Packing the Luggage

Ricky asked, since we returned the keys of our rented apartment, whether we were living in the streets now. Not yet: we are at my parents' house today and tomorrow night. Then we're off to Africa. Today, we spent the morning packing our luggage. We are taking three carry-on backpacks and one small bag. We will not check luggage, except as a last resort. Two of the backpacks have wheels.

The backpack without wheels contains: a large mosquito net, three sleeping sacks, a travel towel, insect repellant, a steripen, batteries, a flashlight, two clothing lines (they are small), binoculars, a sink stopper, a sleeping bag, flip-flops for us and Crocs for Ricky, one sleeping bag, one bag with a first-aid kit and another bag of toiletries.  

The first-aid kit is stuffed full. We packed: band-aids, antibiotic ointment, hydrocortisone cream, antiseptic wipes, a thermometer, ibuprofen and acetaminophen (regular and pediatric), pediatric cough suppressant, pediatric amoxicillin and azithromyocin, cipro, Pepto-Bismol pills, hydration powder envelopes (pediatric), a laxative, eye drops, ear drops, nasal decongestant (regular and pediatric), an antihistamine, Dramamine, Malarone (as a prophylactic treatment for malaria), asthma inhaler.

The toiletries we are taking are: shampoo, conditioner, a small bar of soap, a nail clipper, a brush, a comb, children’s shampoo, three toothbrushes, toothpaste, lip balm with sun protection, two bottles of sunscreen, a razor, blades, shaving cream, feminine products, baby wipes, tweezers, two travel-size deodorants, q-tips, dental floss, hand cream, a small mirror, contact lens stuff.

The other two backpacks have our clothing. One of them has Bryan and Ricky’s things and the other one has mine (plus I will stuff some books into mine). For Ricky, we are taking: two and a half pairs of pajamas (odd, I know), socks and underwear, two sweatpants, one sun hat, six short-sleeved shirts, two long-sleeved shirts, two bathing suits, goggles, cap for the pool, four pairs of shorts, two khaki pants (thin, quick-drying), a rain jacket. He will wear jeans, a sweatshirt, a jacket and sneakers.

Bryan has packed a bunch of shirts, both long and short sleeved, and pants and pajamas. I’m not sure exactly what else. For me, I’ve packed nine tops (women’s tops take up no room), one bathing suit, two skirts, one dress, one pair of thin pants from REI, socks and underwear, a rain jacket, a hat, and a pair of sneakers. I will wear jeans and black shoes and a jacket on the plane. I may pack a sweater for me and another for Ricky. I should also pack some detergent, because we’re going to be doing a lot of laundry by hand, all over the world.

Madrid: Lunch Menu at La Vegana

We had a hectic day of preparation, painting Ricky's room and disassembling furniture and neither of us particularly felt like cooking lunch, so we went out.  We also didn't feel like going very far, so we picked a spot in our neighborhood that we'd been to a couple of times.  It was only a few minutes walk, just up the hill from the Lycee Francais, and it serves traditional Spanish food.

It is called La Vegana, but it is not a vegan, or even a vegetarian, restaurant.  They have three lunch menu options.  A word now, a brief digression, if you will, about the lunch menus of Spain.  Most restaurants in Spain offer a lunch menu.  The traditional Spanish lunch time in the middle of the day is long, and allows time to eat a full meal.  The idea of an hour for lunch is shocking to the Spanish sensibility, and the thought of only a half-hour is, quite simply, beyond the pale.  Most restaurants, therefore, cater to the lunch crowd not by offering some sort of "express meal," where they guarantee that your food is thrown in front of you within five minutes, but by offering a full, fixed price meal of several courses.  These typically include an appetizer, like legumes, a salad or a soup, followed by a main course, followed by dessert or coffee, plus bread and wine (or beer or a soft drink).  These vary in price from the low end of about 8 euros to fancier meals costing twice that.  There are places, of course, where you can spend as much as you want. 

The room is decorated in Restaurant Clutter style, in which every flat surface has been covered with some unusual item, and the walls are hung with interesting, if not obviously related, photos.  There are old typewriters on ledges, sitting next to cigar humidors, with empty beer bottles from years past behind them.  The photos on the wall show scenes of Madrid from 100 years ago, next to old advertisements.  The tables and the chairs are wooden and sturdy.  The staff are attentive and friendly.

I ordered the lentils and chorizo to start with, while Ana got the mixed vegetables.  For the main course, I got the fried breaded cod, while Ana chose the steaks.  A bottle of wine was brought to take table, along with a pitcher of water and a large basket of bread.  The wine which is served with many cheap menus in Madrid is not very good.  The traditional way of drinking such wine is to mix it with casera, a sweet, colorless soda.  I'm not fond of this beverage.  At La Vegana, the wine is fine to drink without such adulteration, which generally improves the spirit of the meal.

A broad, shallow bowl was set before me, and a tureen was brought out.  The waitress spooned lentils in a brown broth into the bowl, and asked if I wanted more chorizo in it.  When the bowl was full, she asked if that was good, and I said it was.  Ana was brought a plate of mixed vegetables had been steamed or boiled.  The lentils and the chorizo were great.  They were like a hot stew, and it was perfect for the cold January weather.  It was filled with the strong flavor of the chorizo, and had a rich smokey taste.  Ana shared it with me, and she liked it, too.  The mixed vegetables were a bit overcooked.

Then the main courses were served.  I had a big piece of cod, fried with a light breading, accompanied by a pile of fried onions and peppers.  Ana had two big, thin slices of steak with french fried potatoes.  The fish was very good.  It was not greasy at all, and it was not overcooked either.  It was fresh and made for a good lunch.  Ana's steaks were still pink inside, despite their thinness which was kind of an impressive achievement.  They had a gravy on them, and they were very good.

A peculiarity of the menu in general (to me) is that it offers dessert or coffee, not both.  I generally would like both, but one must make choices in this life.  Ana and I both chose coffee, because the dessert option was canned pineapple, which did not sound very interesting.  The coffee was very good, though.  It was a great break from the work, and a good meal, and I'm glad we've been to this fine place.

The lunch for two was 19 euros.

La Vegana, c/ Moscatelar, 1-5, Madrid, http://www.laveganademadrid.es/

Move Update #2

Accomplishments of the day:

• We brought Ricky to my parents’ house, giving us more freedom to pack and discard stuff as needed.

• We brought the following to my parents’: a cardboard box full of plants, a bag with odd and ends to return, Ricky’s cash register (so he can play with it there), one shelf, one box of books. The idea is to make room in my room/guest room so the books can be left there.

• We emptied our closet and finished packing two suitcases full of clothing (which will stay with my parents).

• I exchanged e-mails with two Italian men (who I don’t believe know each other) about the sofa bed we’re selling.

• I re-listed the stroller on a different site and listed a car seat.

• Bryan disassembled our coffee table, which belongs to my sister and is going to my parents’ house.

• A set of weights and a planter were taken out of our room.

• A bag of clothing we are donating is full now and has to be taken to the box down the street.

The fun continues.

Move Update #1

We will be on a plane to Morocco on January 10, so we have exactly twelve days until we have shaken off all the stuff that sticks to us (furniture, kitchen things, books, clothing, bathroom items – all we own except for three carry-ons).

I’ve listed the sofa bed and the table and chairs, as well as Ricky’s stroller. I have not placed ads for the beds yet. I’ll do that tomorrow. I’ve received a few responses to my ads. Some promising, others insane. One man wanted to know if the table was in perfect condition, otherwise he was not interested, plus he wanted me to ship it to him in Burgos. Another guy said he wanted the sofa bed, but that because he was going out of town, he wanted to pick it up tomorrow between 12 and 2 pm, and that he assumed the couch was disassembled.

I’ve packed one and a half suitcases of clothing that we’re not taking with us on the trip.

I started packing a suitcase with small kitchen things I love: a few small bowls, four Japanese plates, an apron I bought in Rome when I went there with Satomi. She used it as a shawl when we went into Saint Peter’s in the Vatican (to satisfy the covered shoulders rule). I will also pack the bottle opener that makes wine bottles pop like they are champagne (Sharon gave it to me as a present for my birthday last year), a cutting board I bought in Argentina, a mortar and pestle made out of olive wood.

There’s a full suitcase with papers and photos and Ricky’s drawings.

Another suitcase will be packed with Ricky’s toys and books.

By January 7 at the latest, we will be done emptying our apartment. We’re meeting the landlord that day to give him back the keys. Our lease expires January 15, but we bought the tickets for the 10th because we are eager to be on the road and we’re really looking forward to warmer climates. We’d like a couple of days to rest before the trip, so that’s why we’re meeting the landlord on the 7th. Before that, we’ll paint Ricky’s room, because it needs it and we want to get our deposit back.

Bryan and I will stay in my parents’ house in Guadalajara for a few days starting sometime around January 5, sooner if we sell our bed right away (if we sold our bed and still needed to clean the place, we could sleep on an inflatable bed we have for a day or two). Ricky is going to my parents’ tomorrow and he’ll stay there most likely until we leave town. It is hard for us to get things in order here with Ricky around, because the move is very disorienting for him and he doesn’t want to lose anything. When we throw things into big plastic bags and he sees us, he often takes whatever we threw away out and decides he is keeping it. Old travel magazines, for example. Or boxes.

So tomorrow we’re going to my parents’ for some lunch (gnocci) and Ricky will stay there. We’ll work more productively then, hopefully. We’re probably not renting a storage area after all, although we always can at the last minute, if it gets to that. If all we have is six suitcases to leave at my parents’, then there’s room. So we’re trying to trim it down to that. It’s daunting work. Wish us luck.

Itinerary: South Africa

On January 26, we fly into Cape Town, via Johannesburg. We rent a car and we drive to our lodging in Hout Bay. This is south of Cape Town, close both to the beach and wine country. It will be the middle of the summer in South Africa, and we'll be happy to rest after a week in Morocco and a week in Egypt. Ricky is particularly looking forward to this part of the trip, because he loves the water and there is a special beach near Hout Bay where penguins live (Boulders Beach). For him, this combination of the beach and penguins is the highlight of the trip.

We are spending almost two weeks around Cape Town. The cabin we rented has a washer, a kitchen, and most importantly, a braai, which is a traditional South African barbecue. Coming from Argentina, this is important to me.

Cape Town has a great arts scene, wonderful restaurants, and wineries nearby. We've never been and we're excited about it.

After Cape Town, we're taking the Premier Classe train to Johannesburg. When taking this train, you go to the station, head to a special lounge for Premier Classe passengers where you drink coffee and snacks, and then board the train. There's a welcome reception in the lounge car, lunch and high tea are served, and then there's dinner in the restaurant coach. The trip is overnight: a total of 26 hours for a distance of 870 miles. You average less than 35 miles an hour, but you're having fun so you're not in a rush.

Then, we rent another car and drive to Kruger National Park. We're staying the first night outside the park and the next day we enter Kruger in the morning. We stay at Kruger for three nights, at a rest camp. Kruger Park is known for easy viewing of the Big Five: elephants, lions, rhinos, giraffes and cape buffalo. The Big Five were the animals that hunters found particularly difficult to kill on safari. We, of course, will limit our shooting to the use of cameras.

After leaving the park, we spend one night and the whole next day in Johannesburg. Then we're off to Cairo again, this time to visit the city and its wonders.

That's the end of the travel planning. We don't know how long we're staying in Cairo, although two different people have recommended that we stay for three nights there. We have not yet bought plane tickets beyond that. One idea is to go to Malaysia next, because there are affordable tickets from Cairo to Kuala Lumpur. And from there, to Penang, an island in Malaysia known for good food. And after that, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos. Another idea is to fly from Cairo to Cyprus, where a friend of mine I have not seen in a long time lives. And after Cyprus, Malaysia and so on. Unless we get some other idea before then. We'll see what happens.

Ana

Madrid: Ricky Learns to Swim at Club Natacion Jimenez

One of the things I thought Ricky should learn to do at about this point in his life was swimming. It seemed like a healthy sort of activity, useful for his own safety and likely a source of fun in the future. There were classes offered by Ricky's school, but we also had, right across the street from our apartment, a large private swimming club.

We asked Ricky if he wanted to take lessons, and he said said he did. We promoted the idea, talking about the fun and the benefits, and we bought him the equipment and made presents of it. The only thing left was to take the lessons.

The swimming club near us, Club Natacion Jimenez, has a specific method they use in teaching children to swim, and they take children on as young as 18 months. The initial dozen lessons are conducted with the child and one an instructor, one on one. And they must be conducted on consecutive days. 12 lessons, 12 straight weekdays.

This past June we gathered Ricky's swimming equipment: his trunks, his cap, and his goggles, and brought him to the pool. We turned him over to David, the young instructor, and sat down at a table outside the pool, where we could watch through the glass wall. David led Ricky to the edge of the pool, and then got in. Ricky began to talk about how he was not quite ready to get into the pool yet. David picked up Ricky and brought him into the pool. Ricky tried to hold on to David's neck. The two of them went back and forth in the pool a couple times, and then David took Ricky's hands off his neck and held him on his back. And they started going back and forth. At this point, Ricky began to cry. Then we noticed that all the children were going through their lessons in tears. Someone sitting next to us said that the children all cried during their first week of lessons.

Ricky kept going on with the lessons, and kind of took to them. He liked David, and David always addressed Ricky as "campeon," sort of the equivalent of "Hiya, Champ!" By the end of the 12 lessons, only two weeks later, I watched in shock as David picked up Ricky and threw him into the pool. Ricky went into the water, went down, and came right back up, without any problems at all. It was impressive.

Ricky was impressed himself, and very pleased when he was given a little medal and a t-shirt. Then the swimming club closed for the summer, and we told Ricky that in the fall, he could go back, and keep learning to swim, and this time he would take group lessons, and there would be lots of other kids to learn with.

Ricky spent the whole summer declaring that he did not need more lessons, that he knew how to swim, and, most of all, that he did not want to take group lessons. I have no idea where this forceful aversion to group lessons came from, but we never did go back for more lessons. Hopefully, he'll pick up some kind of swimming skill beyond not sinking, but I don't know when that will be.

Club Natacion Jimenez, Avenida Madroños, 23, 28043 Madrid. 91 300 0258, www.cnjimenez.com/

Ricky Abroad: Thoughts about Being on the Road with a 5-Year-Old

We’ve traveled a lot since Rick was born in 2005. When he was two months old, we took him to Las Vegas (where he’s been at least five times since), and at five months he traveled to Spain from Los Angeles for the first time. Last year, we spent three weeks in Argentina. And last summer we were in England for a month. When he was two, we traveled from Los Angeles to New Jersey at least seven times. He’s been to sixteen states in the United States.

Because of all this roaming, I know that traveling means fun to Ricky but also stress. One of the ways that stress has manifested in past trips has been through illness. Ricky has all too often thrown up while traveling, even when he had not eaten anything unusual. The stomach trouble is usually accompanied by a very high fever. Also, he has frequently wet his bed at hotels, while at home this is a rare occurrence. Although he enjoys many things about hotels, he dislikes change and wants to remain at whatever hotel he is in, saying he does not want to go to another place, that he likes this one (especially if there's a pool).

Fortunately, Ricky will go to sleep in any bed and tends to sleep through the night. He gets up early and is very hungry in the morning. He can be reluctant to take a bath in hotels, and usually avoids showers.   On the whole, he is very good about staying at new places.

Ricky does not eat a lot of vegetables. He likes ketchup, and tomato sauce, and in the last year he’s started eating the super tasty chard fritters that my mom makes. Occasionally, he eats sweet potatoes. But other than this, Ricky is not picky about food, and we’ve been able to feed him in any restaurant while traveling. His favorite foods are hamburgers, eggs, breaded chicken, and pasta, but he can eat noodles and rice and meat and bread as long as there’s a sauce for him to dip things into. He loves all fruit. He drinks watered down juice and milk, and when very tired, he has a glass of milk as a meal.  This year he has also become crazy about fish.  He likes it no matter how it is prepared, and even enjoys pickled herring.

He loves museums, and although he is the loudest child in the world and tends to get overly excited, he looks at art and artifacts with interest and care. He has a million questions about exhibits, and loves museums that display furniture, and cars, and odd objects. During a tour of Martin Luther King Jr.'s boyhood home in Atlanta, he had a running conversation with the guide, discussing and speculating about the toys and games which were on display, and how the different rooms were used.  He is fascinated with the past, and wants to travel there in a time machine. One of his favorite movies is Back to the Future, and he believes that some cars can take you time traveling.

The plan for our upcoming adventure is to arrange for longer stays at some points during the trip, so that we’re not constantly moving from one hotel to the next. This, we hope, will give Ricky (and us) a time to rest and relax, and to create continuity and a small dose of routine. The first two destinations (Morocco and Egypt) will not allow that, since we are there for only one week in each place. But in South Africa, we’re staying in the same place for two weeks. And later on the trip, we may stay put in Thailand or Malaysia for even longer (this part of the trip is still unplanned). Since we’ll be traveling for months with a 5-year-old, we can’t run around the whole time. We will see what works and what doesn’t, and hopefully Ricky will have a great time.

On Vaccines, Breakfast and Pharmaceuticals

In preparation for our trip, we’ve been vaccinated against the following: typhoid fever, hepatitis A, hepatitis B (two doses, a third next year), a meningitis vaccine cocktail (A+C+Y+W135 - no idea what this means), rabies (three doses) and a polio booster. Bryan also had a tetanus booster. Ricky had the typhoid fever and the rabies shots; the others he had had already.

We had so many shots, and went to the International Vaccination Center so many times, that we became regulars at a nearby wine bar called La Vinateria de Don Ramon that serves breakfast in the morning (no wine with your breakfast). The Ukranian waitress actually knows us (maybe because we tipped too much). For 2.50 euros you get one of the breakfast specials: café con leche and a montadito (tiny sandwich with different fillings: jamon Serrano, egg and bacon, tortilla and fried pepper, or tuna). For 2 euros you can have the cheaper breakfast: coffee and a pastry. The place was packed every morning we came after our shots. If you’ve spent any time in Spain you know that breakfast is not a big meal in Spain. Most people have a coffee and something sweet, or toast. One of the heartiest choices is a slice of tortilla de patatas with a piece of bread. Tortilla is often described in English as a potato omelet, but it has more body than an omelet, it is sliced into several portions, and it can be eaten warm or cold. Another popular breakfast choice here is a small baguette, toasted, with olive oil and grated tomato.

Since we are done with the vaccination center, this week we’ll be taking a trip to the pharmacy. We have prescriptions for Dukoral, an oral cholera vaccine (two doses for us and three for Ricky). The cholera vaccine may not work to protect you against cholera, but it seems to reduce travelers’ diarrhea, so the doctor recommended it.

Also, the three of us will be taking Malarone, a medicine that protects you against malaria. Malarone has to be taken two days before and a week after you are in a malaria-risk area. In our case, the first such place will be Kruger National Park in South Africa. Then we will take it before we go to Angkor Wat (sources disagree about whether there is malaria in Cambodia around the temple touristy areas). We don’t intend to go to any other places where malaria is around. So we will buy six boxes of regular Malarone and three boxes of pediatric Malarone, just to be safe.

We are also bringing Cipro and the pediatric equivalent in case of serious intestinal trouble. We also have two mosquito nets, and DEET mosquito repellent, both for skin and clothing. To top it off, we’ll carry your usual first aid kit: Band-Aids, antibiotic ointment, disinfectant, hydrocortisone cream, decongestant, Tylenol, Pepto, my asthma inhaler.

If you need travel immunizations and breakfast in Madrid, these two places are excellent. They are located near the Lista metro stop (line 4):

International Vaccination Center
Centro Monografico de Salud Internacional - Vacunas

C/ Montesa, 22 28006 Madrid La Vinateria de Don Ramon C/ Don Ramón de la Cruz, 87 28006 Madrid

Re-Moving

I am sitting in the living room of my apartment, surrounded by the precious debris that seems to immediately accumulate when I declare myself to be "at home." We are in the process of vacating a home for the third time in the last few years. Last time, we moved out of a Los Angeles apartment we had lived in for 12 years. Shortly before that, we had to vacate my childhood home, after my father died.

My father had lived in his home for the last 30 years of his life. For the second half of those 15 years, he lived there alone. That meant 15 years in which the house had never been thoroughly cleaned, and in which he was able to fully indulge his tendency to retain things. The greatest sin possible, in his eyes, was to discard something and need it later. The sheer bulk of the job was terrifying. We started out sorting, trying to figure out what to keep and what to discard. It soon became apparent that there was very, very little that was worth keeping. That not only applied within the house, but in general. Most things are replaceable. There is no need to confuse a home with a warehouse. I had never gotten rid of my childhood debris, it had all remained in my father's house. Over the years, while I had made various moves around the United States, additional items had accumulated there, while little had been removed. All the while, my father continued to accumulate things, filling every corner of the house. We found no fewer than eight George Foreman Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machines in varying shapes, sizes, colors, and states of repair. Piles of papers lined the stairways, and not a room in the house had a free surface. And nearly all of it, more than 99 percent of it, was junk.

Trucks came to the house, and left filled with garbage. Still there was more. Dozens of trash bags went to the curb. We were scolded by the trashmen and by the town zoning enforcement agents. Still there was more. We held a giant sale, but the things persisted. We advertised the furniture, asking only that people come and pick it up, and the furniture went. But we never actually were able to get to the bottom of the mess. Finally, we declared victory and retreated, leaving most of the lower level of the house (the basement and the crawl space) as it was. When we sold it, we let the buyer know that they were getting the house with all the treasures. At the last minute they said they wanted a discount because of the things in the house. We refused, and they accepted the property as it was. It was just a negotiating ploy. They were knocking the whole building down anyway.

When we finished with the months of work my father's house required, we started rethinking our pack-rat habits. From our apartment, we began to remove things we were not using. Part of this was the pressure of space, of adapting our home to a growing boy. Part of it, though, was actually a lesson learned about keeping things, or perhaps better to say an acquired aversion. Still, it took months to dig out of our own home, and there was still a massive amount of work to be done before we left.

In Spain, we have not been here long enough to really get into trouble with having too many things. But there are enough to worry about. With less than three weeks to go before we leave, it will not be a terrible job to get finished here. But it will be work.

Images Creating Memories: Busch Gardens

The way we remember our past is shaped by the manner in which it is recalled. For most of us, our childhood is marked by a few split-second moments, captured on film, and perhaps a handful of super 8 movies which bring three minutes of the past back to us. These are the illustrations to the book we each keep, where we tell ourselves the story of our own lives.

Digital technology has changed all of that. I have literally thousands of pictures of Ricky. Even though my father was an avid photographer, there are, comparatively, only a handful of photographs of my childhood. This changes the way we experience and remember our lives in general, and travel in particular.

When I was small, and my family would take a vacation, we would to come back with one or two rolls of film, to be mailed off and processed. These came back as slides or prints. If they were prints, they were then placed in albums and put into the closet. If they were slides, they went into a carousel, and were placed in the same closet. Neither was brought out frequently or easily. When they did emerge, these images served as symbols of entire visits, signifying far more than they would actually depict. My father would view these shots and see them in context, as part of a continuity of experiences, and they would serve to bring out an entire story. For the child in the photo, though, they are just fragments, broken seconds from lost lives. We can draw conclusions from them, but we cannot relive them.

With digital cameras the nature of the pictures change. We no longer have a few scattered moments. We have dozens, hundreds, to choose from. We can tell the story many different ways. We can point out the things we saw, or how we looked there. We can focus on the times we were happy, or the times of distress. We can assemble a photographic diary which takes up no room at all, and which is indexed and available at our fingertips. We can create the illusion of continuity in our memories, with faith that little is being lost. That faith, though, is likely misplaced.

There is one other photo I have from the trip to Busch Gardens:

I am certain I have no independent memory of this, but the memories of viewing this photo over the past 35 years have taken over for any memories of the visit which I might have once had. The question is whether the memories of viewing the photo have pushed out other memories, or simply persisted while the other memories faded on their own. Since there are only two photos, I can say with great confidence that they have not created an alternate memory of the trip. But now, when we capture so many more images, what will be the effect? Will we more easily be able to place ourselves in the times and places we photograph, or will we simply place ourselves in the times and places where we viewed the photographs?

Itinerary: Egypt

On January 18, we'll be on a flight from Casablanca to Cairo. The flight is five hours. We arrive in Cairo the following morning, at 6:00. We won't have to wait for luggage since we are traveling with carry-on bags. After getting our visas at the airport, we'll take a taxi to the train station where we may succeed in catching the 8:00 AM train to Luxor. If not, we will take the train at noon. The train ride is about nine hours long.

We have a hotel reserved in Luxor for three nights. After the three nights, we will take a cruise to Aswan. We have not booked this. We will most likely take a two-day cruise. Then, on January 25, we'll fly from Aswan to Cairo. That same day, we have an overnight flight to Johannesburg.

Yes, we have not seen Cairo except for the airport and train station so far (and the glimpses from the cab). This first stop in Egypt only takes us to archeological sites in the south. After our trip to South Africa, we will fly back to Cairo and see the sights there: the Archaelogical Museum, the Pyramids, the Sphinx, maybe we'll take a trip to Thebes. More on this later.

On Irrational Travel Fears

I am afraid of getting sick while we travel. I’m afraid of being sick in a hotel, unable to be comfortable, in unfamiliar surroundings, with unknown health care. I am afraid of Ricky getting sick. I am afraid of intestinal viruses, of malaria, of the side effects of the malaria prophylactic medicine we’ll be taking. I’m afraid of the holes in the ground instead of toilets.

I am afraid of being mugged, of getting hurt, of dying abroad. Of being ripped off by taxi drivers. Of driving on the wrong side of the road and getting into an accident. Of not understanding what people are saying to me when it’s important that I do. Of being constipated.

I am afraid of not getting the most out of this trip. Of not having a healthy diet. Of not enjoying ourselves. Of not finding good food. Of having Ricky be a pain in the ass while we travel. Of having trouble getting money out of the ATMs. Of wishing we were not traveling. I’m afraid of going through the motions.

Itinerary: Morocco

Some of the destinations on this trip are decided upon, and some are not. Since we are not getting RTW tickets, in which all destinations must be chosen ahead of time, we have more flexibility. This is how it begins:

On January 10, we fly to Marakesh, Morocco. We bought three one-way tickets, very cheaply. We're staying in Marrakesh (spelled Marrakech by some) for four nights. We're here to enjoy the souks, the gardens, the food, the baths, the massages. Everybody we've consulted agrees that Marrakesh is the most interesting city to visit in Morocco. We have a riad (traditional Moroccan lodging) reserved. It does not include breakfast, but breakfast should cost about 40 dirham, about $5 (or so we hear).

We intend to have some food at the stalls at Djemaa el Fna, and also a tagine somewhere. We've also read that pigeon (squab) is a local delicacy, and perhaps we'll try that. We want to visit the Majorelle gardens.

After that, we take a bus to Essaouira, which is on the coast. The mom of a friend of ours lives in Essaouira and she helped us find lodging there. Some people on the lonely planet forum say Essaouira will be cold and windy at this time of year, but it will be warmer than here in Madrid, so we're OK with that. We stay in Essaouira for three nights.

We've heard there's excellent food in Essaouira.

After the three nights on the coast, we get on the bus to El Jadida. We know nothing about El Jadida, but our friend's mom recommended it as a "nice town to break things up and see something different." We stay one night here (not yet booked).

We considered taking a one-night trip to the dessert, but it's a long way to go given that we're in Morocco for only one week. At least, this is the advice we're received. Also, it will be very cold in the dessert this time of year.

After El Jadida, we get on a bus to Casablanca. According to friends, guide books and forums online, Casablanca is a dump. This was a bit disappointing to hear, after watching Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman's escapades so many times. So we're just going to Casablanca to catch our flight to Cairo, not to hang out at Rick's Cafe Americain. We depart for Cairo on January 18.

On Moving On and Shipping Out

We've lived in Madrid, Spain for almost sixteen months. We moved here from Los Angeles with seven suitcases, three laptops and one enormous Britax Marathon carseat. (We were allowed six suitcases on Continental, and we paid extra for the seventh). Before this move, we spent months researching whether it made sense for us to ship items to Europe by boat. We sent e-mails to shipping companies, most of which were not returned. We made some calls. At the end, we decided it would only made sense if we got a full container of cargo, which would cost about $5,000, which seemed like a lot to pay to move our old couch from IKEA and table from a thrift shop. Plus, taxes and other fees were not clear ahead of time. We would have to pay duties upon arrival, and then more to transport our things from the port to our destination. The port of arrival was going to be in Germany, and it was not clear how our things would then come to Spain. It was also not clear when the items would arrive. Given the uncertainties about cost and some horror stories we read on the internet about long delays and shocking tariffs, we decided shipping by boat did not make sense for us.

People suggested we send some boxes by surface mail to Spain. The idea was that even if it took a few weeks to arrive, it would be fine to wait for a few books and toys. We learned the US Mail no longer offers international surface mail. The only option is to ship boxes via Air Mail or International Priority Mail, both very expensive propositions. For example, to ship a 20-pound box from the United States to Spain costs $80. And, it turns out, this is the cheapest way to ship it, because UPS and DHL and other private carriers charge even more. So we decided to get rid of all our stuff and bring to Spain only those things that would fit into a few pieces of luggage.

We did not bring any furniture from Los Angeles, and only left two suitcases over there. We went to visit Los Angeles last March and brought back these two suitcases that Tracy and Mark were storing for us (thank you, guys!). A few weeks before our move to Madrid, we had visited family in Maryland and left six suitcases over there, filled with cookbooks, CD boxes, old baseball cards, papers, lots of photos, and other items we couldn't bear to discard, but had no need to bring with us.

Which brings us to now. After over a year in our rented apartment in Madrid, we've accumulated some more stuff: a table and chairs, a sofa bed, Ricky's bunk bed, our bed, some shelves, some books and Ricky's toys (biggest of all is Ricky's little kitchen from IKEA, which we got him for his birthday this year). All the furniture we own was bought at IKEA for less than 2,000 euros. We spent some more on the toys, bedding and kitchen things.

We are leaving our apartment in early January. We intend to get rid of most things we've acquired, although we will still have to rent a small storage unit. I wish we did not have to, because storage rarely makes sense. However, we are traveling the world only with carry-on luggage (three medium backpacks), so the rest of our clothing, books and other items need to be kept somewhere. My parents live in a house with very little storage, and the most we could leave there are a couple of suitcases. We will have six or seven suitcases, large ones. Last week, I went to see a storage area about thirty minutes out of the city. The unit is a little under three square meters and it costs 30 euros a month to rent. We can easily store our bags here, and a few boxes of things (kitchen things, for example), which would be useful to have if we end up moving back to Spain next year.

It is strange to think about the odd things one becomes attached to. A frying pan, a wok, a microplaner.

Can't wait to be on the plane to Marrakesh in less than a month!

Madrid: La Taqueria del Alamillo and Wakathai

One of the motivations for our travel is the thrill of the next meal. We enjoy eating. A great meal is the highest peak of public pleasure. It is to be relished and enjoyed, not just as it is happening, but for days and weeks and months afterward. When we can, we go out for a meal here in Madrid. When we have Ricky with us, this can be quite challenging. Ricky actually is just fine in restaurants now - when he was a tiny thing we used to have to take turns sitting at the table, one of us eating while the other walked around with him. Now, though, the difficulty arises because the dining hours are so late here. Most restaurants don't open for dinner until 9 p.m., and when you get there at 9, the restaurant is slowly waking from its slumber, and not operating crisply. Meals in Spain are leisurely affairs (which I like very much) but when you've got a boy who usually goes to bed around 8 p.m., and you're trying to keep him up and out and cheerful after 10 p.m., it often does not work out well.

Fortunately, Ricky spends most weekends here in Spain with his grandparents, leaving Ana and I free to have one or two nights out. Last night, it was very, very cold here in Madrid. A friend is out of town and has left us her car, so we decided to drive. One of our favorite restaurants is a little Mexican place in the La Latina district. It is called La Taqueria del Alamillo. The food is great, the service is friendly, and they give you tequila when they bring you the check. They are always booked up way in advance. Ana called them in November, and found that the weekend nights were booked for the rest of the year. Usually, though, we show up early in the evening, near 9 p.m., and they find us a table. She called them, and asked about being put on a waitlist for the evening. They were so busy last night, they refused even to do this, saying there were already too many people on the waitlist. So we decided to just go over there and see what happened. The traffic in the city is particularly bad right now, as the holiday shopping season has exploded around us. Not having a car usually, we had not taken this into account. We drove out there, eventually got there, and then found it was absolutely impossible to park. The large signs on the highway warning that all downtown parking lots were full seemed to be accurate. So, not having a parking space or a spot in the restaurant, we opted for an alternative venue.

We headed to Wakathai. It was our third visit to this restaurant, a Peruvian - Asian combination, offering food which is, for Spain, spicy. As a general rule, Spanish food is not spicy at all, and Spaniards are averse to hot flavors. Maybe that is why there was room for us at this restaurant last night.

It is a great place. It's located a bit outside of the main downtown area of the city, so we were able to find some parking. The staff is efficient and courteous, and you never have to wait long for your food. The location is comfortable and rather minimalist. There is enough space between tables so that you don't feel crowded. We ordered the tasting menu. I like ordering tasting menus, especially when I don't know a restaurant well. I feel like it gives the place a chance to show you what they are proud of, and they should know their own food better than anyone else.

It was a great meal. We had ceviche, we had nems (little rolls of rice paper stuffed with shrimp and pork), we had Vietnamese salad, we had a nice hot and spicy soup with wontons stuffed with corvina, we had a curry with duck, and then we had dessert. We ate well. Then we braved the cold again for the walk back to the car, and drove home.

Oh, a little more about the food. The ceviche they have is absolutely the best I've ever eaten. It has a great texture (important for me) and is very flavorful with many interesting elements and unexpected points of taste. It can be quite spicy in one spot, but it is always as part of the flavor. The worst part about it is that when you finish, there is no more of it to eat. They always have a curry of the day. It varies in its content. This time it was duck with lychees in a green curry, which was excellent. I actually preferred the curries we had previously, though, which were carrillada de iberico with greeen curry. The carrillada is a cut of pork from the side of the head, which is very tender. According to the Spanish labeling laws, pork can be called iberico if it is at least 75 percent black Iberian pig. Much of the great Spanish cured ham is iberico. Good eating.

Desserts were exceptional. We had one small coconut flan topped with dulce de leche and also a panna cotta. The panna cotta was so creamy and rich and topped with some orange marmalade and all I can say about it is that if it had been served in a bucket, I would have eaten it all. The flan was delicious as well.

Now it's time for coffee and a new day.

La Taqueria del Alamillo is located at Calle Alamillo, 8, Madrid. Reservations are a must. Phone: 91 3642088.

Wakathai, http://www.wakathai.com/, Calle Conde Duque, 13, Madrid. Phone: 91 5417876.

The Markets and Supermarkets in Madrid

When we leave Madrid next month, I'm going to miss the great traditional mercados and supermarkets, where you can get such good fruits and vegetables, cheaply, in the right season. Many neighborhoods in Madrid (and all over Spain) have large halls with stalls that sell produce, meats, fish, cheese, nuts, olives, beans and a variety of other products. So you go from stall to stall (kind of like at the farmers' markets in the United States, although the mercados are indoors and the stalls are permanent) buying your food, deciding which vendors have better products and prices. Parsley is always free if you make a purchase (you ask for a little parsley and they grab a bunch and put it into your bag). Mercados, being in Spain, tend to have a little bar/cafe (just a counter, really) where you can get a cup of coffee, a slice of tortilla, olives or a beer and some jamon, and take a break while you shop.

We got to know some markets very well. We love the Mercado de Chamartin, which houses one of the most impressive fish stands I've ever seen. There you can get delicious sushi-grade tuna belly (if you get there early, because it is so good that they run out). The only downside of the Mercado de Chamartin is how expensive everything is. The best mercado, in my opinion, is Mercado Maravillas. It is large, you can find anything there, quality is high and the prices are right. There are hundreds of stalls. One of them sells great cheese from La Mancha. Another sells empanada gallega, many types (including one empanada made of tiny Galician scallops named zamburinas).

Fish is especially fresh and wonderful at these mercados. We often eat mackerel, which we buy fresh and grill at home. Mackerel (caballa in Spanish) is one of my favorite fish. The seabass is also amazing (we bake it with garlic and olive oil).

We also love Mercadona (a large chain of supermarkets, with a lot of good store-brand products), Carrefour (a French chain, where we do a lot of our everyday shopping), and Hipercor, a supermarket that is part of the Spanish department store chain El Corte Ingles. Hipercor has fancier products and the prices are a bit higher. We get our quinoa and our tahini there.

We also shop on occasion at the Aldi and Lidl stores, which are discount German supermarkets with a lot of interesting merchandise, such as foreign candy and chocolates, pickled herring and wines from all over the world. The Aldi chain owns Trader Joe's since the 1970s, and you can see a little bit of the Trader Joe's ethos in their European cousins (Trader Joe's is more gourmet, has a more comprehensive line of products and is more fun, by the way, than these stores).

Another store that we really like is called Makro. Everything comes in large sizes and they don't give you bags, a bit like Costco in the United States. Makro is not cheap, but you can get some things that are hard to get elsewhere. At Makro, we buy: frozen wild salmon from Alaska, a whole ribeye from Argentina (fresh and not previously frozen), Italian mozzarella, dulce de leche, a very good Malbec and De Cecco pasta. And today at Makro we bought the box of apples you can see on top.

Madrid, Spain: Talk About The Weather

Madrid has been a great city to live in. We've been here since the beginning of September, 2009. We live in a quiet neighborhood between the airport and the center of the city, close to the metro, and near Ricky's school. Madrid, contrary to what many think, has a fairly extreme climate. This morning, when I took Ricky to school, it was cold. It wasn't sort of cold, or a little brisk, or even chilly. It was simply cold. It wasn't damn cold, either - this is not Wisconsin or Minnesota cold. It was cold enough for me, though. It was in the low 20s, cold enough to make the cheeks burn when I returned.

In the summer, Madrid swelters. Temperatures are routinely above 100 degrees, and the city shuts down. Air conditioning, while far more commonplace than it once was, is not the rule in most homes. The time-honored practice is to leave the city in August, heading either to the beach or the mountains. Many businesses simply close up shop for much of the month, leaving a small, handwritten note on the door stating when they intend to reopen. During lulls in the heat, August is one of the best months to be in Madrid. The traffic which plagues the city completely vanishes, and distances seem to shrink almost to nothing. A drive that ususally would take 45 minutes is through in 15. The stores that are open, mostly the large department stores or the supermarkets, are a pleasure to shop in, with short lines and frequent sales. Also, there are traditional ways of fighting the heat, such as drinking horchata de chufa, a sweet, nutty-tasting beverage, or the agua de cebada, a sort of barley tea, served ice cold. These things were once sold in hundreds of corner stands throughout the city, but they have mostly vanished in favor of the ubiquitous vendors of ice cream and Coca Cola.

The winters here are long and unpleasant, with frequent strong winds cutting through the layers. The temperature patterns during the day are different than elsewhere, with the coldest times running from 5 a.m. on until about 10 a.m., and the warmest times lasting from 3 p.m. until about 7 p.m. For Ricky, it means that whatever he wears when we walk to school in the morning will leave him significantly over-dressed for the weather when he comes home. This morning, while we walked to school, he told me "I want to leave the winter." Soon enough.

We continue to prepare for our travels. Every day, we sort our things, deciding what will be discarded, what will be saved for later retrieval, what will be given away. Oddly, we are pretty much finished with packing what we will actually be taking with us when we leave. It's more just a matter of figuring out what to do with what we are leaving behind.

Let's Go To Russia!

Ricky colored the states he's been to the other day: a total of sixteen. Not bad for a five-year-old. He's very coastal, as you can see. He loves maps, and has a large poster of the world on the wall behind his bed. He locates the following countries on the map: the United States, Spain, Argentina, China and Russia. The UK too, but he sometimes can't find it.

His fantasy is to travel to Russia. Neither Bryan nor I have been there, and we don't tend to talk about Russia. During the winter of 2009, my sister visited Russia and sent us many great pictures from over there. In one, she's all bundled up in front of the Kremlin. In another picture, there's a bridge with a frozen river beneath it. In a third, which was taken after dark, she looks frozen and is standing next to an old van and a mountain of snow and ice (this one is Ricky's favorite photo and he had it as his wallpaper on this computer for a while. He managed by himself to change the wallpaper to this, by opening Picassa and trying different things). These photos really captured Ricky's imagination and he's been talking about going to Russia with tia (aunt in Spanish) ever since.

Then, when we got him a map and he saw that Russia is so big, he loved that. It made him giggle. He also likes China because of its size.

Travel With Ricky

Preparing for travel in the old days meant, for me, throwing some clothes into a paper bag and filling the car with gas, making sure that my trusty road atlas was beside me. When Ana and I started traveling together, it was not very different. There were simply more clothes, and she didn't like when I stuffed her clothes into a paper bag, so we would have some sort of a duffel bag instead. She also introduced the notion of bringing along things like toothbrushes and other items normally kept in the bathroom. I don't mean she introduced the idea to the general public, but just to my own personal travel habits. Over the years we adjusted the way we packed, noticing what we had forgotten and what we kept bringing and never using. By the time we had Ricky, we felt like pretty professional voyagers, with a good sense of how much we needed and how to carry it easily.

Ricky changed all that. Ricky changed everything.

Our first trips with Ricky were desperate attempts to escape the house. We were trapped in the early, sleepless months, with the baby needing to be fed throughout the night, with no discernible sleep pattern for him or ourselves beyond collapsing. Outings to the supermarket were an extreme endeavor. So we left town and went to Las Vegas. It meant packing up a huge bag of baby supplies, together with the co-sleeper, putting the baby into the carseat / carrier, and bringing it all into the hotel. We went out for a steak dinner, and, mercifully, Ricky slept the entire time, sitting in his carrier, in the dim lights and loud noise of the restaurant.

After that, we all began to travel again. There were many mis-steps, and moments of difficulty. On Ricky's first trip to Spain, we flew from Los Angeles to New York, and from New York to Madrid. The first flight we thought was rough, we periodic crying and hushing and changing. The second flight was torture. He cried the entire flight, calming only when he was taken into the bathroom of the plane, soothed by the ambient noise and the terrible bright light and the giant mirror. We literally walked across the Atlantic with him.

Now, though, he is the veteran of many, many transcontinental and transatlantic flights, and he enjoys the experience of flying, and the airports. As he has gotten older, we have been able to shed the most cumbersome gear which we have carried at one time or another. There is no more pack and play to carry, no giant bag of diapers, no suitcase full of Hot Wheels cars. We don't drag a giant car seat to the gate, or stand outside the door of the plane waiting for our stroller to be retrieved when we land. The physical requirements of traveling with Ricky have never been easier.

The Travel Library

These are the guide books we've been reading. Our favorite ones Footprint guides, followed by the Rough Guide, Frommer's and Lonely Planet.

The Footprint guides are thoughtful and well-written. They make you want to go places.

Frommer's seem written with old people in mind.

The Lonely Planet books seem to be written for college students, always pointing you in the direction of a hostal and a bar.