In my last blog post I mentioned that I wanted to keep up the Move More tips but that I was going to be in my office less with some annual leave booked in over the Easter break. So I was asked to do a ‘holiday blog’ to see if I could keep active whilst travelling abroad, and I think this helped motivate me to keep up the tips!

The first of my three short trips was a surprise trip away for my wife’s birthday. She’s set herself the challenge of visiting 30 countries before she’s 30, so I decided to take her to 3 countries she hasn’t yet been to, all in 6 days! She had no idea where we were going until we turned up at each airport to view the Departures Board, but knew there would be lots of ‘moving more’, as I’d mentioned I would be writing a blog.

First stop was Budapest in Hungary. We hadn’t managed to get much sleep as we had gone to a gig in London and so were up late and then had to get an early train to London, then to Gatwick for our flight, but we still managed to rack up plenty of steps walking around the airport and then exploring when we finally arrived in Budapest. Our hotel was perfectly located for a lovely early evening stroll from the centre of town to the Danube river, across the Elizabeth Bridge and back, and along the riverbank a little way, taking photographs as the light changed from daylight to twilight. We pit-stopped at a restaurant for dinner and then wandered back through the main shopping streets to our hotel. We managed to walk for around 2 hours covering 5.5 km, and had already agreed to use the tiny/scary lift to go up to our hotel floor but always use the 3 flights of stairs to come down to #BeStillLess. So day 1 done, and we’d covered almost 15,000 steps and 11.3 km in total, with the longest idle period of 1 h 40 mins – not bad on less than 5 hours sleep and an international flight!

Day 2 was a full on day of sightseeing, so we were up early to grab a ‘breakfast on the move’ pretzel from a little bakery window on the street and off for a long walk towards St Stephen’s Basilica and then on to the Grand Hungarian Parliament building. We experienced a tram along the riverfront, went on a boat cruise of the Danube, and then spent the afternoon climbing the steep hillside of the Citadella on the Buda side of the river, and up to the Royal Palace. Lots of tough walking but some fantastic views to make it all worthwhile. Day 2 finished with a huge 24,131 steps, covering 18.2 km with the longest idle period of only 54 mins!

Day 3 was our last morning in Budapest so we went for a nice walk to the riverfront and explored the area further south where the Central Market Hall and the Balna ‘The Whale’ exhibition centre are located. Then we were back off to the Dohany Street Synagogue (the largest in Europe) to pick up our transfer to the airport for a short flight to our next location, Tirgu Mures in the heart of Transylvanian Romania. We arrived late to terrible rain so no chance to explore but made sure we took the stairs down to dinner in our hotel. So, day 3 added another 13,934 steps over 10.6 km with 50 mins being the longest time spent idle, probably on our flight.

Day 4 was my wife’s birthday and so I had organised a tour of Transylvania and to ‘Dracula’s Castle’! This was a day largely travelling by car but with stop offs in medieval Saxon villages to walk around the fortified churches and historic buildings and castles. This was a long day as our tour started at 0730 and we were not home until after 2200 but it was the perfect blend of resting whilst being driven from place to place and tough walking up the hills and steps in the villages, all whilst avoiding the Vampires and stray dogs! We’d kept up our promise of taking the lift up but the stairs down in our hotel as well so we ended the day tired but happy. Another 13,934 steps added, walking 10.5 km with longest time idle being 51 mins.

Day 5 was really tough! We had to be up very early to get a 0300 transfer to the airport to fly to our final destination on this trip, Sofia in Bulgaria. After the flight, we decided to test out Bulgarian public transport and opted for the local buses instead of an airport transfer. This was an experience but meant we spent some time standing on the bus with the crowd instead of sitting idle, and it kept us alert and awake after our limited sleep! We walked to our hotel, left our luggage and picked up a map, and headed off for the main city centre of Sofia. We spent the day ticking off the sights on our list with little pit stops for food and drink, before walking back to the hotel for dinner and an early night, flagging after all the day’s activity. Steps on day 5: 15,070, covering 11.2 km and idle for a maximum period of 53 mins on our flight.

Day 6 was our final day, and after a good 10.5 hours sleep (we must have exhausted ourselves with all our ‘Moving More’!) we hit the local market place and wandered amongst the locals for the morning. Then it was off back to the airport for the flight home, and a commute from Heathrow via tube and train and taxi, racking up our first below target steps day of 9,928 steps, 7.7 km and 1 h 40 mins longest idle.

So in total on this trip we’d managed to Move More to the tune of 91,787 steps, 69.5 km, visiting 3 countries in 6 days, 5 nights!

I was back in work for two days, in which time I only managed 13,063 steps in total, before heading of again to Normandy, France over the Easter weekend with my wife’s family. Again the plan was to do lots of walking, visiting the towns and cities and Normandy landing beaches and museums. There were no stairs to climb as we were not staying in a hotel but a (very cold) static caravan (pretty sure I burned lots of extra calories shivering all through the night!). Day 1 totalled 11,899 steps, 9.1 km, and longest idle period of 1 h 17 mins; Day 2 equalled 11695 steps, 8.8 km and 55 mins longest idle time; Day 3: 7,352 steps, 5.6 km, longest idle 1 h 40 mins; and on the final day, which mostly consisted of getting home from France, we clocked 7,282 steps, 5.7 km and were idle for a longest period of 1 h 14 mins. So another 38,228 steps ticked off…and we still weren’t finished!

After another 2 days in work (where I hit my steps target on both days with 17,180 and 10,522 steps), we were off to Iceland for a Hen Do for a friend. Day 1 racked up 10,083 steps, 7.9 km and just under 2 hours longest being idle (the flight); Day 2 achieved 11,038 steps, 8.5 km and just 42 mins longest idle whilst we were on a coach tour to some of the beautiful Icelandic countryside; Day 3 racked up a big 19,013 steps, 14.6 km and just 31 mins longest idle time as we walked all around Reyjavik and danced the night away in a nightclub (all good exercise!); Day 4 was a more sedate 10,481 steps, 8.3 km, and many hours of floating and wading in the Blue Lagoon thermal spa (a reward for all our steps!); and the final day contributed another 11,874 steps, 9.2 km and 41 mins of longest idle time. Total steps for this trip: 62,489.

So what have I discovered from all my travels? I am definitely more active when I am off exploring foreign lands than when I am in work! Whilst it made me think that I should go on holiday all the time rather than work, the better option is to work out how I can ‘explore’ my local area more regularly. Thus, my new ‘Do More’ resolution is to ‘Do More of Kent’ and so I have bought a Kent walking route book and am going to try to complete some of the walks over the next few months on the weekend and evenings. The real challenge is to get back into a routine at work, trying to be more active and encourage my colleagues to join in – possibly trying out some of the TrySport or PlaySport activities!

Caroline Digby-Bowl
Senior Lecturer in Sport & Exercise Biomechanics
Section of Sport & Exercise Sciences
School of Human & Life Sciences
Canterbury Christ Church University