Tag Archives: campground

Day 4 – Disembark

Day 5 – Scottish Green

The day started unplanned and too early. Wind and rain had picked up over night and had me worried at time for our awning, still up. At 5am it turned out, the worries were not entirely unfounded. I woke to a new noise, unfamiliar even over the drumming of rain and wind so far. The constant rumble of wind had finally rattled open the zipper connecting the awning to our tent. Luckily, the pegs still held, so it was flapping wet and helplessly in the wind like a sea bird in an oil spill.

first thing checking if the animals are all still there

Nina and I got up in our PJs and jumped to the rescue. At least it was warm enough to not get cold and miserable while doing so. With the awning saved, storm cover installed we went back to bed.

At getting up time proper, the rain had let up enough for us to feel safe enough to bring the awning back up. After a bit of a rough night, the kids indulged on chocolate spread on the last bit of sourdough.

From here on, days will be decidedly less rushed with much less distance planned for each day. Today, only 250km to the last camp in Britain before leaving to Ireland. We took our good time, but the weather kind of helped to speed us on regardless. So even with another good animal watching session we managed to be back on the road by 9am. The weather had not improved much further and was not expected to before noon. We decided to turn this into an opportunity and go for a second breakfast in the first Scottish town on our way, Dumfries. The lonely planet app was helpful as always and provided a recommendation for great coffee and a good snack.

At the café, we weighted our options and decided to go for castle over forest park this time. Not too much of a tough choice when the option is called “Drumlanrig Castle Adventure Playground & Gardens”. The 17^th century Drumlanrig Castle proper was closed today, but the gardens and playground area was open and right the level of exercise needed for our kids. After a good session in the playground area, we got to explore the neatly maintained gardens as well. As it was past lunch (and nap) time now but both were still on pretty great behaviour and everyone got a round of treats before we moved on for the last bit.

As we had travelled north a bit from Dumfries, we were now heading across westwards off the main A75 on mostly single track roads and straight through the Galloway Forest Park towards our camp. Both kids fell asleep and Nina got carsick. I take that as a compliment of my driving. We did not stop again in the national park, which was a bit of a shame. But it was getting into the afternoon and Balloch O’dee campground promised to be a place to explore in its own right.

The campground definitively held up to the expectations. Great grass pitches with plenty of space to set up. The grounds, clearly inspired by the owner, gave of a splendidly relaxed vibe. To top it all off, there were plenty of fire pits all over the area, an indicator of how the day will end for us.

Number 3 once again made a new friend within the first 10 minutes and was on his absolute best behaviour for the rest of the afternoon. I could hardly have refused him when he asked to be allowed to have a bonfire as well after our quick and simple dinner (still getting great value out of that Iranian breakfast dish we picked up all those years ago), could I?

He bought the firewood and we agreed to have the bedtime stories at the campfire instead of in the tent. After putting the little ones to bed, Nina and I let the day fade out going through the remaining logs in our bag of fire wood. The sun had gone down and we got to chat, make a few plans and call it a night.

Day 6 – Juicy

Flo:

Maybe I should’ve gotten to bed earlier. But the company was too good and sitting around a little fire just added this magic to it. Now it’s early and I’m a little bit tired. But even at 6:30am, it just gives me back my energy.

We were among the first to have breakfast and, with no awning to pack, were really fast breaking down our camp as well. So we took the time we gained and gave Number 3 his wish: a really big loop in the forest. We found cool and hidden things and he had a real good time, most of the way. Only near the end, an hour in, the novelty of it started to wane. So, in the car we hopped and off we went!

Instead of going straight north we decided to push on east first to go up along the coast. Nina read a Lonely Planet recommendation about the orchards there and found a cool place to spend lunchtime. We were still early so we were thinking of maybe checking out the fast charger in the town we were going for. It was fast and free, but a poor Swedish lady arrived just a minute after us and her exaltation that I would use the CCS plug leaving the ChaDeMO to her turned to despair when it turned out this station could only fuel one at the time. We were ready for lunch anyway, so we left it to her and headed off.

Nina:

Once we arrived at Kivik Musteri, I immediately got into the looooong queue just because it was there. That left Flo some time to get the kids ready and check out the place. It turned out that Kivik Musteri offered free charging for electric vehicles anyway so we were all set up right here.

Kivik Musteri consisted of the butik which I was queuing for, a restaurant, a little 6 room museum and a cafe. After some thought, I left the queue again as it didn’t make sense for us to get into the shop where we basically couldn’t buy anything (no space in the car) and it was lunchtime anyway.

We decided to go to the cafe which also gave me an option for cake. J After a good lunch break, made slightly uncomfortable by wasps, and a coffee/cake dessert, we were ready to tackle the “garden” and the museum. Number 3 enjoyed jumping around in the garden and looking at the different apple trees dispersed with other fruits.

The museum started with a room full of preserved fruits. It then went on to the history of Kivik Musteri, followed by the factory parts and a kids’ activity area. Number 3 got to be a little bee as well as testing his strength at pulling up 1kg of apples.

All juiced out by Kivik and all juiced up by the free charging, we left for our camp of the night. It was a nice campground at a lake where we really and definitely needed to do some laundry. We arrived late and it looked like rain so we quickly set up our tent. With me doing laundry and Flo organizing a cooked dinner, it left Number 3 to explore the lakeside by himself. He loved it even if he decided to go into the water with his shoes and socks still on.

After our dinner, Flo and Number 3 had one last round to check the place out before the kids went to bed. It was my turn today to tuck them all in. The Agent was already asleep when Flo opened one window from the outside and called Number 3 and me over. “Look, there’s a rainbow now!” So cool that Number 3 also got to see it. The rain stopped and we had a lovely, quiet evening at the lake.

Day 18 – La Serenissima or Venice! Finally!

Okay, just as a warning, there will probably be a lot of squeeing. It is my first time in Venice. And Venice is one of these places that you know something about without ever having been there. It’s the city in the water. Also, being in Venice during carnival and going all out on a costume is on my bucket list.

The day started on our lovely campground. Flo organized two-day passes for the public transport in and around Venice which will make getting around so much easier. We packed up and left. Of course, I forgot the “Italian road trip” Lonely planet, which is the only guide book we brought, on the campground while the Venice guide book is still at home. -.- Oh well. At least we had the app.

Off we went. The bus left super close to the campground. Taking the land bridge to Venice, we already saw the sea and then buildings started to appear on the horizon. Venice!

The bus stop is where everybody got off for their own personal Venice experience. We opted to use the “face first” approach for the city and take a vaporetto to San Marco. Vaporettos are water busses which take you around Venice. Line 1 goes along the Canale Grande and stops at every lamp post. However, since we just wanted to get to our starting point, we used line 2, which took us to San Marco quicker but on a less picturesque way along the outskirts.

A big task she had picked for herself there …

So, our day started on a boat. We were lucky enough to get seats outside, put our noses in the wind and eventually have a good view on a couple of amazing buildings, including the doge’s palace. Piazza San Marco was our first destination. It was already really hot in the sun and it was only like 10.15am. Then again, it’s just beautiful. You walk around and everything around you is just so lovely to look at. We are really fortunate to travel now as Piazza San Marco was nowhere near the level of crowds it usually draws. As our half-Italian friend put it when he saw a picture “Wow, it’s empty!”. J

So this was our start. Looking at the doge’s palace, San Marco basilica, the tower and the buildings surrounding Piazza San Marco…we just wanted to stay here for a bit. This is why we sat down in Cafe Florian, which has been around for the last 300 years, and the prime spot to look at the buildings and take it all in. It also has the most expensive coffee Flo (10.50 € a cup) had ever had. No matter, we were here to enjoy ourselves. We had coffee and tea and some macaroons and life was good. J

Coffee time moved straight into lunch time. Number 3 got hungry so we started walking around a little on our way to a little lunch place. As soon as you turn away from Piazza San Marco, the city quiets down. Sometimes, we were the only people in an alleyway. Just taking the city in through walking is something we really enjoy. The Rialto Bridge over the Grand Canal was busier again and in the sunshine and thus too hot to linger.

Further we went, into the little alleys with tiny bridges over canals, here a turn, there a tunnel…it’s a maze and I don’t know how people get around without google. You can tell who’s local just by how confidently people turn corners into what looks like a house entrance but turns out to be a tunnel underneath a house and your only way to get to where you’re going.

We had lunch at a tiny whole-in-the-wall type place which made amazing pizzas. So far on our trip, it was pasta all the way. It was really nice to change to the other staple Italian food for once. It was good pizza. Even Number 3 enjoyed it and he’s not the biggest fan of pizza. As a side note: Number 3 was utterly charmed by the city. It had everything he wanted: Boat busses, water and food; including sweet treats. After lunch, we went on another boat ride, this time straight through the city until we got to the railway station. We didn’t mean to stop here but Number 3 needed to go to the toilet and in a classic move, we went into the wrong entrance first and had a little tour of all of the railway station in our search. Number 3 was delighted by the trains on display – he thought this to be a highlight of the day.

I had looked up a pastry shop where I wanted to have afternoon coffee really close to the railway station. Also, the railway station has a vaporetto stop which is just *so* convenient. From there, it was just a couple of minutes to Dal Mas. Oh, they had great stuff! Still being rather full, we all could just get one thing but they were all delicious.

Our first day in Venice was a Sunday which meant that churches were closed for tourists as regular mess was held. Luckily, San Marco Basilica opened up at 2pm for tourists. We decided to get out of the sun and into a church. Another boat ride. By now we were professionals at riding a water bus.

The line to get into the basilica looked long, but it took 10 minutes tops to get in. We had our temperature checked, used disinfectant hand gel, got an audio guide for Flo and looked around inside. There is much to look at from the mosaics in the entry hallway to the colourful Venetian marble floors to the Pala d’Oro, for which we paid another 5 € to see. Given that the admission into the church is only 3 € per person, we could easily justify that extra expense. J

After this, we did a good bye tour of Piazza San Marco. Both kids were really, really tired and it was getting close to dinner time. So we took another boat, went back to Piazza Roma and took the bus back to the campground.

Such a great day. Number 3, especially, is the best city explorer I know. He walked so much today!

A “bus stop”, venice style. The boat on the yellow pier is one of the water busses

Day 11 – Upward trend

For a camp of convenience, this site turned out fairly ok. Even the doom-and-gloom stories about the sanitary block from the google reviews turned out to be way overblown, or at least outdated. Number 3 had huge fun with the one squatting toilet they kept even through a recent renovation. He insisted on choosing this over the option of a throne, even though they would even have seats (very much not a given for public toilets in Italy).

Since we decidedly set up for a quick getaway, ditching the awning for the first time, we got back on the road in record time. I mean, there are still a million things to do, breakfast packing and so on, but we were quite proud of a 9:30am start (we get up at 6:30am).

The bit to Bergamo was relaxed if mostly slow going via the main roads. We had one pit stop at a supermarket to resupply nappies for the Agent. It took a bit longer than we thought – we did not expect everyone else to do a Sunday shop as well at the same time. But that gave Number 3 the chance to keep with our Sunday tradition of watching an episode of the Show with the Mouse (a German kids TV institution).

I though I had planned ahead this time, trying to register with the provider of the convenient charge point up in the old town – but had failed miserably. They have the worst app design I have ever seen. Provided in Italian only, it is just impossible to sign up (a single field for billing address that straight up refuses to accept anything I throw at it). So we opted for a parking garage downtown. They unexpectantly had charging facilities as well, but once again, I could not get it to work. New provider, long signup procedure … Europe needs to get better at this real quick.

Litteraly the funicular of the upper city

The lower city parking added one attraction to our day in Bergamo: A ride to the oldtown in one of the funiculars sparing everyone a rather steep hike 150m up a hill. When Number 3 realized what was going on, he positively jumped for excitement. We had to wait a little bit due to COVID related passenger restrictions, but it was worth it.

This time, we decided to make a concerted effort to lock in lunch early enough – but it turned out our preferred eatery was right here at the funicular terminal. PolentOne (yes, with that pun) is a hole-in-the-wall takeaway shop for reginal polenta dishes. The choice is between with or without cheese and your pick of sauce (is that really a choice, though?). I could not resist the wild boar “ragu”, while Nina got herself a good-looking veggie stew. It was delicious and both the Agent of Entropy and Number 3 tucked in harder than expected. I even had to briefly consider if we need to get a third helping to get both me and Number 3 full.

Bergamo was definitively the right town at the right time for us from here on out. We felt reminded of that beautiful day in Carcassonne. The tightly packed old town up on the hill was utterly charming, with just the right amount of infrastructure for tourism without going past the “Rüdesheim point” (medieval timber frame town near our home that became a Disneyland caricature for Oversees tourists).

Still managable crowds on the main street

I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking, but for a few remarks. The high town was one of those rare places where going off the “main” drag enhanced the experience for us. Some of the back alleys were as picturesque as the main drag, but we had it all to ourselves. Oh, and I am very proud of myself that I had talked Nina into going up on the Campanile and into the adjacent museum. The lift up was Number 3’s highlight of the day and the museum was hands down brilliant. Just 7 rooms, and hyper-modern in its concept for the exhibition with interactive exhibits in every room. I got to dork out without the kids getting bored out of their minds.

On our way back, we even stopped in a café to taste the local dolce of choice: polenta cake. We spend almost 5 hours in town, but it felt like time flew by.

For the last leg, we went on the toll motorway for the first time, without checking anything about prices first. Luckily, it was well worth it for 1.60 €.

The day ended with another spur of the moment decisions: We intended to stay only for the one night at this camp – Punta d’Oro. But after seeing past the first impression of the wall of white wales (RVs) it turned out this was a beautiful site. Great facilities, view of the lake and a shaded spot. We switched last minute from storm cover to tarp again, also to have a dry place to sit out the afternoon thunderstorms.

When we finished off the day with another exceptional coffee at the campground’s own bar, we were almost decided on staying an extra night, maybe even skipping Lago di Garda completely instead …

good morning, briefly visited Lago di Garlate

Day 304 – Blingdenstone

So we did get to see a balloon even if it was not in the air

Alright, enough about hanging out, it was time to get back on our feet for a bit. Not enough mind you to get up at 6 am to watch the balloons go up over the valley, but enough to set out on a day trip after a good breakfast.

We decided on one of the five underground cities of the area in D@#T. It was a short ride of about 35 km away and we were there by 11 am. The entrance fee was on the hefty side, at least for our tiny remaining budget, with $25 for the two of us. The general consensus is that these underground cities were used by the christian inhabitants of the land to evade several waves of invaders and/ or ethnic cleansing from about 800 AD into the 13th century.

This is the official way…try not to get claustrophobic

Going down past several warning sings was an eerie experience. The access tunnels were all extremely narrow and low. The one to the deepest accessible point was probably 50 m long with three separate massive round stone doors that could be used to seal the inhabitants in. The guides had to shout up the corridor when they were leading a group through, since it would have been way to confined for two groups to pass. It was an impressive experience, but we were definitively happy to see the light of day again.

It took us a bit of a longer way back to explore some of the back roads. We had a brief look at an old monastery built into the cliff-side before moving on to find a spot to have our lunch. The perfect spot appeared not soon after in form of a picnic area at a reservoir lake about 20 km from Göreme.

We popped back to the campground for a second to pick up the map of the area and hit the road one more time. We just had enough energy left to have a proper look at one of the valleys that make Cappadocia so famous. This particular one is interchangeably called fairy chimneys or love valley, for obvious reasons.

A whole fairy army must live here …

There was even enough time left that afternoon to finish up with a bunch of chores. All in all, it feels like we have rested enough to tackle the last stretch of our journey. The closer we get to Istanbul, the harder it becomes for us to motivate ourselves to still “do it”. I must be honest, right now, a lot of the times I would rater spend an afternoon with my favorite video game or have a BBQ with friends than to get on the bike to see another ruin, beach or city. We are going through the motions, waiting on inspiration as we go … but home continues to creep up on us.