Two years ago, in April of 2024, there was a total solar eclipse across the United States. This made an impact on Monki. She’s always been into science and the planets and stuff, even has the National Geographic YouTube video about eclipses memorized, so when this event happened, we watched it live on TV. We even ordered eclipse glasses so she could see the partial eclipse in Kaunas in March of 2025. Ultimately, though, she informed us that seeing a total solar eclipse was “on her bucket list.”
That’s right. The 8-year-old had a bucket list.
Being a good dad, I immediately went online and found out when and where the next total solar eclipse would be. What could it hurt, right? Well… I found out there would be one sailing through our neck of the woods (specifically, Spain) on August 12, 2026. At the time, that was little more than a year away. So we started planning. Rasa and I figured we could combine that with a trip to Disneyland Paris, since the new Frozen world would be open by then and Monki would be 10, a good age to start actually remembering things (she obviously doesn’t remember her previous two visits, when she was 1 and 3-years-old). Of course, the thing about planning trips is figuring out all of the different pieces to make sure they all mesh together. For instance, you want to make sure you have flights going where you need to go (and if you’re trying to do it less expensively, that might mean flying an airline which only flies at certain times or days of the week) and then booking a hotel in the area. And, naturally, the booking times are not compatible – say the hotel opens booking 8 months in advance while the airline only books 5 months out. It’s a juggling nightmare. But, after a few false starts, while figuring out the extensiveness of the trip (we toyed with, and then discarded, adding England to the mix), we finally decided on Valencia Spain as our ideal Eclipse viewing spot. I booked us into a hotel, literally the moment they became available, then we started looking at flights.
The easiest way to get where we needed to be was to fly into Alicante, which is about 180km from Valencia, somehow get to Valencia, then fly from there to Paris for Disneyland and then fly from Disneyland to home. Three different one-way flights (which ended up being on three different airlines, all with different luggage limitations). The only real hiccough came when trying to figure out how to get from Alicante to Valencia. Trying to figure out cabs and train schedules between cities on our schedule was causing me stress, so instead, we opted for a private transfer, at not much more than what I figured the cost would be for all three of us to take more public transportation.
I made a checklist of all the different moving parts to make sure I didn’t miss anything and, eventually, we got everything booked. That didn’t mean the stress stopped. Our flight from Valencia to Paris Orly was on an airline I’d never heard of and booked through a travel service which was not great, combined with uncertainty about airline fuel prices certainly led to a bit of worry. But it was all booked so come August 10th, we were as ready as we could be. In fact, Monki had been counting us down on a little marquee sign I’d picked up at Tiger just for that purpose.
Monday Morning, Big Trip Day had arrived and we were packed and ready to go.
August 10, 2026
Rasa did almost all of our packing on Sunday night, and she is a master of weight management, which is very important when you have limited carriage. Doesn’t mean they were light, but they were manageable, so I lugged them down the stairs to await our Bolt driver. See, because of our three one-way flights, while we were leaving from Kaunas, we were coming back to the country through Vilnius. So cabs and trains were going to be a recuring motif on this journey.
At the airport, we easily checked in (well under our luggage weight limits) and, thanks to recent upgrades in security systems, didn’t have to remove any electronics (still had to take off our belts, though). Aside from Monki’s bag being randomly chosen for a spot check, we were in the waiting area in no time. The airport itself has been redone since the last time any of us were there, so it was nice to see all the upgrades and improvements. We gave each other our Surprise Bags™ (I got a new Stephen King book to read on the trip, Rasa got moisturizers and mints, and Monki got a full Huntr/x backpack with all sorts of games and toys and candy). Since we were flying Ryanair, we had to walk out across the runway to climb the stairs to our plane. This was good since Monki and I had made travel bingo cards for the trip and one of the spaces was “take a selfie with the plane.” Check!
The 4-hour flight was relatively uneventful, but it did start a trip-long trend of sitting in seats FED. The big news, though, was that even though we were well prepared, Monki DID NOT get physically sick on the plane. This was huge for her.
We landed in Alicante slightly early and got into one of the ground transport busses to get back to the terminal. Unfortunately, at one point the driver had to slam on the brakes and Rasa, attempting to shield Monki from harm, ended up banging her elbow into something, severely bruising it. It hurt for the rest of the trip.
Once we were in the terminal, by the time we made it to our baggage carousel, our bags were already spinning and I was getting messages from Max. Who’s Max? Max was our designated pick-up driver in Alicante. The day before we left, he had sent me a message, introducing himself and providing me pictures on how to exit the airport and where to find him. Honestly, this was a great relief and eased some of my trepidations. I can highly recommend Welcome Pickups. Max was great and comfortably drove* us the two hours into Valencia, directly to our hotel, the Sweet Renasa.
The hotel was fine, except they gave us two single beds and a pull out, which was odd, but for the three nights we were going to be there, it was fine. Since it was still relatively early, we decided to try and figure out how to get to the beach. It wasn’t hard, there was a tram (which Monki decided was short for Trambonium) and I accidently bought 24 hour tickets (and then didn’t validate them right away) but we eventually got to the beach. It was nice but it had been a long day of travel so we started looking around for a place to have some dinner. We didn’t find anything but there was a McDonald’s we had passed so we headed back that way. I don’t think we were in the touristy areas since there weren’t any shops and avoiding dog poop on the street became a full-time job.
We got to Mickey Ds and Monki, for some reason, decided to try a double filet o’fish. Good on her for finishing it, but she has since sworn she’ll never eat that again in her life. A single is fine for her. Rasa also started to not feel so great so we found the Trambonium again and made it back to the hotel. There was a supermarket around the corner where we stopped to pick up some fruit and snacks before retiring for the evening. But then we found out the water in the rooms was not potable, so I went back to the market to grab a 6ltr bottle of water.
That first night wasn’t very comfortable, since we couldn’t figure out how to regulate the temperature (really hot outside and freezing inside) and evidently my snoring was so loud it woke Monki from a sound sleep. I’m gonna stick with the temperature thing, though.
August 11, 2026
Tuesday morning we were up bright and early. What we really wanted to see today (after Rasa had done some research last night) was the Oceanogràphic València, one of the biggest tourist attractions in Valencia. The only problem was that it was sold out. There was also a science museum right next door, which did have tickets, but research said the aquarium was the place to be. It also said you could get there early and try your luck, which is what we chose to do.
So after a disappointing hotel breakfast, we called an Uber to take us**. I’ll have more to say about Uber later, but this ride was okay. We got to the Aquarium at 9:30, knowing it had an opening time of 10:00 and got in line with other hopefuls. Even at that early hour, it was hot, into the low 30s, and for us who were coming from the mid 20s, it was bordering on uncomfortable. It didn’t help that all of southern Europe was experiencing a massive heat wave.
At 9:45, the started allowing people in and, sure enough, we were able to get day long combo tickets for both the aquarium and the science museum. Yay us! Monki, however, was not reacting well to the heat, so our first stop was to get her an ice cream (which came in this cute little penguin cup) and then it was off to see the sharks and rays in the longest underwater tunnel in Europe. Because it was early in the day, it was packed, but we were all still amazed.
Evidently, the Oceanographic also has the only Beluga whales in Europe, and they were next on our list, in the Arctic/Antarctic exhibit. They also had some really fun penguins! By the time we were done there (and Monki had discovered her souvenir of choice for this trip: commemorative gold coins) it was time to grab early seats for the dolphin show. You had to get there early to make sure you got a spot in the shade. So we picked up a refillable slushie container and sat in the stadium to wait for the sea mammals to entertain us.
Lunch was next, at the same restaurant where we had gotten the ice cream. But that we had picked up at the bar, now it was a sit-down experience, complete with robot food delivery! So much fun! After lunch, though, Monki wasn’t feeling well, probably heat related, so, since everything was open until late, we headed back to the hotel for a siesta. Which involved another Uber. This is where Uber problems started.
Our driver pulled up on time, no problem, but then the previous ride didn’t get out. For about 20 minutes, in +38c (100°f) we waited by the side of the road, without shade, while people inside the car argued about payment. When they finally got it sorted, we got in. There was no mention of the uncomfortable delay, and we finally got back to the hotel, where we rested for a couple of hours.
When everyone felt better, we wanted to head back to the science museum to check that out (it’s right next door to the aquarium) so again, I used the app to order an Uber. The app said the driver would be there in a few minutes and showed their location on the map. Then their estimated arrival time started getting longer and the map showed them driving away from our location. After a few minutes of this, we cancelled and ordered another one. And the same thing happened. Evidently, with Uber this is a thing. In the end, we got the hotel to order us a cab and we made it down to the science museum.
The science museum, or Museu de les Ciències, is three floors of interactive exhibits in an amazingly designed building. There are rotating exhibitions and when we were there, one of them was dance. We went in but Monki, who is as gregarious as they come when she is comfortable, decided that dancing in public was just not her thing. It’s okay, Rasa and I danced instead.
There were also exhibits on metamorphosis and other general science stuff. Then, on the third floor, fully half of the exhibition space was devoted to the human body. Monki, who wants to be a doctor when she grows up, was in heaven. She was doing all the activities and explaining it all to us. She is a wealth of information. We were there for a couple of hours, which seemed like just the right amount of time, and then headed back to the aquarium to close out that part of the day.
We were hungry so stopped for a snack. I tried a cold egg and potato dish called tortilla de patatas, which was quite yummy. Then it was one more trip to the shark tunnel and a stop at the gift shop, where Monki got herself a shark’s tooth necklace and we ready to move on. On a side note, I also had a shark tooth necklace when I was about her age. Nice to know they are still cool.
Stepping out from the aquarium, I reached out to my friend Dori, whom I knew from Vegas but had recently relocated to Valencia. She met us and took us a to a local nearby mall to grab a spot of dinner.
We also found a Starbucks there, which was a big plus for Monki. See, she’d recently been watching a YouTube show with Salish Matter, whose favorite cold beverage is the Pink Drink from Starbucks. Of course, Monki had to try one. So, in case you were wondering how “influencers” work, here’s a prime example. We got her the drink (which she loved) and a Subway sandwich for dinner, had a bit of a chat with Dori, and made plans to get together again the next day for the eclipse.
Dori then showed us a great place to flag down a cab, who took us back to the hotel for another temperature challenged evening.
August 12, 2026
Eclipse morning and we weren’t sure what to do with ourselves for the day. Dori had suggested some open air markets in the city center, but with a 10 year old, that wasn’t really something which would keep her entertained. In the meantime, I had heard about a kid’s play area called Parc Gulliver, with a 60 meter long figure for climbing and playing on. After breakfast we grabbed another cab and headed out that way before it got TOO hot (good luck with that).
We found the park and while Rasa stayed in the shade (smart girl) Monki and I climbed and slid all over the giant. I kept trying to explain the original story to her while we played (and had a hard time remembering it all). When we were played out and the heat was getting oppressive for running around, we thought we could go back to that mall we discovered the night before to have lunch. Theoretically, it wasn’t that far.
Except we couldn’t find a cab and calling an Uber seemed counter-productive, so we ended up walking the 1.2km. Not a far distance at all, but in +35 heat, it was a bit much. By the time we hit the air-conditioning, we were all a little worse for wear, with Monki feeling the brunt of it. We got her another Pink Drink and then, since both she and I were wearing shirts which looked like we had showered in them, and we were in a mall, we got new t-shirts.
After we recovered a bit, and a had a bite to eat, we headed back to the hotel again for a an afternoon siesta (this tradition makes a lot of sense, let me tell you) and played the K-Pop Demon Hunters Uno which Monki got in her Surprise Bag™.
Finally, it was time. At around 5:45pm, we headed out to catch the trambonium (which was packed – not just because it was eclipse day, but it was also after work rush hour and evidently, going to the beach at 6pm was a popular lifestyle choice. We made to the sand and, lucky day, discovered two beach lounge chairs and an umbrella available for rent. I sent Dori a message, so she knew where to meet us and we got ready.
Rasa and Monki went to check out the water, which Rasa said was warm, but I hadn’t planned on going into the water. We were there for the eclipse, right? But in the end, I succumbed and said I’d go in with Monki (Rasa doesn’t go in because she’s still learning to swim). The only problem was there was nowhere to change! So I wrapped a towel and put on my suit on the beach.
Rasa was right! The water was bathtub warm! And relatively shallow. We could go 150 meters our from shore and still only be in chest deep water. Monki and I played in the surf for an hour and a half until it was time to really get ready for the big celestial event. When Dori got there, she let us know that the local news had said the official eclipse viewing point was about 200 feet from where we were, so we were well placed!
It started at 7:38, and we were ready with our eclipse glasses and lens filters for the camera. For next hour, we watched the moon slowly eat the sun until the moment of complete totality. Yes… there were times when clouds threatened to cover the sun, and once, with the sun about 90% covered, we could see it through a cloud and without our glasses on, which was really cool. But in the end, the clouds vanished and everything went off without a hitch. It was awe inspiring. It’s times like this I wish I were a poet. My friends Troy and Katie had gone to see the one two years ago and we’d talked about it then. When he said it was indescribable to actually be there and see the darkness, he was 100% right. We have our own pictures, sure, and then the news coverage from all over the area also had some great shots (And this guy’s work, which is just gorgeous). I think we were all impressed. I asked Monki if it fulfilled her bucket-list and she agreed it did. The only downside was that since it happened later in the day, the sun was setting before the moon could completely escape. But that was small compared to the actual event.
However, since the beach was packed, that meant all the nearby eateries were also packed. At one point, a pizza place gave as an estimate of an hour before we could even place an order, they were that slammed. So instead, we said good night to Dori and looked for an Uber. Guess what? There wasn’t one to be had in a reasonable amount of time or cost. So we opted once again for walking. We did find an open pizza place, off the main streets so considerably less busy, to grab a pie and some drinks to take back to our hotel, which was about a half hour’s walk away.
Back in the room we ate and packed. We had an 11am flight we needed to be ready for.
August 13, 2026
Morning came early (as it does) and we were checked out of the hotel by 7:30. I was nervous about getting to the airport on time, so instead of even dealing with Uber, I had the front desk person call us a cab. The general consensus was that it wouldn’t be a problem since the Valencia airport only had one terminal, how busy could it be? I mean the Kaunas airport also only had one terminal with only a handful of flights a day and four check-in desks. We were kind of expecting the same thing.
We were wrong. Sure, there was only one terminal, but it was a biggun! There were more than 30 check in desks and they hadn’t upgraded their security screening area. Because we had missed breakfast at the hotel, while I waited in line for the check-in desk to open, Rasa and Monki went and got pastries and breakfast sandwiches for us. But by the time the returned, the desk was open and check-in had begun, so we threw our food into hand luggage and headed to the gate.
Once past security, we found a Starbucks near our point of departure, so we got coffees and Pink Drinks and ate our food. We were flying on Vueling, which we had booked through eDreams. The brokerage had been a nightmare and unreliable, but the airline itself was great. I had been nervous but they were probably our best flight of all and Monki has become a walking advertisement for them – telling everyone that if they’re flying in Europe, fly Vueling if they can.
We landed at Orly, found the “magic shuttle” which we had pre-booked to take us to the Disney Sequoia Hotel, where we were staying, and got checked in with literally no wait at all. Disney is very good about making sure people get to their rooms easily. But now came the next part of the trip I was nervous about – I seemed to spend a lot of the preparation for this trip nervous about making sure everything went well. In France, on that first day, we had booked for another item on Monki’s bucket list: a trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
Evidently, they sell out fast and tickets only go on sale 60 days in advance, so I had gotten up at 2am 60 days before our trip to ensure we would make it. As it was, there weren’t many slots left, so I booked us in for 5pm, hoping that with all the travel, we would be okay.
We dumped*** our stuff in our room and after talking to the hotel concierge (which I did a lot over the four days we were there) I decided to once again try Uber. We probably would have taken the train (which is what Rasa and I did on our first trip) but, luckily for us, the RER trains were undergoing renovations so the trip would have been much more complicated and taken about twice as long, so Uber it was. But first, we were hungry, so a quick stop at the McDonald’s in Disney Village was used for a much needed recharge – we hadn’t eaten since breakfast pastries in Valencia. Then it was back to the hotel to wait for our car.
As it turned out, the Uber was great. Our driver was friendly and dropped us off right in front of the Tower, well in advance of our scheduled, ticketed time. Of course, since the last time we were there some 12 years ago, they’d upped security and enclosed the entire courtyard with a fence to be able to pass everyone through a security checkpoint.
Once inside, we found out two things: first, we were actually early and couldn’t even line up until 5 and second, because of the intense heat, the actual top floor was closed. The highest we could go was the second level. While we waited for our time, we got Monki a slushie (which came in a souvenir cup with a €2 “deposit.” Return the cup, get the €2 back), found the exact center of the tower (it was marked with a plaque) and purchased another gold medallion to commemorate our visit.
When our time was posted, we got in line, went to another security checkpoint, and took the elevator to the second floor. As it turned out, it was a good thing we couldn’t go any higher as this was high enough for Monki. She was a bit scared to get too close to the edge, but she still said it ticked the bucket list box, so we were all good on that count. We spent about 40 minutes up there, maybe a little more, before taking the elevator back down. We did stop at the first floor, though, someplace I’d never been during my last two visits. Here was the restaurant and some glass floors. Interestingly, the glass floors didn’t bother Monki, so we walked around and got some nice pictures.
We also got some nice, fun pictures out in front of the tower before calling another Uber to take us back. Again, nice driver and fairly uneventful ride, but Monki, who hadn’t gotten sick on two flights, started feeling a bit queasy in the car. We made it back to the highway and then to the hotel before anything bad could happen.
We had dinner that night at the hotel. Since our hotel was Bambi themed and woodland centric, dinner was a buffet with a few game meats mixed in amongst the usual fare. It was all quite delicious, and we eventually made our way to bed, knowing we had our first full day in the park coming up.
* For some reason he thought I was famous in Lithuania. It was slightly weird.
** the public transport route was complicated enough to be non-viable
*** “dumped” is a misnomer, if you know Rasa. We settled into the room, placing everything neatly so we could fully unpack later.
Getting the Hang of Thursdays 