We are back from our journey to Italy and France.
I survived my first trip with both kids, but I owe a huge thanks to Kaitlin for all of her help!
We had such a fun trip and saw a bit of bike racing between adventures.
I was up late Friday night getting us ready to go.
Eston was up early Saturday morning because he knew we were leaving.
He helped me carry everything downstairs and then he waited at our door for Kaitlin's car.
He was soooo excited and kept telling Aurelia, "We are going to see Daddy today!"
It took us a few minutes, but we finally fit both car seats, all of our luggage, snacks for the ride, Aurelia's travel crib...even Eston's bike!
We were definitely filled to the brim, to say the least.
We were on the road by 7:30am for our 6-ish hour drive to Bardonecchia, Italy.
I was thrilled to finally get out of Spain!
This is the longest I have ever gone without traveling, so it was great to be out of Girona.
The kids did amazingly well in the car.
I brought the DVD player with us, but we never used it on the drive to Italy.
Eston read, told us stories, daydreamed, looked out the window, and just amused himself.
Aurelia slept, ate, stared at Eston as he made up stories, and only cried when she needed a diaper change.
What great travelers I have!
The weather was horrible.
It was difficult to see in some places, so we had to take it slow and safe.
It basically rained for 5 hours straight.
Yuck.
The drive was quite beautiful when you could actually see the scenery.
I snapped this photo as we drove through Grenoble, France.
The sun came out briefly as we neared the Italian border.
We had about 30 minutes left in our drive and I made the mistake of commenting on how smoothly everything had been going.
Bad mistake.
Within minutes Eston was puking.
Kaitlin pulled the car over and we were near some sort of power plant that has heavy security, which we did not realize.
Within seconds the French police were behind us.
Whoops.
They took one look at me standing next to a puking Eston and went on their way (they did give me sort of a smile/pitiful look).
He changed his clothes and we cleaned everything up and all was fine.
Within a few minutes we were at the Italian border and apparently the police had told them about our situation, as we were waved through while other cars were stopped.
We got another glance of sympathy on our way through, but I was just pleased to not have to stop.
Always nice when people are understanding of certain situations!
We reached the small alpine village of Bardonecchia and had hoped to drive straight to the hotel before the race finish.
Unfortunately, the Italian police shut the road down earlier than stated in the race book and we were stuck on the outskirts of town in the freezing cold and rain.
Not good.
We tried talking our way in, but they were not having it.
Eventually we decided to walk the short distance into town.
Eston got on his bike with his winter jacket and backpack.
Aurelia was in the baby carrier and I dragged our suitcase.
And Kaitlin was carrying everything else, poor thing.
We made it to our hotel and put on as many layers as possible, as it was freezing.
We then ran out the door and down the street to watch the race go by.
Thankfully the race course was about 50 meters from our hotel, so it was not far.
The guys had been racing in the rain for the better part of six hours, so nobody looked happy.
We did see Rory and yelled his name as he went past.
Eston was thrilled to spot his dad!
We watched the rest of the race from the comfort of the hotel.
The race finished up the hill that leads to the ski area in Bardonecchia and it was snowing when the riders reached the top, so I was glad we decided against going to the finish!
We all took warm showers and relaxed in our room, which was a small 1-bedroom vacation rental.
We then walked down the street to the hotel where Rory and Koen (Kaitlin's boyfriend) were staying.
Teams are usually spread out at many different hotels (lots of people!) but thankfully the guys were at the same hotel on Saturday night.
Rory was exhausted, but we got to spend a few minutes with him before he had to go have his massage and dinner.
His team has a chef that travels with them and makes all of their (amazing) meals!
The other teams eat at the hotel restaurant in a space designated for each team.
The food is okay, but obviously not as fantastic as what Rory gets to eat.
We were going to have dinner in town, but it was getting late and Eston was tired and starving.
Koen managed to get us a couple of spots at his team table for dinner before the riders arrived, thank goodness! Eston ate two bowls of risotto and then we walked back to the hotel.
Kaitlin went to get the car and parked it at the hotel and we all fell asleep quite quickly!
Quite happy to be reunited, even if it was for about 10 minutes!
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