Tag Archives: rain

Day 22 – Kerry-go-Round

Campground forgettable – time to go. Not as quick as we wanted, though, or to do the Gap of Dunloe guilt-free (it is a public road, but traditionally used by jaunting cars, bikers, and hikers). At least early enough to go for the Ring of Kerry itself clockwise without much trouble.

In the end, it all worked out fine. The road has been upgraded in recent years and we have been on much worse with worse traffic. We only encountered the first oncoming busses around lunch-time (they are only allowed to go counter-clockwise) and never had much trouble passing each other.

Much worse (but more fun) was the first minor side road to a well-preserved ring fort. Not quite as spectacular a location as up north in Donegal but preserved instead of re-constructed. We had fun and both kids eagerly climbed the ring, this time fully uninterrupted.

After that we made our biggest mistake of the day and allowed the Agent of Entropy to fall asleep before lunch. It would come back to haunt us later. Said lunch worked out absolutely perfectly, though. After a 3 minute supermarket stop, we were stocked on great bread, fresh salads and veg. Only 15 minutes later we had pulled into another great spot to drop our picknick blanket once again. This time, at a beach somewhere on the Skellig ring, with added ruins and big skies to round of the image. Oh, and as a beautiful reprise of our first trip with the roof tent, we found very passable Pastel de Nata in said random supermarket as well!

The extra bit around along the Skellig loop was described as an adventurous bit of road in the Lonely Planet. In the end, it was scenic but certainly not worse than many other roads we have been on by now. Traffic was also very manageable. There was good reason to dare the wilds of Kerry’s far West though, regardless of road conditions: Another Chocolate Factory. We got a neat free tasting and way too much sugar for the hobbits and sat down for a round of hot chocolate for all of us.

A bit worn out after so much of the Wild Atlantic Way we were not going for many more stops after that. In the end, the drive is a bit of the attraction with this one. We found a campground a bit further along on Beara, the next peninsula south of here. We pushed it, but not before taking “the road less travelled” to avoid a third visit to Killarney in two day. Turned out that the road via the Ballghbeama Gap was the sketchiest bit of driving for the day. It was also totally worth it! We had the road almost to ourselves (minus the obligatory sheep) and even though a light rain had set in, the vistas were still great!

After that the only question was about what to do with dinner. We would have enough time to cook, but not much inspiration. On the other hand, we were passing a second time today through Kenmare, which we had snobbed earlier today. The Lonely Planet had a top recommendation for a local restaurant. A quick call confirmed that they had space for us for dinner at 5pm sharp, kind of perfect for our plans.

The dinner was excellent, and our kids both managed to stay well enough behaved to keep it a pleasant experience. I was especially proud of them for trying both my mussels in white wine sauce as well as the really excellent chowder that I finally got to have. The vegetarian options were taken serious as well. So, we all ended up properly stuffed and ready to fall asleep right there and then.

Luckily, the campground was only 15 minutes away. It had a bit of an abandoned charm, but at least we were left alone and could collapse well and early into our camp.

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.

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! 🙂

Good morning sunshine, porrige to get started

Day 19 – Iron Butt

Great start today. The reception was open unusually early, for reasons much to our liking: They had a small bakery here and just opened up after that work was done. So we started the day with a load of still warm breadrolls and in good spirits. We even managed to dodge the rain and pack up in near record time.

at least it was not pouring down – still everything was wet

All there was today was the road. Loads of it, actually. We pushed through the morning all the way to lunch time, missed our charger / lunch spot exit and decided to go 15 minutes further to the next one rather than take 12 minutes to go back. That meant that we actually left Denmark before stopping (by the barest of margins, the rest stop was disected by the border).

Lunch was a hurried affair. The bread was good, but our other stores were running low and the weather was far from inviting a longer rest. Before even finishing the charge, we decided to move on a bit further to Flensburg and stock up in our organic supermarket of choice. Bonus points for having another charger close by.

A mere 15 minutes later, we were there and ready to strech our legs away from the rain a bit. We almost did not make it to the supermarket, as we had to witness a near bicycle accident avoided only by the mearest of margins. (Nina: What is it with Germany and bicycle accidents? And why is freaking NOBODY involved in them wearing a helmet?!?) A bit shaken, we filled our cart and used the break before heading out once again, stocked up for the remaining two day and fully charged.

Which leads straight to our big dilemma for the day: The perfect point to stop for the day would be the inner city of Hamburg. Not well known for its great camping spots. That meant to stop either a bit too early and have an extremely long day tomorrow or push past it (and the growing congestion of the Elbtunnel road works). As we have picked the last camp for tomorrow night specifically so that Number 3 could enjoy the offerings there, we decided to take it on the chin and give us more time tomorrow.

The dreaded Elbtunnel. It was probably a 25km long traffic jam

And what a blow it was. We probably added 1.5 hrs of stop and go & traffic jam to our 440km day. At one point, I took Google’s advice and “went around” on a 40 minute goose chase through city streets only to end up exactly one car behind the one we left when we turned off the motorway. Well, it was more interesting than that and at least we did not loose any time 😀

And so we arrived, shattered, past reception opening hours and almost at the kids bed-time. We were lucky and caught them leaving the office, so check-in was super quick anyway. Number 3 even got a golf kart ride to our pitch – which was actually really lovely, apart from the effects the all day rain had on the grass. We ignored the mud, had dinner and dropped as soon as we could.

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!

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 8 – and so, it begins …

It was raining as had been forecast. We didn’t have bread or enough milk with us to have a full breakfast. Thus, we made semolina pudding to feed the kids, ate the leftovers and planned to have a decent second breakfast on the road. Flo had already looked up a place called Tindered where we could charge AND have lovely food at the “Lantkök”. It was maybe half an hour away.

We stuck around a while and waited until our neighbours stirred as we wanted to say a proper goodbye. By that time, we had packed everything already and were taking the tent down. After brief talk, we said goodbye and hit the road. Number 3 expressed that he was very angry and sad that we left his new friends after just one brief exploration of the forest. That was clearly not enough time with them.

Once we arrived, everything worked out wonderfully: The fast charger was available and working; the place looked lovely and even had a playground! Number 3 was allowed to go on the flying fox even before going in. It was an exception as it wasn’t raining when we arrived and I was worried that we’d promise a flying fox ride after our stop which wouldn’t happen in pouring rain.

Tindered Landkök had a little shop that we passed when we went into the restaurant space. It looked like a country estate with a lot of decor inside. We bought cake and coffee/tea and sat down. The Agent of Entropy took a liking to Flo’s strawberry cake and seemed ravenous so she got her own small kanelbullar for round two. We finished up and left via the playground where all three kids had a good go on the seesaw, the slide and a balancing parkour. 😛

Fed and charged we left the loveliest random roadside stop we’ve had so far. From here, it was a good long drive to Norrköping, our destination for today. Both kids took a nap so the drive was relaxing and filled with listening to an audiobook. Once in Norrköping, we were hungry for a late (well, for us) lunch. I had already checked out the recommended lunch places in the Lonely Planet on the way. Some of them had closed down, probably because of the pandemic, but I found one that I liked. There was a charger in a parking garage nearby so we headed there. Being in a city again was quite the change. Number 3 was mesmerized by the trams, the fountains and the art installations. Unfortunately, the place I had looked up wasn’t around anymore either and we were really, really hungry so we let Number 3 choose one of the cafes in the vicinity. They all looked cool and hip and tasty. He chose well. Getting our food, the helpful waitress made the fatal mistake to mention that the kids’ dish was pancakes. After that, we couldn’t persuade him to eat real food anymore: It had to be pancakes. Oh well, the woes of an English speaking kid.

When we left to explore more of Norrköping, it was raining again. Norrköping is an old industrial city where the factories and storage halls have been restored and repurposed. Many of them are museums, restaurants or boutiques. Flo is a big fan of re-imagined turn of the century industrial architecture so he was looking particularly forward to Norrköping.

Thus, we explored in rain. There was a hydropower station with a waterfall which would have been stunning in sunshine. The old brick buildings with the big windows housed museums. There were two enormous rollers for pressing papers, made from granite, used a public art. In short, it was right up Flo’s alley. It was also cold and wet and when we tried to hide in the Museum of Work, we realized that it’s Monday and all museums would be closed. Such a shame. We finished our loop around the inner industrial heart of town and then called it a day.

We drove further north, into the direction of Uppsala, where we wanted to go tomorrow and arrived late at the soaking wet campground. It was rather miserable and I don’t think we took a single picture. I mean, the campground was lovely and we camped right next to the playground but because of the rain, we just wanted to hide in the tent. In gumboots, Number 3 couldn’t even climb up the slide on the playground. This concludes our first day of constant, relentless, unforgiving rain. 🙂

Number 3 made a sculpture of a flamingo out of weedes in the rain

Day 2 – Why so much road?

We were lucky to be on one of these campgrounds that offer fresh bread rolls for breakfast at the reasonable time of 7.30am in the morning. So, breakfast was good…and then we had to pack up everything wet. Yes, a little rain isn’t too bad most of the time but packing your wet things simply isn’t fun.

Honey for breakfast – Number 3, that was a great idea!

Once again we weren’t quite as fast as we wanted to be as we had another looooooong day on the road ahead of us. There were still quite a few things we needed to buy, not least of all, new diapers for the Agent. So we scheduled a break from the autobahn in a commercial area of Hamburg where we could find all the shops we needed in one neat complex. Getting there proved to be harder than expected when we landed in our first real traffic jam of this trip: Stuck at the entrance of the Elbtunnel.

Half the lanes closed of the Hafentunnel – big wait, little fun

This traffic jam put us a good bit behind our schedule. There was nothing to be done about it though, we just suffered through it. As everyone with kids knows…it’s not fun. Once we got through, everything went smoothly again. We stopped right in front of the organic supermarket at the commercial complex. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find any charging stations even though we were sure there had to be some. In the end, it just lost us time. If we had found a charging station, we could have skipped the charging/lunch break and just had lunch here. Time-wise it would have been a good fit with all that time spent in the traffic jam but alas, it was not to be. We bought what we needed and were out of Hamburg again.

In a small stroke of good fortune, the kids fell asleep after the shopping adventure. Even without lunch. We made good progress until we stopped for lunch almost 1pm next to a fast charger.

Number 3 was sorely tempted by the nearby Burger King but we managed to get him to stay focused on the bread and dessert. We got lucky as there was a wooden table and bench right next to the chargers this time. It was an extended break even if we didn’t manage to sit still for long due to intermittened rain. Lunch was had on the bench before we retreated into the car for desserts.

First border crossing. Stupid for show covid border checks …

And off we went. Again. There is a reason why we usually don’t do long days on the road. They are exhausting for everyone and exceptionally boring for kids. Number 3 and the Agent were total champs though so we got through the next big chunk and into Denmark. First entry to different country of the trip. Woohooo.

At 3.30pm we had our last 15 minutes-stretch-your-legs-and-grab-a-drink-kind of a break. It was not a nice location however, right next to a fuel station. We all just wanted to get to the campground at that point. So, on we went again.

Finally, finally, we were there. Once we had set up the tent, it started raining. Raincoats and gum boots came out for the kids so Flo and I could finish setting up. The Agent of Entropy was not amused. For nearly 30 minutes she just stood where I had put her down, not moving an inch. When Flo asked her what was wrong, she pointed at her gum boots. Yeah right, it was the first time she wore proper shoes and gum boots are really heavy, especially for small kids. For the next day, she would refuse to move more than a couple of steps in these boots.

As a treat, while Flo was cooking, and because the rain had stopped, the kids and I went down to the beach. What a cool thing to do with kids! Number 3 just found thousands of ways to entertain himself, half of which ended with him having wet knees and a wet bum while the Agent of Entropy stared at the ocean, pointed at it and then went straight into it. I caught her before she was in deeper than her ankles but she was intrigued.

The day had been exhausting so we all went to bed early into a snugly tent with rain drumming on our tent roof.

Day 13 – Thunderstruck

I like to socialize with strangers, a lot more than Nina at least. So, I struck up a few brief conversations with other guests – and connected a little with another couple over having a one year old on the road, but also through COVID. Most hilariously they were called Florian and Janina and their son’s name had been on our short list as well 😀 Seeing that as a bit of a sign, we used the opportunity to give our one year old the chance to interact with another kid their age. The Agent, at least blessed with having Number 3 for company, has met kids her age maybe a hand full of times. Number 3 at this age had some group activity on thrice a week.

The blanket with toys was held in high esteem by the little ones

The two were soon joined by a third baby on parental leave and there was all of a sudden a bit of a party. I think all of us really enjoyed seeing the little ones play with other kids for once. Number 3 joined in for a bit and then attached himself to Florian, inspecting every nook and cranny of their considerably larger RV.

In short, we took our good time packing up, mixed with a bunch of socializing and a bit of praising some of our gear. After all, we had only one thing roughly planned – to stop for lunch in Cremona and then check in at the camp near Parma for tomorrow’s city exploration day. In the end, a last round of excellent coffees was had and we said our goodbyes to everyone.

Number 3 said goodbye with a bit of a meltdown. There was a ping pong ball lying around after the kids had been playing with it in the morning. A car which left the campground drove straight over it and it explode quite spectacularly. Number 3 had started to run towards it to save it but was held back by Nina…when it was broken, he screamed for about ten minutes on the top of his lungs. It hadn’t even been his in the first place but Florian felt bad enough to give him one of their remaining oing pong ball as a farewell gift. He treasures it.
Nina

We made good time on the toll “Autostrade” and decided to combine shopping with a brief top up of Puru Hiko. Once again – if you offer a charger at your supermarket, you have gained a customer (LIDL, this time) and we got 40km of range for free out of it.

Unfortunately, that’s where the smooth sailing ended a bit. The first restaurant we tried was closed. The one Lonely Planet recommendation turned out to be a bit too posh and pricy for a pit stop and after that we struggled for a bit too long. I chickened out of a self-service place. So, in the end, we waited until 1:30pm at a mediocre café with views of the Duomo before we could tuck in. And the veggie options were … limited. Nina took it like a real hero without complaint.

Campgrounds seem to be few and far between down in the Emilia-Romagna, so we went purely for convenience for the next two spots. Tonight’s offering was, by that margin, a pleasant surprise. It had loads of “permanent campers”, sure. And the “four star” rating advertised reminded me a lot of former eastern block holiday locations in the 1990s. Loads of dilapidated charm. It was also the first campground where we could not charge Puru Hiko. 3A fuses on 16A plugs. Ah well, we are pretty topped up and there will be charging in Parma for sure.

On the plus side, they had a big play area and swimming pool and were mostly deserted of other guests. We first had some fun with the crass clown-vomit-coloured playground and then even went for a swim in the huge pool (which was actually doubling as the local public swimming pool). But we were wise enough to leave the pool and prepare to hide when we saw the thick black clouds coming over the next hill.

Sure enough, by the time I’ve had my shower, Nina had already emergency-packed the camp and evacuated all to the tent. The mightiest summer storm we had so far passed right above. Thunder cracked so loud right overhead, for once even the Agent of Entropy lost her bravery for a minute. I huddled into the tiny remaining dry patch in the center of our awning and whipped up emergency dinner with caprese and some antipasti. I even managed to get the cooker going for a cuppa tea and coffee for Nina and myself respectively.

We got the kids to bed a bit later than usual, but as the storm had passed and only left the constant patter of rain on the roof, they fell asleep within minutes. We followed soon after …

Everybody’s eating something…or chewing on a spoon, I guess XD

Day 53 – vive la France!

Our last real day in France – and last rest day before we shift gears one more time. Oh, and also 75^th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy. Glad we did not take that route 😉 – security procedures must be a nightmare. While the world leaders played politics with remembrance, we had much smaller goals for the day.

Actually, apart from taking a final breather, there was really only one thing: To organise bread for lunch or dinner. Everything else would fall into place. So I brushed up my limited French to work on the owners and find out how we could get some bread without taking the car. My idea was to go on a very small hike to a restored old mill and bakery nearby, but that one it turned out only opens twice a month. The 45 minute walk into the next village seemed a bit much, so I tried for bicycles instead. Once I finally had communicated the reasoning for all this questing, I got the offer to get some bread from the lady of the house and save me the trouble. Fine by us!

Weather is still a mixed bag, but for most of the day it stayed dry, even sunny at times. It still took until the afternoon to get comfortably warm outside. So much so in fact that my winter coat that I took as a last minute addition got dusted off once more by Nina (who from there on out had a big grin on her face and said something about walking around in a blanket …).

That was it, really. By the afternoon, we had the campground almost to ourselves. Once the lawn mowing and hedge trimming had stopped, we got to fully soak in the tranquil and beautiful place all around us. The day slipped by and we soaked in the last bit of sunshine and afternoon warmth with another cup of tea / coffee.

Oh yeah – and I got a sunburn. Ridiculous, the rainiest day in a long time, but that’s what we whiteys get for skipping the sunscreen.

everything sagging a bit, but overall ..
… camp took the rain well.
Number 3 played for an exceptinally long time by himself …
… indulging in his love for pebbels
with this view, we did not mind much

Day 52 – A bit more of France, vive le déjeuner!

Number 3 didn’t ruin yet another set of clothes while we packed. 😉 Luckily, the morning weather was fine again so that we didn’t have to pack our things wet.

Today was another short day, as in only 200km to the next camp ground. Flo had found another rustiek kamperen close to the Belgian border where we will spend our rest day if it is nice. I’ve decided against camping in Belgium for one night…somehow I wasn’t mentally prepared for yet another country (and thus another post card to Aaron. It’s important to keep one’s promises) and I really wanted to take advantage of French patissieries and boulangeries longer.

The road was much less pleasant than yesterday, way more like a regular motorway. However, Number 3 had troubles staying asleep so we stopped at a rest stop after just an hour on the road. Given how he’s walking around with the zipper of his jacket in his mouth, the new tooth can’t be that far off anymore. Flo wasn’t so sure what to do with today, as we would arrive on the camp ground at lunch time if we kept going now. So we looked at the map and realized there was at least one more town called Abbeville we’d go to (well, mostly around) so I suggested eating out for lunch. French food is almost always a good idea.

Flo checked online for an eatery and found “Chez Mel” which was added as a destination. We arrived about 10 minutes before it opened so I got to go to a bakery and buy sweet treats for the afternoon tea that we planned to have on the camp ground. French bakeries are heaven. Or really close most of the time. Even Flo found treats to his liking and he doesn’t even have a sweet tooth. So we left with a bag of four treats and a hungry toddler who had pointed on almost every treat in the shop, making chewing sounds.

“Chez Mel” turned out to be a creperie. I went for a savoury one with goat’s cheese, honey and walnuts while Flo chose the decadent meaty version that was rolled up, dunked in creamy sauce and then put back into the oven with cheese on top.

We all enjoyed the meal and being somewhere dry when the rain returned. Now we just needed another short stop to pick up fresh bread before heading right to the camp ground. We arrived there before 3pm. It’s a tiny camp ground with maybe 15 spots all in all. The owners, a lovely French couple, were like “oh non, la pluie” and “le bébé” and just really a bit flustered that we wanted to camp in the rain. They spoke literally no English. But, they gave us the prettiest camp spot we could have asked for. With a little pause in the rain, we set up everything dry and then cuddled up in the tent for a bit. But Number 3’s mind of an explorer couldn’t be contained for long so he was dressed in his rain coat and wandered around in the rain however much he liked.

Oh, we even had time to tuck into those treats … the French, they got pastries right down …

So hard to choose…
Pretty despite the rain
Our own lawn
Looking towards the village

Day 50 – Maintaining …

… velocity, direction, purpose & gear.

Today was all about keeping it up. A steady pace north-northeast. Chipping away at the last 1100 km to our final “sight”. I think we mentioned that we will round off our trip with a visit of dear friends and fellow travellers in the Netherlands. We managed to sort the details out last night as well, so the goal is set: To the camp in the Netherlands by Friday night – spend a long weekend camping with friends and then swat down the last 350km home in one go on Monday. All we need to do now is fill in the blanks in between.

Our first idea: push and rest, was less to our liking than we thought. So today, we changed tack a bit and only tackled 250km to the next campground. We are not planning on any more sightseeing in France, but try to find nice campgrounds instead to make this more than a just a drudge to get where we are going.

[and this is where I (Flo) realise that I am writing for the wrong day. So off to Nina, I do day 49 now. This is what you get for letting the Blog slip]

We left the camp ground to make our way to another rustiek kamperen later on tonight. 250km is really just half a day of travelling. Nothing of note happened before lunch when Flo found a lovely little secured place where we unpacked the chairs and dug into food. Number 3 explored a bit more; he really likes to walk around after sitting in the car for a while.

The drive after lunch wasn’t even long enough for Number 3 to fall asleep. We arrived at 3pm, set up and had coffee and tea respectively. This camp ground was on the “lawn” next to a small “castle”. It’s a really pretty sight with slightly less space and privacy we’ve had the night before. We used the extra time on the camp ground to exhale, enjoy the sight and plan a bit further. Unfortunately, the weather seems to turn for the last couple of days as more rain and thunderstorms are forecast.

[oh, and Flo did some GPS stuff and “fixed” his shoes]