due on Friday night (even if it is due on Sat) this way I have Saturdays free from school. I also make sure I am able to read at least one chapter of a non school related book before bed.

I only wrote 4 goals for this year. Save more, read more, eat less and excerizzzze more (and yes I wrote it with the zzzz because I have such a hard time getting up in the morning, today I did squats at work while doing paper work because I am just not feeling well), and spend less. When I say spend less, I mean less in things that I don't need, like I tell the boys, just because I want it doesn't mean I need it.

There are some thing around the house we would like to change, furniture wise, we have had the same things since before the boys, I am hoping to sell what we want to change even if we only make a little money, better than nothing.

Alright. Have a fanatic 2018. I will do my best to write, share concert review, tell you about the books and stories I get immerse in, keep you posted about school, and share ideas and experiences on travel.

Have a great week, stay warm and dry. Hugs

Europe tips....

Thanks for reading my other two blog guys! you guys are the BEST!!!

I got some questions about tips for the trip. So I thought I would write this not only to help others but so I remember.

The app cittymapper is a wonderful tool. Download it before you get to your destination. Even though you need wifi or data to get the directions once you turn data off or lose wifi it will keep marking your location as you walk. This is so much better then google maps and iPhone maps.

Cash. We went back and forth on how to get cash. We read that it was better to get cash at your destination using your ATM at a local bank. The banks in the US charge a big fee to change currency. However your US bank will charge you a percentage of the currency exchange and a fee for using a different bank, plus side, the European bank won't charge another fee. Now I was worried that my ATM was going to get stuck on the machine or something was going to happen. Also the dollar is worth less and I didn't want to keep getting cash out. So we ended up getting cash the airport (even thought everyone tells you not to) however the fee was lower than what my bank was going to charge me in I change the money here in the US or using an European ATM. So the fee was lower and because it goes as a charge my bank did not charge me a fee or a currency exchange.

Make sure you change your phone to an international plan. ATT has a monthly plan. We did the 200 MG (which by the way was not enough even thought we had wifi everywhere) we could still send text message s(but not iMessages or pictures without using data out course). We did this for both phones in case we got separated.

Have a backup plan in case you lose a connections, something is wrong with your reservations, your passports get lost/stolen, etc. Plan for all scenarios.

Don't carry too much stuff with you. We did not carry a backpack or a big purse while we were exploring each city. I had a small cross over bag with our medical cards and my ID, as well as my phone and whatever snack fit in there. We wore our jackets around out waist.

Don't take your phone out all the time. We used our phones at the paces we had lunch/dinner and made sure it was set for our next destination. Even though we did look at t at random times and used it for pictures we did not use a self stick and did not take it out all the time. You don't want to call attention to yourself.

If you are traveling with kids talk to them about the worst case scenario (something gets stolen) and how to avoid it. Remind them not to walk away from you (regardless how old they are), there is so much people everywhere.

Download any apps you may need to help you translate either verbal or written. This will help you.

Make sure you have a PIN number for your credit card, if available. Our card doesn't;t have a pin number and we had to sign everywhere, which is fine. However the MacDonald's over there you can order on a machine but you need a PIN number other wise you have to order with a cashier and believe ,e the language thing is an issue.

Pack light. We took two medium size bags and one carry one. We also packed two buffalo bags for the way back. We checked in everything overtime we could, there are many airlines that will check in your carry on for free even if you do it once you are at the ticket counter but you also have the ability to take it with you in case they charge.

Arrive at the airport early. In Paris to Barcelona we arrives two and a half hours before our flight, it took us over an hour to check in our bags. By the time we passed security it had time to use the bathroom and board our plane.

Book the earliest flight. If you are taking tow different flight on the same day, and you did not book them together, take the earliest. When we flew from Barcelona to London (to go to Canada) we almost missed our London flight. The first flight from Barcelona was 30 minutes late, the bags took forever to come out, and we had less than an hour to check in and board for our next time, go h yeah we also had to change terminals. So plan ahead and have a backup plan in case you do miss your connecting/next flight.

Plane food, it's still pretty bad. So back a snack, buy something at the airport, specially if you are traveling with kids. The boys tried everything but didn't eat to much of anything. Be prepared. Hungry kids are not happy kids.

Make sure you have google pictures and that you back up your pictures often. This way if your phone gets stolen you will still have aces to your pictures.

If I think of anything else I will add it here. Happy planning.
P.S. I did not proof read this blog, at all. As always I am avoiding doing homework lol!

Europe Trip.............

**** Super long post!!!

Let me start by sharing that this trip has been years in the making. Pablo and I have discussed it many times since we got married, almost 14 years ago, but life happened. After having the boys and moving to Northern CA we decided that we would wait until they were old enough to do this type of trip. Why, well - one; we did not want to go all the way to Europe for one week, we always knew we wanted to do at least two weeks, two; we were not going to leave the boys for two weeks, three; considering we can only take one big family vacation a year (work/money) we were going to make it a family vacation.

Before this trip we had taken the boys on different vacations, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Florida (twice, once to Disney World/Universal/Miami and then Tampa for a cruise), a cruise from Mexico, and Guatemala when they were one.

This trip was different, it was the longest trip and the busiest, so here are the things we knew the boys would need to be able to do before we could take this trip. If you are planning a trip with kiddos, these are my suggestions (we would not have taken the boys any younger than what they are now, they turned 9 during the trip)
1. no strollers
2. no naps
3. ability to walk for hours without complaining
4. be able to understand the amount of money it goes into a trip like this (they will appreciate the financial scarify more if they are aware of the value of money - to not be in debt you have to stick to a budget)
5. ability to go up and down many (many) stairs
6. old enough not to wonder off
7. willing to try new foods
8. ability to write and keep a journal (they will thank you later)
9. old enough to remember the trip

Daily itinerary:

July 17 - 

In the morning the boys and I ran errands, getting last minute things we may need.
Pablo worked until 2 pm and we headed to the airport at 3:00.
Once we arrived we checked in and passed security.
Because we had some time before boarding, we had dinner, made sure everyone sued the bathroom at least twice.
We boarded on time and off we were. Pablo sat with Zachary and I sat with Matthew.

July 18 - 

London we have arrived!!!!!
Our flight arrived at 2:30 pm London time (its an 8 hour difference, from CA).
We took an Uber to get our keys for the Airbnb. We were able to see the changing of the guards from the car, it was pretty cool. There was a lot of traffic.
BY the time we got to the flat it was 5:30. Phone maps keep giving us the wrong walking directions to the flat from the key cafe (where we got the flat keys) we ended up getting another Uber after we had walked 15 min in the wrong direction.
Once at the flat we were starving, there was a family friend pub at the corner so we eat dinner there. Matt had a fried veggie hamburger that was delicious, Pablo and Zach had hamburgers, and I had a cheese and tomato panini that was just okay.
After we bought some groceries (market was across the street, once of the reasons we choose this Airbnb place), for breakfast for the next few days.
We went to bed early, we were all tired from traveling.

Boys took a nap in the car from the airport. 

July 19 -


We had breakfast at the flat, at around 5 am and we headed out at around 7:00 am, jet lag people!!
We walked to Tower Bridge, which was 12 minutes away from the flat. From there we walked all over London, we saw: Tower Bridge, London Tower, London Bridge (yes we also sang the song lol), Borough Market, Shakespeare's Globe, London Eye (buy the skip the line, it will make a big difference), Big Ben, Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Wellington Arch, Harrods, and ended at the Ampersand Hotel for afternoon tea.
We had lunch at St. James Park, best fish and chips ever!
We stopped at different places for coffee and orange juice, snacks, drinks, etc. But we pretty much walked the whole day. At 4:00 we took a cab back to Borough Market, there was a pirate ship that was supposed to be open but it was not. From there we walked back to the flat, another 30 min or so. We did find a Starbucks close by to buy our city mug. We arrived back at the flat at 6:30 pm, after 11 and half hours of exploring (and mostly walking). The boys did GREAT never complained and had a fantastic time. We heard thing like "wow, this is beautiful" "I cannot believe we are here" "Look how old this is" "Thank you so much for bringing us here" "best Christmas gift ever" (these were things we heard all through out the trip, lots of thank you, and comments and how amazing everything was.

July 20 -

We had breakfast at the flat and a late start to the day, after walking allover the day before we took it easy. We took the underground to The Making of Harry Potter and we spend about 4 hour there. It is a self guided tour, so we saw everything at our own pace.
After we went to Selfridges, which is a department store, where Matthew found 25 euros on the floor, lucky duck. For dinner we eat at "Burgers & Cocktails" I had a fried squid burger, it was amazing!!!

July 21 -

Traveling day!
We took the a flight to Amsterdam, we arrived there at 3:30 pm and took and uber to our Airbnb, which was amazing!!
Once at our flat, we walked around exploring the streets around us, which were filled with restaurants. We had dinner at "Pasta, Pasta" and desert at Mister Popsicle.

We had a little patio. The studio was on the top floor of an apartment building. 

July 22 -


We started with breakfast at "Los Felix" yes, Mexican food, and it was so gooooooooddddd, I wold go there again. We actually had a different place in mind but it was so packed, that we ended up here and it was meant to be. This was at around 9 am.
After that we walked to get our canal and Van Gogh museum tickets. We did the canal cruise first, which was an hour long, then we walked alllllll over, it even rained on us. Some things we saw were,; Anne Franks house, Rijkcsmuseum, Vondel Park, Westertoren, Royal Palace, De Nieuwe Kerk, De Bijenkorf, and the Fall Raven store, ended the day at the Van Gogh museum at 6:00 pm.
The Van Gogh museum was the reason we went to Amsterdam (and the only museum we did), we were there for a very long time, read everything, saw everything, and had a great time.
We had MacDonalds for an early dinner before the museum.
We were back at the flat and in bed by 10:30 pm.
This was another day of. lot of walking, we did take the bus several times, but we walked a lot.

We out our lock at one of the bridges. 

July 23 -


Travel day.
We took the Thalys train to Paris. The train ride was great, get the first class tickets, you get a snack, lunch, and wifi. the time went fast, we all took naps, it was an easy way to travel.
We arrived in Paris and took an Uber to the flat, which had the BEST view ever. Many streets were close because the Tour of France was happening, which was actually happening on our streets. So cool!!
We walked from our flat (across from the Eiffel Tower) to the Arc of Triomphe. Were we had dinner, it was about a 45-60 min walk, each way. On our way back we had yummy crepes.

Taken on our first night there, walking back to our flat.

July 24 -


Busy, busy day!!!!
We had such a good breakfast, soft scrambled eggs with chives (ham for Zachary and Pablo), bread, coffee, orange juice, and chocolate croissant.
We went to explore Paris with a long list of places to see; first we picked up or Disneyland Tickets, Champs Elysees area, Louvre Museum, Place de la Concorde, Tuileries Garden, Museum D'Orsay, Post Des Arts (we did not out our lock, as it said to please do not put any more locks on it), Conciergerie, Sainte Chapelle, Notre Dame Cathredral, and Place de la Bastille.
We stopped at Lenotre to buy pastries, we wanted it alllll.
Then we had lunch at The Frog, it was an American place, but all the French places didn't have much for Matthew to eat and we did not want to force him to eat something he would hate and we didn't;t want him to just eat pasta the whole time. He ended up having a Greek cheese patty hamburgers which was delicious.
After we took the bus to Faure Le Page, and I got my purse, yes the purse which was the reason I worked ESY hahahahahahah, I wanted them ALLL but one was enough, they didn't have the wallet I wanted so I may need to just order it by email.
We stopped at a super market to buy food for snacks, something to drink, and eggs for breakfast for the next two days.
We headed back to the flat to rest our feet and change to go to the Eiffel Tower for dinner. We had a three course meal at the 58 Tour Eiffel Restaurant. The food was devious and we got to skip the line, we even had our own elevator. I would highly recommend it. After dinner we were able to go to the 2nd floor of the tour, however Zachary was coming down with a cold and it was super windy, so we decided to skip it.
This was another super long day of walking.

Checking in to go have dinner. Monday like this are the best!

July 25 -


Zachary was definitely under the weather today, we considered several time staying in the flat and relaxing but we went out. It was definitely not meant to be.
We headed to the Palace of Versailles. we meet John there, which was the best part of the day :) we hanged out in line and when it w as time to go in, we realized that we only had tickets for a specific place not the whole palace, arg. I did remember later that I had only gotten those because the boys were free for that part and I did not want to pat a lot of $. I was going to buy tickets for the palace but the line was huge, when I came back Zachary felt feverish, so we decided to go eat and head back instead. I did get to see some of the gardens which were beautiful. Sad that we didn't get to hang out more with John (but maybe we can plan the next trip together).
Back at the flat the boys took a very long nap, because we had had a late lunch we had something light for dinner and went to bed early.

It rained a lot on and off. 

July 26 -


Zachary woke up feeling much better, which was great because we went to Disneyland Paris and it was amazing.
We left the flat at 9:30 am and came back after 8pm.
Lines at Disneyland were horrible, 75 to 120 minutes long. We ended up only doing like 5 rides total, it rained like crazy, my feet were socking. It is miracle that Zachary didn't get worst, I guess the medicine they sell is good. Regardless we had so much fun, great lunch, and a fantastic time.
We had crepes for dinner, near the flat.

Didn't take a lot of pictures, was in the moment sharing the experience with the boys and enjoying looking at everything they had. 

July 27 -


We didn't have to wake up early (yes), had a yummy breakfast, cooked by me with the most beautiful view f the Eiffel Tower, packed everything and headed to the airport. I think out flight left at 2:10.
Good thing we were there early, the lines to check in our bags was huge, huge. But we made it, of course after we stressed about the line being so long lol.

Once we arrived in Barcelona, we learned that the taxis were on strike, so the adventure began right of the plane. We took the bus to the metro station to our apartment. Of course the metro stations we used had no elevators or electric stairs. Pablo had to carry two 50 lbs bags up and down the stairs, also keep in mind that it was hot and super humid. I carried the carry one and keep and eye on the boys.

We finally arrived at our apartment, which had an AC in the main room, but no elevator and it was on the third floor. After checking it out, using the bathroom and chilling for like a second, we went to the grocery store, around the corner, to buy food for breakfast. After we found the yummiest place two eat, around the corner, the food was delicious and they made Matthew cheese pasta.

Of course I got dirty, I always get dirty with this shirt. 

July 28 -


Woke up early and had breakfast. While we all got ready we did a loud of laundry to leave it drying from the window.

We went to Camp Nou, which was 20 min walking. We were there for several hours and enjoyed it greatly. We were able to have a snack at their bar outdoor area, beer before coffee on this day. It was a BLAST. The boys got some gear, of course.  On the way back we had lunch at a small place, but it was so good. Then we dropped off the shopping at the apartment and keep on exploring.

Today we saw; La Sagrada Family, and had the best churros ever, Las Ramblas, Plaza Catalunya, Columbus Monument, did a boat tour, and went to the Moll d'Espanya. We had sangria and paella, the chef came out and made Matthew a pasta with veggies just for him, I cannot remember the name of the restaurant but it was on the third floor of the mall on the side facing the ocean, best place ever.

Camp Nou menu. 

July 29 -


We headed out early and took the metro the El Tibidavo. Pablo learned from this place while we were in Paris and I am so glad he did. It was beautiful! The church is so pretty and the view of the city is amazing. We had a great time, we had more churros for a snack. After that, we went back to Las Ramblas and we walked on the small side streets full of shops. I finally went to Hema and got some cute planner stuff. We did some shopping, and the boys got more team Barcelona gear. The architecture of the building is so amazing. We ended up having dinner at El Best y La Luna, the boys first time eating paella and they loved it. For desert we had ice cream and we bought pastries at Escriba (totally recommend). To end the night we saw the fountain at Plaza Catalunya.

At El Dibidavo.

July 30 -


Today we went on an un planned hike. We had planned to go to Park Guell, which we did, however we did not know it was a real park. We hiked/walked to different parts of the park and looked at the view. The area with Guell museum is so pretty. We did not know it was a museum, but we were able to see the architecture from outside and enjoy the beauty of it.
We had hamburgers for lunch,  I ordered a beer flight thinking it would be small samples of 4 beers, but no, it was 4 regular size beers, good thing Pablo drank some. After we walked to "Eyescream and Friends" it was so yummy and looked so cute.

At Park Guell.

July 31 -


Beach Day.
This was the reason we stayed an extra day in Barcelona, to have a beach day in the Mediterean sea.
We went to Playa Bogatell, which is a less busy beach and not so touristy. We were there early, before  it got too hot and enjoyed played in the sand, did get too wet, but had a great time. We eat at L'Escamarla, which was okay, the paellas the days before had been better.

Then we headed back to Las Ramblas and got more desserts, couldn't help it the pastries there were just so good.

Beautiful day at the beach. 

August 01 -  

Travel day. We left the apartment at 6 am, we planned to get to the airport early as we had heard it took a long time for security. So we checked in quickly, passed security, had breakfast, played on the phones and finally boarded and were late taking off, which made us late to London.

In London we had to run, literally run from terminal 2 to terminal 5 to catch our flight to Montreal. We almost did to make it. We checked in our bags with 60 minutes to spare and made it to the terminal right when it was time to board.
Let me tell you next time, we are taking the earliest flight or the flight the night before. In our original plans Montreal was a two hour stop, but we decided to stay there for a few nights, which was the best decision ever. Other wise we would had had three different flights for a total of 16 flying ours and many airport hours.

After running through the London airport we all sleep on the plane. It was the shortest 6.5 hours ever!

Once we arrived in Montreal we took uber to our hotel, this was the only place we had a hotel. We had dinner at the hotel, we were so tired from such a long day I think we were all fast sleep by 7 pm.

Leaving London!

August 02 -


Happy 9 Birthday to the boys!!!!
We went out for breakfast and to explore downtown.
Back at the hotel we went swimming for a few hours. After we all got ready and out for lunch. The boys chose Mexican. We went to a non tourist place and had a yummy meal.
The hotel staff brought the boys a slice of cake, it was so good and so nice of them.
After breakfast we went to explore more of downtown, and to buy some ketchup chips and water. We also had ice cream. Of course it started raining our of no where, and we hanged out at the mall until the rained stopped.

Happy Birthday!!!!

August 03 -


Best breakfast ever at L'Avenue (eat here on 8/4 as well).
After we walked the farmers market and Old Port.
We ended the day at the pool.

At Old Port. 

August 04 -       

Our hotel was so pretty, Bonaventure Hotel.
This was our last day here. We went to breakfast, came back to the hotel and packed.
After we checked out, we explored the bog mall in Downtown and did some shopping. Took the boys to their first actual Bookstore. We had lunch t the food court, well the boys eat at the food court, Pablo and I were still full from breakfast. It rained again, on the way back to the hotel.

At around 3:30pm we headed to the airport even thought out flight was at 8. We didn't want to be stuck in after work traffic. At the airport once we passed security and everything, we had dinner and hanged out. Our flight was already delayed.

It turned out that many flights were canceled and our flight was delayed for 3 hours. We finally left Montreal at 11:30 pm and arrived home at 4 am (CA time). The boys wanted pancakes and stayed up playing all morning, Pablo and I crashed for a few hours. Man it was a long night. We were so happy to be home.

The trip was amazing!!!
If Barcelona wasn't so humid we wold be making plans to move, we loved it there, the people were so nice and the food was so good. We were so sad to hear about the terrorist attack.
We were lucky that everything went smooth. We will definitely be planning another European adventure in the near future.

I tried to put new pictures that I hadn't posted on IG, there is no way I can share the 800 plus pictures, Pablo and I each took. I hope to make a photo album in the next few months.

So now that I am back at work and the boys are in school, we have started planning out what we will do next year. Yes we do plan a year or so in advance, we have been talking about different ideas.

I will try to keep this up with the blog, specially when it comes to traveling with the boys, to help give ideas of where to go and what to do.

Booking a trip to Europe

Okay, I got a lot, and by a lot, I mean A LOT, of questions about our recent trip to Europe. Which was AMAZING, and I would recommend everyone to go, really to go on any vacation, take time off from work and your everyday activities to explore other parts of the country and the world.

So I am going to write this in two parts, two blog, one part about the booking and the second part an itinerary of what we did each day.

Alright, here we go. This post is very long....

Planning

1. We booked the airfare at the beginning of November 2016 (trip was July 17 2017).
We decided to take this trip in August 2016 (once I go back to work, we decide, tentatively, vacations for the following year and started looking for airfare then. The cheapest we had ever seen it was about $800 per person during the summer.

Download the app "Hopper" it will track airfare for you, make sure you have notifications turned on. It will let you know when prices have gone up or down.

We tracked every date in the summer (June and July) that worked for us, all different varieties of combinations. In November got a message that the July 17 - August 1 to LHR (London) was the cheapest.

At that point, we looked at the direct airlines, Expedia, Google travel, and Kayak. United had the cheapest flight. It was an average of $600 a person which was the lowest we had ever seen for the summer. We booked it and we also got the travel protection because it was such a long time until the actual trip we wanted to make sure we got the money back if something happened.

So at this point we knew we were doing a round trip to London from SFO.

2. Budget. Budget. Budget. with the airfare bought we need to sit down and budget the rest of the trip. How much we would spend in accommodations and things to do, as well as an average of how much we would need for spending, including food, souvenirs, suitcases (we didn't have any), things we need it to buy for the trip (new shoes, more socks, bathroom stuff, etc.).

3. Where to go and for how long. We knew we wanted to see London, Paris, and Barcelona. We sat down and wrote all the things we wanted to see in each place. We knew we wanted to spend at least one extra day in Barcelona to have a beach day and relax. After making a list and checking it twice (lol) we added Amsterdam to the itinerary. (November)

4. Once we knew the dates and order we wanted to do in each place, we started to look at hotels and Airbnb. We look at Hotels through Expedia and the actual hotel web page. (this was between the end of November and the end of December)

We booked hotel everywhere with Expedia, the ones that you pay at the hotel not in advance and had a cancellation date near our traveling time. Some of these hotels were near the airports, with two twin beds. These were hotels in our budget, cutting it really close to what we had established for each city. We booked hotels first because we wanted to make sure we had a place to stay.

Airbnb, we had never stayed in an Airbnb so we were a little apprehensive about it. However after researching, talking to friends, and looking at all the amazing places (and way cheaper than hotels) they had, we took the plunge and we book all Airbnb and cancelled all the hotels.

With Airbnb some places where cheaper than others, we stayed within budget for accommodations. Paris was the first one we booked, I mean you guys saw that view, we didn't want to loose it, from them we used the rest of the $ budget for all the others. Every place was amazing, enough room for all four of us we would stay in the same places again. If you are bringing a lot of bags make sure there is an elevator. In Amterdam we were on the fourth floor and the third floor in Barcelona with no elevators.

Read all the reviews, specially the ones about safety.

5. Thing to do. This was the most FUN to plan. We looked at the list we had of what we wanted to see and we booked everything through the actual location (like Camp Nou in Barcelona) or with Expedia (like Disneyland Paris). We looked around to compare prices and choose what was the best option.

You can see about using points from credits cards, with AAA, or Costco, travel agencies, etc. We book with Expedia a lot and we had some $/points to use, reason why we booked that way.

If you are traveling with children keep in mind that they may not be interested in spending a day at a museum. Pick what you really want to see and what they will enjoy.

We choose not go inside the Louvre, its way too big and there was no way any of us could be there for hours and hours. I knew I HAD to visit the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, so we booked that with a canal cruise deal they had. Disney Paris came with the metro/train tickets, they even told us which one to take, where to transfer, and when to exit. The London Eye had the skip the line option, the regular line was over an hour long, we waited ten minutes.

We booked the activities from December all the way to May. Keep in mind that the closer you get to the trip the more expensive some of them will become.

Why book ahead of time and not once you are there? I am a planner, I like to know what we are doing each day to make sure we got to do everything we wanted to do.
Also, I wanted to make sure everything was booked that need it to be booked, then it was already paid and all we had to worry about was expending money once we got there. This had worked well in the past and it worked GREAT this time around as well.
Don't over book!! You never know how long the lines will be, how long you will stay in one place, how far one place is from the other, or if you will have the energy or anything like that. Book one in the morning and one in the afternoon. There are so many things to see without paying to go inside, don't over spend.

6. Transfers. We used the Hoper app again to look for flights. We knew we wanted to fly from London to Amsterdam and from Barcelona to London.

The first transfer we booked was Barcelona to London in the morning of August 1. That was the same day we were flying from London to Montreal (and hen Montreal to SFO). Advice, take the earliest flight better to have extra time at the airport than almost miss your flight running from one terminal to the next because the first flight was late (yep true story we almost stayed in London).

Then we book London to Amsterdam, we booked a flight. When we look dat the train it said we had to transfer trains in Brussels and we did not want to do that so, a plane it was.

We decided to take the Thalys train from Amsterdam to Paris, it was a little bit over three hours, we were able to sleep. We bought the first class tickets (it was like $20 difference per person) but we had wifi and it included snacks and a lunch (not a good lunch, but a lunch).

Originally we wanted to take the train from Paris to Barcelona but it was a 6 hour train ride. So we ended up booking a flight, it was the last one we booked, we were waiting and waiting for prices to go down.

7. Before you leave the US.
a. call you bank and let them know you will be traveling, they will ask you for the specific date sin each place. This will help them to keep track of where your card is been used. Asked them about the currency conversion fee. Banks will change a % to change currency while in the states. Once in Europe you can take money out of their ATM, European banks don't charge a fee, you bank will change 1-3% plus the free for using a non bank ATM which usually carries from 2.50 to 5.50. Also ask and increase your daily withdraw amount.
b. check with your credit cards, see how much they will charge for the currency conversion fee, try to get one that does not charge, the Capital One Saphier is the best (I heard). Also ask of you need a pin to use it. All European machines work with a pin for form bank and credit cards, with US cards they will ask you to sign, if you have a pin you don't sign.
c. make a copy of your passports, take one with you and leave one at home with someone, in case you lose your passports (or they get stolen) and you need to get a new one. Its a good idea to also email your self a copy
d. look for all the US embassies where you will be staying and send yourself an email with the info (you can also print it and take it with you)
e. make a copy of your credit cards and bank cards, leave at home with someone reliable in case you need to info. Also give them a copy of your itinerary with address and numbers of where you will be staying in case of an emergency
f. get the international plan for your phone, this will allow you to send text messages, and make calls (for a lower price), helpful if you end up getting separated from you husband/wife/friend/etc.


I am not going to tell you how much the trip cost because it will be different for everyone, depending on when you go, how long you stay, what you do, where you eat, how much things you buy, etc. You can call em/text me/email em, if you want an idea of how much it was.

But I can tell you that we are NOT in debt because of the trip.

We only booked things as we had the money to book them. Example, we booked the flight - paid the credit card, booked accommodations - paid the credit card, and so on. We booked thing from November to May. I worked summer school and did assessments to have extra $ (and yes to get my purses). But we did not over book and we only book as the money came in. We knew we did not want to be in debt because of the trip, Think that scared us a lot and we worked hard to stay in budget. There are things we did not do because of it (like going to the Game of Thrones city in Barcelona, next time). But because of summer school, we were able to stay in Montreal fora few more days after leaving Europe.

Montreal was not part of the original vacation. We did have a 2 hour 30 min layover in Montreal coming from London. However the London to Montreal flight changed so much from November to May, originally it was a 2:10 flight, it change to 2:30, 3:00, back to 2:10, to 2:45 and then again at 2:10. Because we would have to pass immigration in Canada, we decided just to stay there for a few days and relax and explore the city. It was. good way to end the trip because it was only 3 hour difference, so we were not so jet lag, we were able to use the pool and relax. Montreal is also beautiful !

Okay this is it for this one. I will write part two in a couple of days. I need to look back to let you know what each ay looked like as they were super fun but super busy. I will also give you my personal opinion about this trip with children. I will also put some pictures :)

Love you all.