Family vacation

You know the saying that you can never go home again? Well, I'd like to add to that a little, you can never go home and you can never vacation with your parents again.

Of course people go home all the time, have a nice meal and do their best to leave before anything provokes the inevitable argument.

And people do travel with their parents well past the acceptable parent/child vacation age.

For some reason, you think, well, the last time we had a family trip was 10 years ago and it wasn't that bad....really. Then you think, I'm a grown up, I'm officially out of my 20's so this should be just swell.

The problem is that your parents seem to still believe you are, most of the time, an irate teenager, which is exactly who you seem to revert to after approximately 12 hours in constant company with Mom and Dad. So you pout, they scold. Everyone puts aside the attitude to see the Eifel tower lit up on the Senne, or shuffle through Notre Dame, or stroll the gardens at Versailes. You even manage to have a wonderful time on the bike tour through Munich and really, really enjoy your beer at the Haufbrough house.

But innevitably, arguments pop up at meals, no-one gets much sleep, and someone (not me) looses their passport at the airport.

So yes you can vacation again with your parents, just make sure to plan ahead of time a couple of afternoons where everyone does their own thing. Bring earplugs in case your ipod dies, remember to walk really, really slowly so as not to loose a parent, look both ways before they cross the road and cherish the beer garden.