Clear Sky, 1°C Budapest We visited Sir Lancelot for dinner which is a medieval knight themed restaurant. The staff were all dressed in medieval clothing and there were knights, guillotines and swords everywhere. The boys also got to sit in royal seats with knights guarding them. We got a platter to share amongst all of us and it was a huge serving. It included skewers, … Continue reading Knights and Roses

Light Snow, -1°C Budapest We went on a walking tour of Budapest and got to take in some incredible buildings and got a great insight into the history of Hungary. One of the main things we learnt was the importance of 1896 and how most of the city was redeveloped them for the cities millennium celebrations. We started by the Opera House which had a … Continue reading Beautiful Budapest

One of the most fascinating things in Europe is how you can travel for only a few hours and go across countries, and all without any passport or visa check. We boarded our train in Prague at midday and will be in Budapest by 6 having traveled through Slovakia. The boarding of the train was a bit chaotic to say the least. We arrived at … Continue reading A Train Ride Through 3 Countries

Jiřská 3/1 Prague had a number of events on during the day to ring in the new year.This ranged from classical performances at various theatres and music halls through to huge fireworks tonight. We were keen to view the extended changing of the guards at midday today up at the royal castle. We had a lazy morning and didn’t leave till 11.30 and we had … Continue reading Happy New Year

Broken Clouds, -4°C Václavské náměstí 56 The official fireworks and celebrations for the New Year happen on the 1st of January in Prague. As there are no regulations on the purchase and use of fireworks, there were unofficial fireworks and noise makers all over town. I had booked a train restaurant called Vytopnia for dinner after having read a number of great reviews online. It … Continue reading New Years Eve

Jiráskův most We went on a walking and boat tour of Prague today. Bron decided to stay in the room with Tom so it was just me with the older kids. The tour was a big disappointment. I was hoping that the guide would take us from Old Town via Charles bridge to the Prague palace. Instead we quickly walked through Old Town and she … Continue reading Tour of Prague

Fog, -6°C Karlova 4-18 We headed to a tiny theatre on the top floor of a building near the Old Town Square to watch a puppet version of Don Giovanni with the original score created by Mozart. I have been really surprised with the number of theatre and cultural performances in Prague. There are classical performances on all the time ranging from operas and performances … Continue reading Puppets and Dinner

Mist, -4°C Staroměstské náměstí 4/1 We didn’t really have anything planned or organised for today so we decided to have a quiet and lazy one. After a late breakfast we let Thomas have another sleep in his cot and headed out on the late afternoon. Our hotel is conveniently located right near Charles bridge and close to Old Town which is almost like the tourist … Continue reading A Walk Through Old Town

Fog, -4°C Smetanovo nábřeží 324/10 We packed up and left Kakslautanen today. It was a real shame that it snowed all night and we weren’t able to see any more of the Northern Lights as there seemed to be quite a bit of auroral activity.The igloos had quite an interesting design and no matter how much it snowed over night the snow would just slide … Continue reading What a Show

The kids and I were booked on a husky safari today. We arrived all decked out in our warmest gear, and it was lucky that we did, as it was the coldest that I have ever felt on my life. Even before we got onto the husky sleighs our extremities were feeling numb. Poor Emily, she just had had enough and wouldn’t stop crying. As … Continue reading Mush

The main reason for coming to Kakslautanen was to see the Northern Lights. This year is meant to be a good year for Auroral activity and northern Finland is an ideal location. Unfortunately it also depends on the weather on the day which we can’t control. We had organised a reindeer safari to see the northern lights. This entailed getting on reindeer sleighs at about … Continue reading Elusive Northern Lights

We departed from Rovaniemi to spend the next couple of nights in Kakslautanen. We seem to have increased the amount of luggage we have, and including the warm clothes we rented we had a luggage cart full. The bus trip to Kakslautanen was through some incredibly scenic parts of Finland. It was all covered in snow and the trees and frozen lakes looked spectacular. After … Continue reading Hey Hey Santa

Today was meant to be the highlight of the visit to Lapland thus far, with a visit to Santa’s Village. We started by going to Arktikum which is a museum dedicated to Lapland. We read about their history, clothing, culture etc. It is an incredibly harsh environment and living here would be brutal. We followed it up with lunch at a manor which consisted of … Continue reading Amazing Santa

Unnamed Road We had a bus pick us up at 11 for a day in Santa’s secret hideaway with his elves. We started with a kilometre long hike through knee deep snow. Fortunately Ben found a sleigh that Emily could ride on which made the walk a lot easier for her. We started with a sleigh ride around the frozen lake. I sat out with … Continue reading Lapping it up

Korkalonkatu 31 Merry Christmas The kids all woke up very exited as Santa had visited overnight and left some presents for them. Apparently he dropped their presents off at home and then made another special trip to our hotel to leave a note. Emily was just soooo exited that she got an Elsa dress. Matthew got a motorised Lego kit and Ben got a robot … Continue reading Merry Christmas

Light Snow, -3°C Jaakonkatu 2 Christmas Eve The hotel had put on quite a few activities for the kids before dinner. They got to decorate their own Christmas tree, halfway through which Emily decided it was easier to be the tree than to decorate it. They also got to decorate their own Gingerbread cookies. We decided to save ours for Santa later in the night. … Continue reading Christmas Eve

Light Snow, -4°C Rovaniemi Just snow much fun We headed out to the woods near Rovaniemi to experience a Snow Fun Day. There was light snow for most of the day which the kids loved. They started with tobogganing down a hill. Matthew made a friend and raced against them, while Ben and Emily went down together, over and over again. They then got the … Continue reading Just Snow Much Fun