Tag Archives: food

Day 6 – On to Eire

And with that, our time in Scotland had come to an end. If we hadn’t pre-booked our ferry, I’m sure we would’ve stayed for another night. It was just such a lovely campground. The owner was nice, the landscape super pretty and our neighbours easy to chat to, plus they liked having Number 3 around.

swallowed whole in one gulp

We packed everything up with time to spare and headed off to the small town right next to the ferry port. Flo’s plan was to charge the car, spent a little time and then head on to the check-in. The first charger, however, was out of service. By the time we’d gotten to the next one about 3 minutes later, me (and with me Number 3) had gotten nervous about missing the ferry. By unforeseeable happenstance, Flo listened to me and we drove on to the ferry port…where we logically stood in line for a while. 😀 We were by no means the first ones at the port but I got A LOT of shit for our waiting time. Not even a coffee and two muffins made a real difference.

Leaving the campground, we had told the kids about leaving Scotland and continuing to Ireland. The Agent of Entropy said “nochmal Schottland bitte” (Scotland again please) which she always says if she enjoyed something and would like to repeat the experience.

slightly worried, AoE might get blown off her feet

Alas, time continues to go by even when you’re just waiting around and we were allowed to board eventually. The kids were raving with excitement. Everything was big and loud, it was windy outside and there were toys to play with. I think, the Agent of Entropy has found her calling as a being of the wind. She probably feels kinship to it as it also brings a lot of entropy into the world.

For us adults, it seemed like another ferry ride, mostly like the one to cross Cook Strait: Waiting time, overpriced bad food in the restaurant, people battling for the comfiest spots. Since this ferry ride though, both kids really want to go back onto a boat, but please for longer next time, okaaaaay?

At 1.30pm we arrived in Belfast. The Agent hadn’t slept on the ferry instead she’d been all over the place and was thus exhausted. It didn’t take long for her to fall asleep in the car although we just drove from the port to a charger in the inner city. Flo managed to gently put her in the kids carrier so we could go and explore Belfast a bit. Number 3 still is a city exploring champion. He walked everywhere with us, through the rain, from coffee time until dinner.

We started with a bit of a tour around the quarter that we ended up in. There were murals to look at and little lanes to take. We came across many a pub that looked lovely but it was neither the time nor the circumstances to go into one. Instead, we found our way into “Established coffee” for a coffee time break. By that time, the Agent of Entropy had woken up again and graciously agreed to a chocolate cookie and a babyccino.

yes – pretty much right now

Around the corner there was a cathedrale which had a spike coming out of the middle of it. It piqued Flo’s curiosity so we went in. Unfortunately, it was about to close. They let us in for five minutes but we couldn’t figure out why the spike was there and what it meant. Number 3 was happy though as he got to light a candle in the church, something he really wanted to do in Aachen already. I loved it too, as a kid.

From here, we took the “scenic” route to our car, still debating how to proceed with the day. We were toying with a couple of options i.e. having an early dinner in town or setting up camp and then taking the bus back to Belfast for dinner. We decided to go for the first option as both kids seemed to be over a certain threshold already. Unfortunately, Number 3 had listened in to our conversation and demanded a bus ride in the 100% electric, pink double-decker buses which we simply couldn’t work into our plans today. Proving our suspicion that the kids really just needed to go to bed, he had a full-on tantrum. Many words of comfort and a promise of a bus ride in Dublin later, we went to dinner in Yügo. Asian fusion at its best, the plates to share were right up our (and the kids’) alley. I had miso-grilled corn and fried rice, Flo had duck truffle rice, Number 3 opted for blackened salmon and the Agent chose and ate the chicken spring rolls all by herself. As all food was just so good, we decided to order another round with dumpling, kimchi buns and last but not least, milk chocolate ganache as a dessert which my kids ate more of than me.

Round bellies and sleepy eyes shuffled back to the car and we headed for our communal campground, only 15 minutes Belfast city centre. It turned out to be just what we needed with a patch of grass, facilities and a code-operated gate which kept everyone outside who was not camping.

Just when everything was set up and the kids in bed, we realised that there were a washing machine and a dryer set up here to comfortable use. It was just too good to pass on so Flo took it upon himself to manage our laundry while I just went to bed.

Day 4 – Holidaying

With the longest of the pre-planned days and definitely the most stressful one (for me) behind us, we can now slow down a bit. It manifested by us lying in our sleeping bags a bit longer even with the kids awake; and Taking our time to make breakfast without starting to pack at the same time; with being happy that one of the other kids showed up with a card game (Dobble) that he wanted to play with Number 3 and actually taking the time to play two rounds; and also, having a bit of a forest exploration detour before leaving the campground.

primally natural – Flo enjoyed the cuddles

We found rabbit holes and empty snail houses and unripe hazelnuts, much to delight Number 3. The Agent of Entropy seemed to need cuddles more than anything as she simply refused to walk.

Luckily for (me) us, the sun was shining this morning and it got warm quickly. Flo had been grumbling about summer being over now that we started this holiday into a cold and wet country. And England had been true to the stereotype, greeting us with grey skies and drizzle. Today, even Flo enjoyed the weather (at least in the morning).

We hit the road for a short drive to a fast charger. With only 250km to go today, we could allow for more stops and a leisurely pace. Since we’d taken our time on the campground, it was close to lunch time by now and we had to feed the tigers. That was no problem with the standard highway rest stop, greeting us with our pick of fast food to choose from.

Back at the car, we realized that charging hadn’t worked the way we wanted but it had stopped prematurely. Slightly fed up with the whole charging situation in England, we opted for Fastned with we knew would be good. The nearest one was another 40 minutes away but we just had had lunch and Number 3 had asked for ice cream as dessert. So we even had another excuse to stop.

we are here for the carge, not the familiarity, promised

Fastned worked as well as it is known for. There was a Lidl next to it so we got some shopping down in the meantime. Number 3 got ice cream, the Agent got to push one of the fun sized trolleys and there was even a toilet to boot. All the things you could ask for with small kids. >.< It wasn’t quite as nice as the coop yesterday though. #battleofthesupermarkets

Loaded up with (now slowly melting) ice cream in the car, we drove towards the campsite. Unfortunately, it was another 1.40hours away due to a small traffic jam in the middle. There was no good opportunity to stop and enjoy some ice cream, instead we were really glad when we arrived at the campsite.

Nobody greeted us. Even after the phone call we weren’t much better off as the person on the phone had said that the internet was down and she would check later if we’d booked and paid as we said. Slightly confused, we had half-molten ice cream on our blanky when Flo read his conformation email again. It cleared up everything. It said: Please call to let us know you’ve arrived, then proceed to choose a tent site to your liking, set up and we will get back to you as soon as our work allows us to do.

padocks and the camping area

Easy enough to follow. It is a great campsite on a working farm. There are many, many sheep, lots of horses and our good old neighbours, the cows. It was an instant hit with the kids. The words “farm”, “horses” and “cows” were uttered a lot, mostly by our youngest one.

By now, the sky was grey again and a chill wind blew in from the west. We are just a stone’s throw from the Scottish border after all. We got our lovely dinner done before the rain set in. Friends of ours had given us the cook book “two pans on the road” a while ago and for this trip, we’d actually remember to take it with us – thanks Number 3 for going and picking out a few recipes. Thus, the first recipe was followed and tasted great! 🙂

Day 9 – Give me shelter …

Everything is already so wet. It rained through the night. We decided for once against our pride and to make use of the facilities we are paying for. So instead of huddling under our awning, we packed everything up and got ourselves comfortable in the camp kitchen. A dry breakfast helped in getting the spirits up.

We actually used the kitchen to stay dry during breakfast

In the end, we were the only ones we saw all morning. Exploring the service building a bit more, we thought this really cool family bathroom was worth taking advantage off and added a family scrub to the list of things to do before facing the rain to take down the tent.

While we wrapped up our kids in full battle regalia, they did not last through the entire packing without complaining bitterly. We had to drop everything and head down to the playground at the lake for some cooling of tempers. So we were now pushing on lunch time before getting on the road – something that will become relevant to how our day would go …

Stopping at a random roadside cafe called Emma Grön

It was only two hours to our destination of the day: Visiting Emma, an old friend of Nina and myself. Well, actually not only Emma anymore, since she had found a companion since last we met and we were looking forward to be meeting Johan for the first time as well. The original plan was to have the lunch stop half way and arrive leisurely in the early afternoon. Now we were merely on the road and had already missed lunchtime.

Not much we could do about that, so I set course for the first restaurant Google suggested along the road. What an incredible luck we have sometimes. It turned out that Emma Grön could hardly have been more up our alley. We had a wonderful and tasty lunch in a little witches’ hut of a dining room. Oh, and the sweet treats looked so appetizing that we already knew that we would stay for dessert. What a great way to lift the spirits!

Urban camping in Emma’a driveway

The rest of the way was uneventful – apart from some last minute COVID tests to keep our hosts and potential humans to be as safe as possible. With slight delay we arrived and triggered all of the burglar alarms around the house while waiting for Emma to return from her shopping run. We had initially intended to stay nearby somewhere with a good camp spot. But the relentless rain with no respite in sight had lead us to jump at the offer of some “urban camping” in our friends’ driveway.

The evening had much sharing of love and old tales, while we were spoilt by a great home-cooked lasagne from Johan. The kids slept as well as anywhere – why wouldn’t they? It is the same tent wherever it is parked.

Thank you Emma and Johan, for the shelter we needed …

Day 20 – Padua II or some things deserve a second try

Today, we left our campground at the doorstep of Venice bright and early. We had good reason to be on the road at 9am. I had booked tickets to see the Scrovegni Chapel at 10.45am! We need to go in the direction of Padua anyway to start our way home and Flo said there would be time to see the frescoes if we got tickets. I was very happy about that.

Having said our goodbyes to Venice yesterday, we now said goodbye to the campground and our Swiss neighbours. Their dog had entertained our kids for many, many moments. Especially this morning, it meant that I could pack in relative peace.

look at this blue, and the stars in the “sky”

We left on time with the intension of having a second breakfast in Padua after having picked up the tickets. These plans changed, however, when we got into a traffic jam because of an accident further up the road. We wouldn’t be too late but there was no time for a second breakfast.

We kept Number 3 going with juice and snacks, while the Agent had pureed fruit to go. Because the frescoes are almost 700 years old by now, the athmosphere in the chappel has to be maintained and controlled very carefully. Moisture from sweat can lead to damages, including salt blossoms on the wall. Thus, the access is restricted (even more so in Covid times) and you have to sit in a room watching videos for at least 15 minutes to aclimatize and let your body adjust to the cool surrounding before you are even allowed in. The kids and Flo did quite well allowing me to do this rather kid-unfriendly procedure.

what a perfect match!

If you study art history, there is no way you haven’t had a lecture or a seminar on Giotto. To see it for real was pretty epic. Even if you’re ushered through and can only 15 minutes in the chapel. Even if the Agent got unhappy about halfway through and I carried her around telling her about virtues and vices. Yes, this was a win for me.

Afterwards, we went straight to a nice cafe for our second breakfast. It turned out to be rather fancy; it did have decaffeinated tea though which is a first in Italy. Number 3 surprised us a little with his wish to order macaroons. He successfully negotiated that he could have three though as this was the same price as one piece of cake and he devoured them all himself.

Afterwards, it was time to get going. The lago di Garda was our next destination. Still hungry, we got take-away sandwiches at a tiny place right next to the cafe that was recommended by the Lonely Planet. It was good value for money and we got huge sandwiches we could eat in the park right next to our parking garage. Number 3 even got a kids’ sized one with ham and cheese – which he also devoured dutifully.

Both kids slept through the car ride pretty much until we got to Lake Garda. It was hot by now and shade was hard to come by.

the lake right in fron of our campground

The campground turned out to be pretty, with views of the lake, and be entirely in the sun. I got grumpy until we had the awning up and there was at least some shade to be found. Sitting in the shade unmoving, waiting for the breeze to cool you down a little, the heat was becoming bearable again.

It wasn’t the kind of place with easy access to the lake. Flo and the kids checked out the lake but decided only to dip their toes a little. The kids were allowed to stay up late though, until the sun had disappeared behind the hills over at the far side of the lake. The tent was simply too hot to try and get them to sleep until then.

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.

first views of the outlying islands

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.

just some impressions

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.

worth the detour to another district

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!

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).

quick pack, almost done at 9 am!

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 …

Day 10 – Along Lake Como

Getting up, there was still a bit of a consideration if we’re really going to leave today. After yesterday’s digger disaster, it would be hard to actually enforce a ban for the whole day. So in the end, we decided to leave ;). But we took our time and Number 3 got his good-bye round at the lake. It wasn’t warm enough to actually go swimming as he’d hope but he walked around a bit and observed the little fish along the shoreline.

They are starting to actually enjoy playing together

With packing, this time fully dried laundry, all our swim gear, two kids who’d rather run around and another diaper accident, we were finally on the road by 11am. Goodbye Camping Ranocchio! You’ve been wonderful!

We only drove a little while back over the pass to the next town on Lake Como where we took the ferry across to Bellagio. This is something the Lonely Planet for Northern Italy suggested as the drive from Bellagio to Como (or the other way around) is supposed to give wonderful views of the lake and towns. The thought of taking Purū Hiko and the kids on the ferry appealed to us…so we did it. Lucky for us, the ferry was only 5 minutes away when we arrived at the terminal. The Agent of Entropy was fast asleep by this point but Number 3 was excited. So, when all cars were in parking position, Number 3 and I went to the railing and looked out. It was much fun but a bit loud and cold for our eldest child. Shortly after, we returned to the car.

We took the narrow and windy road to Como which had great views indeed. The Agent of Entropy fell asleep again, followed shortly thereafter by Number 3. It was a peaceful ride until about 10 minutes out of Como when the Agent woke up and demanded a pit stop with an extra feed. It was getting later and later…

Different Lunch choices…to be fair, we swapped about a quarter…

At 12.45pm we finally parked the car. Somehow, our heads were not in it though, as it took 30 minutes to sort ourselves and the charging for Puru Hiko (which didn’t work in the end). It also included Flo heading back to the car twice because we forgot such essential items as our sunhats, for example. Finally, at 13.15pm we started looking for a place to eat.

The Lonely Planet was not helpful in this instance as the first tiny eatery was already completely booked with customers and the second one was permanently closed by now. Getting hungrier und hungrier, we decided on the next eatery as a quick fix regardless of price. This is how we ended up at Aida right across from the Duomo. The food was good and we were glad to have navigated the hunger crisis before either the kids or I got too annoying.

The city of Como was a bit of a shell-shock for us as it drew crowds even during the pandemic. Yes, people wore masks but still, it was too busy too soon for me. Also, the city is very posh. Probably not quite our turf, to be honest.

We took another stroll to the waterfront, looking for a particular gelateria (Lonely Planet recommendation). Again, it was not our cup of tea so we decided against it and looked for another place down the road. The ice cream we had at last was delicious but by now we were ready to leave Como behind.

Back in the car to drive another hour to our next campground. We chose this one for tonight to be in striking range to Bergamo, our next destination.

Day 9 – That summer feeling

We call every day where we don’t move camp a rest day on our trips. Most of them end up being everything but. So if you imagine a quiet afternoon with a good book on the beach … not quite us. We move at a brisk pace, especially for a family of four. So we always have 5 more things to do on a rest day, because you know: We got time, right? That is on top of everything that made us stay in the first place.

Both kids enjoyed having the place to themselves

I tried to be smart though and venture a bit into multitasking. So after our breakfast, we packed a few essentials and moved to the lakeshore. I was able to finish up the two blog posts in our back-log while Number 3 (and, to the extent that we let her, the Agent, too) enjoyed the lake. We were the first ones out and had the lake all to ourselves. Small mistakes were made, but overall this was a great success. In hindsight, we just should have told Number 3 to take off his clothes all at once rather than waiting for him to get first his pants and then the undies wet. He had a blast, though, and even made new friends with the 5 and 8 year olds kids of the campers two lots down from us.

This is why we went on this trip. We get to spend so much time with our little ones – who are ever so slowly turning into remarkable little characters. Many times a day, I get this flush of emotion when realising just how much I love them and how blessed we are to get to knowing them.

A sit-on toy digger…how precious

We somehow managed to squeeze another load of washing into our lunchtime window, although naptime was a bit of a challenge, probably because of the heat. Oh, and Number 3’s digger addictions. There was a sit-on toy digger on the camp’s playground and he found it. Getting him off that playground took a serious bit of convincing.

So naptime dragged on a bit, organically transitioned into coffee time – all the while, promises about things we can do started piling up for Number 3. For the first time on this trip, we decided to split up. I am not much of a water nut, so Nina and the big brother decided to go for another (real) swim, while I took the Agent of Entropy out for a shopping run. I had added “cooking risotto from scratch” to get rid of our remaining fresh zucchini to the long list of to-dos for the day. Oh, and it was finally time for ice in our icebox – the butter demanded so, or at least that was my excuse.

Little airplane

A brief stroll along the lake later, it was now 4.50 pm, we all joined up again. Number 3 had turned slightly blue from an hour in the water while I was a bit hot from my walk in the sun. We equalized things by a minute or two of cuddle time 😀

I got to work on the risotto – and it was around that time that things turned south a bit. Our hero up to this point lied to his Mum about me having approved it and walked away from his sous-chef duties to play with the damn digger again, all on his own. When dinner was ready, tantrum ensued and he outright refused to join in the meal. Slightly soured by that turn of events, I maybe were not the most patient dad at bed time – and it had maybe 35°C in the tent – so that took almost exactly until it was time for us to hop in the car, start up discord and play our regular Friday night game.

Rest day, eh?

Side note:

– to avoid another disappointing take off, I religiously forced the car into “drive” mode every few hours to force it to charge the 12v battery. That works fine while it is charging the main or when the charger is disconnected, but leads to weird behaviour when the main is at 100% but the charger not disconnected. It seems like some software optimisation is still required. We’ll find out if all that at least had the desired effect, tomorrow –

Day 7 – Post Bus to Gluttony

It is rather unusual that we stay in one place for three nights. But we had full supplies, no deadlines and plenty of choice for things to do. We did want to take a break from any serious walking, though – the memory of the tower incident might still be too fresh. So, we decided on what we love to do and what this kind of travel affords us the spare funds to do so: Explore the next best town!

Public transport is fun 😀

It rained during the night and stayed overcast for almost the entire day – which was kind of perfect for this kind of excursion. Not having had many distractions in the morning allowed us to meet a rather ambitious 9.38 am bus ride to town. It is only 4 km and we could have walked there, but for only 2 € the convenience of a bus was too hard to resist.

As a sign that we are -that- close to the Swiss border, the bus was operated by the Swiss postal service (a High Alps thing). We got almost a bit confused when all the signs and ads in the bus were in German instead of Italian 😊. Six stops later and we decided we were “in town” enough to hop out. Time to explore Chiavenna.

We got our first glimpse of things to come looking into the old town from the new bridge over the rushing river Mera. And we saw a lot of ongoing construction on the banks, covering up some but not all significant damage done by severe floods in northern Italy in the last years.

Oh jeah!

Before we would hit the old town, we couldn’t help but stop at a brand new Pasticceria (plus café) on the far side of the bridge called Soul Cake. I mean … we had to, right? I myself was quite delighted by the realisation that we are in Italy now – for I had the best coffee in weeks served to me. Nina was completely enchanted by the huge selection of petit-four, filled croissants and cakes on offer. We settled on a variety of three croissants and a bit of relaxation. After all, we had two hours to fill before the chosen restaurant would open at 12.00 noon.

Well prepared, all of us performed admirably at the 1 ½ hours stroll through the narrow alleys of the old town. The most impressive feature had to be the steep 8m drop in between the 4-6 story buildings down to the rushing river Mera. The shift to “Italian” feel and architecture is pretty severe – only 10 km up the valley you can find the wood-clad romantic idyll of the Swiss Alps, whereas here the Romanesque window openings and slightly crumbling yellow washed facades evoke a clear Mediterranean feel.

We finished our walk with a mere 20 minutes to bridge and we were able to distract the Agent with a feed and Number 3 with a magical little footpath cut into the rockface – all mossy green and gloomy. The place where you would expect to meet nymphs and fairies.

Mera in Chiavenna

We got lucky by being there right on opening time and still got a table even without reservation. It turned out, as is kind of our luck, it was Republic Day today! No wonder we had trouble finding a free campsite for Thursday and Friday.

Anyway, we went to a “Crotto”, a local form of small menu restaurant that evolved of cellars for curing meats and cheeses. They had few enough items on the menu that we could basically order “one of each”. Once more, we got a bit emotional – because the food was excellent, home made gnoccetini (with cheese), cold cuts from their own cellar, polenta (with cheese :D) and biscotti for dessert – but more so because eating out has become part of our identity, and we were not able to do so for almost a year by now. We missed it so much! Even the house wine was great.

The bus was on time (Swiss precision and so on …). Unfortunately for us, we were not able to convince Number 3 to take a nap or at least a bit of rest. So, the rest of the day was a bit of a drag with him getting up to worse and worse plots cooked up by his sleep deprived brain. At least when it was time to go to bed, he fell asleep mid-sentence.

— sorry for the amount of pictures. We had to nights of gaming and I want to get is out, no willpower to be tough on the selection anymore 😀 —

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.