A week in Paris - Some tips for travelling with a baby

We're back from a week's trip to Paris with almost 10 month old Adu. And boy, are we glad he's inherited our travel genes! Being avid travelers as a couple, we're now so so grateful that our little one enjoys traveling too. It was a no-hassle, simple trip to just one place - Paris, for a week, with a lot of buffer to rest, with no hard and fast tick list and that helped us have a relaxed trip in spite of a 10 month old.

We covered the important places like Louvre, Eiffel tower, a day's hop on hop off and so on, but kept the rest of the trip to just walk around the city, and explore things at our own pace. Little Adu enjoyed his time in his stroller, babbling away happily, singing long notes, waving at strangers, giggling, and falling asleep when tired! And we walked around the city, a few kilometres everyday, exploring the city, clicking pictures, tasting amazing French food, and taking in every bit leisurely. Unlike our earlier trips, we'd wake up late and start from the apartment in the late morning, after Adu had his share of rest, pack food for Adu from home, venture out till evening when we ourselves would get tired.

Some of the preparation that helped us ease travel with the kiddo:

• Pack light. Consider your baby also as a piece of luggage - a big and cranky one at that! Even when you're taking his stroller, your hands will be busy pushing the stroller. Also, you never know when the kid insists on being carried in arms rather than in stroller. So pack very light for yourselves, but make sure you carry the baby's most essential items.
• Don't have a hectic schedule when traveling with a baby. You'll need a lot of buffer including resting times, unexpected delays, time to prepare the baby's stuff before every outing, more sleep time than usual owing to the added tire traveling with the baby and so on. Keep the plan relaxed. 
• Be flexible. It is more important to enjoy the trip than to tick off places. There is no point in visiting every place on the tourists' guide when everyone including the baby is getting dead tired. Also, everything might not go just as per you plan. For example, you might plan to visit a place that requires you to set off early in the morning, but your kiddo might have given you a bad night, meaning all of you needing more sleep time in the morning to be fresh. So just push the early morning plan to a better day and do something else that is light instead.
• Carry enough supplies of your baby's favorite food. Even if your baby is willing to try different stuff, it is better to carry his favorite foods. We had carried some fruit smoothies he's used to, his usual cereal, and some dosa flour. 
• Book a place with a small kitchenette. Or carry your own little one burner stove and a pan. This really helps to dish out something fresh at least for the baby. In our case, we carried Adu's favorite dosa flour (not batter) (a mix of wheat flour, rice flour and a bit of methi powder) that we'd mix with water and make a tiny dosa for him that he'd be happy to eat after a tiring day out.
• Keep a couple of his favorite toys. And we'd give him one when he's bored sitting in his stroller for quite some time. It would delight him to get his favorite toy suddenly and that would keep him busy for some time. And with small kids, a lot of other 'junk' things can be used to keep them engaged for long periods of time. Like Adu loves to look at and play with maps and brochures after we're done with, lids of throwaway containers without any sharp edges keep him busy for some time, he like studying tickets, receipts and such. Just make sure nothing you give the baby is harmful.
• Reserve time to just spend with the little one everyday. That may be playing a silly game, singing rhymes, giggling with him, or just cuddling with him.
• Make things interesting for the baby. Your baby will definitely not appreciate being on top of Eiffel tower or looking at Mona Lisa! What he instead enjoys is playing a peek a boo with you, giggling at the monkey faces you make, clapping hands with him for a rhyme and so on. So make sure you do it with him often, to keep him happy. Don't worry if the people around think you are a bigger monkey! They mostly will not and even if they do, that's ok.
• Carry the essentials always. Always when heading out, make sure your baby bag has refills of food, water, nappies, tissues, bib, a snack and so on. Having a bit more is better than running out of something midway with a crying baby.  
• Keep Emergency Numbers handy. That includes the local doctors, baby's doctor back home in case there is a need, you don't have to panic searching for numbers.

Skandla: A short trek outside city of Goteborg

On a Saturday afternoon that we didn’t want to go to far off place, googled and found this place pretty close to ours, called Skändla where there are remains of the medieval village, and apparently Stone - Bronze age man lived here.

We’d have to change two buses but the total journey was just about half an hour, though the buses to the place are infrequent. We got down at the mentioned stop – Skandla Sodra, and were pretty lost as to how to reach the actual place. We did see a hillock covered with forest on our left, but weren’t sure where the entrance was. We asked the only two people we saw there, who apparently were also new to that place and as per their suggestion, kept walking on the main road. After a long walk of about a couple of kilometers we were sure that we were still going around the forest trying to find the entrance rather than entering it! No guesses for who was looking at the map :P. Okay, the map didn’t show the entrance, it only showed the road around it :D

However the walk around the forest itself was quite pleasurable, with a small country side road in between hilly forest on one side and huge fields on the other, with some Roe-deer and hares in between to entertain us. Of course birds to keep our camera busy :)

We were done with the walking quota of the day by then and decided to return for the day and come back the next. This time took another smaller road back, and almost figured out where the entrance was, so as not to repeat the same mistake again!

The next day we set out earlier in the say, and this time reached the entrance from the bust stop in just a couple of minutes, but yes, on the opposite side to what we had taken the previous day. There were routes and maps and clear information about the place, helping us not to get lost.

It is about 7km walk in the forest, mostly on small paths, but the paths are clearly marked. We took a thick stick for some protection, as there was not a single human around the entire place. Only towards the end of our trek did we find two more groups of people.

There are some remains of a medieval age village. Apparently evidences of stone age, bronze age and iron age man have been found here.  

There are these huge heaps of boulders which acted as a fort for their safety.

Here’s the other side of the ‘fort’ that is not easy to climb up.

Fell in love with this house adjoining the forest..

Finally after a satisfying walk in a jungle of Sweden, glad that the home made pizza loaded with cheese was well burnt, came back home and collapsed :)