Hike #20 in Sweden!

We just got back from southern Sweden - my oldest son, Florian, is doing an Erasmus semester at the University of Lund, so we drove him up and got him settled, and then took some time to explore the area, which was beautiful.  Of course, for us, an important part of exploring is finding a national park and taking a hike, which we did near Dalby, in the National Park there.  We decided to try out the Ulastigen trail, which started with a very cool wood carved entrance-way:

A description of the trail:

It was a great way to spend one of our afternoons together, before we had to head back home and leave Florian behind in Sweden.  We'll see him again at Christmas.  Yes, there were tears when we drove away (mostly on my part - you know how mothers can be, right?)  but it will be a great experience for him to get out on his own and live in another country.  And there is always Skype...

Hikes #18 and #19: Gerolstein

For some reason, lately I've been bumping into a lot of articles about the benefits of walking/hiking in nature, and this one about the connection between walking and writing.  Fascinating!  And very true, I think.  Walking does help to organize your thoughts, brainstorm, and come up with new perspectives.  It's also a great activity to do as a family on a little vacation, which is what we did this past weekend in Gerolstein, Germany.

We love Gerolstein.  It's just 200 kilometers from door to door, there's a lovely hotel we like to stay at, and the long distance walking path called the Eifelsteig passes through the town.  The town itself is small and picturesque, and famous for its natural mineral water.  There is even a spring in the city park where you can fill your water bottle for free with the naturally sparkling water!  Most importantly, though, is the ancient volcanic history of the area which makes for incredible landscapes today: rolling hills, old craters, craggy dolomite formations, open fields and beautiful forests.  Our kids love the "Lord of the Rings" feel to it!

Yes. it made me very nervous when they climbed up there.

This is an ancient volcanic crater, and surprisingly deep.  One of my kids is just barely visible at the bottom.

We did two big hikes together, both about 10 kilometers and both ending up in the town of Gerolstein itself.  Which is handy because then you can treat yourself to something like this: