We wait so long for that first day in Europe. When it finally gets here, it’s a full and long day, as our international flight generally arrives in Europe in the morning. I am armed with a plan for our travel from the airport to the city center and I know where we can stash our luggage, while we wait for check-in time. And I have a serious plan for all we will see that first day, or at least I used to. It never quite worked out.
We certainly have lots of energy going into these trips. The kids are excited and everything seems possible. As we arrive at the airport, my mind is running through a million lists of things and tasks I am responsible for. Like. what we are going to do when we arrive? Are we taking the metro, and if so, which metro line was it? Or was it a bus? I check for the 10th time to make sure I downloaded my itinerary so it is available even if I am offline. When we are seated on the plane, and I know we are able to sit together and that our bags all fit in the overhead bins, I relax a little. And I tell myself I should sleep. I remind the whole family, they need to try to sleep. But I know fully well it won’t happen.
Planning for no plan
On the airplane, the kids watch movies, listen to music, tell each other stories, play card games, eat snacks, kick each other, and do just about anything they can think of, besides sleep. I try really, really hard to sleep. But instead of sleeping, I pass the time trying to come up with ideas for how to sleep on a plane. No matter how still I sit there, the most I accomplish is developing a kink in my neck. So in short, we run out of energy just about the time the plane lands, and the day starts all over again! Yay!
For example, last summer our plane arrived at 10:35pm, our time back home. In Paris however, it was a sunny 7:35am, and we needed to walk across CDG airport until we found Bus 350 or 60, and then ride on it for an hour to the center. We would be able to stash our luggage at our hostel, but the hostel didn’t budge on the check-in time. If the hotels in Paris (or in our case, $300 hostel room) weren’t so expensive, we considered renting the room the night before so we could check right in. We know the first day is going to be really, really rough. And that is why I no longer make an hour-by-hour plan for that first day. Instead, I make a list of where we might want to drag ourselves to as we pass time until we can finally go to sleep that first night abroad. There is no pressure to do or see anything. Instead, I just plan for us to be there, and to be tired, and to not follow any plan.
Too tired to function properly
We have been at this game for quite a few years, so the kids know what to expect. They have learned to sleep just about anywhere that first day, with the exception of the airplane. Well, I did find evidence that they slept one time in the photo above, on the way back to America.
Here’s the fam, back in the day, roughing it on a bench in London. Everyone is a little grumpy, even though we really are happy to be there. It’s just hard to look happy when you are so very tired.
This was one trip where we were grumpy, tired, and had to walk around in the rain. Now when we are walking around tired and grumpy the kids get to hear me say, “at least it isn’t raining.”
Accidentally eating some pretty good food
At some point during the first day or evening, we realize we are in fact quite hungry. But, we are too tired to hunt down a specific restaurant I picked out in advance. In fact, we are pretty indiscriminate this first day about where and what we eat. We just want something nearby. So I often ask the hotel, hostel, or apartment for a nearby recommendation. We have stumbled on a couple of our favorite restaurants this way.
Food does wonders. We might not be able to fully see the food, with our eyes drooping, but we can taste it. And our moods lift a little.
Above: Here we are at L’ Abreuvoir, near the Eifel Tower. Our hotel recommended it, and we visited here again the next time we were in Paris. It was one of those lucky finds that we really enjoyed. It didn’t matter we could hardly keep our eyes open.
Above: We ventured out of our apartment for some quick gyro near the Acropolis, before sleeping that first night in Athens.
Above: Trying our best to smile, in Rome, while grabbing a bite to eat at a neighborhood restaurant (as we wait for our apartment to finish being cleaned).
Oh glorious check-in time, you have finally arrived
Eventually, we can check-in. It is the best thing that happens on the first day in Europe. People can take showers and brush their teeth. We can finally take our shoes off our swollen feet. It really is a highly anticipated moment that can be described as glorious.
Embracing the second wind
We make it a point to stay up till evening even after we have checked-in. We have gotten better at this every year. Some of us older folks might take a short nap, but then we gather the crew and go back out. We seem to pick up a second wind, as the day starts over again in America, and the day comes to an end in Europe. We manage to muster up the energy to go see at least one site, before we go to bed and get that long awaited rest.
Usually when we are in Paris, we see the Eifel Tower that first day. Night time is the perfect time to go, because the Eifel Tower sparkles!
On our last trip though, we went to Sacre-Coeur Basilica instead, and watched the sunset from there. It was so worth it, despite how sleepy we were!
Ready to see Europe on Day 2
On day two, we are ready to take it all on. The photo below is from last summer, after we checked out of the Paris hostel refreshed and ready to catch our train to Germany. Everyone had recovered overnight and was ready to embrace our itinerary, which that day meant catching a train to Germany (so we are back on the move with all of our luggage)! I have accepted that European vacation officially starts for us on Day Two.
Considerations for that inevitable first day...
I have started to pay extra attention to arrival times when booking travel. Whether it be a plane, train, or bus, I try to time the arrival as close to check-in time as possible. It took a lot of trips for me to think this way, as I am very budget-oriented and cost is the most influential factor. I would pick the cheapest flight that was reasonably direct and I would figure out the rest later, after the tickets were booked.
I still look for the best deal, but within those deals, I now also look at the arrival times and do my best to line them up as well as I can with check-in times. I would be willing to pay a few extra bucks for a better (later in the day) arrival time, or even consider a layover so we arrive later in the day. I also make it a habit to see if we can add a day earlier to an accommodation for minimal cost (which has never been the case at a hotel, but can be possible for an apartment rental). But alas, even with these efforts it doesn’t always line up, so I plan for a rough first day in Europe. By not planning anything important the first day, I don’t have the added stress of feeling like we need to be doing all kinds of things when no one has the energy.
One other thing I have learned is that the first night is not the night to be splurging on accommodations. We just need beds and a shower. We are generally too tired to appreciate any luxuries. And if there is one night we can appreciate a disappointing place, it is the first night. We are too tired to care about the details.
