When Matt and I were deciding whether or not to move to Germany, one of the biggest ‘pros’ was the travel we’d get to do. So when we found out the kids had a full week off for Fall Break, we immediately started brainstorming where to go that would get the kids excited about the move and keep our minds off of all the fun fall things we’d be missing at home. Matt and I have both always wanted to go to Greece, and Rowan is completely obsessed with all things mythology – so before we even had our flights to move to Frankfurt, we had four round-trip tickets to Greece for Fall Break. I probably don’t need to say that we had an awesome time. But here are some of the highlights:

• Rowan ‘sacrificing’ his lost molar at the Temple of Apollo (with apologies to the tooth fairy that we’d be keeping his tooth for the sacrifice)
• Just prior to that, we were ‘buzzed’ by two fighter jets out for exercises, flying low, doing rolls and (we think) giving Apollo a good-morning high-five
• Rowan taking over 1000 pictures with the camera he got for his birthday – 450 of the Acropolis and Parthenon alone. I love seeing what he saw through the eyes of his camera – it’s easy to see how much he loved all of the ancient sites and stories

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• Making the best of a bad situation when our ferry to the one Greek island we were planning to go to broke down. After a three-hour wait in the beating sun with nowhere to go, we gave up, drove two hours back to the port town we’d just left, found a hotel with a swimming pool and a hot tub, and lived it up for the last two nights of vacation
• Cara being an awesome sport – zero interest in ancient ruins, 110% interest in nightly gelato runs and sunset walks
• Racing each other on the Olympic track – kids vs. adults, kids winning hands down each time
• Greek culture – flying Aegean Air, shopping Greek grocery stores, pretending we could read some Greek because of fraternities and math classes, driving around Greece and learning the (limited) rules of the road (which include using the middle dividing line as a passing lane – both directions)
• The mountains – I thought Greece would full of whitewashed houses and blue Mediterranean waters – but our route was mountain after mountain of olive groves, sheep pastures, hillside villages, and rocky desert
• Matt and I both had pick-pocketing near-misses:
  • Me, while taking pictures of the Roman Forum (a tourist-looking couple taking pictures ‘bumped’ into me and when I looked down, my purse was halfway unzipped – there was shouting)
  • Matt, while we were jostling aboard a crowded subway – a team of three men surrounded him and one of them had his hand in Matt’s pocket while telling Matt that he didn’t – there was shouting. And while they didn’t get anything off of Matt, they did hit a lady at the subway exit and got away with her purse – there was shouting)
• Watching a small cadre of young soldiers raise the Greek flag over the Parthenon at sunrise while singing the national anthem as loudly as they could
• The food – my god, the food – I never knew Greek salads had zero lettuce, 5 whole tomatoes cut in quarters, and a brick of feta cheese. And I never knew I could eat 5 gyros in 9 days

We had a great time – I know it sounds silly/whiny because we have loved our time in Germany, but moving is a lot of work and it was a great feeling just to be together, not doing anything move-related! It was also such an interesting feeling to fly back ‘home’ to Frankfurt – made it feel like we really were ‘home’ when we got back.

And it’s almost a good thing we missed out on the Greek islands on this go-around – gives us a good excuse to plan a second trip!