Children's Corner
Innocents Abroad
Family togetherness takes on a new meaning when you take the kids to Europe.
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BEFORE YOU GO
Include your child in the background reading. Leila Hadley recommends Miroslav Sasek's travel series for children. (This is Paris, London, Rome, etc.) Even preschoolers can look at pictures in Time-Life books, and older children will enjoy cataloging free travel information, especially if the mail is addressed to them. My own visit to the library turned up additional books. Let's Travel in (Italy, Germany, etc.), a series from Children's Press, Inc., in Chicago has full-page color photographs, phrase-book in the back, and a brief sketch of famous names in the country's history.
Get Ready, Get Set! Go!, a Young Traveler's Guide to Europe, by Stan Raiff, (Donbleday and Co., Inc.) might flatter an eleven-year-old traveler. The book not only suggests sights to see, but tells where the best cookies and trinkets are to be found. Money exchange is explained in terms of things a child might want to buy. The phrasebook portion is also especially geared to a child's needs.
HOW TO GET THERE
If you're on a budget, try to find a charter flight. One good one in Dallas is offered by Channel 13, the public television station. For $335.95, members (participants must be members for at least six months prior to departure) can fly roundtrip to London on Pan American. Even though regular commercial flights offer half-fare rates to children under twelve, this charter flight is still more economical. Various colleges and professional groups offer group rates that are equally attractive.
For the lengthy flight, each child should have his or her own flight bag full of favorite things, toys, coloring books, pens, paper, and books. My sons would never get past the metal detector at the airport with their hammers and screwdrivers.
There's no economy in it, but if you have the time and the money, take the boat. It's a more relaxing way to travel with children. Boats are well equipped with movies, games, swimming pools and nurseries. One couple traveling with children ages three and six had feared the lengthy and many-coursed meals which are ordinarily part of the pleasure of the H.M.S. Queen Elizabeth II. They came to the table equipped with coloring books and crayons. To their pleasant surprise, the waiters kept the children thoroughly entertained throughout the meal and even provided the extra service of cutting their meat.
Another parent suggests that you check the cost of taking your own car with you on the boat (economy models only, of course) against the rental fees in Europe.
WHEN YOU ARRIVE
All of the parents I talked with agreed that car travel was ideal for children. Trying to meet taxi, train, and air schedules with children and suitcases can disaffect the most affectionate of families.
WHERE TO STAY
If you're traveling on a tight budget, consider camping if weather permits. If you're ill-equipped for that, Arthur Frommer's latest edition of Europe on $5 and $10 a Day may be helpful. Even if you don't intend to camp, check the sporting goods store for a small collapsible cot that fits in a suitcase. It may prove useful for sleeping little people in your hotel room.
Most parents agreed that the charming accommodations listed in Fielding's Guide to Traveling with Children in Europe were rather expensive. One exception worth noting in the section on England is the National Trust, which has holiday cottages for rent in Cornwall costing about $30-$55 per week. Rereading the Arthurian legends and exploring the rugged cliffs, hidden bays and quaint fishing villages might be a pleasant respite from the hectic sight-seeing of the capitals.
With all accommodations, be sure that children are allowed. More than one parent had horror stories to tell of being turned away at 10:30 at night or being charged an additional three pounds for the night.
EATING
Eating only one meal out a day is apparently the key to survival here. Breakfast can be eaten in your room. Continental breakfast is seldom adequate for American children, so locate a delicatessen, fruit stand or bakery for a mid-morning snack. The midday meal can be the big splurge. European restaurants never heard of booster chairs or high chairs. Pack aprons for everyone who needs one to wear at meal time or you'll spend your vacation in strange laundromats. European dinner meals are not served at six o'clock, so either provide plenty of tea time snacks or plan a light meal in your room. Most parents admitted exhaustion by dinnertime anyway.
BABYSITTERS
The parents who traveled with more than one child under seven years of age recommended taking a babysitter. Even with a one to one adult-child ratio, they admitted to feeling outnumbered. Fielding's guide is full of suggestions, including the hiring of an au pair girl when you arrive who can serve as interpreter and tour guide as well.
Many parents felt that the Fielding guide was a little deceptive in suggesting that babysitters are readily available in all European cities. One couple traveling with two children last fall did not find it so. In Germany they learned that most parents do not leave their children with sitters at night. Children are put to bed and left alone. A neighbor may be alerted for emergencies. In desperation, this couple finally consented to leaving their children in the room with the phone off the hook so that the desk clerk could hear in the room. Even bell hops served as sitters occasionally.
SEEING THE SIGHTS
Chapter 11, "Museums Can Be Fun," in the Fielding guide is a must for any parent whose children are old enough to benefit from the great museums of Europe. Parents who followed her suggestions and played some of the games with their children over six were amazed at the amount of art history small heads can absorb. (You might practice the games in your local museums before you go.) "Oh no, not another skull," is to be expected at the Prado and "Ooooh, St. Sebastian, how gross!" is standard at the Vatican, but you may also, as Leila Hadley's guide suggests, come away with "That Albrecht Dürer sure can draw!"
Outdoor sights in most of the larger cities can be seen from horse-drawn buggies, a relaxed way to see a lot without tiring small feet.
LANGUAGE REQUIRED
Since pleasurable traveling with children often necessitates traveling far from the English-speaking urban areas, some knowledge of the language is essential. Most guidebooks provide the necessary emergency phrases, but you and your children will feel more secure if someone understands the responses.
None of the parents interviewed said that traveling with children was easy. There were some rewards, however, in the concentrated period of togetherness —in-family jokes, seeing Daddy cry in Italian traffic, and the feeling that "we survived it all." I might even be tempted to take my innocents abroad . . . in a few years . . . if they shape up.
FROM THE CHILDREN:
"What did you like most and least about your trip to Europe with the family?"
6-year-olds
"I liked the ice cream in France and Italy." Least? "I hated my Italian cousin who bites."
"I got to taste real wine in a vineyard in France. I hated the walk, walk, walk in Rome—that's all we ever did."
7-year-olds
"I loved the dogs everywhere in Paris. We even saw dogs in the restaurants." Least? "Throwing up on the plane at night."
"I loved the food in Sweden and the forest. It was hot, though, and my mother made me run around in the back yard in my panties."
10-13-year-olds
"I liked the pastries everywhere and the neat little restaurants that looked so crummy, but had such great food. Hated the museums—we saw too many."
"I got served a drink in one of the pubs in England ... got ushered out of another one."
"I liked sleeping three in a bed. We'd never do that at home."
"The best part was that my brother played Hearts with me in the hotel room. He doesn't even speak to me at home.
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