Bound for Europe

By Heather Camlot

MONUMENT TO THE BATTLE OF THE NATIONS © SGM, PHOTO PETER FRANKE

Four agendas, three countries, two teens and one trip of a lifetime

My husband and I had our own reasons for traveling to Germany. I was doing research for a new novel and he wanted to show our teenagers where his parents were born and raised. Both agendas left the kids rolling their eyes, so we sweetened the deal—pick what you want to do and we’ll do it.

Planning a trip with teens isn’t exactly easy, but giving our teenage son and daughter the opportunity to add to the itinerary before and during our time abroad gave them destinations to look forward to and made our necessary stops more bearable and, dare I say, more fun.

GAME PLAN IN GERMANY

We began our trip in Berlin, hitting all the highlights you’d expect, from the Reichstag parliament building (book ahead), Brandenburg Gate and scenic boulevard Unter den Linden to the Berlin Wall Memorial, Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and Museum Island. Berlin was where the parental agendas met, me needing to visit the Olympiastadion, home of the 1936 Olympics, among others, and my husband wanting to take us to his mother’s one-time home and neighborhood.

MONUMENT OF THE BERLIN WALL

The teens wanted to visit the Berlin Zoo, founded in 1844 and housing 1,200 species – more than any zoo in the world. I have to thank them. At the zoo I learned about the aquarium’s bombing during the Second World War and included the story of staff eating the dead crocodiles in their soup in my novel. Other teen highlights included the interactive DDR Museum, which explains the life in East Germany their grandfather lived, the Rausch store, billed as the world’s largest chocolate house, the colorful ChocoWorld Ritter Sport flagship store and the Mauerpark Sunday flea market packed with second-hand clothes, vintage goods and street food. My daughter also scooped up some spaghettieis, Germany’s famous ice cream made to look like a plate of spaghetti.

OLD TOWN HALL © SGM, PHOTO MARKUS SCHOLZ

Next, we were off to Leipzig, where my father-in-law was raised. The Monument to the Battle of the Nations is a must. The grandiose stone temple, the largest war memorial in Europe, commemorates Napoleon’s defeat in 1813. The interior is ringed with giant stone statues of warriors and death masks, massive sculptures symbolizing German virtues and hundreds of life-size cavalry statues on the inside face of the dome. Some 500 narrow steps took us to the observation platform for a panoramic view of the city.

The Renaissance-style Old Town Hall, now the Museum of City History, at the grand Market Square was also a plus for the teens, especially when they learned that their grandfather accidentally got locked inside as a teenager and had to climb out through an upper-story window and scale the building to get home.

My son’s pre-trip pick was to see his favorite soccer team, Borussia Dortmund. Even though the games at the largest soccer stadium in Germany are consistently sold out, we were able to book a package that included a hotel stay, tickets to the home opener, food vouchers (pretzels as big as your face!), BVB scarves, gift cards for shopping on-site, a stadium tour and, little did we know until we arrived, a meet and greet with former goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller – my son’s soccer idol. Dortmund is also home to the German Football Museum. Its motto, “One Ball – 1,000 Stories,” is spot on. It’s a must for soccer lovers.

ALL’S FAIR IN FRANCE

CREMIEUX STREET (RUE CREMIEUX), PARIS, FRANCE

With my son fulfilling his soccer dream, it was only fair that my daughter got hers, too. Paris wasn’t part of our original plan, but a dip south while driving across Belgium to meet family was doable—a one-hour high-speed train ride from the charming French border city of Lille. With only 24 hours in the City of Light, we had to be tactical. From our hotel in the Marais district, we set off the first morning to the city’s oldest square, Place des Vosges, a beautiful park enclosed by red-brick buildings and funky art galleries both teens enjoyed.

DELICIOUS FRENCH CRÊPES

With croissants in hand, we headed to my daughter’s first pick - the picture-perfect pastel rowhouses of Rue Crémieux. We then zigged and zagged along the Seine, taking in top attractions like Notre Dame, a ride on the Ferris wheel at the Jardin des Tuileries, Champs-Élysées and Arc de Triomphe. The walk allowed us plenty of time for aimless wandering, dining (with crêpes, baguettes and cheese never far away) and shopping, from the famed Shakespeare and Company bookstore to the market stalls along the Seine to the European clothing brands my daughter had researched. We capped the day with our pre-booked late-night visit to the Eiffel Tower to view the city lit up. After a morning meandering the cobblestone streets of Montmartre, we headed to Belgium.

PLACE DES VOSGES, PARIS

BEACH DAYS IN BELGIUM

DE PANNE BEACH, NEAR KOKSIJDE, BELGIUM

When traveling with teenagers, downtime is essential. Staying in the town of Koksijde on the North Sea gave us the opportunity to do just that. Half our stay we hit the beach, walked the dunes, visited with family, played mini-putt, and ate too many warm waffles from Koksijde’s weekly market. The other half we day-tripped. Destroyed during the First World War, the buildings of Ypres were faithfully rebuilt in their original medieval and Renaissance style. The charming town is now an emblem of lives lost, from In Flanders Fields Museum, to memorials, cemeteries and Last Post bugle ceremony at the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing held nightly. In medieval Bruges, we took a boat trip through the canals and wandered the narrow, winding cobbled lanes around the historic Grote Markt, lined with shops, restaurants and gabled guild houses. When in Ghent, Gravensteen Castle is tops. The audio guide is perfect for teens, featuring dry, potty humor that balances the fortress’s horrific history of torture, executions and battles.

Belgium is known as the comic strip capital of the world, the birthplace of Tintin, the Smurfs, Lucky Luke and Asterix to name a very few, and Brussels is home to the Comics Art Museum. After our visit, we purchased a guidebook to follow the comic strip route, a great way to take in the city by foot while searching for comic murals. A visit to the Belgian capital isn’t complete without an evening at the Grand-Place, considered the most beautiful square in Europe with its decorative guild houses and buildings, the über-popular Manneken-Pis, a two-foot statue of a boy peeing, along with a stroll through the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert with its myriad chocolate shops. Because, when in Belgium, the first rule in dining is chocolate and waffles.

Although work and family history were our primary reasons for traveling to Europe, giving our teenagers a say in the day-to-day planning and ensuring there was enough wandering and downtime meant we all came home happy—and longing to do it again.