I, Aapo, and Niilo visited my parents in Polvijärvi, North Carelia, during the previous weekend. I had some training business in the nearby town of Joensuu, and it was handy to bring in the boys and bunk at my parents house for the weekend. Everyone won: boys saw grandparents, grandparents saw boys, Sanna got some time of her own, and I could bond deeper with the boys with this special dad-sons excursion to the wilderness — or something along those lines.

We took a train from Helsinki to Joensuu, and had our seats in a children car — an excellent choice, I must say. Aapo and Niilo spent most of their time playing, reading, eating or watching DVDs. I fixed three issues in a customer project, and read a couple of Aapo’s comic books. As the train left in the morning on Saturday, we had plenty of time in Polvijärvi after my dad picked us up in Joensuu. Saturday evening and Sunday was spent playing in snow — there as a slide built by my dad — and just fooling around the house.

I boarded a bus on Monday morning and rode to Joensuu. Boys stayed in Polvijärvi. The training / seminar took six hours, and after that we had a family reunion in Joensuu — my parents and sons picked me up, and we headed to the airport. Apart the waiting time — that was kept hectic by Aapo — the flight was uneventful. Both Aapo and Niilo sat obediently on their seats throughout the flight, and behaved well also on Helsinki-Vantaa airport where Sanna was waiting for us.

The flight was the latest one leaving from Joensuu, and well beyond the normal sleeping hours. Maybe the boys were so tired that they didn’t have energy to argue and to do mischief. Or then the flight was so exciting experience, as I was not sitting with them but on the other side of the aisle.

All in all, the trip was way better than I though it would, especially as all practicalities were so smooth. Next trip is probably middle-April, hopefully my good luck continues…

Helsinki has been blessed with good winter this year. Typically, there is just sleet instead of snow on the ground, and everything is wet and dirty. Not this year; the amount of snow is staggering. For example, I cleaned the yard twice yesterday, and spent about 30 minutes each time pushing the snow from here to there. It is excellent exercise, but feels a bit worn already.

The national railways have had a lot of issues with the snow, and trains on time have been more exceptions than a rule lately. I’ll travel to Joensuu with the boys on Saturday, so hopefully they get their act together before that. People have been waiting several hours at the station for their train, and doing that with two and five year old guys would be torture. Well, that is to be seen on Saturday…

We (myself and Sanna, that is) have been pondering on various travel destinations, but haven’t been able to get into any conclusion yet.

The ideal place should be somewhere warm, be kid-friendly and specifically have good children pools, be located near enough, and have something else than just beach and sunshine. Some shopping possibilities or theme / water parks would be additional bonus.

There seem to be no such place. Dubai is a good candidate, but opulence is not the thing that we are looking for now. There are rumours of opening a new Legoland in Dubai during 2011, so we decided to skip it until that theme park is available.

Thailand and south-east Asia in general are good candidates, but the long flights — especially overnight — are cumbersome with the boys. Canary Islands are a tacky destination, but I’ve heard good feedback about them. Unfortunately, there are no direct non-charter flights from Helsinki. Miami would be nice, too, but we’ve been there recently.

How travelling can be so hard? Maybe we should just scrap all the ideas, and go to New York for a while.

We had spent a good and relaxing weekend in Stockholm almost a week and half ago… I’ve been so busy with my work that I haven’t got enough time to write anything about it to Nomadig.com. Finally, I’ve been able to squeeze a few minutes for Nomadig.

We flew to Stockholm on late Friday afternoon. For the first time, we didn’t take any toys for the boys to the plane, but instead spend the hour watching the scenery underneath. For some odd reason, SAS forgot to bribe them with airplane toys. The surprisingly uneventful flight continued with short train trip to Stockholm city proper, and then we took a taxi to the hotel.

Our hotel was located next to Humlegården park in a posh neighbourhood in downtown Stockholm. We managed to visit a few shops before they closed, and I found a pair of jeans that I’ve been searching for a loooong time.

The next day was dedicated to shopping. We visited several stores around the area, and kept the boys in bay with vague promises and threats of going or not going to a toy store at the end of the day. We found more stuff compared to the last visit to Stockholm — then we didn’t find any. Mostly items that are not available in Helsinki.

After an excellent lunch in a local sushi bar we walked a couple of kilometers to Moderna Museet to see a Dalí exhibition. It was surprisingly crowded, and we had some hardships to navigate with two strollers — boys were deftly sleeping throughout the whole trip.

Finally, the moment the boys were waiting for: visits to a video game store and a toy store. We found new Super Mario Bros game for Wii from the first store, and nothing from the second. This was rectified later in NK toy department that had Lego Star Wars sets on sale. The programme for the day ended in the hotel’s roof-top sauna that I visited with the boys.

Sunday was really short day in Stockholm. We woke up before seven, had breakfast, and left the hotel with a taxi to the railway station. The plane left Arlanda around ten o’clock, and we were back in Finland at noon. The rest of Sunday was surprisingly relaxing, as we hadn’t planned anything for the whole day.

We had quite a wonderful time in London. The hotel was shock-middle London downtown, a couple hundred meters from Oxford Circus — and we were able to walk everywhere. This was a huge relief compared to the usual situation where one travels back and forth with the tube most of the day. I can whole-heartedly recommend No. 5 Maddox Street.

The programme was also relaxed. The business related stuff had their own time and place, but they didn’t spill over that much; only once or twice… Boys behaved extremely well for the most of the time — flying has never been this easy. Hopefully this is a continuing trend, and not an exception.

Saturday was the best day. The weather was nice, no business needs, a nice visit to Transportation Museum in Covent Garden, and a lot of small-scale shopping. Oxford and Regent Streets were closed from cars, and there were huge amount of people walking on the streets. I and Aapo made a long visit to Hamleys at the end of the day, and bought a pack of Legos, teddybear for Niilo, and some Thomas the Tank Engine railroad items.

Thaise Snackbar Bird is relatively compact restaurant for fast Thai snacks and meals on Zeedijk street. The snackbar is operated by a larger and more formal Thai restaurant on the opposite side of the street. They have separate kitchens, and there are differences in menus.

The food we had there were just superb, very authentic and rich in flavour. Spicyness was also on a good level. I loved especially the crunchy spring rolls, but the curries were excellent, too.

The restaurant has like twenty places to sit, and it fills really quickly. Fortunately, people do not stay to hang around after eating.

www.thai-bird.nl, Zeedijk 72, Amsterdam, Netherlands, +32 20 420 6289

The hotel selection in Amsterdam is quite polarized; there are really good and expensive hotels, and really bad and inexpensive hotels. Trying to find a hotel that does not cost a fortune, and has good rooms, decent breakfast, and nice location can be hard.

Hotel V somewhat fits the bill. It is a design hotel, in other words, a lot of time and energy has been put to the surroundings, rooms, and generic atmosphere. Despite being in a crummy neighbourhood, Hotel V has been able to execute this pretty well.

Our room was small, as most hotel rooms tend to be in Amsterdam — there are huge ones, too, I’ve even slept in such a room. The room looked way bigger in the pictures, so be warned. The breakfast was excellent, and service in general was nice. Free WLAN is always a good perk.

The hotel location is not the best, it is a bit out of the city centre, though near the museum sector. Tram is a good option, and it takes about fifteen minutes to reach the central station. We had booked a bike special, and rode around the town for a day — excellent way to see the city, and also get to the places.

www.hotelv.nl, Victorieplein 42, Amsterdam, Netherlands

P.F. Chang’s is a good choice for a restaurant when you are tired or lazy to think about the portions, and just want something tasty. The selection itself is huge, as usual in Chinese restaurants, and everything is tasty, as again usual in Chinese restaurants. Nothing is spectacular, though.

The restaurant itself is large, and as most chain restaurants, lacking personal touch. The service is once again excellent, and the food comes pretty swiftly. Price is not bad either. Somehow I see having take away a better choice than hanging in the restaurant, maybe it is the non-personality of the dining hall combined with the mall surroundings.

P.F. Chang’s, 900 Stanford Shopping Center, Palo Alto, CA, USA, +1 650 330 1782