Tag Archives: beer

Day 13 – Fusion delight

Almost … we are so close to this not being enjoyable anymore that we seriously considered taking the off day right here. But then, it was more of a cheap stopover than a place to linger. More importantly, we found a place that seem just right to relax. The timing would be perfect, too. It makes everything that much easier when you both know that it is going to be just a short day on the road and where exactly you are going.

Three things to do: Go see Málaga, get groceries to get us over the Sunday and go just 170 km north to our designated camp. Spoilers: It worked out pretty smoothly, too.

Over the roofs

Málaga had a great vibe. We meandered about for a while before going into the Alcazaba. Another fortress palace from the Muslim era. We took a liking, even more so when we tried to stop treating it as the Alhambra consolation prise. We just had enough time for a brief meander around the cathedral before heading for a place to have lunch. I must confess, a little more time would have been nice. The Cathedral felt mountainous from the outside and I would have loved to get a feel for it from the interior.

Lucky for us, our alternative program held up to any attraction. Following the Lonely Planet advice we opted for fusion tapas this time and oh my, was that delicious. Once again, we were pretty much the first lunch guests at Uvedoble Taberna (even though 12:30 am is already way past our usual). There are no pictures for once, but believe me – the food was amazing. Number 3 had all eyes on him when he happily shared my tapa of black noodles with baby squid and aioli with me. Nina squirmed a bit – they were delicious. Bonus point for me – a lot of the places we go to have a non-alcoholic craft beer on the menu, perfect for me without spoiling the great meal by lack of appropriate beverage.

Shopping was hindered a bit by everyone but me conveniently falling asleep in the car on our way. So I had to herd my sleep drunken family through the ridiculously enormous Carrefour. The ham section remains an attraction for me in every supermarket. Even though we have been on the road only two weeks, we are back at the point were huge walmart like box stores seem like a spaceship from outer space to us. We live on a different scale while on the road.

The campground, once again chosen from Rustiek Kamperen turned out 100% to spec. Super quiet, out in the sticks nested in between olive groves with great hosts to boot. The weather was perfect, too. Sunny but at reasonable temperatures. Another pool will surely tempt us tomorrow. For now, it was time to sample the spoils of our supermarket visit (non-alcoholic beers and ham for me) and soak in the places atmosphere.

 

Day 303 – Need more energy

Day 3 of relaxing. We briefly thought that today might be the day we get up and see some of the surrounding area but right after breakfast, we decided against it…yeah, nah…

So delicious, all of it

So delicious, all of it

So we had another day of charging our own batteries, snoozing in the tent, jumping in the pool and I finished my book which I started on our first rest day. 🙂 It just felt great to do nothing.

In the evening, we decided to go out for really good food in a restaurant that is slightly more pricey than what we usually go for. Flo was particularly hungry as he had skipped lunch. It took some searching to find it (google maps was asked once) but once we sat down, everything was great. Flo even found good beer which is a big thing after going through Oman and Iran where you just can’t buy alcohol.

Cappadocia, we are really grateful that you decided to be sunny and warm for days because we really needed this rest. Thank you.

Day 49 – Encounters

We ended up staying alone on the bluff campground in Trephina Gorge. At least counting other humans. There were things going on, for sure. The “rain” tree, for example. Half the campground was cordoned off, because of a precariously leaning red gum tree as it turns out. The tree was marked “cracked or termites”. The eerie sound coming from it at night left little doubt which of the two was the case 😉

The ross highway along the eastern MacDonnell ranges

The ross highway along the eastern MacDonnell ranges

We stayed longer, not having much else planned and only 90km out of Alice Springs. Even on our way back, we stopped often and took some “dream roads” photos. So in the end, we made it back to town around lunch time.

First thing on our first stop, we checked our phone for emails and texts. Through our encounter with Georg yesterday, we got handed a mobile number with the comment “Werner and Claudia, they live in Alice now. Met them in Ushuaia, they are real travelers.” Since we count ourselves among this illustrious group, we gave them a text last night.

Nice bikes, nice people

Nice bikes, nice people

Well, it turns out they were not over advertised and after helping us out to find a supermarket instead of a kmart, Claudia had lunch with us in town. All plans of touristy stuff were soon abandoned and when she dropped us off at a campground in town to get around some chores an invitation was extended for tonight. This would give us a chance to meet hard working Werner as well.

In the end, we had a lovely night in town. After more than a month without meeting other motorcycle travelers, it was just what we needed. Swapping expat stories was an added bonus. Thank you, Claudia and Werner, I am sure we will meet again somewhere, some time.

Beerflow or Beer-Floh?

We had Aaron and Brendan over for dinner yesterday (Tina is in Auckland) and Flo tried another one of the local beers. It all kinda started back in Germany with Peter finding NZ brewed DB draught beer in Zurich and buying two cans of it for Flo. Flo really liked it…

Since we’re in Wellington, he is really impressed with the variety of beer and started to try his way through the brands (slowly as alcohol is quite expensive). Yesterday at the dinner, our two guests came up with the idea of Flo writing a diary or even better a blog about all the beers he tries and what he thinks of them. A possible name that came up was beerflow which I slightly changed into Beer-Floh. =P I don’t think Flo will go for a seperate blog but maybe he will write about some on here… Continue reading