There aren't a ton of things to see in Nimes. The amazing historical sights can be visited over a 3 day trip, but the city can grow on you. There are a lot of other little things people do here to keep themselves occupied, and that is what we have in mind for the rest of the week.
Read MoreSince for the next few days, our plan is to just stay near home, relax, and catch up on blog posts, most of the daily stories covering these days will be brief. We have taken the opportunity to launch a new section for our blog: Our Travel Tips. After being "on the road" for 60+ days, we have some useful tips that we would like to share with other travelers.
Read MoreA quiet start to the day, with the kids playing together - one of my absolute favorite recurring event on this "big adventure". I love hearing the two of them come up with different scenarios and playing it out. It is also definitely very nice that Kian has a lot of patience, and doesn't mind explaining the same concept to Hannah over and over again. Whether or not Hannah comprehends the explanations or just says "ok" to get back to the game is still a mystery! But she is a great sport at hearing Kian out, and at her age, that's more than we can ask for.
Kian and Hannah playing with legos
We had to get milk and just a few other items, so we decided to check out the nearby grocery store. It's within walking distance, but we decided to drive in case they didn't have what we were looking for. Thankfully, that ended up being a good choice, since the prices at this store seemed much higher than we had seen elsewhere, and with less variety, so we went back to trusty good old Lidl.
Next to Lidl, we discovered a nice little discount store which must have been closed last time, and we decided to check it out. We found several good outdoor toys, including water guns for the kids, at a very reasonable price. Since we'll be just traveling by car for the next few months, getting a few extra inexpensive things which will ultimately be disposable, but which will entertain the kids in the meantime, doesn't hurt.
Once we arrived home, I sent the kids and hubby to play with their new water guns in a grassy area within our apartment complex, as I cooked dinner.
They lasted about 5 minutes out there before they rushed back to avoid being eaten alive by the crazy mosquitos here. With the exception of Kian, everyone already has a number of itchy red bites around their legs and arms thanks to these mosquitos. Hannah has it the worst, and unfortunately these extra few minutes outside resulted in a ton more bites for her, which manifested the next day :(
They continued to play out on the terrace/balcony until dinner was ready, where the mosquito situation is slightly better thanks to some lemon scented candles.
Hannah figuring out the pumping and shooting of her water gun.
Squirt....Squirrrrrt....
Squirting the photographer!
Happy and slightly soaked Hannah
Hannah's giggling after she got Kian
Kian takes cover!
Oh what fun...
Meanwhile, I made our dinner of grilled salmon, white rice, mushrooms, peppers and a bit of spinach.
On our last night in Ireland, we discovered that the kids actually really like salmon, so we are now finally all able to enjoy some seafood as a family. It only took almost 5 years!
A lovely and relaxing day was concluded with a delicious and healthy meal. I suppose if the mosquitos here could talk, they might have had the same sentiment, referring to all the deliciousness they were served out on that grassy area (more on Hannah's itchy mosquito bites in the next post).
After going to bed a bit after 2 AM, we all woke up around 11 AM :) There are these amazing security shutters in this apartment, which slide up and down with flick of a switch. They keep the rooms nice and dark, so we didn't actually have a clue what time it was when we woke up!
Once we opened up the shutters, we were treated to a gorgeous view of the garden on the terrace and the rest of the very nice complex.
Bonjour Nimes
Our amazing host had already filled up the fridge with milk, orange juice, butter, jams, and bread! This was so wonderful as we all woke up very hungry.
We all ate something and lounged about a bit more as we were still recovering from 2 days of traveling. We were also glad to discover there is nice, fast internet here.. which after a month of not having was very pleasant to have back. It's hard to imagine just how much you use the internet, until you go without having easy access to it for a long time!
Kian relaxing on the terrace :)
We knew we needed to make a run to the grocery store, since for the next meal it was preferable not to eat toast with butter and jam again. We slowly got ready and headed out, after finding some nearby supermarkets, again thanks to the internet. The first supermarket we tried was closed.. in fact a whole lot of things were closed, apparently the norm for Saturday afternoons here. So instead, we went to Lidl. I was so excited when I found out there is a Lidl just half a mile (800m) away.
We bought lots of fruits and vegetables and other things to load up our nice big fridge, all of which was exceptionally well priced, and they actually took our credit card! We returned home with two very hungry kids who couldn't wait to eat a bowl of cereal followed by a bowl of cantaloupe :)
Once everything was put away, we made a quick dinner, ate, sent the kids to bed, and sat down to update the blog with our awesome internet connection.
Oh whatever did we do before internet? Oh who am I kidding, I don't even know how we handled dial up speed!!
Tomorrow we plan to explore Nimes.
I totally felt like a local today, since we went to Lidl for our fruits and vegetables and then to Supervalu for all of our cupboard items :)
Lidl is a German store, and they have really good quality fruits and vegetables for very good prices, but the variety on other things is very limited and there are not many good deals. Supervalu, on the other hand, has lots of deals, but their prices for the fruits and veggies are much higher and the quality is not necessarily as good.
We started off our day by going to the swimming pool, so the kids could splash around and play. Kian's swimming lessons are starting to pay off, as he is getting very good at swimming by himself for about 5-6 feet, either when starting from the stairs or after jumping in from the side. Hannah is starting to get more brave about swimming by herself with floaties, but still wants to be held most of the time. Hannah also really enjoyed the showers, which was a first for her.. usually she just screams her head off, but today she didn't want to leave.
We did our grocery shopping at Lidl really quickly after the pool and then headed into Westport for some lunch. We ate at a cafe called Sol Rio, but we were all so famished (and the cranky pants had come out), so we totally forgot to take pictures of the food!
After food, everyone was in a much happier mood and we continued our grocery shopping at Supervalu!
By the time we arrived home it was already 5:30PM. The kids had fun playing outside with a bubble gun they got at the horse show yesterday, as we put the groceries away and prepared dinner.
Hannah catching the bubbles in her hand
Hannah chasing after the bubbles
Hannah dancing? as Kian shoots bubbles her way
After dinner, everyone was quite tired, so everyone headed to bed on the earlier side. Tomorrow we are supposed to have a playdate with a family we made friends with at the playground, and we are very excited!
Our family of four is chased summer around the world. Now we are a family of 5, back in the US, and planning our next great adventure.
