When we left Barcelona in 2022, many of our travel plans for living in Europe were unfulfilled thanks to COVID. Although it was time to get back to the US, we committed that we’d try to get back to visit every two years. Well, it’s the summer of 2024, and time to make good on those promises.
Amber spent a long time crafting a wonderful itinerary, purchasing tickets, worrying away over calendars and websites, hotel and hostel lists, messaging friends. From our time in Barcelona we knew that we didn’t really want to travel much in that part of Spain during the later summer – July is already a bit too hot for our taste, and August is downright oppressive – so a hasty retreat in June was in order.
The day after school ended for the kids, we loaded our bags in the van, took the dog we’d been sitting home (Chewie’s owner would be returning that afternoon, narrowly missing us at the airport). We left the car parked there and took a nice quiet Lyft to the airport.
Obligatory shoe picture at PDX
Portland is sadly not a hub to much of anywhere international, so we connected via Seattle with a bit of time to wait between. The longer leg to Europe began late in the afternoon, which meant that we insisted the kids try to sleep at least part of the flight over since we’d be arriving during the afternoon and needing to stay up quite a few hour to start fighting the jetlag.
View from the plane on the way to Dublin
First stop (the cheapest place for us to arrive in Europe and a new destination for the family) Dublin, Ireland!