Eurotrip with a 5 year old

Our little girl has been requesting to go to Paris and we too have been wanting to go back to Europe as a family so I booked flights and put together an ambitious yet kid friendly itinerary which included the majority of our time in Paris, France plus 4 other countries in only 2 weeks. Wish we had more time but some work constraints and oh Addie starting Kindergarten limited our stay. Still, we had an INCREDIBLE time! I purchased the books “Mission Paris” and “Mission Amsterdam” scavenger hunt kids books that Addie got REALLY into.

By now, Addie has earned professional kid traveler status and does amazing on airplanes and trains. No joke, better than some adults. I surprised her with a DIY activity pack which included: glitter putty, felt puzzles, small notepad, coloring book, markers, pens, Color Reveal Art Pad by Creatology (scratch art, HUGE hit!) and TONS of stickers. We also brought a few small toys and lots of snacks. No tablet, we no longer travel with that annoying thing! :)

Day 1-2: LAX to Paris, France. Upon arrival we were just too tired to figure out the metro so we hired a taxi, which ended up being such a treat because we did the roundabout at the Arch de Triumph. Later we realized the metro was incredibly easy to follow and used this as our transportation throughout our stay. We stayed at a traditional Parisian flat, booked through Airbnb, located near the Eiffel tower since that was the landmark Addie was most excited about. We arrived in the evening so we enjoyed dinner, the sparkly lights of the Eiffel tower and the carousel ride… which Addie and Angel rode over and over almost every day (you would think I had two kids).

Day 3: We were definitely jet lagged but forced ourselves to wake up so we could enjoy our city bike tour with Fat Tire Tours, I highly recommend them! Addie rode a tandem with Angel while I had the freedom of solo biking and photographing. Truly an incredible way to see the major highlights and get a feel for the layout of the city plus our guide was so awesome!

Afterwards we did a “Kids in the Kitchen” pastry making class and made chouquettes. Addie really loved working with her hands and our teacher really catered to the kiddos. There were two other kids in the class and between the three of them they consumed about 2 dozen chouquettes immediately out of the oven! Us adults managed to sneak away a handful to try.

In the evening we took the metro to Norte Dame and admired it from a distance.. Closed off while fire damage gets restored. At sunset, we boarded a Seine river tour and Addie fell into a deep sleep from such a fun activity filled day! Angel had to lug her dead weight back to the flat! :)

Day 4: I intentionally left this as an unplanned day and to let Addie decide if she wanted to go to Euro Disneyland or explore more of Paris. To our surprise, no SHOCK, she said she didn’t want to go to Disneyland in Europe because they didn’t have Starwars. Also, earlier this year she told me she wasn’t that into princesses. PLUS she was having sooo much fun in Paris she wanted to explore more, eat pastries and ride the carousel.. again. I’m actually glad Addie chose this because I really wanted to head to Montmarte! We started off at SacreCoer and wandered the cobblestone streets, art filled corners, super cute cafes, the Love Wall and Moulin Rouge.

In the evening I did laundry, thank goodness for Airbnbs with laundry units. Also, this is our secret to packing very light… we traveled with only one backpack each.

Day 5: LOUVRE DAY!!! I prebooked tickets directly on their website for the 9am entry. We arrived at 8:30am, entered via the Palais Royale-Musee du Louvre underground entrance and found a much shorter line than what was above at the pyramid entrance. Our first mission was to see the Mona Lisa then explore the rest. I’m so glad we did because we got to fully experience this beautiful masterpiece before all the intense crowds. She was temporality located within a glass casing at Galerie Médici while the Salle des États gets restored. Seeing her in person felt so nostalgic.

For the remainder of our Louvre day, we loosely followed Addie’s “Mission Paris” scavenger hunt and awarded her points (I told her she could pick out a small souvenir if she earned all the points). She had such a blast admiring the art and got super excited over finding intricate details like tiny faces on the sides of golden pots or tiny gemstones in jewelry. She was so fascinated by the mummy in the Egyptian Antiquities and said she liked that more than the Mona Lisa.

We left in the afternoon for lunch and to admire the exterior pyramid. We headed to Tuileries Garden in the rain but that didn’t stop Addie from doing cartwheels on the grass and chasing pigeons!

Day 6: Paris to Brussels. I had purchased a Eurorail pass and foolishly did not pre-book train tickets meaning the only available Eurorail seats were for the midnight train. We ended up not using the passes and paying for a train within normal hours. Our seats were very comfortable and located within a private family area. Once we arrived, we walked to our apartment rental in the center of town and did some exploring of the city and tried some local beer and chocolate. Then we took photos with Mannequin Pis.. such a must! Haha

Day 7: Museum of Chocolate. We wondered the city some more, visited Mannequin Pis’ female counterpart, Jeanneke Pis. We spent most of the day at the Museum of Chocolate. Admission came with audio guides that you scanned throughout the museum. The museum chronologically followed the history of chocolate from Mesoamerica to Spain and the rest of Europe via royal marriages, development of machinery to separate out cocoa butter and the experimentation of adding milk and sugar. We got to taste chocolate chips and concluded with a chocolate making demonstration plus more tasting! Addie would later call this her most favorite part of our entire trip and I don’t blame her!

Day 8: Brussels to Netherlands.. Ok once again the Eurorail pass failed us with very limited availability so I booked what I thought was a train online. Turns out it was a bus.. which was fine, it still got us there. We decided to stay in Zaanse Schans because all too often we stay

centrally in a busy major city, visit a countryside type location and wish we did

the reverse: stayed in the countryside and visited the major city for a day… or in

our case, two half days. There is a 15minute bus and metro between Zaanse Schans and Amsterdam so it was easy to go back and forth. As soon as we arrived, the cold air smelled like warm chocolate due to a chocolate factory in town!

We stayed in an authentic Zaanse Schans hand crafted wooden house that I rented via Airbnb. Addie thought it looked like a treehouse! Our host was so kind and showed us to the fridge that he stocked with wine and beer for us to enjoy! We had dinner in the storybook like town and of

course, Addie drank hot cocoa. Later that evening Angel and Addie were still

hungry while I was extremely tired. The two of them went out and Angel told me this

sweet old lady cut up Addie’s food and hand fed her. I just love these moments, honestly, this would NEVER happen in the states unless it was family.

Day 9: Zaanse Schans & Amsterdam: In the morning we explored the small town, had breakfast and visited the clog factory where we watched a clog making demonstration.

We then took the bus to Amsterdam and rented bikes plus one child seat. We sort of aimlessly biked in circles around the entire city for 5 or so hours, parking our bikes here and there to explore by foot. I would say the city is definitely built for biking with bike paths and signage everywhere, however, the summer crowds made for challenging navigation. Some people would walk on the bike paths, causing us to swerve into car traffic... We wanted a local experience and we certainly got it!

Some of the highlights we visited were Dam Square, Anne Frank’s house, museums and parks. We enjoyed some local beer while Addie played at the park. We also passed through Red Light District and had to vacate immediately because we didn’t want Addie to see what was on display, LOL! In the evening we rested our legs on a canal cruise with audio guides so we got to learn about the places we just biked through.

Day 10: Zaanse Schans & Amsterdam: We spent most of this day at the NEMO science museum. We took a wrong turn by foot somewhere between the metro stop and museum so ended up walking forever up and down random stairs and bridges. Addie was such a trooper but definitely got frustrated. When we finally arrived at the museum we realized we could have taken a short straight path, SMH! Anyways, the museum was pretty great with multiple levels of hands on science exhibits for the kiddos. One level had actual science experiments and we conducted a lab on how sunscreen works to protect the skin. Addie thoroughly enjoyed this place and continues to state “that’s science!” to every occurrence in daily life, such as the engine of a car running or the sudsyness of soap.

Day 11: Zaanse Schans & Amsterdam: We boarded a 6 hour bus to Luxembourg, took a short train and walked to our apartment rental. In the evening we walked around the fairytale like town and explored the castle and casemate ruins of the Fortress of Luxembourg. After walking up and down hills and taking an outdoor lift on the natural barrier, it began to make sense as to why this location was chosen as a fortress.

Day 12: Luxembourg: in the morning we boarded a 1 hour train to cross the border into Germany to visit Trier for most of the day. We first visited the Roman ruins of Porta Nigra and the Imperial Roman Baths. We got to wander the underground passageways and Addie thought it was so cool that we were underground and she was allowed to run, touch and explore freely. She started comparing it to Ankor Wat in Cambodia and noted their similarities and differences. This totally warmed my heart that she was able to make these observations.

Afterwards we stopped for local beer and food then made our way to St. Peter’s Cathedral, the oldest in Germany. It looked just like a castle and was quite lovely inside.

We made our way back to Luxembourg and took Addie to Pirate Ship Park. This park is amazing! It’s just like a real shipwreck adorned with climbing ropes, swings, slides, telescopes and anything a child needs to recreate a scene from any pirate movie.

Day 13: Last day… sigh. From Luxembourg we took a train to Paris and boarded our flight back home. Until next time!

For more photos of our trip visit: https://photos.app.goo.gl/LFDUVvVtdfS2SRaR8