Road trip with family day ten

Today we travelled from Riga, Latvia to home in Finland.

Travel time: 5,5 hours by car and 2 hours by boat.

Whole road trip: We travelled 4400 km by car in 10 days, and visited 8 countries.

What we did today:

- stopped near Pärnu to take a walk with a view to the sea

- thought about changing tickets to an earlier boat, but realized that we wouldn't make it in time. We have seen so many places and have also been sitting a lot in the car, so we are ready to return home!

- came to Tallin and drove to Ulemiste shopping mall. It was mostly closed, because it's Midsummer here. Bought pizzas and ice cream from the supermarket and ate them outside the mall.

- Travelled from Tallin to Helsinki with Tallink Megastar.

Good Night from Finland!

We had a great road trip, here at home it is Midsummer.

Road trip with family day nine

Today we travelled from Kaunas, Lithuania to Riga, Latvia.

Travel time: 4,5 hours by car

What we did today:

- went to see Kaunas Castle from the outside, walked in the surroundings

- played bingo

- it was a warm day, so we drove to Jurmala, which is a wonderful beach close to Riga.

- drove to Riga, and walked from the hotel to the old town of Riga to eat 

- played cards

Good Night from Latvia!

Road trip with family day eight

Today we travelled from Poznan, Poland to Kaunas, Lithuania.

Travel hours: 10 hours by car

What we did today:

- played bingo

- looked what countries the other cars were from

- saw many storks, trucks and churches

- drove on some bumpy roads

- had a few breaks

- walked a bit in the centre of Kaunas and had some food

- played cards

This waa the last long driving day of this road trip. 

Good Night from Lithuania!

Road trip with family day seven

Today we stayed the whole day in Poznan, Poland. We walked in the city and took the tram a few times.

What we did today:

- walked to the Old Town, saw the buildings and the park there

- took a tram to the biggest shopping mall here

- walked a lot, went to two other shopping malls

- played cards

- enjoyed the warm and sunny evening

Good Night from Poland!

Road trip with family day six

Today we travelled from Wismar, Germany to Poznan, Poland.

Travel time: 6 hours by car

What we did today:

- drove through Wismar centre

- stopped in Berlin Design Outlet Village, which was really nice. We ate at Five Guys for the first time and the food was really good 

- played a bit of bingo, but now it seems like everyone is getting tired of it

- crossed the border to Poland

- walked to the mall from our hotel, ate there and looked around

- played cards

Good Night from Poland! 

Road trip with family day five

Today we travelled from Tversted, Denmark to Wismar, Germany.

Travel time: 5,5 hours by car

Things we did today:

- ate breakfast in our room, cleaned the room

- went to see the beach one more time

- drove to the North Sea Oceanarium in Hirtshals, which was a great place

- watched the feeding of seals, walked around the whole area, kids held a sea star in their hands 

- played on game of bingo

- had an ice cream break in Denmark

Good Night from Germany!

Road trip with family day four

Today we travelled from Skien, Norway to Hirtshals, Danmark.

Travel hours: 1 hour by car, 4,5 hours by boat

Things we did today:

- walked in Skien town

- jumped on a trampoline in the harbour 

- ate ice cream

- went for a nature walk, and came to a beautiful beach

- saw jelly fish in the sea

- travelled on the boat Langesund-Hirtshals played cards there and felt the strong wind

- went to the beach in Denmark and kids enjoyed the big Wales

Today we have done a lot of things and the weather has been warm and sunny.

Good Night from Denmark.

Road trip with family day three

Today we drove from Trondheim to Skien.

Traveling time: nearly 10 hours

What we did today:

- woke up early

- had a great breakfast

- played bingo again

- checken the altitude a few times

- travelled from north to south, past Lillehammer and Oslo

- saw people fishing in the river

- spent the whole day travelling, had a few longer breaks

Good Night from Skien, Norway. It's been a long day travelling, sleep is needed.

Road trip with family day two

Today we drove from Umeå, Sweden to Trondheim, Norway.

Travel time: 8,5 hours by car

What we did today:

- checked gas prizes in different countries

- had many breaks

- ate ice cream

- saw a fox, that ran over the road

- played bingo again

- found snow

- stopped to take pictures

- stopped in Östersund to look for a magazine for daughter (and found it)

- stopped to look at a water fall, followed a trail downwards the mountain and found it after 30 minutes, climbed the whole way back!!

- watched the amazing wievs on the road

PS. Here are no tourists.

Good Night from Trondheim, Norway. 

We are finally here!

Road trip with family day one

We started early this morning from home towards Vaasa.

From Vaasa we took the boat, Wasaline to Umeå, Sweden. 

Things we did today:

- played bingo in the car, trying to find airplanes, horses, tractors etc.

- Saw a fox and a lot of wind craft

- walked around the ruins of Old Vaasa

- learned that the city of Vaasa burnt down in one day, because someone smoked the pipe and fall asleep

- played card games on the boat

- bought Swedish books and magazines

Travel hours: 5+ hours by car, 4 hours by boat

Good Night from Sweden.

Road trip with family

Here we go again. Our 10 day long road trip will start tomorrow. The bags are mostly packed and my holiday has just started.

Two years ago we were planning to go on a road trip, but due to Covid it wasn´t possible.

Well, now we see how it will be. Would it be easier and more relaxing to take a plane and fly somewhere where everything is organized. Yes, for sure. Would it also be a bit boring? Maybe.

Now we have already booked the places where we stay for night and saved the route for the trip. I don't like packing at all, but this time it wasn´t that bad actually. 

I am doing my best to post something every day with my phone.

What are the most useful things for a road trip? Camera, suncream and sunglasses! We have other things too with us.

Boat cruise in December

 We usually take the boat to Sweden a few day before Christmas every year. Now it wasn't possible because of the pandemic. Instead we went to Estonia with M/S Victoria, a boat that usually cruise from Tallinn to Stockholm. This time we stayed on the boat and watched Tallinn from the harbor, while it was a quarantine free cruise. 

It wasn't a bad experience at all. There was plenty on space on the boat. We had time to eat in the restaurant, meet Santa, do shopping, spend time in the playroom, take a massage, try the hack the boat -game, eat breakfast and stay in sauna and jacuzzi. Quite many things! 

Estonia and Latvia part 2

Now the part 2 of our trip to Estonia and Latvia.

We said goodbye to Riga and started driving towards Tarto, Estonia.

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Some kilometres from the Estonian border, we saw a sign with the text "Valmiermuiza" and decided to go there. We found a stable, brewery and a shop. The reason going there was that we had tasted their beer with pizza in Riga.

Valmiermuiza has a long history, and is worth visiting.

Tarto, Estonia

We have been two times before in Tarto with the kids. Now we took a walk in the city before going to the hotel. There was an event going on there with hammocks and things to do for kids. What I appreciate about Estonia, is that there is always something to do for the kids.

We stayed in Hotel Sophia

It was a easy to stay there, because it has straight access to Lounakeskus.

It was raining a bit, so we stayed inside the rest of the day, eating and shopping, or just looking around.

I went to the Adventure Park at Lounakeskus with the kids, and they liked climbing there.

Driving towards Tallinn

On our way to Tallinn, we had to stop again. While travelling with kids, there is usually a need to find a toilet, very soon. And we found one at Siniallika Trahter.

There was a path, and we followed it. I love these paths in the forest where you go, and actually don't know what you will find. This is one of the tree main sources, with water coming 20-30 liters per second.

Saula Siniallikad

Then we still had time to go to the Atlantis Aquapark. Fun for the kids, and fun for adults as well.

After the waterpark we had great burgers at Burger Kitchen, close to the waterpark.

Thank you, Estonia!

Estonia and Latvia part 1

The original road trip

This Summer we had originally planned to fly to Spain, and drive home with a droptop (which would become our own car) through Europe. Plans changed due to Covid-19. It was not possible to do the trip we had planned. Instead the droptop came to Finland, when brother-in-law and his wife had their flight cancelled in June and drove here by car.

Droptop, here in Finland

The road trip that we did

So this Summer we did a shorter road trip. We took the boat to Tallinn and drove first to Parnu. Stayed one night there, and drove to Riga. After staying two nights in Riga, we drove to Tarto. And the day after that to Tallinn, to take a boat home.

We had a very nice trip, and the kids loved it. There were five days filled with a lot of things to do. Actually we hadn't planned so much what we would do on our trip to Estonia and Latvia. We made up the program while traveling, which worked surprisingly good for us. It always depends so much on the weather what is possible to do.

In Estonia and Latvia there are many places worth visiting. 

Estonia

Driving in Estonia is easy, and the roads are in quite good shape. We drove first from Tallinn to Pärnu.

Before going to the hotel, we visited friends and had the opportunity to swim in Reiu River.

Pärnu

We have visited Pärnu many times. Now we were staying in a hotel close to the park, not far from the beach. The beach is really nice. 

Walking on the breakwater is one thing to do in Pärnu. The weather was a bit windy and the waterline high, so we took of our shoes.

It wasn't safe to walk to all way to the end of the breakwater, because so many stones were slippery and covered with water.

We would have loved to stay longer in Pärnu, but it was time to drive to Riga. And the weather was rainy and windy in the morning. 

It's always fun to find nice places on the road. We stopped at a beach with a bird watching tower. I believe that the best places are actually found by accident.

Riga

Riga is mixture of old and new. The city was friendly and we had only good experiences. This is the view from our hotel window. We stayed at Radisson Blu Daugava, by the river. The room was spacy  and not very expensive. And customer service was excellent.

Here are the places we visited during our stay in Riga:

Shopping

We did our shopping at shopping mall Alfa. There was a good variety of shops.

Shopping mall Alfa

Playgrounds

This playground was a perfect place for climbing running and sliding! It's free, and open all day. We took the tram here.

Center Sport Playground

Museums

Usually on our trips we visit at least one museum. This museum showed the history of fire fighting in Latvia. The entrance fee was very cheap, less than a euro. 

Latvian Fire Fighting Museum

A nice museum with old trains and a possibility to try a dressin, which we did. We found this museum close to our hotel.

Railway History Museum

Food

We found very good pizza here. The place was close to the hotel, so we walked there for dinner.

Picas Meistars

Also a recommendation for Olivers. We were hungry and stopped there to eat.

If you want to eat local food, there is Pipars at Alfa shopping mall, which had good food.

Thank you, Riga! We will come back. There was not time to see all we wanted.