Welcome back, dear readers. June has passed in a blurry of going on holiday and wrapping up work for the long summer break – which I am so ready for. The past weeks have been so hot, up to 36 degree Celsius, and I’m not working well under heat. So when the rain came a few days ago, I sighed with relief, finally coming to life again, like a wilted flower being kissed by droplets of rain.

In my previous post on my survival tips for going on holiday with children, I promised to give a short update of how it went, so I want to use this short blog post to just so. Our time in Greece was simply wonderful. The kids did so great. Lily was on the airplane as if this was her 47th flight and not her first, Finn slept mostly through the plane ride, and albeit it being a long journey, we arrived in Greece in good spirits. The only damper was a problem with the rental car, but that, too, was quickly resolved (though I had the rare privilege to see Jakob really angry for once, that was interesting). My survival tips really paid off, except that the kids didn’t really need the earplugs, but it was better to have them and not need them, than the other way around (and I really needed mine, my ears are terrible at flying).

We had a few sun-kissed days and settled into a holiday groove very easily and quickly. We arrived on Wednesday, and by Saturday, the kids slept in until nine o’clock. We stayed at the Vincci Ever Eden resort (no ad, just info), and enjoyed it immensely. The areal is completely fenced, so you don’t have to worry about the kids so much, and it was so large, we could take walks inside the resort. Our family suite had everything we needed and the view was just breath-taking. In addition to a private beach, they also had two pools, perfect for our Lily.

Lily is a mermaid at heart. We bought her a fishtail for the journey and she loved it. She was more inside the water than outside. The complete opposite to Finn. Finn cherishes tractors and soil, not water. When put into water, he clings to you like a baby koala, but he loves the sand and digging in it, so he was content too.

I think the most important thing to do with kids on holidays is to do everything at half-speed – which you should do anyway when on vacation, right? Relax, take it easy. Find the new rhythm. For instance, the hotel evening buffet opened ridiculously late for Austrian standards – at 7pm. All the German and Austrian families were waiting in front of the glass door, sharp at 7pm, eager to get their kids fed. While half an hour would have been a tad easier with our kids (who usually have dinner at 5:30pm), we just rolled with it and enjoyed the lovely sea views from the terrace.

The only “regret”, so to speak, we had was going to Athens. First of all, Athens is really ugly, I didn’t like the vibe at all. It was so narrow and dirty and chaotic. Driving in with the rental was nerve-wrecking and I still applaud Jakob for doing it. The streets were so uneven, it was hard with the pram and the “brunch” started at 2:30pm, by which time we were positively starving. In general, going into cities with kids who cannot properly walk by themselves over longer stretches is not very recommendable in my opinion. We felt we could have easily skipped that day in favour of another beach day – and I would say lesson learnt, but with children it’s so hard because next year they will be a whole year older, and everything will be different, but there are always lessons to learn.