Planes, Trains, and Go Karts - Rucksacks and Tiny Spaces

32 days, two rucksacks, 10 countries. We were learning a lot about independence and about ourselves and about each other. For instance, I had learned that precisely 20 minutes after Kelsey first said she was hungry, she would start to get grumpy. I don't know how I'd never noticed that before!!

We'd learned that we could compromise, and we could be flexible. And we'd also learned that good experiences could sometimes happen even when things weren't going our way. Like when a train strike prevented us from going through Italy on our way to Switzerland. We needed to change our plans and travel through Lyon. When we arrived in Lyon, it took us a while and a couple wrong turns to eventually find a hostel. I planted my daughter there while I went off looking for food. We were well past that 20-minute hunger mark, and her foot hurt. And, being vegetarians, it always took a little longer to find meals that would make us both happy in Europe.

When I finally arrived back at the hostel, I found Kelsey waiting for me on the back patio. She was chatting with another tourist. We were on a terrace overlooking the city at dusk. And it was beautiful. I felt grateful with the turn of events that had landed us in this spot on that terrace with the lights of Lyon just starting to come on at sunset. That meal of barely warm spinach crepes was one of my favorite meals of the whole trip.

Our next stay was in Interlaken, Switzerland. Although it was full of young people having all kinds of amazingly sporty adventures, we had to tailor our plans for Kelsey's darned foot. We chose instead to go on a go-kart tour in the alps. And it turned out to be another magically beautiful experience.

And when we left a hostel where we didn't feel comfortable in Salzburg, we ended up at the cutest little cottage in the countryside outside of town.

When we had another bad hostel experience in Copenhagen, we ended up in the tiniest hotel room that I've ever seen. It was clean and comfortable and safe. And it was small. The beds folded down from the wall. The shower head in the minuscule bathroom operated from a diverter on the sink.

Disappointed a few days later that we were too late to see tulips in Holland, we found windmills.

And when she was finally ready to take off that awful walking book and go for a run, it was in Amsterdam.

All in all, it was a great adventure. No, it wasn't always fun, but we made some fantastic memories.