Tag Archives: home cooked

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 …

  • We actually used the kitchen to stay dry during breakfast
  • What cool family showers they have in Sweden!
  • Such a good big brother! (sometimes)
  • Trying to give Flo some peace and quiet to finish packing our stuff
  • Number 3 doing a round of the wooden platforms
  • And then we all followed
  • Puddles on the playground
  • Whale rider
  • Stopping at a random roadside cafe called Emma Grön
  • Lovely place with lovely food. Great home-made bread as a starter
  • “I can do this!”
  • Number 3 wanted a whole fish…it arrived
  • And he was so happy about it!
  • The landscape was great – the weather not
  • A melange in grey
  • Two burglars setting off Emma’s alarm on her porch
  • Self-tests are made of gold in Sweden. We spent quite a lot but I wanted to keep my friends as safe as possible
  • Urban camping in Emma’a driveway

Day 16 – Calm before the storm

We took a rest day at Agriturismo Alba. After two cities in a row, we needed a bit of a breather for the next two cities ahead of us. With this in mind, we relaxed for a day.

She’s going to be a professional climber someday

Number 3 really wanted to spend some time at the playground and the Agent tagged joyfully along. We were the only ones on the playground this morning. Bringing our sand toys with us was enough to keep both of them busy for quite a while. The Agent loved the slide though and in no time started climbing up the ladder all by herself.

Doing laundry was overdue so we put on the washing. Unfortunately, the machine was broken somehow and all our clothes were dripping wet when we took them out. The sky was overcast for most of the day, so it would take forever for them to dry.

We had a slow morning with some blogging and then a nap. Well, the kids had a nap as they alternated their time asleep: The Agent started and sleep through 1 ½ episodes of Benjamin Blümchen (audio play for kids about the adventures of an elephant who can talk) which is when Number 3 fell asleep and the Agent was wide awake again. Oh well. No sleep for tired mamas. 🙂

Like this, the madness even looks pretty

When nap time was over, Flo urged us to jump into the lovely pool. I hadn’t even seen it by this point. The sun had come out though so I was persuaded.

The pool was immaculate, blue and surrounded by a lovely manicured green lawn. I got into the water fist, which was up to about my waist right next to the ladder. That was as deep as I would go in today, I decided, as the water was really quite cold. The Agent in her pushy manner nearly threw herself in before she realized how cold the water was and refused to be put into it at all. Her screaming quickly convinced me not to try again. So we got out, changed into something dry (or baby-naked in the Agent’s case) and watched Flo and Number 3 splash around until Number 3’s lips turned blue about 10 minutes in.

The pool excursion ended, a little earlier than expected, with a lovely hot shower. Flo even improvised delicious dinner with the asparagus tips we’d bought two days ago and the potatoes we’d carried since we left home. XD

The Agent of Entropy was in A LOT of pain because her molars and a few bonus incisors are breaking through at the same time. We prepped her a little with pain relief before bringing her to bed in the hope that we might get a quiet night as another gaming session was scheduled. Indeed, we had a quiet, kids-free evening and when we went into the tent later on both kids had crawled towards the middle of the tent and were cuddling. Sometimes, the little ones just melt your heart.

  • Early morning – these two are just two handful!
  • She’s going to be a professional climber someday
  • Almost like Benjamin Blümchen
  • Well, you gotta put that wet laundry SOMEWHERE
  • A regular lunchtime with the kids
  • One-handed spreading butter on my bread…trying to contain the Agent of Entropy
  • The Agent in her element. What the … ?
  • Camping at Agriturismo Alba
  • Like this, the madness even looks pretty
  • Fluffy chickens at Agriturismo Alba
  • “Where’s that swimming pool?!”
  • Yay nah – I pass. Kids are excited though
  • Reading books with the Agent – she took a liking to the depiction of kangaroos
  • Yummy dinner. Number 3 even ate the asparagus
  • “What? Yes, it is yummy.” *chew chew*
  • Awww…these little ones

Day 156 – The last plane?

5:30 am is very early. But even Klaus and Silvia made it to give us a very warm farewell. Another if….if things go well, we will meet them again in July…in Germany, shortly before hitting Frankfurt. The next thing, we got carried away into the pre-dawn gloom the same way we came, on the back of an old pickup truck.

Checking what to do next ...

Checking what to do next …

To wake up after checking in, we waddled over to the nearest coffee shop at the terminal, just to have our most expensive meal of the entire stay in Thailand. A danish, a croissant, a coffee and a tea for the price of 7 Pad Thai …

The flight was pleasantly uneventful, except for yet another small child within arm’s reach. This one was better behaved but unfortunately kept on absent-mindedly kicking Nina for half of the flight.

I am still pleasantly surprised how smooth everything works in Kuala Lumpur. After picking up a new SIM card, we were good to go on the fancy airport shuttle train. We arrived back at Sonja’s place just to be invited to join for lunch right away. The food at the Ministry of Coffee was great. The place reminded me a lot of good New Zealand Cafes.

The rest of the day was very low key. I finally got to do the Indonesian summary post and we made a long list of To do’s while having such a great hub to work from. Speaking of which, we also got invited to home cooked dinner that night.