Madrid, Spain

When planning what to do for spring break all we knew was we wanted to leave the country. Blake and I have visited 28 countries together so far, and we wanted to make it 30. The main reason was for Blake to have visited 30 countries before his 30th birthday at the end of the summer. But the real reason is because we love getting out of our element, seeing new things, and experiencing new cultures. When we travel as a family we are together 24/7; talking, learning, problem solving and meeting new people. It is a wonderful experience for both of us and we could not imagine not taking LC with us. 

We decided where to go by looking at google flights for a good price to anywhere. Madrid, Spain was the winner, but it was a little too expensive to stay there for 9 days. That's when we discovered Morocco just below Spain in north Africa and decided to spend most our time there. But before leaving Spain we went out to explore Madrid for a day.
Out of all the foreign cities we have visited Madrid was the one we have felt the most at home in. Blake and I kept talking about how much we loved it. Out of the cities we have visited in Europe we could see ourselves living there. From what we hear it has an amazing metro system, but we decided to skip the metro and taxis and walked everywhere. 

^^Better than standing in a long line to rent on paddle boats was letting this girl feed all her goldfish to the ducks. 

Buen Retiro park had a lot of street performers and people dressed up like Micky Mouse or other cartoons characters. LC was over the moon excited to see them... so we bought a ballon animal from a sketchy Micky. She loved playing with it for a few minutes before it popped. To help her get over the loss we spent some time at the play ground. 

We were not too ambitious when deciding what to do in Madrid. We only planned on going to the parquet del Buen Retiro and grabbing some food at the mercado San Miguel. However, all the main sights of Madrid turned out to be close together. In the end we stumbled upon the Royal place, Plaza Mayor, and a few pretty cool looking squares I don't know the names of.  

^^ Blake, "lets take a picture with the Paella"...

^^ LC, "no mommy only me"

Lets talk about jet lag. We thought we would try a red eye flight again (which did not work too well LC's first trip to Europe, read more back here). We thought LC would sleep the whole 7+ hours and would arrive in Spain ready to go. We decided to take away all screen time a week before our trip in order for to iPad to be used as a proper bribing tool. This turned into LC being so excited to have her own TV on the flight that she would not go to sleep. Even when I turned hers off she would sit and stare the other movies being watched around the plane. We thought this would turn our short time in Madrid into a nightmare. Even with little sleep she was a good little traveler. You can see in a few of our pictures when she was having a break down, but churros and chocolate seemed to turn all our frowns upside down.

Then we were off on our prop plan to Morocco. 

London, England

We ended our trip back in London. By this time we were experts at our travel routine, but oh so tired. That did not stop us from getting out and seeing some of the sights. But the cold and the fact that everything seemed to cost much more in London, we found ourselves spending a lot of time finding refuge in cafes. As we found comfort in a warm cup of hot chocolate, we got to reflect on this wonderful trip, our time in college, and the new life we would start when we got home.

Our last day there we headed home early to order pizza and watch a movie. We needed time to relax and recharge before the long flight home. Thank goodness the flight home was the exact opposite from our flight there. Lizzy was an angle and slept almost the entire time. 

We headed back to the states with little to no regrets but after a month of traveling we were happy to be home.

Paris, France

Our time in France was much more pleasant then we had expected. I don't know why people say the french are rude and expect you to speak perfect french when you visit. We did not get that vibe at all. I mean the subways were disgusting, and some of the alleyways smelled like pee, but all that can be forgotten once you get a crepe in your hand. I know many people are Nutella fanatics fans, but I am not one of those people. So my favorite crepe was sugar and fresh lemon juice. You should give it a try.

We could see the Notre Dame from our hostel, so we started our day off there.

While we were in Paris we decided to walk a lot more than ride the subway. I love seeing a city while walking through the streets. A few things that were different about Paris were the sidewalk vendors. I know a lot of cities have street vendors, but in Paris they are all uniformed and it was like walking through a flea market as we made our way around the city. I also loved the Paris roof tops, I feel like they are so distinct from other cities.

After we got to the Louvre and saw the line to get in, we almost changed our minds about going inside. However, because we had Lizzy we got pushed to the front without waiting. Then she took a nap while we enjoyed the museum. Everyone knows the Mona Lisa is on display there, but what is more impressive about it is the amount of people that go to see the painting. As for Blake and I, our favorite parts were learning about the history of the building, and seeing the remains of the old medieval castle. Plus the newer parts, like Napoleons apartments. Then it is always fun coming across paintings we have studied, and others you wonder why we have not studied. 

After the the Louvre we ate our way down avenue des Champs-Elysées to the Arc de Triomphe.

Then finally to the Eiffel Tower. We chose this as our last stop because we wanted to see the tower in the day and after sunset. While we waited for the sun to set we found things to occupy our time, like go on Lizzy's first carousel. Oh, and watching all the wine venders trying to sell even more alcohol to drunk tourists. It still was a stretch to stay for the light show, Lizzy was getting grumpy, but once the tower lit up she was mesmerized. I barely watched the show myself, because I could not seem to stop watching Lizzy watch the show. Even something like the Eiffel Tower is nothing compared your child's eyes light up. 

We loved our time in Paris, our only regret is not walking by the Moulin Rouge.