Tag Archives: pool

Day 21 – Low Energy

The usual reaction to any city we visit is: “Wow, that was fun. We can imagine coming here again.” Sometimes there may be a thought of: “Ok, we have seen this now.” But only a very few places manage to disappoint us so completely that they get added to the TIHI category. Bozen, well done, you became memorable to us in the worst possible way 😀

At least the day started well – the sun was in our backs now, so breaking camp was a much more relaxed and cooler affair than the setup last night.

diligent application of sunscreen – at least until BionTech has that skin-cancer vaccine fully figured out …

The plan is straightforward – we need to be in the Netherlands in four days. Well, we want to be – since long before we decided that Italy would be our best shot we made plans to visit old traveling friends at the end of this parental leave – same as we had done last time with Number 3. As the astute observer might notice: The Netherlands are not, strictly speaking, along the way to Frankfurt. But we were committed, felt we had done northern Italy enough justice and strapped in for some decent long distance travel (for European standards).

To avoid even more Covid-related paperwork and hassle, we would stop once right before the Austrian border still in Italy (well, the autonomous province of South Tyrol) and then pass through Austria in one day to avoid some hassle. That meant today was the first of four consecutive road trip days, and the shortest distance. With the EV, each of them should look roughly the same – first leg, quick charge lunch break, second leg, camp. We opted for the fastest route via the motorways rather than the scenic roads – we would probably need 2 more days to avoid pushing the little ones too much going scenic.

A roadside castle using a hill as an excellent defensible position

So, I planned ahead and saw that Italy did not really have fast chargers along the motorway, at rest stops like the rest of Europe, at least not here. If we needed to come off the toll road anyway, might as well add one more city, right? Bozen, the capital of the German speaking autonomous province of “Südtirol” was on our way, reached roughly at lunchtime. It had six public chargers marked within walking distance of the two recommended eateries on the Lonely Planet app – perfect, or so we thought.

With growing disbelief, I had to realise that every single public charger on the otherwise excellent app I am using has been removed. It seems, there are only three charge points left in Bozen, and they were A: in a paid parking garage and B: all in use, obviously. I have nothing against paying for parking if the chargers are available, but this was for me a clear indicator that we had made it back to fat old German-speaking climate-denier country.

It was late, we gave up – I mean our car has plenty of range – and settled on at least finding something to eat. We did, and again it was a beautiful reminder of what we hate about our own culture. All that was to say about the food at Gasthof Fink was that the portions are too big and they despise vegetarians. Would you like a triple layer Schnitzel, or two sad slices of undercooked eggplant for the same price, mam? Let’s leave it at that – we will not be back.

Our camp in Brixen without our car which was charging

Brixen, and the hotel / campground we chose as our stop for the day, turned out to be the light at the end of the tunnel, on the other hand. We arrived to excellent service, a really well-kept campground attached to the hotel and a nice pool. The reception offered that I could use the free guest chargers to top up the car before moving to our camp and then top it up with the 6A overnight. It was perfect, even though we looked a bit funny relaxing and cooking on our site amidst all our stuff but without the car. 

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.

Day 20 – Up the hills

Our second day at Quinta de Odelouca began. This time, I had opted for fresh bread rolls which the camp ground offered as a breakfast option. Quite happy with the choice, we started to pack the carrier backpack and my own small backpack: Today, we’d see some of our surrounding!

The short hike Flo picked was to get to San Marco de Sierra via the hill route, have lunch there and then come back along the river. We started around 10am when the sun was already up high but temperature-wise it was still okay. Then…we went face first into the hills. 😉 To be fair, we first had to cross a small river to get to the hill. There was no convenient bridge close by, just a railway one, so we did it the old fashioned way. I, once more, was quite happy for my hiking sandals because I just walked on through. Flo, carrying Number 3 in a backpack, had opted for heavy hiking boots and thus needed to find a shallow route. It wasn’t a problem either.

… and up! Not much shade

Then, we went face first up the hill. I’m not sure if the pictures will do it any justice. It was steep. Very steep. I was wondering if a 4WD drive could make it. Probably yes…anyhow, have I mentioned that it was steep?

It was a very pretty hike though. Through fields of flowers, under cork oaks (which I hadn’t seen before) and by the stump of an old tower. Towards San Marco de Sierra which appeared as a lovely white city in the distance once we had crested the hill in between. Seeing the village was quite misleading though as the path wound its way on the crest to the tops of two more hills before descending again.

By around 11.30am we had made it. Half an hour to spare to meander through the village before having lunch in a recommended eatery. Wait, is it closed?

Turned out, it isn’t open Saturday at lunch time. Feeling rather hungry after our hike, we checked the next eatery. It was 22 minutes by foot away. Back into walking mode, we finally arrived at a place that was open. And buzzing. Geez, is that because it’s Saturday? There was hardly a table available. And a whole pig roasting on a spit in front of the eatery. No one spoke a lot of English so I am not sure if it happens every Saturday or if it was a special occasion. Anyway, we got food, even vegetarian things for me. The poor waitress made a face once she understood that I wanted something vegetarian but then was quick to suggest an omelette with cheese. Portions were enormous. Baby also dug into the food. Seems like it’s true and kids just looooooooove chicken.

Flo finished the whole affair with a coffee while Number 3 charmed everyone again. Like a chiselled farm hand, looking serious and ordering a coffee and a shot for lunch…suddenly cracked into a big smile and waved at baby because baby was standing in his way, waving at him. Portugal turns out to be a very good country to travel with kids.

Its breeding time – never seen so many storks

Filled to the brim, we were ready to go once more. This time, we followed along the river for a bit and crossed the river one last time. The way back seemed long now but then, we could see the camp ground and were rather relieved. At least in my case.

Flo still had energy left to jump into the pool with Number 3 before having a short stop over on the porch of the camp ground owners. They offer glasses of wine, port or soft drinks for a very reasonable price while you sit at the same table and chit chat. Unfortunately, most of the campers were Dutch and just could not be persuaded to speak English. Unable to follow the conversation (especially me), we cut our time there short and went to have dinner instead.

Day 14 – Finally some rest

Having travelled for almost two weeks straight without any rest day, we were really craving a bit of doing nothing. Even when we spent two nights at the same camp ground (which happened twice so far), we still explored cities on those days. One can hardly call those “days off”, especially for Flo who usually carries Number 3 in the carrier backpack.

So today, was going to be a day of sweet nothingness. Of lazy lounging on the camp ground and of idle wandering towards the pool. We had exactly the right camp ground for this. And we had picked a good day for it as well: Not only was it Sunday (cough) but it was Election Day in Spain and we wanted to get out of any of the shenanigans that might come with it. It was a lovely sunny day to boot.

So we woke up to a sunrise over olive trees while camping underneath one. Between 9 and 11 our camp ground provide breakfast and it was divine. Nothing special but it came made for us, no work involved. Also breakfast is the best meal of the day. 🙂

“Doing nothing” turned into “slowly doing some chores” which included washing and drying our big pile of dirty laundry. Then we had the usual lunch with bread, cheese and the ton of ham and sausage that Flo had bought yesterday. An afternoon nap marked the time between lunch and the pool.

Number 3 was very keen on getting into the pool. His mind changed after he had his legs in the very refreshing water. Instead, he played a bit with the water jets while we took turns going for a short and rather hectic swim.

Flo prepared a lovely, mushroom risotto for dinner with a local sherry as the secret ingredient. Cordoba is in the sherry triangle of Spain apparently. Since the recipe only uses one glass, we had almost a whole bottle of sherry left…Flo can only drink so much. So he traded with our neighbours and was gifted with a glass of their sweeter sherry in return, which even I kinda liked.

Number 3’s bedtime had to be pushed to 30 minutes to an hour later than usual after yesterday’s disaster of trying to get a baby to sleep in a hot tent while the sun is still shining. On it. Just to be clear. Now, at about 8pm, dusk had already begun and Number 3 had no qualms with going to bed.

It left enough time to get a cold drink from the bar and sit quietly under an old olive tree for a while, watching the world turn pink, purple and blue. A generally great rest day was had. 🙂

Day 9 – Orange Sky

Even though we still suffered a bit through a little fatigue from the day before, we managed to get a quick shower in and wrap everything up by 10:30 am. Number 3 agreed and keeled over almost right away. That made for a good progress.

I hopped into a supermarket along the way to sort out the essentials for lunch. You would think there is not much to surprise us in a European supermarket, but the in-store stall with 50 or so hams (still on the leg) and a professional ham-slicer to serve you straight from the leg were definitively unusual 😉

We briefly debated going for the mountains to hop by a couple of monasteries recommended by the Lonely Planet but the weather was still a bit dreary. No point putting Number 3 through an extra hour of driving to go on curvy roads in the rain. Instead, we decided to keep our eyes on the campground selected and spend an hour or two catching up on things.

Food and sand don’t mix well, Number 3!

That also left plenty of time to look a bit about for a lunch spot. We chose a beach 10 minutes from the highway. That way, Number 3 got his first picnic on the beach. He was a bit undecided about the sand situation, but we all enjoyed the sun finally breaking through. 

As it turned out going for an early camp, that was an excellent choice. Even avoiding the motorway, we made excellent time. In most places the road was a perfectly good motorway right next to the toll road.

The campground was the first one we picked from a site recommended by Dutch traveller friends of ours. https://www.rustiekkamperen.com/ It roughly translates to rustic, or better romantic campsites and focuses a lot on things that we like in our stops. This time, we went for a larger one on there – a converted Orange Orchard a bit off in the hills. It was an amazing choice! Perfect, clean facilities, super quiet and cheap to boot. The pool looked like something out of a travel magazine – we had to try, but it was waaaay to bloody cold. After almost freezing Number 3 in the kiddie pool, he got to have a hot bath instead!

We topped it all off with another great dinner and got to see a beautifully lit sky for sunset. All was quiet, except for the bunches of overly excitable birds all around in the old and gnarly olive trees. 

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 302 – Stats 111 Iran

Another extremely relaxed day at the campground. We went out for dinner, but that was it. So without further ado, another bit of trip data.

Country data #11: Iran

Full screen version of the map

  • 6141 km in total (5845 km of GPS tracked)
  • 22 travel days, 27 days total
  • $23.48 Average cost per night (15x room, 10x camping and 2x invitation)
  • 297.19l of standard fuel for $ 132.04 (4.84 l / 100km)
  • ~$11.13 for food eating out some times, 3x invitations
  • ~$1,600 in total.

All $ values are converted to NZD.

Day 263 – Last weekend at “home”

Demo shot - we did not bring the camera when we had a swim ;)

Demo shot – we did not bring the camera when we had a swim 😉

We already collected two real homes each. Maybe we should not be too liberal with adding new ones, but Michael and Lina were such amazing hosts and we felt so comfortable here, it is hard to call it by a different name. Come Sunday, it will be time to leave once more (the Omani weekend is Friday and Saturday).

Regarding today, there was really nothing on our agenda. Gladly, we are all the kind of people who can enjoy a cozy day at home. Thus the day was gently going by with us watching videos, listening to music and a whole lot of good conversation.

We did break the rut once in the afternoon for a splash in the both enormous and refreshing pool of Lina and Michael’s condo complex. Simple times!