Rügen island north Germany Baltic coast what to see and do road trip travel

RÜGEN island, Germany | 4 days holiday on German largest island

KatjaFAMILY TRAVELS, GERMANY Leave a Comment

After the Easter holidays here in Germany, a whole series of holiday days start. 1st of May, then the “Christi Himmelfahrt”, followed by “Pfingsten” – so if you are smart and take some additional days off, you can have quite a few longer weekends. The past weekend was one of those, we had 4 days. And so we booked a bigger apartment in a house on GERMANY´S LARGEST ISLAND, Rügen together WITH FRIENDS. None of us was ever there so we were really looking forward to it and we also went really lucky with the weather – only 2 weeks ago it was snowing and now we had very pleasant 20-something °C and sunny skies! It was simply the perfect weekend to drive up to the coast and considering the heavy road traffic many had the same idea.

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“WATTWANDERUNG”, Germany | mudflat hiking in the Wadden sea from Neßmersiel to Baltrum island in East Frisia

KatjaGERMANY, HIKING, SPECIAL EXPERIENCES 2 Comments

Between continental Europe and the North Sea´s FRISIAN ISLANDS, located in Netherlands, Germany and Denmark lies the so-called “WATTENMEER” (Wadden Sea). This intertidal zone is on the UNESCO´s World Heritage List and it´s a favourite spot for a unique experience – walking to an island! Yes, you heard it right – when the tide is low, one can walk several kilometres on muddy grounds until reaching the island. On the way back you have to take a boat. We tried it out last summer when we walked from Neßmersiel on the mainland to the island Baltrum.

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NORTHERN GERMANY road trip | Hamburg – Lübeck – Scharbeutz – Kiel

KatjaFAMILY TRAVELS, GERMANY Leave a Comment

Moving to Germany gave me the opportunity to use some of the weekends (especially those few longer ones) for short trips to different parts of the country where I have never been before. Especially the NORTHERN COASTAL PART is so different to anything I knew before and that´s why I always love to go there. Last year in the early spring we spend 4 days visiting HAMBURG, LÜBECK and a few BEACHES on the way to KIEL. Then it was already time to return home. Some of the places are well worth a stop even if you are just passing by on your way to Denmark or the Scandinavian countries.

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Winter road trip Filnland Lapland Helsinki what to see and do

LAPLAND, Finland | 11 days winter road trip from Helsinki to the north and back

KatjaFAMILY TRAVELS, FINLAND, WINTER SPORTS 12 Comments

Usually at this time of a year we would go some place warm, but not this year. This year we only got 11 days off and we decided to STAY IN EUROPE for a change. That would not have been enough for the other much WARMER DESTINATION we had in mind. So, I thought, why not do something completely different this time, why not go to the NORTH! Since this year´s winter was a really poor one, with not much snow, going to FINLAND seemed like a great idea.

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Finland food and drinks - typical Finnish dishes and what to eat in Finland

FINLAND food & drinks | typical Finnish dishes and what to eat in Finland

KatjaFINLAND, FOOD + RECIPES Leave a Comment

Before we landed in Helsinki, I had no clue what is traditionally eaten in Finland, but I was imagining that there will be lots of salmon dishes and berries. And yes, I was right. Somehow we thought food will be nothing special really, but I can say now we were wrong. We tried many interesting and very tasty dishes and really cannot say anything was mediocre. We usually had a bigger lunch as the main meal of the day and it seemed as the locals did the same. Breakfasts always got us full and so did the supermarket-bought snacks in the evening. If I had to name 5 ingredients that always seemed to find a away to our plates they would be: SALMON, REINDEER, RYE BREAD, MASHED POTATOES and BERRIES.

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Northern lights when where and how to see it

NORTHERN LIGHTS | where, when and how to see them

KatjaFINLAND, ICELAND, NORWAY, SPECIAL EXPERIENCES, SWEDEN 10 Comments

We cannot say we visited Finland just to see the northern lights, but I have to admit, it was high up on our priority list of what we wanted to see & do there. We knew already before we left there is no guaranty of spotting them, but hope never dies. And in the end, we were lucky enough to see them! It really was one of those magical moments which are hard to describe. Enjoying the silence around us in the dark night somewhere near the Russian border, we were standing on a bridge and could hear salmon swimming in the river below us, sometime after breathing the extremely cold air for a couple of hours (okay I´m sure it was less than that, but we all lost track of time) – this incredible play of lights in the sky suddenly appeared and there is no doubt, this night was for sure a highlight of the whole trip.

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HELSINKI, Finland | weekend city trip to the modern Finnish capital

KatjaCITY BREAKS, FAMILY TRAVELS, FINLAND Leave a Comment

We started our FINLAND TRIP this year by visiting the country´s CAPITAL CITY – since our plane anyway landed here we decided to spent two nights in a cosy hotel in the centre, get a feeling of the place and get use to the colder weather again. Although the city is quite spread out, 2 days is enough time to see most of the attractions. I believe there is more to do in the SUMMER, so if you are thinking just about a weekend getaway, then better go when it´s warm.

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Finland travel itinerary and costs Lapland with Helsinki

Lapland with Helsinki, FINLAND | travel itinerary and basic costs of our winter road trip

KatjaFINLAND Leave a Comment

Woohoo we´re counting the hours! I have to admit, this week I caught myself thinking how nice it would have been flying some place warm right now and we could be packing flip-flops and snorkelling masks instead of winter jackets and long pants, but well – we have to go through with it now. We will dress up warm and throw some wine in the bag, since it´s going to be very expensive there ;). In the past days I managed to book one last important thing – our rental car.  The original plan was to travel around with public buses, but we realised now they are quite expensive (kids older than 4 years have a 50% discount) and the connections are not available for the routes we want to take. Renting a car for 6 days makes more sense right now, it´s also a good price for the 3 of us, might even be cheaper than taking the bus, plus we´re much more flexible with where and when we want to go.

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travel tips | HOW TO PLAN YOUR TRIP

KatjaTIPS Leave a Comment

Okay so you have a destination in mind, you know approximately when you can take time off at work, who do you want to go with (or not) and now all that´s left is to start planning! Some people simply love to plan the trip into the details and some leave more space for spontaneously decisions once they are there. I used to be that spontaneously person, but since we have Lu I do tend to plan a bit more in advance. Anyway – I know the whole planning and organising process before you actually sit on the plane is a pain in the ass for some people (I on the other hand enjoy it very much). So I came up with this post in order to make it easier for those who don´t know where to start. I Hope it´s helpful :).

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