In February, the schools here had a full week off for pre-lenten break, or ski week as it's more commonly known. This month, the kids had 2 full weeks off for spring break. Yes, that's right, 2 full weeks. It began with a half day off before the 2 weeks off so the teachers could get the heck out of Dodge, I guess. Either way, spring break.
I had seen a flyer and heard the SHAPE Trips and Tours manager speak about the spring break trip that was going to happen way back in December, I believe. A trip to the Catalan coast of Spain, 8 days there total, 2 days of travel for a cost that we couldn't pass up, so I booked it right after the new year. We would go, along with our friends that also have a son about our sons' age.
Finally, after months of waiting, the day came. On April 5th, we headed out on a big 'ol double decker touring bus for 15 hours. We left in the evening and did a few stops along the way for the drivers, smokers and for dinner. That was the thing all of us adults were dreading, 15 hours on the bus with the young kids. Ugh.
It ended up being not too bad, actually. After a mini-melt down at the dinner stop (pre-packaged sandwiches and a coffee vending machine), we got back on the bus, watched a movie on the greatest kid entertaining invention ever, the iPad, slipped half a melatonin in some late night pudding and off to sleep. The son slept, my husband and I took turns with the little sweat machine all night and nodded off for a few hours each.
We stepped off the bus at about 1300 in Lloret de Mar , Spain, to rooms that were ready for us to dump our gear, grab some lunch and go exploring. Our "resort" was nothing fancy, and has officially turned my husband off to "all inclusive" offers of anything more than including the breakfast, but it really wasn't bad. We did save some money, having pre-paid in January for our dinners, and we ate there most nights because it was easier for us with our son.
The first day we walked down to the beach and checked out the Mediterranean Sea and found out that these beaches have sand the way most Atlantic Coast beaches have sand, glorified gravel. Not comfy on the bare feet, but heck, we were at the Mediterranean Sea! The little boys got to run in and out of the surf, climb rocks and finally talk in outside voices. The adults and kids got to walk the staircase up to the statue dedicated to sailors' wives. After the beautiful views from there, we hiked the coastline a little more until we found a lovely little place for gelatto and sangria. What a great first day!
Another day we had a planned excursion to Marineland that was just down the road from Lloret de Mar. The park was barely open, and most of the extra people working there were slightly irritable. The animal trainers were happy to have us there to practice their shows, birds, sea lions and dolphins, and the kids loved it. This being our first big vacation with our son, him being happy made us happy, so that was all that counted. The water park side was still closed and it was way too cold to have enjoyed that anyway. Our tour group had the place to ourselves, and the guides from SHAPE Trips and Tours listened to our pleas to shorten our day there so we could go back to the hotel and to more exploring from there.
The next free day that we had, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and hiked way up the coast to see what we could see. Even with sunscreen, we got a bit pink, but nothing horrible. All three of us got some exercise and we treated ourselves to more gelatto.
Spring Break blog will be continued soon.....
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