An interesting “follow up” to the motoring theme of last week. I can relate to all that stuff you talked about in (or “on”?...uff…my English really does need some improvement) the back seat of the car. My sister and I never shut up either…although I can clearly remember my dad’s ability to hold onto the steering wheel with one hand and give me a slap with the other…when he lost his patience with me!

The first ‘long’ car trip I remember was when I traveled with my cousin’s family to Long Island. It was in a brown station wagon that looked like it was made of wood. When we got bored, we’d play games. One game was to hold our breath each time we drove past a cemetery. We could only breathe again if we spotted a white car. If we failed to hold our breath, we got bad luck.

Pub Cricket is a good car game for kids on long journeys in England.

This weekly sounds like David Sedaris, congratulations.
In the olden days, back in the sixties, there were no child seats and no seatbelts. We did long road trips and I could have died at age 4-5, I suppose. You know that thing you pull out from the middle of the vertical part of the back seat and that old ladies can rest their arm or put their Grace Kelly bag on? I would sit on it and pretend to be a princess in a carriage. And remember how we used to be able to kneel facing the rear window and wave at the travelers following and about to overtake us?
Now I’m grown-up and I will say that three kids bickering at one another in the back seat of a car is better than one kid getting carsick in the back seat of a car.

My longest car ride was from San Sebastian to Konstanz, Germany. We started early in the morning and arrived near midnight. In that journey, I learned the words to the entire Beatles RUBBER SOUL album. “Baby you can drive my car…”.
Other than hard candy and chewing gum and bubble gum, I am not allowed to eat in the car because my dad gets very cross about crumbs in the car and the smell of most munchies. And I am not allowed to ask “Are we there yet?” though it’s okay to say “I wanna go to the bathroom” because normally someone old wants to go too anyway.

Hi Wesley and everybody,
I see you had a bad experience travelling by car when you were a child, but in spite of your opinion I think it’s the best way to travel with children. It’s certain that the child’s behaviour may become a problem but it’s easier to stop the car wherever you are than to stop the train, the plane or the bus.
And what about the countless and uncontrollable pee attacks?. Definitively, I prefer travelling with kids by car.

Hi everybody,
My father didn’t have car when I was a child, he hasn’t even got a driving license, and I have missed all these experiences that you tell us.
My holidays were by bus or by plane. By bus, the trip wasn’t very long because we went to a small village of Avila, very near from Madrid. But I remember this trips as a adventure, it was as a long trip to the other extreme of the world.
Now, sometimes I travel by car, but very few times. If you travel with children, the car can be most comfortable, but it depends where you go. For example if you go to the beach, I think the car is the better way of transport, as long ast you don’t want to go to the islands, because you can transport a lot of things.
Conchi Calvo

Travelling by car with children is not as bad as people say. We usually travel by car (my husband, me and my two children) and our trips use be very long (more than one thousand kilometers at day) and we are here…. I mean If travelling with children were horrible, we wouldn’t travel once or twice at year. This year we will go to Norway – by car of course – and it will take us more than 6 days arrive to our final destination. I suppose we will take the DVD, a lot of books and the PSP… and well we will stop each 300 kilometers…..

Hi all!
Ohh!! A lovely childhood. My longest trips when I was child were when I went to my litle town, in the interior of Castellón. Today the roads and comunications are so well, but when I was child, it was not the same.
Sometimes I went with my grandfather so this trip was about twelve hours in bus. I remember when we must wait a connection with other bus, we spent our time eating a big sandwich with a coke while we saw a cartoons in a TV inside the bar. We always went to the same bar, and I liked the seems when I saw the entrance of this bar after a few years.
Another times my father took us the town, so we spent about eight hours in a car. The roads in Spain about 20 years ago had nothing in common with today, and I can say that this tryp was eteral. My brother and I was fighting all the time and asked to our fathers “how many hours are left?”. We must cross a mountain strech called “curvas de Montalbán” and my mother always forced us to swallowed a pill called “biodramina” against carsickness.
But the best moment was when one arrived at least, and I Knew that have a long period of vacances in the town, to do whatever one want, becouse we were childs!!

Hi everybody!
When I was child, our family usually go on vacation from Madrid to Cadiz and the travel was very long, more or less eight-nine hours because the road, and the worst point in the travel was “Despeñaperros”. God! the bends was horrible for us. And if you went behind a truck, forget it! For me the best was to sleep.

Hi:
Sometimes I really like travel by car, because you can stopped wherever you want. You also appreciate the little villages and the different landscapes of the country you visit, and if you see a nice place, you can stop, visit and then decide if you want to find a room in a hotel or guesthouse to spend another day in that nice village.

Hi everyone.
This article really reflets my childhood, looking back over my shoulders make me remember what a wonderful times I passed with all my family. By the 80´s we used to spend the summer in my granma´s, it was a short way (over 4 hours driving) if it compare with the article but seemed to be a whole life in the car. All it happened in a small car,one of the most famous car in Spanish history (the 600 Seat), my parents, sisters and my two twin brothers spent more than a battle in the car.
My dad tried hardly to take the journey as earlier possible, just to make us sleep the whole trip, but due to the clanky noise of the engine which made a horrible noise and especially when the sun arouse made all of us to be jumping for joy to enjoy holidays and see after long time our family.
Also I remember travelling with my mates for holidays in a car, five adults guys, with a big suitcase to spend fifteen days holydays in a summer resort, music as louder as possible and eager to get the destination quickly to hit the night.
My point of view is simple and straight forward,sometimes the better times happen in those places and with the benefit of handsight make me think that I would make it again and again.
Greetings to everyone