I like travelling in my 40s better. It's funner.

Did you see the article in today's paper about the 10 things backpackers don't know?  Must've been reading my mind.

We've just come back from three weeks in Europe.  No, we didn't do Prague, Warsaw or Istanbul, nor did we ski in Bulgaria as is all the rage amongst the hip.  We did bog standard Europe.  One week in Paris, one week in the alps, one week in London.  Fabulous.  Privileged yes.  The standard route, yes. But the best family holiday we've had.

The thing that hit me the most is what we had missed travelling through Europe in the backpacking days where we had no prior bookings anywhere, lugged everything in a backpack and had extraordinarily limited funds.

It was fun but as the article says food is tourism too and eating Big Macs all through Europe because they were affordable and located close to the accommodation we could afford (usually in or near a railway station) is not seeing all a city has to offer.

In those days I didn't eat Gallette du Rois three.days.in.a.row.

And I certainly wouldn't have tried every damn fromage and jambon in Paris.

Eating a crepe was a possibility from a road-side stall but not a FANCY crepe at a bistro.

 And citron presse?  Are you kidding?  Would never have bought anything where you actually sat down unless it was upstairs at Burger King.

And certainly not from a cute local Steak Frites restaurant.

 I might've bought ONE macaron but not one in each flavour in the shop.

And I certainly would never have gone to another Macaron shop and bought a rainbow of Macarons in a special display box.

Travelling around in my early 20s was fun but being able to afford a few little luxuries travelling in my 40s was funner.