MarcoNauts Abroad: From the Producer

Sunday, June 19, 2011 by teammarcopolo in MarcoNauts Abroad

From the Desk of the Producer

While we’re in production in Europe for the next three weeks, we’ll be doing some different things than we usually do on the Team Marco Polo blog. The Team (Matt, Siena, & Gabi) will be posting items of interest to kids. I’ll be chiming in with observations for grown-ups. After long planning of the “Civilization Tour” to Greece and Rome, we were hit by news of serious police actions in Athens last week. Our travel team debated for several days about the prudence of travelling to the area while the actions continued. But several things made us decide to go.

First, travel always presents risks.  The easiest thing by far is to sit in the easy chair and watch TV.  But then the view you get of the world is distorted by the little lens that tends to follow the most incendiary aspect of life. Obviously, with kids, the rule is “first, do no harm.” But once you’re satisfied that you will be safe (after all, millions of people live in Athens and deal with these issues every day), you need to be prudent.  Needless to say, the Team was very excited about the prospect of visiting the cradle of democracy.  We spoke to friends who lived in Athens, travel agents who had just arrived back from there, and even one of the kids’ teachers who has family there, and was about to go herself.  Their advice: GO!

So, off we go–carefully, but with the sense of anticipation and excitement that comes from exploring a new place for the first time.  Gabi (10), Siena (14), and Matt (16) will be blogging about things that interest kids.  We hope you enjoy!

Join the conversation on Facebook as we explore together!