Fun exercise - family edition

Yesterday the whole family went for a walk in the woods. Ending up at a farm that's only open to the public on Sundays, but the football field was there even on a Saturday...

Scholiast hiking in unrestricted area - a few years ago

You may, or may not know, that going for walks is Norway's national sport no. 1. (I know I've said that it's football, but that's in registered members - you don't register anywhere to take a walk*.) Norwegians tend to walk to school, walk to do the shopping, walk to work and then, to relax, walk somewhere else. In a park, to a park, in the woods, along the shore, to a friend, to the cinema etc. etc. Yes a lot of people drive too, but if it's reachable on foot, that's what we opt for. Using "we" very loosely here, as we (my family) had our very first walk on our own, and on our own initiative, yesterday...

The kids have all been to this place before, with their class / kindergarten. And they're more used to walking (with said institutions...) than we, their parents. Still, as expected, I was walking briskly (as I do) trying to catch up with three of them - while hubby was strolling (as he'd love being able to do on weekdays too...) with the other two. Who hardly move at all. Not because they're tired, and not really because they stop all the time (although they do stop to observe the odd snail, mushroom or whatever), but because they walk really s l o w l y ... Well, we ended up in the same place, but walking together was impossible. At least on this, our first try.

Now the kids weren't ecstatic about it all... (Where do they get these un-Norwegian vibes??) So now we've decided we'll do it every weekend. Not to taunt them, no, listen - we're buying a thingamajig that measures the distance you walk, multiply by seven, then add up and once we're passed 50 / 100 / (any number we decide upon) kms, we're treating ourselves to a day at a waterpark or a cinema or something.

Now the kids are ecstatic. Fun, eh?

* You don't even have to walk on set paths. As long as it's public land - and there's a lot of that here - you walk wherever you want, stopping to feed wherever you want, no signs showing you were to photograph even... Here's an example of people in a restricted area...