Read this on galpod.com. So, last week we had a family trip to the Lake District. Particularly, Ullswater lake, the second largest lake in the UK. If you've been following for a while, you'll know that this is our third annual family summer trip. Two years ago we went to Sweden and Norway, and last summer we travelled to Thailand. This year, because we knew we'd have a puppy in our household, we booked a room in a hotel called "Another Place", right on the shore of Ullswater

Read this on galpod.com. We topped up our annual adventure with a week of relaxing in one of Thailand's renown beaches. We did this following last year when we discovered that two weeks of straight-up travelling was nice, but a bit too much. We were hoping that the week in Koh Samui would give us time to relax and energise before heading back home. It did, although we think now that possibly a week (well, six days) is too much of not-doing-anything for some members of our fam

Read this on galpod.com. Bangkok gave us a taste of how different the Thai culture is from what we're used to. Chiang Mai did that, too, but also gave me a taste of how similar the lives are. Also, it provided the adventurous part of our trip. On our first day in Chiang Mai, we did a temple tour. We went to see the temple on the mountain (Doi Suthep) where we heard some Buddhist stories and got blessed by a monk. We visited an ancient temple where there are tunnels in the hil

Read this on galpod.com. So, our annual family vacation this year was to Thailand! We were super excited (and, in my case, super anxious) about it. We went the spoiled way, and had a local guide both in Bangkok and in Chiang Mai, followed by an extremely spoiled week in a Koh Samui beach resort. I'll start with a "travel log" about Bangkok, and will write up Chiang Mai and Koh Samui in following posts. Preparations So, travelling with kids always requires some preparations. I

Read this on galpod.com. Right. Tomorrow we're off on our annual family vacation, a tradition that is almost a year old. I've been thinking a lot about that, and I think what I want for those two weeks is to be completely offline. I generally think that my social media handling is not too bad. I don't check obsessively on most days, I have a reasonable handle on how much time I spend in social media apps, and I'm not a person who would post things that are inauthentic to get

Read this on galpod.com. We're home! Arrived late last night, after one last day in Bergen spent with a childhood friend, contact with whom was lost for some 25 years (thanks, Facebook!) On our last leg of the trip, we drove from Geilo to Flåm. It's a touristy little town and because we hiked in Geilo on the day of travel, we really only had one full day there. That one day was rainy and gloomy, so we mostly stayed inside our cabin and lamented the poor weather. But then. In

Read this on galpod.com. The trouble with a trip to a place with beautiful views is that when it rains, there's not much to do. It's been raining for a few good days, and our hiking has suffered. We tried, though. On the way to Geilo, we went on the Likkistefjell hike. It's a beautiful hike through a bog (mostly squelchy ground, hiking boots kept us semi-dry). Then the route climbs over a few peaks, and you arrive at the gorgeous view you can see in the picture. But a few min

Read this on galpod.com. We'd said goodbye to lovely Sweden and moved on to Norway. Driving from Safflë to Oslo we noticed that, just before the border, the terrain started to change from plains to mountains. Norway is much more mountainous than Sweden, and so the views are different. My partner likes the Norwegian view much better, and I have to admit that when you hike to the top of the mountain, the view on the other side is breathtaking. Quite literally, but that's anothe

Read this on galpod.com. It's been freakishly abandoned everywhere we went here in Sweden. Yesterday, we discovered why. It would appear that the Swedish school year starts at the end of August, and lots of people are already back to work. We are still not entirely sure why no one else comes here, but it's clear that it's normally in-state tourism. Not many menus in English in the backcountry of Sweden. The lovely boat tour lady almost fell into the water when we said we were

Read this on galpod.com. "Mom, I like hiking and chatting." "Me too, kiddo. That's why we're doing it." Yes. That's why we're risking tick-borne diseases and falls and drowning and having a fucking tree fall on top of your head (that's a new worst-case scenario for me. Thanks, windy, wooded Sweden). Because when we hike we have time to chat, and it's so nice to chat while walking. What did we talk about? Honestly, I can't even remember now. It's been two full days. But that f

Read this on galpod.com. Hello! It feels like I haven't written for EVER. I guess it's not that long, but we've been away on our trip and I feel like everything that happened before that was another life. So, a little update is due. We spent three days in Stockholm. First off, arriving from the airport to our hotel, we encountered blocked roads and much commotion. It was the Pride Parade. We quickly checked in, dumped all of our stuff in the room, and went down to watch the p

Read this on galpod.com. Our family summer adventure starts in a few days, which means I can't focus on anything. I'm way too excited and anxious. So I thought I'd write a post about travelling with kids. The first thing I'll say is I think we've waited too long. We could have taken this trip two years ago, easily. It would have been a lot more work for the grownups, but I think the kids would have benefited from travelling. We did weekends in various cities in Europe (reason