Off Like a Herd of Turtles: Family Travel Blog

I spontaneously decided that when each kid turns 10, 15 and 20 they get to decide the location of one of our family vacations. To my surprise Zooey chose Sweden "because I want to meet our relatives". My family is still in contact with my mom's second cousin Ingvar, who is a healthy robust 80 something year old. He has visited us in the US a couple times (I was a kid) and my Grandpa Mel visited him in Sweden years ago. So once I learned Ingvar lives in Halmstad on the West Coast of Sweden I set to work building an itinerary for the 5 of us (Z 11, O 6, F 2).  Anyone who knows me, however, knows I'm not big on classic sight seeing and I always need to throw in some kind of physical adventure. I had been itching to get our family on a bike packing trip. It seemed like an easy way to see more sights, cover more ground without carrying a heavy pack (and heavy children, though frankly I kinda enjoy carrying the children) but still have the joy of physical exertion/challenge...

  Lieselotte trail Engelberg Globi trail After our glorious Mt Falhourn through hike , we spent the next week galavanting around the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland. Adam, Z and I had been here 6 years prior and had just a marvelous time. We wanted to go back to some of the same places and try new places as well. We decided to split our time between valley (Grindelwald) and mountain (Wengen/Murren). I could easily stay in this region for months without getting bored. So much hiking, so much exploring- if you visit this part of the world don't skimp on time here. On this trip, we did opt to visit the Saas Fee region as well to try something new.....but honestly I'd vote to stay in Bernese Oberland if I had that choice to make again.  Tickle Trail We chose to deal with jet lag by staying three nights in Lucerne-just a short two hour train ride from the Zurich airport. We had a nice couple days there but if I went again I'd push through and try to get all the way to th...