Adventure #4.1 - Cityweekend in Dublin

Can you call a cityweekend trip to Dublin an adventure? Well of course! An adventure is about discovering new things and exploring the world - so definitely an adventure!

Dublin is a great city - the size is perfect since everything is within walking distance. People are friendly and there are lot's of sights and history to explore. Of course we did the usual stuff - shopping, walking, walking, walking, eating, visiting pubs, sightseeing, visiting museums, just relaxing and then some more walking. Since this was a trip for my 15-year old, he decided the tempo and activities. A couple of times I left him in the hotel room and did some shopping of my own!

So, here are some of the highlights - and also things that qualify very well as adventures.

City Bike Tour
There are lot's of tour companies in Dublin, the hop-on hop-off buses, other bus tours, plenty of walking tours and of course the strange/fascinating/unique/appalling (you choose!) Viking splash tours... But we decided to go on a bike tour. We did that last year in Berlin and thought it was a great way to get a good understanding of the city and the history. We booked our tour with Dublin Bike Tour and walked to the meeting point on a rainy Thursday. There were only 3 of us going on the tour together with our charismatic guide Brian.

We had a great morning with Brian who showed us the main sights in Dublin and at the same time gave us information about the city and the history. Both informative and entertaining! I think this way of seeing the city is actually better for a teenager then just riding the bus which can get a bit boring. So we were both happy with the start in Dublin!

The sculpture Famine

Casper, Oscar Wilde and our guide Brian

Hiking in Howth
When we were approaching the airport on our way to Dublin, we could see Howth when looking down through the plane window. And Casper said "It would be great to go there" - so of course we had to do that! Howth is only about 25 minutes from Dublin on the DART (commuting train). Howth itself is a pretty seaside village with a harbour, piers and plenty of seafood restaurants.

Many people come here to go hiking on the trails around Howth's head, and so did we. We took a short trail which was about 7 kilometers which took a couple of hours. It was a great walk with nice scenery. There are four prepared loop walks, and we went on the Tramline loop. It was a windy day with mostly sun but also some showers. Typical Irish weather! When we got back into Howth we celebrated with a nice lunch at one of the many restaurants before heading back to Dublin.

We can really recommend this as a short adventure when you are in Dublin - the hike is easy with spectacular views.

Geocaching
(For our new blog readers who never heard of geocaching - check out Geocaching.com. "GEOCACHING is a free real-world outdoor treasure hunt. Players try to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, using a smartphone or GPS and can then share their experiences online.")

This was not really a geocaching trip, but we tried to do some treasure hunting as well. We checked out the caches with most favourite points and just went for those. Here are some nice ones that we found:

• The Loneliest Litter Basket in the World - located close to our hotel, a very charming cache in an abandoned litter basket in the middle of some bushes. We actually had to go there several times. We first picked up a leprechaun Travel Bug, but it turned out that it just arrived in Ireland and wanted to stay there. So, we had to go back and return it. (Travel Bug = hitchhiker that travels from cache to cache, often with a mission)
• Iveagh Cache - was only 68 metres from our hotel room! Located in a very nice and secluded park.
• Gardiner's Treat - a webcam, and nice since there are not that many webcams left since you are not allowed to create these types of caches anymore. 
• Radio Ga Ga - the only cache we logged on our trip to Howth. Amazing view of the sea and the harbour in Howth. 

View from our window where you can almost see the Iveagh Cache.

That's it! Both of us had a great time exploring Dublin and it was nice to have some time together just the two of us. Stay tuned for Adventure #4.2 - Cityweekend in Moscow.

/A

On our way to Moscow and Dublin

OK, this might not be a "real" outdoor adventure... But we bought our teenagers tickets for a cityweekend as Christmas gifts. And since May is a busy month for this family, we decided that these city weekends would be part of our family adventure year. This also put some pressure on us to come up with ideas on what to do, and not just spend the whole weekend shopping and eating!

We do quite a lot of things together as a family, but sometimes it is nice to divide the team. So we decided to take one kid each and plan a long weekend somewhere in Europe. Annika planned the trip to Dublin with Casper.  The adults in the family have been there before, and I remember thinking "we need to come back here sometime when we have kids". So that seemed like a good choice. We found cheap airline tickets and a hotel close to the city on the south side. And we were ready!

CJ was in charge of planning the weekend with Ellen. He usually tries to find interesting places where not many people usually go on vacation. After a little search on the net and a few clicks the flight and hotel were booked to Moscow via Mr Jet. So far so good... Then he began to read a little more and it turned out that they needed a visa to travel to Russia. No problem, how hard can it be to fix a visa....

Well, it was not as easy as he had expected and it was actually quite expensive too (for a short weekend trip). In addition to the Embassy fees (nearly 600 Swedish kronor per person) there was a need for an invitation from a Russian tourist organization. The hotel he booked could arrange it and after a few emails we got a handsome invitation with stamps and only Cyrillic text for another 600 SEK per person. In addition, our insurance company had to send a “Russia” certificate which insured that we had travel insurance. 2 400 kronor and a lot of work (3 physical visits) we finally got our visas. Comparing to travel within EU you can at least see some benefits of being part of the EU.

Lot's of paperwork

It was actually much easier to enter Russia than getting the visa. The passport control in Moscow was very fast compared to for example the United States.

We will return with more detailed descriptions of our city weekends in Moscow and Dublin. This is written the night CJ and Ellen arrived in Moscow when the whole city were preparing for the celebration of the defeat of Nazism 63 years ago on 9th of May 1945. More on that in the next blog post!

/A and CJ

Friluftsmat: Grönsaksnudlar med lax

Detta recept är gjort för att tillagas utomhus på friluftskök eller över öppen eld. Receptet är tänkt för en dagstur när det går att ta med sig färska ingredienser. Sist i receptet finns lite tips om hur det går att anpassa för en längre tur med torkade ingredienser istället.

Grönsaksnudlar med lax (2 port)

Ingredienser
1/2 paket äggnudlar
1 bit squash
1 paprika
1/2 gul lök
1 bit hackad ingefära
Sweet chilisås
Lime
Soja
Salt, peppar
Olja
2 frysta laxbitar

Gör så här
1. Hacka squash, paprika, gul lök och ingefära. För att spara tid kan du förbereda det hemma.
2. Fräs grönsakerna i lite olja i en stekpanna på gasolköket eller på en muurikka över elden.



3. Koka upp vatten och lägg i nudlarna, de blir klara i varmvattnet på 5 minuter (kolla instruktionen på paketet).



4. Stek laxen i olja (stekpanna på gasolkök eller muurikka). Lägg laxen åt sidan.



5. Blanda nudlar med grönsaker och tillsätt sweet chilisås, pressad lime, soja samt salt och peppar.



6. Låt grönsaksnudlarna fräsa en stund i pannan.



7. Häll upp och njut!

Variant med torkade grönsaker
Vi har gjort en liknande rätt när vi fjällvandrat, men då hoppat över laxen och ätit den vegetarisk. Det går förstås att torka lax, men det har vi inte provat. Squash, paprika och lök kan torkas enkelt. Se till exempel den här artikeln på Utemagasinet. Om du verkligen vill lära dig mer om att torka mat så är boken Torka mat från Calazo inspirerande! Där får man också lära sig att torka fisk om ni vågar er på det.

Lime är lite överkurs så det kan man hoppa över. Men sweetchili, soja och olja är lätt att ta med sig i små burkar. Skippa färsk ingefära och ta med mald istället.

Om man är ute och fjällvandrar och passerar STF:s fjällstugor så kan man köpa nudlar på plats så då slipper man bära det med sig.

Smaklig måltid!

/A

Adventure #3 - Horseback riding

Finally time for our next microadventure doing something we have never tried before - horseback riding. This time we brought Sarah with us for extra support, she's an excellent rider so that felt comforting.

We arrived to Oak Wood Ranch north of Stockholm early on Saturday morning with the sun shining. We met our horses and helped to get them ready. It was a bit nervous to get up on the horses and the first practice steps in the paddock were not that easy. How do you make the horse move in the right direction?? After a while we managed to get the horses out of the paddock and lined up for the tour.

Helena, our guide for today took us gently forward on the grovel road. After about 10 minutes we started to feel more comfortable and could actually steer the horses somewhat... Some of the horses just followed the leader nicely like Glaesir and Bruda, but Casper had some problems getting Bob to go where he wanted. So he had some close encounters with the pine bushes...

We went through a pretty landscape with small roads and through the woods. A bit muddy and some of the horses didn't like that and tried to make detours to avoid the mud. We rode quite slowly, but we got to try the faster trot as well. And Bob chose to gallop for a while, not sure Casper enjoyed that!

We were out for about 1,5 hour which was quite enough for us beginners, we were tired, hungry and very satisfied when we arrived back at the stable. Great tour! Coffee and sandwiches was the perfect ending to this tour - which we really can recommend!

But our day wasn't finished there! Next item on the agenda was to go for a short hike and make lunch over a fire in the woods. We drove the car for a short distance and then walked a couple of km along Roslagsleden. We stopped at Lilla Harsjön, which is on section 4 from Lövhagen to Domarudden on the trail. This is a beautiful lake with a camping shelter and several fireplaces. When we got there, there were already people at the shelter so we chose to use another fire place close by. Before the lunch we showed Sarah how to do geocaching and logged the cache Lilla Harsjön.

The weather was perfect - sunny and warm. We relaxed on the rocks by the water and made a fire. The lunch was "BBQ chicken with couscous", a real de luxe meal. We were not in a hurry so we relaxed in the sun just enjoying the day.

I think the whole crowd was happy with the day. It was an adventure to ride the horses and then we ended with the lunch by the lake. What are you waiting for - get out there! What will be your next microadventure?

Geocaching i Lejondal

Idag var det äntligen dags för en geocachingrunda - den första ordentliga turen på väldigt länge. Vi har legat i vinterdvala ett tag, men nu är vi "back in business". Vi tillbringade fredagkvällen med att lösa ett gäng mysteries och begav oss till Lejondals naturreservat i Upplands Bro.

Innan vi kom fram till naturreservatet så åkte vi en slingrande grusväg förbi Lejondals slott och stall för att logga ett par cachar i serien Adventskalender av Xanthopteryx. Efter uppvärmningen begav vi oss mot naturreservatet och torpet Hällkana. I torpet håller Friluftsfrämjandet till med servering och bastu som är öppen på helgerna. Vi hade som vanligt egen fika med oss, men vi kan aldrig motstå charmiga små kaféer som drivs av eldsjälar, så vi inledde turen med kaffe och hembakade bullar i solen med utsikt över Lejondalssjön.

Det går en slinga norr om parkeringen på ca 3 km som vi utgick ifrån. Men det blev många avstickare för att logga cachar så vår tur blev längre. Men idag var vi inte ute efter att gå långt och fort, utan målet var att få sol, luft och lugn. Så då passade den här utflykten perfekt! På kartan över naturreservatet ser man ytterligare stigar, så det går att förlänga turen om 3 km känns kort. Upplands-Broleden passerar också området.

Naturreservatet hade nog sin storhet på 70-talet, nu var det inte så välskött. Men tydligen finns det en plan att rusta upp området ser jag i en skötselplan jag hittade på Upplands Bro kommuns hemsida. På kartan över naturreservatet fanns fina grillplatser och vindskydd utmärkta, men i verkligheten fanns de inte... Det fanns några enklare grillplatser utan ved men några vindskydd såg vi inte till. Men det ska alltså bli nya grillplatser och vindskydd enligt kommunen. Och det behövs, nu såg vi flera spår av egengjorda eldplatser på hällarna ner mot vattnet. Vi hittade i alla fall en hyfsad grillplats ute på en udde för vår lunchpaus. CJ gjorde en fantastisk lunch och bjöd på lax och grönsaksnudlar. Kommer eget blogginlägg med receptet, kan varmt rekommendera det!

Lyxlunch med muurikka över öppen eld

Vi loggade totalt 13 cachar under dagen och missade ett par. Det var inga märkvärdiga cachar, de flesta var plaströr under sten, men i bra skick och på fina platser. Området var verkligen fint med blandad natur och kulturhistoria i form av gamla torp och rester av en gammal såg.

Så här ser torpet Roligheten ut, utan panel just nu

Här loggar vi View of Lejondals castle

Och här är utsikten!

Många stenar har vi letat under idag

Det enda misslyckandet under dagen var att vi inte såg någon tibast! Kvinnan som vi köpte kaffe av sa att de skulle ha en "tibastvandring" under dagen för att titta på tibast. Vi är ju inga fältbiologer så vi fick googla fram en bild på tibast, en grön buske med vackra rosa blommor som alltså då ska finnas här i trakten. Och vi spanade under dagen, men ingen tibast i sikte... Hoppas gänget som gick på vandringen hade bättre tur!

/A

Kanonhajk

Vi hade länge planerat att åka på hajk med "mina" scouter i Sollentuna Norra och besöka ett av kustartilleriforten, som numera är museum. När vi gjorde upp planen så skulle våren ha kommit mycket längre men det är ju fortfarande gott om snö och inte särskilt varmt på nätterna. Så istället för att ge oss ut i Stockholmsskärgård så blev målet Oxelösund och Femörefortet eller batteri OD som det hette när det var operativt. För att "spetsa" till utflykten för scouterna började vi med ett besök på Boda Borg inne i Oxelösund. Efter att scouterna sprungit runt i cellerna på Boda Borg så drog vi ut till fortet och vi hann gå en promenad runt Femöre, det var tuff terräng och halt i skogen.

1:a pjäs men det är dax att skottfällsröja (undra hur detta kommer fungera i framtiden då hela femöre är ett naturreservat?).

Vi blev guidade runt anläggningen och alla tyckte det både var spännande och intressant. För barnen som var med är det nog lite svårt att förstå hur Sveriges försvar såg ut under kalla kriget.

Tungt! Snyggt? 

Bild från femorefortet.se

Ordersalen i batteri OD

Som backup vid dåligt väder hade vi hyrt ett litet hus ute på udden mitt i batteriet. Det visade sig vara bra då vädret kunde varit bättre.

Biträdande bostaden (15 kvadratmeter), Går 15 scouter in? (se nedan).

Vi tog oss ned till en strand där det fanns en bra eldstad och vi åt en klassiker, grillad korv och makaroner. Jag måste säga att denna maträtt har ett sämre rykte än den smakar och vi hade "lyxat" till med riktiga och goda tyska och spanska korvar. Till efterrätt en annan klassiker, hajkbanan.

En eld ökar trivseln med 250%

Makaronifabriken...

Vi tajmade regnet (och mörkret) rätt bra så efter middagen drog vi oss tillbaka till vårt lilla hus. Där vi lyckades skapa en plats för alla att sova på. Vi fick ta ut lite av möblerna och placera dem under presenningar (hoppas inte hyresvärden läser detta!), men det gick bra och de var torra när vi ställde tillbaka dem.

Vi åt frukost på altanen och njöt av både utsikten och solen som ibland kom fram mellan molnen.

Som vilken hotellfrukost som helst...

Två ledare som äter frukost.

Vilken utsikt!

Det lite större huset och vårt lilla!

Det var ett gäng trötta scouter och ledare som efter frukosten åkte tillbaka till Stockholm. Jag kan rekommendera alla att besöka både femöreudde med en fantastisk natur och själva fortet för att det är ett spännande utflyktsmål.

Det blev också några geocacher tagna tillsammans med Team Sparris.

/CJ

Planning our microadventures

I got a question the other day about how we plan our adventures. Is it a democratic process where the kids are involved? So I thought I would share some thoughts on that.

Well, I would like this to be democratic... Our teenagers have agreed to do this with us this year, and I think that is a great achievement in itself. Asking them to also be enthusiastic and come up with ideas on things to do was stretching it a bit too far. So, now CJ and I plan the adventures ourselves and the kids have veto rights if they really don't want to do something. And so far that has been a winning concept.

It was also a great idea to start with something that we knew they would really enjoy - going wolf tracking. That made them more positive about this whole idea!

When it comes to coming up with ideas on what to do, I read a lot of other "microadventure" blogs to get inspired. When I mention our project to people I meet they also have ideas to share. We just got an offer to go sailing in the summer with a collegue in the archipelago south of Stockholm - sounds like that could be one of our adventures! And I hope our blog readers will come up with even more ideas!

For keeping track of the planning, we have an analog planning tool - our whiteboard! Works great! We actually use the whiteboard for planning everything that a busy family needs to keep track of, and now there's a special section on the board for our microadventures. I also use Evernote for keeping my notes, links, ideas all in one place. Did I mention that we have two project managers in this family?

What's your best planning advice? Our kids would say "don't plan too much - there must be room for spontaneity as well!"

/A