Tag: Travel

I never win anything *stamps my feet*

How little did I know?

Happiest Place in the World

Earlier in the week we were at an event hosted by VisitDenmark, encouraging tourism to Denmark.  To be honest, I’ve been to Copenhagen years ago and it wouldn’t take a lot to get me to go back.  It’s full of happy gorgeous people who know how to sit back and enjoy life, there is so much to see and do and the public transport system is incredibly efficient.

It was at the Home of Danish Design Fritz Hansen (est. 1872) in Central London.  They’d slaughter me for saying this but it’s like a very posh IKEA, but you won’t find any dreaded flat packing and the quality is incomparable.  I’m fully aware that one is Danish and one is Swedish.  As soon as I walked in I wanted to move in.  The place was just oozing with style; simple and elegant!

No, I’m not competitive!

Throughout the evening there was a twitter quiz and they were encouraging creative answers.  I blatantly cheated, retweeting other people’s correct answers, getting my twitter followers to send me the answers and when I couldn’t find the answer I just submitted ridiculous ones in hope of getting a laugh.  For example:

 Question 4:  What does Denmark mean to you?

 Me:  Tall gorgeous blonde men! Easy peasy!

 At the end of the evening, when they were announcing the winners, I was only paying half attention, messing about on my phone, as I really didn’t think I would win!  But, then I heard them call my name.  I went up to collect my prize red faced and then returned to where I’d been standing and had to ask the gentleman beside me what I’d actually won.

Thanks to Scandinavian Airlines and Tivoli Hotel we won a weekend break in Copenhagen inclusive of flights and hotel.

Now the big question….

Do we take our daughter?  Copenhagen is very child friendly, being the birthplace of Lego and the home of Fairytales, I don’t want to spend the weekend walking around feeling guilty thinking how much she would have enjoyed it.  But on the other hand my hubby and I haven’t had a weekend away together since she was born and could really use the time together?  Hmmmm….

Thanks to at travelllll.com for the invite and well done on organizing a great event!

 

 

 

Kids and jetlag

We’ve just returned from a fabulous holiday in Canada.  The only downside is we’re now suffering from jetlag, Madame and I have been up since 2 am and she’s now on her second movie.  I don’t find it too bad when we travel to Canada.  We usually have a couple of days of her waking at 5.30 am but then she slips back into routine.  However, when we fly back to the UK we often struggle.

This made me wonder if it’s normal to struggle more from west to east than east to west.  With a bit of spare time on my hands I did a bit of reading.  Apparently, it is more difficult from west to east as you face bedtimes earlier than normal and it’s easier to keep yourself awake than it is to force yourself to sleep which makes perfect sense.  For example, when it’s 8pm here it’s only lunchtime in Canada.

Do you agree or disagree?

Any tips on how to crack it?

Now I just need to find something to do until Sainsbury’s opens.

 

 

 

 

Travelling Just Got Easier Part 01

As you all know, I’m a huge fan of Toddler Tech.  I can’t justify buying an Ipad at the moment but I have no problem with letting my 3 year old loose on my Iphone.  Here are my Top 10 Iphone Apps for Toddlers.  However, the lovely Matt Big does have an Ipad and kindly wrote this post about his experience of travelling with two kids and an Ipad. I can’t wait to read part 2.

Photo Credit

I can remember holidays as a child, packed up in the back of the Volvo, with a packet of top trumps and a 6 hour journey to Cornwall. And for whatever reason, you always seemed to be sitting in traffic, hot, bored and not actually going anywhere. I think everyone has that type of travel tale to tell.

These days it is a lot different. The journey to Cornwall still might have its moments, but the time seems to pass a lot easier.

I have 2 boys, aged 2 and 7. As you can imagine keeping them entertained on our travels is no easy task. Car journeys seem to be ok, with pit stops etc., but airplanes, with their small spaces and no where to go. A nightmare! Or is it? Let me tell you about our last trip to Spain.

I always used to say that when travelling all you needed to remember was PMT. No wait, I am not mad. PMT. Passports, Money, Tickets.

However, I need to add in one more thing to my list. The iPad. Something I only normally use for work, is brilliant. The day before I clicked on to the App store and download a few games, movies, stories and apps. £20 was the approximate cost of my purchase, but compared to the games and books on offer at the airport shops, that seemed quite reasonable.

I will write a proper review on all the bits and pieces I brought and what was and wasn’t a success, but for those 2 x 3 hours plane journeys, the iPad was just brilliant. The 7 year old, like all 7 years knows his was round technology better than some adults and had no problems flicking between ‘Angry Birds’ and watching 500 best Premiership goals.

For the 2 year old, a little assistance was required. However, he loved looking at the shapes and colours as there appeared on the screen and enjoyed the 123 counting game. And even when the novelty of those educational games wore off, we still had an episode of Peppa Pig up our sleeve.

And I know using technology is not everyone’s cup of tea. But when you are packing up your carry on bag for the airplane, with the mountain of books, games and the DVD player, think if that could all be condensed down into one easy to update, easy to use, easy to carry iPad.

Travelling with children just got easier.

Matt Bigg

@mattbigg

matt@thecollectivedesign.co.uk