New Adventures In The Old World

This is new!

After fifteen years of my travel blogs being on Typepad, I was forced to make a switch. Typepad closed down and with the help of some Bangladeshi software developers I found on Fiverr, my blogs migrated to WordPress – more or less intact. They now have a more customized domain name and mildly nicer aesthetics. Certainly, there’s the potential to do more interesting, creative visual designs – but that may or may not ever happen. It’s not in my nature to spend a lot of time on aesthetics.

Instead, I prefer the aesthetics of the places we travel. This winter, it’s Venice and Rome – some very aesthetically pleasing locales. Why Italy in the Winter? Because I couldn’t get roundtrip tickets to Southeast Asia for less than $3,000 per person. So I gave the kids several choices in South America and Europe. As I said, “Italy” – they both said, “Yes! Italy!” It was decided, just like that. Poor Brazil and Argentina didn’t get a second thought.

This year is the beginning of something new. I have never taken the kids anywhere I haven’t been myself before. But I have never been to Venice. It will be an adventure of discovery for all three of us. After this past summer in which the kids were so mature and independent, I realized – we can begin to navigate the world together.

In fact, because of our Patmos home and summers, our every-other-year Winter Breaks together have become our time for going new places. Sure, we could in theory Airbnb out the Patmos house in the summer and use the money to travel elsewhere. I’ve brought it up to the kids as an option. Which gets a faster and more emphatic “no” than Italy got for a “yes”. Patmos is sacrosanct now. So we need to leverage our winters for expanding our horizons.

Of course, that’s not really new. For years, Emily and I took the kids to Southeast Asia in the winter. As a mostly online college instructor, Winter Break was the only time Emily could truly have no classes at all. So two trips to Bali and three to Thailand were all winter voyages.

Only now, the travel has a different flavor. Post-divorce, there’s no Emily, no au pair – it’s just the three of us. That’s the best part. I have almost three continuous weeks with my kids – which for a minute makes it feel like I don’t have them only fifty percent of the time. I miss having my family all of the time.

Two winters ago, when we went to Cannes and Paris – our first post-divorce winter together – it was wonderful to share France with the kids, but just being the three of us together was even better.

At this point, we all seem to have varying hopes and expectations for Italy. Sennen wants to go to the world’s first pizzeria in a side trip from Rome to Naples. He also wants to see the Vatican and the Doge’s Palace – and attend Shabbat services at a synagogue in Venice. I also want to see the Doge’s Palace and am excited to get around Venice by boat, see the Christmas Markets. Ailyn wants to “shop ’til I drop” with the Hanukkah spending money I’m giving her. And she’s open to the pizza.

Both kids are excited about the Star Alliance lounge at LAX which we can access since we’re taking Lufthansa outbound. To be clear, they’re not excited about Lufthansa, but the ramen bar at the lounge helps to defray the reported indignity of German flight attendants who stare. The seats are also a little narrow and the food forgettable if we’re doing the full rundown.

However friendly or not the flight attendants may be, the adventure begins Tuesday afternoon. Between now and then are a rapid-fire series of Hanukkah parties, a dance recital and a little school. We run until we leave. We’ll recuperate on a gondola in Venice. I hear they have blankets in the winter….