Category Archives: Paperwork

Stuff about paperwork, customs, borders, immigration officials and more red tape

Day 31 – Who needs a plan …

Good morning, France! Queuing at the border check point, ferry in the distance

I might give a few years off the tail end of my life if I could ensure that all days work out like this one. To begin with: We did not miss our wake up or run into any sort of issue disembarking the ferry. We woke up at 5am Irish time (6am local) to both my alarm as well as the gentle Irish folk music provided curtesy of Brittany Ferries. We had breakfast, bought just in time to avoid the mad rush and vacated our genius cabin in due time to leave the ship among the first waves. I even had time for a quick shower in our ensuite.

Running around, chomping on a pain au chocolat…what a good life our kids have 🙂

Next up, first destination back on French soil: Boulangerie patisserie – one of the few things open on Sundays in this land of liberty. By the time we had our first baguette in hand we were greeted by a wonderful sunrise over Roscoff’s old harbour. The light of the new day revealed what a quaint and pretty little town Roscoff was. We stuck around for a while, admiring the strange bell-tower, walking out on this seemingly endless pier. We liked it.

Still early in the day on a beach just out of the old town, we sat for a while thinking about what to do and where to go next. We were sorely missing a Lonely Planet guide for Brittany – it has become such a part of our traveling by now. Just something to sharpen the focus and find inspiration. Without such aide, we decided on an ambling “long way” route to a campsite only 140km to the east. We were glad to be able to draw upon the Rustiek Kamperen site again.

Road to infinity

Before hitting the campground early for once, there was some road to be travelled. The ride was pretty high up there, following along through more cute villages along the shore as well as the cities of Morlaix and Lannion. The former of which was such a sudden revelation of cool and picturesque that we had to stop for a coffee and a wander. The main feature (for us) was this absolutely enormous railway viaduct crossing the narrow valley right at the point where the estuary was capped off by a small harbour and covered over to make space for the village square. Best of all, there was a path on the first level of arches accessible to cross and take in the views. A perfect surprise.

Just a short while after the baguette from this morning was ritually sacrificed on another of our now almost customary beach-side lunch stops. After lunch, given our early start, I was the only one left to really admire the scenery as snoozing ensued all around me for most of the rest of the way.

Bringing people together for an Indonesian Rice Table. The kids had their own table…mostly

That also meant no additional stops or delays before the campground, though. What a jackpot it was. Le Cheval Rouge was a rural farm renovated and run as a B&B / Glamping site by Dutch couple Chantal & Oliver. It was like it was made for us – very small and intimate, exceptionally kid friendly and without big campervans. Or many other campers at all – most other guests took the chance to stay in big family tents kitted out as glamping sites for families. Just as we were about to set up and enjoy the afternoon, the cherry on top was delivered: Sunday was the day for a communal dinner. Today it was Indonesian Rice Platter. We were just in time to decided to join in. Indonesian food? Mostly vegetarian, as Chantal is vegetarian, too! So many times, yes.

And so, we had, completely by accident, one of the coolest evenings of our European travels. A perfect warm late summer evening, everyone around a long table set out in their garden. Although we were the only non-Dutch guests, everyone was very kind in switching to German or English to accommodate us. Most of the guests were families with young children as well, the kids were playing, and the wine was good. I even got to spend a few minutes at the campfire even though the rest of my family has called it an early night.

Good times!

Day 25 – F… This Day

No further text

Was what I intended to write. But I guess Nina would not let me get away with it. So here the cliff notes: The plan was to take it slow, go a bit past Dublin to Brú na Boinne to check out the really cool megalithic stuff there and then head to Dublin to get set for two full days of Dublin exploration.

So close and yet so far…Newgrange on the hill

Problem Number 1 – I have taken ill, for now with a moderate cough. So everything takes a bit more time, is a bit harder and done with a little less patience.

Number 2 – the curse of overbooking struck again. We failed to check ahead, and so it turned out that the site is booked out for the entire week. Last week before the school year starts and all. In short, we waisted 2 hrs on the motorway and a bit of toll for this folly, to see a bit of an underwhelming exhibition of the place we were locked out of seeing.

Right, so maybe a coffee place on the way back as consolation? Nope, nothing good. Instead, the kids started getting antsy and picking up on the moody vibe. Stern words were exchanged. Campground it was – and, well. That was not much consolation either. The standard “feels like roadside robbery” vibe of so many city camps grounds. At least it had a playground, and we had some peaceful hours before bedtime.

I did not last much longer, apart from a cheerful conversation with a Swiss couple that we kept running into for the last two days. Ever since Mizen Head – what a small world. I’m sick, let’s skip that day …

Day 18 – Full throttle … to a halt

Time to leave Sweden. It will take us a couple of days to get back to Frankfurt as we choose not to drive that long with the kids in the car. Gothenburg is about 2-2.5 hours from Malmö so that’s doable. In Malmö, we cross over the Öresund bridge into Denmark, get around Copenhagen and find a nice campground. That’s the plan.

The kids were allowed to play for a bit…I mean, a long day in the car is just punishment for little kids

Rain was forecast for today but only later in the morning. Number 3 and I bought bread rolls in the shop on the campground which made our breakfast quick and easy. Looking at the sky, we decided to pack up quickly while it was still dry. With no awning, the tent was packed up super fast, thus we decided to take advantage of the kids’ bathroom. Everybody got a shower or bath. There was even time left to explore the playground a little.

As soon as it started drizzling, we hit the road. Both kids were tired out from bathing and then playing and fell asleep right away. Flo and I got to listen to our audio book, look at conveniently placed charge point and even discuss if we’d manage to find a restaurant that serves köttbullar for lunch time.

Critical gaze…yeah, nah…it’s not working

About 24 minutes before our lunch break, we heard a loud noise. It certainly startled me, Flo probably too. We couldn’t see anything straight away but it just sounded as if a tire blew. The car, however, was still running without any swerving. Flo checked the tire pressure and we were losing air fast in one of them. Time to get over to the shoulder of the road and stop. Warning light came one, warning vests came out and both our kids were still asleep. By the time Flo had emptied out the trunk to get to the repair stuff, the Agent woke up and complained that it was cold. And it was cold. Freezing in the chill wind, Flo tried to fix the tire with spray but it didn’t do any good (no more spare tires in new cars).

A road side assistance car stopped behind us and from there on, things sped up again. The tow truck would be there in 20 minutes to take the car to the workshop. Once it arrived, we all went into the assistance car and drove after our poor Puru Hiko. Number 3 was very excited about the tow truck but also anxious that we were grounded for now. The Agent simply screamed for the most part: It was cold and different and strange men were handling her car seat and wtf was going on?!?

They closed off one lane to make it a bit safer for us to tranfer into the assistence car. Number 3 was…not sure how to feel

The workshop had a matching tire available so we could have it changed right there. In no time, we were ready to be on the road again. I didn’t do anything in all that time other than look after the kids. By this point, they were also quite hungry. Number 3 had asked to have his dragon plushie with him which we thankfully managed to take. The workshop also managed to produce two plushies called “Blinky” so every kid had something to cuddle with. In the meantime, Flo had called around. ADAC, our insurance or mobility guaranty with Kia…who would make sure that we could go on now? He’d managed to get someone on the line who guaranteed that the costs for the repair would be paid but Flo should NOT pay upfront. They wanted to deal with the workshop themselves. The guys from the workshop were unhappy about it because in their experience, that just took time. In the end, they were right. It took until 3pm to get the e-mail saying “We will definitely cover the costs” to the right hands. Lucky for us, the car dealer had a restaurant so at least we had proper lunch. *le sigh*

The broken automatic tire pressure thingy that we weren’t told about but the workshop left on our dashboard

It will still haunt us in Germany though as the workshop broke one of the automatic tire pressure thingies on the tire they changed (Flo: TPMS). BUT we could continue back home! With only 2-3 hours lost!

When we finally, finally got to Malmö, I seriously suggested that we could camp here for another night. But we had to cover more distance. So we crossed over the Öresund bridge. By bye Sweden, you are such a lovely country! Thank you for our holiday!

Headfirst into Denmark, the first thing you encounter is Copenhagen right on the other side of the bridge. Trying to get around it, we hit a bit of a traffic jam and then the problem that there were no campgrounds in the city. Our originally picked one was probably still our best chance. I looked at the website, saw that they had their own bakery next to the campground and said “go!”. If everything failed, we’d probably still be able to get food at the campground. We arrived there at 6.15pm, about 15 minutes before the kids’ bedtime.

Asking for bread rolls, Flo was given four bread rolls from this morning for free. We chose our site, set up the tent in record time, ate the bread rolls and put the exhausted kids to bed. Man, what a day! Our poor kids. And poor Flo. This was not how we had envisioned this day at all. But we’ve made it. In Denmark now with a full belly and another looooong day in the car ahead tomorrow.

Day 1 – Again?

… have you not just been on a holiday? That was the most common response to us telling people that we were leaving once more with the roof tent. I mean, really, my hands are tied, aren’t they? First, our parental leave trip got cut short so cruely. Then, there is the fact that we have no daycare available for the whole next three weeks. Should I have dropped it all on Nina?

Besides, we have a chance for redemption, in a way. Fully vaccinated as we both are now and the numbers way down, we acuatally can go to Sweden this time! So here we are again.

Packing and cleaning took us all morning so by the time we were actually ready to leave, the Agent had fallen asleep in her high chair with Fabian as a cushion

Minor issues so far: My 10th rib is still mending from a fracture (strain injury from coughing for two weeks, don’t ask) and Sweden is kind of far away and really big for a European country.

The rib seems to be fine enough – let’s see how it goes after a night in the tent, but I am off painkillers for a week now.

The distance lead us to a rare choice for us: just leg it – onto the motorway for 2 days to maximise our time spent in Sweden proper. Not even Copenhagen is on the list, at least on our way there. We rarely do, prefering to take in the distance and scenery changes as we move about. But what can you do, three weeks is just not a lot of time, especially for our style of travel.

With that out of the way, there is not much more to say about today. We were a bit slow in our packing – but adding up a teething Agent of Entropy, a broken rib and a bit of house cleaning to do, it just was what it was. We left around 11 am, with one last stop before we could hit the motorway.

Lunch for champions: Bread and cheese

After that, just a lot of driving. The long morning packing had exhausted both of the hobbits enought that they slept through most of the first 200km. We did start with some charging frustration right away, even though we specifically picked a fast-charging provider that had worked for us in the past. No luck this time, though. The less than helpful support hotline suggested we could try the twice as expensive direct pay option. Whatever, 15€ lost to bad customer service – at least the charging speed was good. Will have to follow up what might have gone wrong there, though … ahh … teething pains.

Speaking of – the AoE slept or rested even after our lunch stop. Number 3 stayed awake but was a real good sport and kept his spirits up for the remaining 189km. At least the camp turned out to be super cool when we turned up at almost 5pm. Especially nice for something literally 2 minutes off the motorway. Green, shaded and with enough for the wee ones to keep themselves entertained for the rest of the evening. One more hard push and then we are game to turn off the motorway and start traveling …

Day 24 – Off, off and away

It only took one afternoon and one morning to make our flat look like a whirlwind went through. No matter, we’ll be back in a couple of days and can clean up then. 

Number 3 and I managed to go to the farmer’s market to buy cherries as a road snack and fresh bread at our local bakery.

Repacking was easy as we hadn’t unpacked a lot in the first place. So by 9am, we were back on the road. The distance to our friends’ place in the Netherlands isn’t too bad at 340km, but with two small kids, you have to time everything just right. 

The Agent slept and Number 3 was pretty good, which made things easy. Also, he can be distracted by audio books if push comes to shove. 

brand new and cool charger – but it did not take my charge card. 5 minutes delay for the call but then for free …

Finding a fast charger was surprisingly hard this time. Only because we started to be a bit picky and also because we wanted to stop next to the autobahn before we got to the sprawl that is the start of the Rhein-Ruhr area marked by Cologne. In the end, we stopped at an e-on charger. Flo couldn’t get the charger to work with his charge card. After calling in to report the issue, they activated it remotely and we charged for free. 

Again, there was no shade to be found. Plus, the actual rest stop was still closed on this side of the autobahn. Now we had the choice between a bench in the shade and a toilet at the fuel station or a walk across the autobahn bridge to the open rest stop. We chose to stay and eat our delicious bread and cheese. 

With all the kerfuffle in the beginning our stop ended up one and a half hours long, more than enough to fully charge the car again.

Summer holiday!

This time Number 3 fell asleep while the Agent was awake for a while. We managed to get to the Netherlands before Number 3 woke up and immediately started to complain that he had to live his life in a car and never wanted to go by car ever again. It was quite a long way for kids, we understand that. Once there, we planned to stay put for at least two nights.

As it was, the last 30 minutes dragged with me trying to keep the kids from screaming. And then just like that, we were there. 🙂 A house, a big yard and garden, shade, kids, something to drink and the world looked brighter again for Number 3. Both our kids went off to explore and we had time to talk to our friend Leonie which we hadn’t seen in way too long. 

She cooked a yummy veggie meal for us and Peter arrived before we all sat down to eat. All four kids demanded attention to get them fed and ready to sleep. By the time we had our two in bed and asleep (which didn’t take long), the others also were asleep. So, we had until 11pm to talk to Peter and Leonie before I had to fall into bed as well.

Day 22 – Back to Germany

Our lovely campground provided us with superb German bread rolls for a small fee. It was a great last breakfast in Italy, as we were really close to the Brenner pass or Brennero as the Italians would say.

Number 3 is getting a lot better taking pictures with his own camera

Packing didn’t take long; we hadn’t even unpacked the awning. Once we decided to get going, we were on the road in good time. Flo had planned the route for today which would bring us from Brixen to Illertissen through Austria and to our next Covid test. Organising all this takes a bit of getting used to.

The Brenner was a letdown, especially for Number 3, as it’s neither an especially high pass nor a tunnel. Suddenly, we were at the gate to pay the 10€ toll for the pass we had just taken without realizing it. Ooooh. Number 3 who we primed for an extra long tunnel, was disappointed. Our next “exciting” stop for today was lunch next to a fast charger. On the way there, in search of a bakery for fresh bread, we made the mistake of stopping in front of a Spar supermarket. Number 3 saw the car-shaped trolleys for kids and would not leave this place before he’d driven around in one for a while. With Flo refusing to buy bread in a supermarket when we were “surrounded by bakeries”, we bought fresh milk and left again. Number 3 was beyond happy about this experience.

The notorious car-trolley and a happy Number 3

Having bought bread rolls at a bakery, we found the charger. It was next to a fuel station and a restaurant which you could only enter when recently tested or fully vaccinated. In search of a place to have our picnic, we used the tunnel underneath the motorway and sat down in the shade of a parking lot on the other side. It was rather hot already.

After the break, it was a straight ride to Illertissen. We’d booked a Covid test there at 4pm, but arrived at 3pm already. It was no problem to just get tested earlier. The results would be send to us via email in about 20 minutes as we had a bit of time to kill before we could get to the campground. If you wanna stay somewhere in Germany overnight, you have to be tested.

Ice cream while we wait for our test results

We opted for the usual “gelato and go” ice cream option and sat down in the shade. Before Number 3 had even finished his ice cream, we had our results on our phones and drove the last five minutes to the campground.

The campground was lovely. The owner put us in a nice grassy area with shade, there was a table and a bench next to it and the new facilities were close by. Both kids enjoyed having some free time to play and explore. In no time, both of them looked like piglets.

Flo treated us to a pancake dinner and we brought the kids to bed. We thought we were in for a quiet night, maybe even chat to friends online. Wrong. I was still in the tent with the kids when Flo started to look for his phone. He last used it to show our test results to the owner of the campground…after that he’s not sure what happened to it. So we turned everything upside down. For one and a half hours, we looked into every box, every little place in the car, asked the owner twice if someone had found a phone, looked in the bathrooms…and Flo got grumpier and grumpier. We had to face it, his phone was probably stolen. Bummer.

This is when Flo started to try the “other” solutions. He realised “google find my phone” was an option and got a location on the campground though on the other side of it from where we were. Then, he’d force it to ring even though it was set to silent mode and, on the third try, he could hear it ringing before someone stopped it. In the end, an old lady had it in her hand and he got it back. We’re not sure if she and her husband wanted to steal it or if they just have dementia. Her reaction was “who are you? What is your phone doing in my trailer?” Anyway, he has it again. Phew.

Day 14 – Parma where the ham comes from

We were in a good spot to start early for Parma. Camping Arizona was still muddy from last night’s rain and the mud bogged us down a little, physically as well as mentally. It was 10am before we left, having had to pack the awning still wet.

the streets are narrowing, we are getting closer to our goal

In good time, we arrived in Parma, only to be mind-boggled again…this time by the old inner city, which as a surprise for us had limited access for cars. Google maps led us around in circles, through houses and into places we were not supposed to go. We didn’t quite understand it at the time but the inner city has zones that you’re not supposed to enter with a car. Electric cars would have been allowed in, though only with a permit that we would have needed to organize days ahead.

We just desperately tried to get to a charging point all of which were in the inner city with no good way to get there. It took us quite a while and little bit of driving through zones we weren’t supposed to be in to find a free charger and start exploring the city on foot. We will find out in a few months if that will cost us a bit extra.

Our first point of interest was a prosciutteria where Flo bought ham to take home and some salami and cheese to consume on the road. I would have loved to buy fresh pasta but we have no way of cooling it (and carry way too much food already) so it would probably spoil. Having secured these before lunch we went to “Officina Alimentare Dedicata Parma” where I’d booked a table to break our dry spell around lunch time. Parma, we had decided, was going to be all about food for us.

I feel that with both Flo’s love for savory treat and Nina’s sweet tooth, we have to focus hard on portion control for Number 3 …

We dug in. Starters included both a local cheese and a cold meats platter. Both kids dug into Flo’s salami, Number 3 also liked my parmigiano reggiano. The Agent just sat there, slowly letting her piece of sausage dissolve in her mouth. We were quite impressed.

For mains, I had gnocchi with pesto, Number 3 went for tortellini, the Agent of Entropy got a torta fritta and Flo had buffalo tartar. Finally, the dessert I ordered was a lemon pie dipped in white chocolate with pistachios and cream on top. It turned out not to be entirely “my” dessert as I had to share it with Number 3.

Full to the brim, we got up and walked around a little more. We checked out the Baptistery and the Duomo, but soon after headed to the car to get to the next campground. Before settling in for the night, we had a short stop at a gigantic coop to stock up on things the Agent can eat as well as fresh milk. It took Flo and Number 3 45 minutes to come out of the grocery store again, getting lost twice in the huge complex.

Our campground for the night turned out to be quite…basic. It had the feeling of a rest stop near the Autobahn. It was the only option close to Bologna and we’d only stay one night – so okay. The mosquitoes were a different thing though. I got bitten so often that I retreated to the tent. After a mosquito sat on the Agent of Entropy’s temple, she came into the tent with me. Still full from our indulgence at lunch time, we had a light muesli dinner and went to bed soon after.

Day 5 – Like clockwork

My plan was, to say it mildly, not well liked. It better work like a charm, or I would have gone to the dog house for a very long time. I suggested to add about 50km to the trip to our campground to go back to Germany for our mandatory rapid covid test (needed for entry to Italy). The main reason: 140€ less for the two of us. Germans get their tests for free in Germany. Secondly, it was way less hassle to get an appointment in Konstanz compared to Wil – it is a major border town and has about 10 full-time testing sites to choose from.

Test centre in a dancehall …

The kids were a bit over eager and were up an hour ahead of schedule, but overall the morning went according to plan. Nothing was left, that we could tell, and the heartfelt goodbyes were made easier by knowing that we will see each other again fairly soon. I did forget my car key fob in my other pants, but we only lost 15 minutes.

And so, in time for our 10.27am test appointment we rolled into the car park in Konstanz. It was all pretty orderly, so within 15 minutes we were out again with an electronic results form to be delivered within 20 minutes. I was even able to add a bonus stop to remedy a previous fail on my part: MediaMarkt had both a generic charger for Nina’s laptop to replace the one I forgot in Germany for just 27€ and a cheap usb hard drive replacement since ours died the previous night after 10 years of hard travel.

Next up DM (a kind of drug store, minus the real pharmaceuticals) – I also forgot to take any charger for our three identical electric toothbrushes. Good thing Phoebe still needed one, since they come with a charger. Better still, DM also offers printing on demand, so we could commit our fresh (negative) rapid tests down to paper – just in case. I must admit, time has crept up on us a bit, so at 11.20 am already, we also stocked up on some sandwiches for lunch in the car.

[Nina: It was here that I made the colossal mistake of letting Number 3 ride on a coin-operated train for ONE SINGLE COIN while waiting on Flo to finish all his tasks. Such a huge mistake. Though, at the time I thought Number 3 was really good as he got off the toy train without any complaints.]

Train of doom

The eating part was fine, but 10 minutes into the actual 229km drive to our campsite we realised we forgot to check on the Agent of Entropy. The diaper was, of course, full. Alright, another brief pit stop in some sort of quiet office park. Diaper changed, consolatory feed given … just in time for Number 3 to announce he would definitively and 100% certainly need another potty break.  In the car, to the supermarket and the kid rushed inside … and it turned out it was a lie, since he was expecting another coin-operated toy train thingy ride after the business was done. Nina was not amused … 30 minutes for 3 km.

But that was our last hiccup … almost. Next stop was a rest stop with a few fast chargers for Puru Hiko. She was doing excellent, anyways. But then, 9 km before the exit, Number 3 decided it was time to play around and pull the emergency eject (i.e. the door lever going 110km/h on the motorway). Car started a panic inducing beep, wind rushed, Nina half jumped and pulled the door mostly shut again. I know, I could have set the child lock on the door – but this way, he has learned his lesson for life, I am quite sure of it …

Fast charging was uneventful – I mean, this is Switzerland after all. The toilets were clean enough I almost wouldn’t hesitate dining off them. Complete with coin-operated Heidi animatronics … that kind of thing. I restrained myself from buying a 10€ plant based whopper (try it though, really good … just not in Switzerland).

This left us well prepared for the last leg of the trip – 2 hours for 113 km. We did have to come up to 2114m to go over the Splügen Pass, after all. This was SO MUCH FUN! At least for me – the other three got rather motionsick, with the Agent of Entropy actually giving in on our way down from the saddle. Nina and I realised that we had done this exact same pass on the motorcycle before, roughly 10 years ago and coming from the other direction. That was then our second long-distance trip on the bike – or in other words, 70.000 km ago. Something to chew on 😀

And up top, for the money shot …

Driving an EV on this road is second only to our bike, I would say. Blue George was fun because it was so nimble, and I think the electric version with only 2 passengers would be even cooler than our fully loaded 3 ton family car, just for that go-cart feel. But the sheer amount of torque without any interruptions for gear changes makes going uphill in an EV just a smile-fest. And going down, recuperation takes a huge amount of load off the breaks, so that you can be quite aggressive without risking break damage.

The others disagreed a bit – so with three white-faced passengers, we turned into a great and friendly campsite in a stunning location deep down in the Mera valley. The place is called after the adjacent waterfall: Acquafraggio. And even though we had our fill of waterfalls, this one is a real stunner, visible from the campground. We had absolutely no hesitation locking in a 3 night stay – quite unusual for us in most places.

Time to let it sink in – we are here. We are travelling. On the road again, at last!

Day 1 – Electrifying

This – this was my bloody dream ever since one of those enchanting nights in Portugal. This was the thing we had mulled over, planned and made many a decision based upon. We chose to push the last two months of parental leave as far out as possible – for the chance of good weather and for the glimmer of hope of outlasting the lockdowns and limitations.

We chose our car with this in mind – had to have certified roof rack carrying capacity and be big enough for four and our stuff. We lined up friends, options, mulled over potential routes.

So the 26th of April came – and went, with us firmly in lockdown grounded at home. No way to move the dates, no point in fussing over anything. Just hunker down and suffer through this – one more month to add to all the ones added up already.

May a half-dead rat’s feces hit all of those sharing the blame for spreading and failing to contain this bloody thing. Cursed be every super spreader! We HATE the novel corona virus! [/old man yelling at cloud]

But then, as always, things get better eventually (at least for us cis white European whities, that is). One by one, we managed to snatch up our first doses of the vaccines (after the boomers were finished and immediately demanded everything go back to normal for them, of course). European countries started to loosen travel restrictions and we finally allowed ourselves to think about actually doing it.

The spark of an idea

So, what is “this”? Well, it is our meager attempt at doing what is unfortunately very unsustainable (long distance travel) in the least harmful way we can think of. And to embrace our continent of origin and what the most dense and top tier level of infrastructure can support: Camping with an EV and our well proven iCamper SkyCamp roof tent.

The thought that struck me on our last trip: We stick to campgrounds anyway, because in such densely populated parts of the world there is not much room for wild camping (plus the fact that it is illegal most anywhere). So why not use that time to fuel the vehicle that we are using? With the kids, we would not travel more than maybe 300km in a day and, if we needed to, the charging infrastructure is good enough to just top up during a normal rest stop.

So here we are, 250 km from home on a campground in the black forest. The car is charging, number 3 and the Agent of Entropy are sleeping peacefully in the roof tent and I get to be really electrified about traveling again.

We are doing it … be a naysayer if you want – yes this is not edge of the unknown adventure travel. But it is the road.

My kids will experience that. They will meet cool people, friends we have across Europe and they will breathe fresh air and see the open sky.

And no virus could stop us from doing that …

Day 36 – Booze town

It was Number 3’s worst night yet. I don’t know, he just woke up and up and up again. In the end, the app said, he had 4.45 hours of sleep that night. If he had that little sleep than I had as little as well.

Groggy, we climbed out of the tent and down the ladder in the morning. But we had breakfast booked at the campsite so we just had to survive packing first. We weren’t as fast as we wanted to be but still took some time to talk to the NZ couple on a motorbike a bit more. Then, we headed out for breakfast.

Leaving Coimbra over a bridge

I knew my expectations shouldn’t have been high and I somehow still managed to be disappointed. Probably by the utter lack of jam for breakfast. Given the choice between cold meats and cheese, I choose something sweet. Thus, Flo was nice enough to get our own jam out of the car so I can have breakfast.

Today’s mission was to get to Porto. Portugal’s second biggest city is our last big ticket item on the list. Probably since Mat and Liz introduced us to port wine and Port Night, going to Porto and tasting port wine became a thing in our minds. And now was the time to do it.

Being so tired we couldn’t be bothered to find a way around the toll road and add extra time to the journey. We just paid the toll and were in Porto in under 2 hours. Before lunch, with a good couple of hours before we needed to find a camp ground for the night. Thus, we started to explore the city.

Parking somewhere on the south bank of the river Douro, we were in walking distance to the inner city. The first thing that we came across was a cable car up a nearby hill. A short check in the guide book told us that it’s a thing to do to get views over the city and river so we hopped into it straight away. A good start already.

From the cable car, we took the amazing bridge over the Douro. On foot. The bridge actually has two levels: The upper one is for the metro and pedestrians taking in the views nowadays, the lower level is for cars, buses and more pedestrians.

On the other side of the river, we realized just how much it reminded us of Wellington. The inner city is walkable without problems, everything is close by actually. It is rather hilly and you go up and down and back up again. And it was just…charming. And compact. Of all the cities we visited lately, Porto is probably the one we liked most. More than Lisbon and Barcelona. It’s just…nice to spend time here.

Going uphill

From the Ponte de Luís I it is about 50 meters to the Sé, Porto’s cathedral. It was lunchtime though and we were hungry. So we went to a hipster restaurant to enjoy some proper food. The waitress shook her head when I told her I’m vegetarian and I had to go with starters and side dishes. We thoroughly enjoyed it anyway. 🙂

After lunch, we stuck to our guns and decided to walk around for the first day as it had worked well for us in Lisbon. The Lonely Planet suggested a walking tour and we stuck to it. A detour to the train station was necessary to change baby’s diaper. So we got to see the artfully hand painted tiles’ in there as well. On Rua da Flores we ended up in a café with more pastel to eat.

But Porto is all about port wine, really. Vila Nova de Gaia on the south bank is full of wine lodges, each sprouting a big name in port wine. Tours and tastings are advertised everywhere, in every shop, every café, every bar. In the chocolate place, I ended up buying a dark chocolate filled with port wine ganache. Made with Graham’s Six Grape port wine.

At 4pm, we headed out to find a camp for the night. Preferably one with a bus connection back into the city so that tomorrow, we could visit a lodge.

Still further uphill

The first one was already completely full. Flo dreaded the next one as it had bad ratings on the usual websites. They had space though. It’s a municipal camp ground and they were suckers for bureaucracy. It was the first place that Number 3 needed papers to be allowed to stay. Everywhere else, Flo and my national ID card was enough; here Baby needed his passport.

We rolled our eyes but it did it, went to a patch that looked okay and started to pitch the tent. We had booked electricity for the two compulsory nights so a staff member came by to connect us. When he saw that we wanted to have electricity in a tent, he outright refused to connect us. We never had a problem with this in more than a month of travelling…here, no way. So we were stuck here for two nights and a full day without electricity to charge cell phones, laptops and the camera. Our mood hit rock bottom.

Just when we were debating on leaving again, we got company. One of the fellow campers wanted to have a look into our roof tent. When he learned why we were so upset, he lent us his powerbank to charge our phones at least. Later, he also charged our camera battery in his camper. So kind!