Today, my girlfriend Tammy met us at a the Meierei Diglas Cafe within the beautiful, historical Türkenschanzpark. There, we enjoyed amazing Viennese coffee with breads, scrambled eggs, sliced avocados and smoked salmon on bagels while viewing the amazing botanical gardens, pathways and ponds all around us.
Me and my first friend in Vienna
My kids thoroughly enjoyed wondering off and throwing around their football as my friend and I caught up and chatted over coffee. Afterwards, we met up with another family and walked down to the central gated playground of the park to let the kids run around and play while we sat at a picnic table and watched them. There were so many things for kids of every age to do. Kids from ages 2 to 13 ran around the park equally enjoying all it had to offer. It was also very clean and well-kept, which is all you can expect from a Viennese park and surrounding gardens.
Türkenschanzpark has an amazing history, and while it is about outside of the city center of Vienna, it is well worth venturing out to in order to enjoy its serene surroundings and space to roam.
Kids on the bus
Once we left our friends at the park, we traveled by public transportation and train to visit my in-laws in Mödling. If you don’t know the history of this city, look it up. It’s a fascinating and very old city with a lot of history! But then again, what cities aren’t fascinating in Europe?! My husband is from this town, and it just so happens to be where we got married on June 19, 2004.
We spent a couple hours there with the grandparents playing in the garden before we headed back to Vienna to visit a friend for dinner at her apartment in the 20th district off of Jägerstraße. And from there, we went home to our apartment and called it a night as we were all pooped!
We didn’t do many touristy things today, but it was a fun day because we spent it with friends and family catching up and making memories.
Tomorrow, we will visit our former church, Grace Church, an international non-denominational church in Vienna, then go for a nice lunch at a local Heuriger and then visit my friend Claudia for dinner in the artist’s district of Neubau where I lived for the first year I was living in Vienna.
This past week, my kids and I embarked on a journey of a lifetime and flew to Europe. I’ve been wanting to travel internationally with them for years, but our financial situation was prohibitive, our time was limited and to be honest, they weren’t at an age before where they would have been much fun to be around. I really wanted to get past the stage of diapers, bottles and potty training before we made this trek again. And now…we’re past it!
Why was this so important to me?
You see, I studied abroad and traveled quite a bit when I was in my twenties, and subsequently, I met and married a wonderful man from Vienna, Austria where I lived, studied and worked for almost 4 years. As soon as he and I married, however, we decided to move back to the U.S. and settle down in Austin, TX. Don’t ask me why we did this. At the time, it seemed like better opportunities awaited and we were both antsy for a change. Although we never anticipated it being a permanent move for us, as we still loved the place where we met and my husband grew up, we have grown to call Austin, TX our home for the past 15 years. And yet…our heart beckons for travel and adventure and desperately longs to be back in Austria and reconnect with our roots. And here we finally are!
I’d venture to say that once you travel abroad, you never lose the bug. Am I right? I think it stays with you forever, and there’s a part of you that always longs for those places where you discovered who you were and realized that the world around you was so vast and so different than the place you came from. In German, the word Fernweh has an even stronger meaning than Wanderlust. While someone with Wanderlust might think of a place they once traveled fondly and fantasize about going back, Fernweh is a deep sort of longing that won’t let up. It’s less about fantasizing and more about homesickness for another place.
That’s how I feel about Europe. I feel homesick for it. Especially Austria. The sights, the smells, the language, the food…all add up to an experience you can’t even put into words. It’s a part of me, like a limb, calling me back home. While I am a U.S. citizen and grew up in the Midwest doing everything people do there, I have a different kind of citizenship with Austria. In a way, I felt more at home the first time I went there than I ever felt in my hometown. It was as if I finally found where I belonged. And it felt good!
It’s also a huge part of my children’s heritage that they should know about and understand completely. Since my husband is Austrian, my children are half-Austrian. It’s important that they know who they are and where they’re partially from. It’s important that they understand how they might also identify more in some areas with that side of their family and less in others. And I take great responsibility when it comes to showing them who their ancestors are and what this culture is all about — even if they were born in and live in a completely different culture.
So, there ya have it! We are embracing this Austrian culture over the next 5 weeks, and while there will be challenges in doing so, I could not be happier to be here with my 3 children.
Is there somewhere you’d just love to go back to? I’d love to hear about it.
I’m looking forward to sharing our adventures with you one amazing bite and drink and sight and smell at a time, and encouraging YOU to do the same with your children. You won’t regret it!
When traveling abroad with children, there are some things to consider and plan for.
Plan ahead. Get as familiarized with where you will be traveling as soon as possible and set your itinerary ahead of time.
What to look for in accommodations. When booking accommodations, make sure your lodging has a kitchen and a washing machine on the site. This is a must for families! Your wallet will thank you!
Passports. Getting children’s passports is a relatively easy process if you’re planning in advance. If you have less than 8 weeks before travel time, expediting your passports may be necessary.
Kid Friendly Cities. There are many kid-friendly European cities to go to. Look ahead at maps and online guides to cities in order to find out where you can go.
Restaurants. While many European restaurants do not have children’s menus, they are becoming more and more popular. When in doubt, ask the wait staff what they would recommend for children.
Flight connections. Make sure you book flights with fewer than 5 hour layovers and no less than 2 hours. You don’t want to wait too long in between flights, but you also don’t want to be rushing to the next gate with young children — especially if you have to go through customs.
Baggage allowance. Check ahead for baggage restrictions and fees pertaining to checked luggage and carry on luggage. THIS IS HUGE!
Walking shoes. Make sure you have packed REAL walking shoes for your trip for each member of your family. In most U.S. countries, our walking is limited and therefore, we don’t wear shoes that adequately support our feet. In Europe and other countries around the world, however, comfortable shoes are a MUST.
Grocery shopping. When we travel, I always try and find the discount grocery stores to buy our food. In Austria and Germany, stores like Aldi, Hofer and Lidl offer the best prices and help to stretch your budget.
Planning for rest. If you are trying to pack a lot in a few days with young children, everyone will be tired and cranky. If possible, build in rest days or parts of the day where you have no agenda and can take it easy and do something low key.
Traveling with children is a fun adventure with many rewards for all involved. Even though it’s a little trickier than traveling as an adult, the challenges of traveling with children can be averted with some careful planning, and of course, flexibility.
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