Tag: Europe

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Europe

Olympian Good Times: Family Travel to Lillehammer, Norway

Family Trip to Lillehammer, Norway (Scarborough photo)

Ever wonder what they’re going to do with all of those great 2006 Winter Olympic venues in Turin, Italy?

My family’s enjoyable experiences in Lillehammer, Norway (site of the 1994 Winter Games) showed that the ski slopes, bobsled runs and apres ski places will continue to get plenty of good use by tourists and winter sports enthusiasts. We combined our trip with a visit to Oslo.

Start your planning at the Lillehammer tourist Web site, where you’ll find plenty of links and guides to area activities. There are many hotel and guesthouse options; we stayed at the friendly Oyer Gjestegard hotel in the village of Hafjell-Hunderfossen, right near the slopes and only a short bus ride from the town of Lillehammer.

Arrangements were made online quite painlessly, with one quick confirmation telephone call. Our room was small but clean and comfortable, and the generous Norwegian breakfasts prepared us well for busy days in the snow.

Hotel Oyer Gjestegard, Hafjell, Norway (Scarborough photo)We have only one real skier in the family, so there was some concern about keeping kids occupied, but we needn’t have worried. Our activities ran the gamut in terms of variety, and they were all easy to book at the local Hafjell tourist office.

There was a stately horse-drawn sleigh ride around the village, contrasted with a thrilling blast down the Olympic bobsled and luge track.

Younger kids can go down the course in a “bob-raft,” which gives plenty of speed thrills but a bit less danger.

Our very favorite sojourn was night-time sledding down rural roads just outside the village. We were driven by truck up one of the mountains with a Danish family and deposited with our sleds onto a snowy road. No one spoke much English, and we were clueless about what to do next, so we simply followed the lead of the laughing Danes and found ourselves roaring down deserted country lanes.

After a seemingly endless run through thick forests and sledding madly around curves, we finally arrived at some farmhouses at the bottom, where I managed to plow right into a mailbox. My kid’s response? “Oh, let’s do it again!” Everyone loaded back up on the trucks and we did go back up and down the mountain two more times, followed by drinks and cake with a local farm family. A super evening.

Ski School, Hafjell, Norway (Scarborough photo)

My family enjoyed skiing at our different levels of expertise, including my own first cross-country ski lesson with a very patient instructor from the Hafjell Ski Skole.

Once I negotiated the ski lift and stopped falling over like some confused drunk, I actually made some progress down the absolutely silent and beautifully-groomed trails.

Foot of the slopes in Lillehammer, Norway

Our last day in the Lillehammer area, we decided to go dog-sledding. The kids loved the dogs, but the adults wondered what we’d gotten ourselves into when it became clear that we would drive our own sled.

Our children were on a sled with somebody competent, fortunately, but my husband and I worried that we’d somehow drive off a cliff.

We should have given our dogs and our instructors more credit.

Everything went fine, we didn’t fall off the sled or get lost and we all ended up in a snowbound tent drinking warm drinks by a fire, marvelling that we’d just finished mushing dogs in Norway.

Update 15 March 2007: Budget Travel has some interesting ideas for Norwegian homestays, especially on farms and in rural areas.

The author dog-sledding (much to her own amazement)

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Europe

Urban fun and natural beauty: Oslo, Norway

Viking Ship Museum, Oslo, Norway (Scarborough photo)

Our family trip to Oslo was in the month of March, with snow everywhere and downtown ice skating, but this Norwegian capital city is a great destination year-round. The Olympic venues in Lillehammer aren’t too far away, either.

Norway isn’t exactly a top American tourist destination, so the country is a mystery to many beyond pictures of fjords, skater Sonja Henie, the obscure Edvard Grieg biopic “Song of Norway” and the dark plays of native son Henrik Ibsen.

A typical complaint about Norway is the expense, especially any sort of alcohol at restaurants. When I worked at a NATO headquarters, most of my Norwegian colleagues recommended slamming down a few from a bottle kept in your hotel room. With children in tow, getting blotto before dinner didn’t seem like such a great idea, but I appreciated their input.

The entire trip was planned with the Internet and a few phone calls. Most Norwegians speak English, and the well-designed tourist Web site Visit Norway is simple to use.

To get there from our home in the Netherlands, we flew Ireland-based Ryanair from their euphemistically-named Frankfurt Hahn airport (actually 110 kilometers west of Frankfurt) to the also euphemistically-named Oslo Torp airport, which is quite a bit south of Oslo and requires a two-hour bus ride to take you to the center of the city. This use of outlying airfields helps to keep Ryanair fares ridiculously low, but the downside is dealing with “planes, trains and automobiles” transportation hassles at airports in the middle of nowhere.

After we arrived at Torp and admired the huge piles of snow all around, the Torp Express bus met us and our fellow passengers right outside the terminal. The ride to Oslo was comfortable, with the exception of a frozen onboard toilet. A quick cab ride from the city bus/train terminal brought us at last to the hotel.

For lodging we took advantage of the tourist board’s Oslo Package that included a hotel, breakfast buffet and Family Oslo Pass. We chose the Best Western Bondeheimen, very well located in central Oslo. The breakfast was typically Norwegian, meaning quite generous, with plenty of variety to please picky eaters. I was the only one in my family to develop a taste for pickled herring in tomato sauce; my daughter wrinkled her nose to express displeasure with Mom’s morning fish breath.

Also beware the tubs of brunost, traditional Norwegian sweet soft brown cheese. It tastes good, but it looks just like peanut butter, so check before you load your bread. As usual in Europe, each morning we found it wonderfully difficult to get a bad cup of coffee.

Oslo is a compact, pedestrian-friendly city of only half a million. It is small by the standards of European capitals, but its location at the head of a fjord, surrounded by hills and trees, gives it a close-to-nature feel. For tourist sightseeing, the Oslo Pass is a terrific deal in what can be an admittedly expensive country — it gives you free admission to numerous family-friendly museums, free use of city transportation plus discounts on local attractions and restaurants.

After our breakfast we hopped aboard a city bus to the Bygdoy Peninsula, where many of the museums are clustered. From April to October, a scenic ferry runs across the Oslo Fjord from the city center to the peninsula, but the winter bus was fine. We spent a lot of time at the Norsk Folkemuseum, a large open-air cultural complex with representative buildings from all over Norway, including a lovely wooden stave church. There were plenty of activities such as folk music performers and handicraft demonstrations (the kids spent time watching a bread maker and potter) and I thought the buildings looked most appropriate with lots of snow mounded high on their roofs.

The outdoor part of the Norwegian Folk Museum, Oslo (Scarborough photo)Another winner was the Kon-Tiki Museum, housing anthropologist explorer Thor Heyerdahl’s original balsa wood raft that he and his crew sailed 4,300 miles across the Pacific in 1947.

A good way to prepare older kids is to have them read Heyerdahl’s book about the voyage, which he made in order to prove that the ancient ancestors of South Pacific islanders could have come from South America on rafts, using the prevailing trade winds. It is also well worthwhile to show your budding explorers the superb Academy Award-winning 1950 movie “Kon-Tiki,” shot onboard during the astonishing journey.

We enjoyed just walking around the city; I wouldn’t call it particularly quaint or architecturally striking, but I liked the nice, laid-back atmosphere. I loved watching the skaters at the central outdoor rink near our hotel (no skates to rent though; the locals must think it ridiculous that anyone wouldn’t own a personal pair of skates.)

We could even have seen some Tennessee Williams at the National Theatre, where “A Streetcar Named Desire” was playing. It would have been a hoot to hear Blanche speaking Norwegian with an American Southern accent.

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Europe

Top 10 Ways for Families to Save on Travel in Europe

(This is a guest post by UK-based reader Ben Doyle of HouseTrip.com, about all sorts of ways to save on your family vacation to Europe. Thanks so much for contributing, Ben!)

Top Ten Ways for Families to Save in Europe

1. Where and when to go is obviously the first part of your planning. Central and Eastern Europe are typically cheaper than the West (think Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia and the Baltic countries.) The UK, France, Italy and Spain are certainly more expensive, although with the decline of the pound and Euro against the dollar, they are still affordable. You can also save money by avoiding high season – city trips are just as good in winter, but without the crowds, prices are much more favorable. Spring and Fall are a good compromise.

Platform 9 and 3 quarters of Harry Potter fame, Kings Crossing, London (photo by Sheila Scarborough)
Platform 9 and 3 quarters of Harry Potter fame, Kings Crossing, London (photo by Sheila Scarborough)

2. Shop around for flights. Before you can save money in Europe, you’ve got to get there – and it’s not cheap. There are occasionally excellent deals, such as these incredibly cheap flights from New York/Newark to London. Otherwise use a meta-search such as Kayak or Skyscanner to get an idea of the carriers to investigate. If your dates are flexible, you can then go to the individual airline websites for a closer look – certain dates are normally cheaper than others, and it can be hard to find this information from meta-searches.

3. Investigate your travel options within Europe. Budget airlines such as EasyJet and Ryanair offer extremely cheap flights, but it’s still worth booking ahead. Rail pass information is available on www.raileurope.com, or take a look at destination tourist sites such as www.visitlondon.com for information about local transport. London’s excellent Underground tube network offers cheaper tickets if you buy an Oyster Card, while day travelcards are normally available for unlimited daily travel.

4. Resist the temptation to move around too much. Focus on one city, region or country in depth instead of travelling large distances. You can easily base yourself in one place and take day trips – by doing this you will save on transport fees as well as the difficulty of long travel times with young children.

5. Look at budget hotel chains first if you want to stay in a hotel. Brands such as Ibis, Travelodge, EasyHotel and Etap offer simple, no-frills rooms for a fair price, and you can often find good deals if you book ahead. It’s worth enquiring whether the hotel can squeeze in an extra bed, as turning a double into a triple or a triple into a quad will invariably be cheaper than having to take another room. Hostels in Europe can also be a good alternative, with far more options than just dorm rooms. Many hostels offer private rooms that are ideally suited for families, and staying in a hostel also gives you the option of self-catering.

6. Consider a vacation rental. Holiday apartments, as they are often known in Europe, are widely available in both cities and countryside locations, and normally offer far more space than a hotel or hostel for a similar (or cheaper) price. They often represent better value than other forms of accommodation, especially for longer stays, and also allow you to spread out and experience life as a local, rather than a visitor. There are many good sites offering holiday apartment stays.

7. Try camping if you want to go rural. Campsites in Europe, especially France and Spain, are normally well maintained and offer a range of excellent facilities. For exploring the countryside, they can be an excellent alternative. Alan Rogers guides are the market leader and a lot of free information is available online at www.alanrogers.com. If sleeping in a tent isn’t your thing but you would like to explore the countryside, farm stays are an interesting alternative and offer a great cultural experience for your children (and you!)  If you’re considering going rural, it is also worth investigating car rental, to make it easier to transport your belongings – although remember that gasoline in Europe is much more expensive than in the US.

8. Start with free activities. Europe offers many free attractions and activities that will be enjoyable for all the family. Try www.FreeToDoEurope.net for ideas. After that, always investigate the possibility of family tickets for museums, attractions, tours and public transport. Local tourist offices normally offer good advice.

9. Eat out less and make lunch your big meal of the day if you’re eating out. Many restaurants offer excellent lunch deals, but try to stay away from tourist spots. Places that are full of tourists don’t offer the best eating experience or the best price. Menus translated into English are often another sign to look elsewhere. Instead, take a guidebook (look out for one with translations of food) and follow the locals to places that are slightly off the beaten track. And be careful not to overtip. Tips are often included and Europeans only tend to tip 10%, anyway. Ask fellow diners if you’re not sure.

10. Eat in, even if you don’t cook! If you’re staying in a hostel or holiday apartment, or if you’re camping, you can save a lot of money by preparing your own meals. Local shops and markets are a great cultural experience for all the family. But even if you’re staying in a hotel, you can still grab food for lunch, and you don’t have to go to much effort: locally produced breads, cheeses, meats and salad make a great meal. You may even find a delicious local wine to enjoy once the kids have gone to bed. Just don’t forget a corkscrew!

Ben Doyle is a British travel enthusiast and entrepreneur. He is one of the founders of www.HouseTrip.com, an online marketplace for European holiday apartments. He currently blogs at blog.housetrip.com.

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Europe

Tips roundup for the Netherlands

Dutch footie (soccer) fans, actually taken in Stuttgart, Germany (courtesy Dan Kamminga at Flickr CC)I recently had a request on my Facebook page for Netherlands vacation travel tips with kids….

“I came across your bio randomly as I was trying to plan a trip to the Netherlands at the end of August. I have three kids–16,12, and 8.

What kind of suggestions can you offer me for my travel plans? Any must-see places, any off the beaten path surprises–the kids have gotten rather fond of my penchant for doing that kind of stuff. Thanks for whatever help you can offer.”

Once I responded, I thought that I might as well put the same information here that I gave to him:

I haven’t been to the Netherlands in a few years, but we lived in the southern part of the country, down near Maastricht, which is easy to get to by train or car.  Ryanair flies into Eindhoven, too. This Zuid-Limburg “Dutch Alps” area is very pretty (its caves are cool – Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch” was hidden in local caves during World War II) and the pace is slower, so it’s great for families.

Look for the VVV (Vereniging voor Vreemdelingenverkeer, the Dutch tourism agency) signs in each town or city – they usually have English-speaking tourism experts and printed guides in English. You’ll pay a few euros for printed information; they aren’t as big on freebie handouts as American tourism offices.  Some would say that’s just the thrifty ways of the Dutch.

Ride bikes whenever you can, even if it’s just hotel-provided clunkers around town – it adds a whole new dimension to your travels to get around as the Dutch do.  I often tell people about seeing a young couple on bikes in Amsterdam, holding hands and talking on cell phones at the same time….yes, no one was touching any handlebars!  Not recommended for your children to try, of course.

Our favorite guidebook was Here’s Holland by Sheila Gazaleh-Weevers . Its level of detail makes it well worth trying to find a copy.

Amsterdam – love it – there’s the BootsnAll Amsterdam Logue, plus an older post of mine, Travel with kids to Amsterdam.

Waddenzee Islands are great for families – we visited Texel and Terschelling for some serene beach time, wide open spaces and seafaring heritage.

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Europe

Photo of the Week: Queen’s Day in the Netherlands

Queen's Day (Koninginnedag) village parade, Schinveld, the Netherlands (photo by Sheila Scarborough)Go, Orange!

Today (April 30) is Queen’s Day.

This photo was taken of a local village parade that passed in front of our house in Schinveld, the Netherlands, to celebrate Queen’s Day (or Koninginnedag.)

It’s sort of the Dutch version of the US 4th of July, and celebrates the birthday of the Queen.

It also provides an excellent excuse to wear orange clothes, wave orange balloons and haul out the orange body paint.

The adult partying is another matter, but children certainly enjoy the holiday as well.

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Europe Photos

Photo of the Week: the Cube Houses, Rotterdam

The funky slanted yellow things behind my daughter and I are the Kubuswoningen or Cube Houses in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

You can tour the interior of one of them to see how clever design and architecture creates interesting places to live.

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Europe USA

‘Tis the season for Christmas markets

Christmas market ornament hut display (courtesy weisserstier at flickr CC)I can’t think of a more sure-fire holiday winner with kids than Christmas markets. They’re a seasonal mainstay in Europe, and now we’re starting to see more of the tradition here in the U.S.

A Christmas market (or christkindlmarkt or weihnachtfest) is normally held outdoors at night, and includes little open huts selling toys, ornaments and gifts, seasonal food and drinks and entertainment like musicians or dancers.

There have been some great links posted lately on the Christmas market topic, so I thought I’d give you a chunk of them that focus on Europe first (so you can, you know, plan to be in Europe next Christmas, maybe?!) and then a few North American options.

I found that many US markets were already held in late November, so next year I’ll have to post this earlier!

** The UK’s Times Online: 20 best Christmas markets — obviously a ton of them in Germany, where the tradition started, but also some intriguing ones in Bruges, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Estonia and Vienna. The paper also had a separate article on the market in Strasbourg, France.

** Our own BootsnAll lists five of Europe’s cosiest Christmas markets — Vienna, Bratislava, Prague, Tallinn and Rome.

Christmas market Cologne, Germany (courtesy Soundmonster at flickr CC)

** About.com has a guide to Christmas markets in Italy, the best Christmas markets in Scandinavia and an A-Z guide to German Christmas markets.

** Here’s something unusual that I highlighted over at the Perceptive Travel blog: Christmas in a cave: Valkenburg, the Netherlands.

** Travel Intelligence: Europe’s Top 10 Christmas Markets, including one of my favorite cities in Germany, Köln/Cologne.

** From the UK’s Telegraph: Germany’s Christmas toy towns.

Fortunately, those who live in North America can experience a bit of the Christmas market magic:

** Christkindlmarket Chicago IL

** Christkindlmarkt Bethlehem PA

** Denver CO Christkindl Market

** Christkindl Market Kitchener, Ontario

So, dig out the family coats, gloves and hats, and set out to enjoy the holiday season while knocking out some of your gift list, too!

Technorati tags: travel, family travel, Christmas markets, christkindlmarkt

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Europe

Visit bountiful Brussels

Mini-Europe, with the giant Atomium behind it (Scarborough photo)

Are you looking for a beautiful, easily accessible European city that’s not on the London-Paris-Rome standard tourist circuit?

I recommend Brussels (or Bruxelles in French; the Belgians are arguing a lot lately about their nation’s heritage split.)

Located in the northern, historically Flemish part of Belgium (along with medieval Bruges/Brugge, artistic Ghent and industrial Antwerp) Brussels is elegant, cosmopolitan and culturally-rich, plus it’s fun for families.

The “To See” list….

** To start exploring, orient yourself in the middle — the center of Brussels is the magnificent town square called the Grand’Place or de Grote Markt. It’s huge and spectacular, with ornate Gothic and Baroque buildings, lots of cafes and historic businesses. It’s a “wow, we aren’t in Kansas….” moment when you walk into it.

** You have to do it, and the kids will get a giggle….view the symbol of Brussels, a small bronze statue (often in costume) of a boy peeing. Yes, that’s the Manneken Pis.

** See the hokey but fun theme park called Mini-Europe; scale models of European landmarks that you can walk through. My children both really liked it.

Manneken Pis, dressed that day as....hip-hop guy? (Scarborough photo)

** Next to Mini-Europe is the Atomium, a bizarre-looking giant building that’s supposed to look like an iron crystal, with nine 200-ton balls connected to each other.

There are exhibits inside and and you can go from one ball to another, all the way to the top. 2008 is the 50th anniversary of its construction.

** Eat! They say that the Belgians eat as well as the French and as much as the Germans, and I’ll vouch for that. Big portions of yummy stuff.

Okay, maybe your kids aren’t into the traditional steamed mussels with garlic and white wine, so pawn them off with croque-monsieur/tosti while you snarf shellfish and drink fabulous Belgian beer. Belgian frites (fries) are the best you’ll ever taste.

Everyone gets dessert….Belgian chocolate, of course.

** Hotel tip: Lodgings can be pricey because there are a lot of diplomats around (EU Headquarters is here) and businesspeople visit Brussels on expense accounts.

Try for weekend or off-peak rates at a business hotel, when they’re trying to fill rooms. We stayed at the Novotel Brussels Centre Tour Noire; it was a business hotel but we got a great weekend rate and the modern hotel is built around a medieval tower. Kids thought that was cool.

Brussels Novotel Centre Tour Noire, complete with tower (Scarborough photo)

More links of interest:

Don’t forget, you can pop over to Brussels from London on the Eurostar high-speed train in less than two hours.

Technorati tags: travel, family travel, Brussels, Belgium, Europe

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Europe

Get rubbed the right way in London

Brass Rubbing Centre projects (courtesy Christabelle at flickr's Creative Commons)A fun London activity for kids is deep inside the crypt of St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church in Trafalgar Square — the London Brass Rubbing Centre.

Rubbings are a way of putting an image on paper without damaging the item underneath. The ones used at the Centre are brass replicas of artworks depicting typically English people like medieval ladies, knights and St. George.

You put the paper over the image and rub with a special crayon, and the imprint comes out on the paper, which you keep. There is a small fee.

It’s harder than it looks because many of their replicas are very detailed and need a lot of rather hard rubbing; pick a smallish-sized item for the younger children.

The crypt also has a gift shop and a nice cafe.

St. Martin-in-the-Fields is well-known as a lovely place for music, both sacred and secular, so try to time your family’s visit to coincide with a concert (at lunchtime they feature works played by young musicians and students.) This is the home of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, a classical music group formed in 1958 and led by Sir Neville Marriner, so there are plenty of classical concerts but also some jazz.

The Web site has the full concert schedule. To get there, the closest Tube station is Charing Cross.

Technorati tags: travel, family travel, London, Brass Rubbing Centre, St Martin in the Fields

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Europe

8 cool European museums you’ve never heard of

The magnificent Cloth Hall that houses the In Flanders Fields Museum, Ieper, Belgium. That's my Dad and I walking in the central square Grote Markt (Scarborough photo; my Mom, Joanne Scarborough, to be precise)Sure, most people know about the Louvre in Paris or seeing the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London, but when you travel with kids you sometimes want to avoid the beaten path.

Here is a list of fun places to see in Europe that might have escaped your family’s notice:

** Chocolate Museum/Schokoladenmuseum in Cologne/Köln, Germany. Yeah, OK, this is a no-brainer! On the banks of the Rhine River, not too far from the striking Dom (cathedral) you’ll find a chocolate fountain, exhibits on the history and geography of cacao production and a mini-production line where you can watch workers make goodies like chocolate soccer balls. Yes, there’s a great gift shop, and a nice cafe as well.

** Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, Norway. The world’s two best-preserved wooden Viking ships, built in the 9th century, in a lovely building that’s almost church-like. Free admission with your Oslo Pass; a must-see.

** Cluny Museum/Museum of the Middle Ages in Paris, France. I told you that it IS possible to get kids through at least some of the Louvre and not go bonkers, but for a medieval moment, go over to the Left Bank and this museum of the Middle Ages. It has beautiful tapestries (the Lady and the Unicorn) and other artifacts from the time of knights and their ladies, plus with older kids you could attend a concert of period music. Go to this events calendar (in French) and look for concerts du soir at night and L’heure musicale with an ensemble. Wouldn’t your high school or college French teacher be proud!

** Thermenmuseum in Heerlen, the Netherlands. Boy, those Romans got around. They even spent time here in Limburg, the “Dutch Alps,” hanging out at the bathhouse that is now preserved in this museum. This is a very pretty part of the Netherlands that few people ever visit; my daughter went here on a class field trip from her nearby International School.

** In Flanders Fields Museum in Ieper/Ypres, Belgium. “In Flanders fields the poppies blow, between the crosses, row on row….” This is a superb museum about the impact of World War One in this part of Belgium and Europe as a whole. The famous poem was written near here by Canadian John McCrae, who was killed not long after he wrote it.

** National Maritime Museum and Royal Observatory in Greenwich, UK. “Sea, ships, time and the stars;” that’s what you’ll find in this diverting museum full of nautical exhibits, plus a chance to straddle the 0 degree longitude line and be a part of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT.)

** Foynes Flying Boat Museum in Foynes, Ireland (near Shannon.) Not everyone used to arrive in Europe via the abusive Heathrow airport; beginning with the July 1939 landing of Pan Am’s “Yankee Clipper” flying boat, this was the primary entrance point to northern Europe by air. My family and I enjoyed the exhibits and films, and the parents each sampled the trademark beverage that was supposedly invented here….the Irish coffee.

** Eyeglasses Museum/Brilmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. This place is awesome if you’re like me and have worn glasses or contacts forever. I actually felt pretty hip when I left here. There is every sort of vision-correcting device that you can imagine, from many different eras, and I bought some pretty cool Sonia Rykiel frames in their gift shop.

Do you have any favorite lesser-known or offbeat museums in Europe? Please share them with us!

Technorati tags: travel, family travel, Europe, museums