Tag Archives: wine

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 38 – Out of steam

The last two days had been full of activity. We went to bed late last night and also after having had port wine so the morning was sloooooow. With Porto off the list, I ran out of steam. Sure, we still have a couple of days left in Portugal but what to do?

In the end, we decided to hang on to the port wine theme a bit longer. Most of the vineyards for port are in the east of Porto, up the Douro valley. The pictures we had seen yesterday were pretty, we were tired from walking around so much. The solution seemed to be a scenic drive along the Douro today.

With that in mind, we went to the first big supermarket outside of Porto that we could find and stocked up on groceries. Number 3 is not compatible with big supermarkets at the moment: He just walks around three corners and you have to search for him for ages. Thus, he was confined to the seat of the trolley this time and complained about it.

So it was noon when we actually left Porto’s vicinity. Number 3 dutifully fell asleep so we drove for an hour along the river before stopping for lunch. We actually found a picnic area this time with a bit of a view onto the river.

After lunch, the drive wasn’t nearly as pleasant anymore. Baby was not happy with only an hour out of the car and nowhere near falling asleep again. Thus, our nerves started to wear thin. Flo looked for a camp ground already. Just anything to get Baby to shut up.

Finally, finally, we arrived at the next rustic camp ground. It was 1 km over a dirt road to get to a gate that didn’t really look like a camp ground at all. It looked like a vineyard. We stopped, debated if you could stay here for a night. We surly needed electricity after Porto and this didn’t look like the right place for such amenities.

While we were sitting in the car in front of the place, a woman walking two big dogs came up the drive way. She looked at us inquiringly and we felt a bit stupid so Flo got out to talk to her. She said, she had some space for a car with a tent if Flo could check if he could get there with our car? 10 minutes later he was back and super happy. “We’re staying here. It’s the prettiest place we’ve stayed at so far. Right in between the vines!”

It turned out to be the best camp ground we have had so far. Plus, the owners are lovely, Number 3 loves the dogs and the dogs are okay to be manhandled by a baby. We even got an extension cable right into our tent for access to electricity. Set up like that, we spent the evening calling our German friends and playing some games.

Day 309 – The Day of the Food Hipsters

The camp ground was lovely. The weather was lovely. And Flo had been pointed towards a job that he just needed to apply for. So we quickly decided to stay put another day so Flo could put his application together. Which in turn meant, I’ll have the whole day to myself…with my book. 🙂

Hipster food shot

Hipster food shot

After the food disasters yesterday, we carefully made sure to have appropriate food hipster food today. At 2pm, slightly late for lunch, we went into a vegetarian café close to the camp ground. It was brand new, in fact yesterday they had still painted some of the outdoor furniture, but it looked cosy and just like our thing. Which it was. 🙂 I had the bread platter while Flo took the falafel plate and we shared equally. It was fantastic food. It made us wonder a little bit on how much amazing food we were missing out because we cook ourselves when we camp.

Going back, more laying in the sun followed for me. In the evening, when Flo had finished his documents, we went out for a real dinner. The Lonely Planet recommends Saraphane which is the Turkish word for “wine house”. This seemed like the right place to celebrate that Flo started

Frist wine since Sohar - offically since Kuala Lumpur

Frist wine since Sohar – offically since Kuala Lumpur

on the application process already. Again, it was amazing. The super friendly cook took me into the kitchen because the menu didn’t feature a vegetarian main and gave me option what she could make for me. She spoke more German than English so with a mix of languages I ordered a cold yoghurt soup as a starter which is refreshing and a great summer dish and got a custom-made pasta plate as a main. The pasta is home-made, too, and with cheese, walnuts and rocket…it was delicious.

But the main attraction is definitely the wine menu. Choosing chicken as a main which will go with red wine, Flo was superbly advised while picking the wine to go with it. A local Turkish red wine. Can’t get much better. It reminded us of so many evenings in Wellington but also in Frankfurt when you have good food and are able to share with friends. Slightly home-sick, we contacted at least one of the ones we thought of.

To round things off, we went for coffee and tea afterwards. Also, superbly done and yummy. Paying, we realized that those drinks were not on the bill and when I asked about it the lovely lady said it was on the house. Happy, we walked back to our tent.

 

Day 37 – That’s Australia!

A cloudy start

A cloudy start

Waking up in the Barossa Valley, the clouds were hanging very low. So low in fact that the tent just wouldn’t dry at all.

We had breakfast, packed up and headed to one of the wineries for a wine tasting. The lady in the tourist information yesterday had suggested a couple of places we might want to look at i.e. if you like red wine. So we went to Peter Lehmann’s.

The wine tasting is in a really posh place. A couple of men in suits with golf clubs under their arms entered right before we did and not being a wine drinker myself, I couldn’t have felt more out of place standing there in my motorcycle gear.

To our suprise, Nina liked both

To our suprise, Nina liked both

However, the lady behind the counter was incredibly nice and while Flo was trying his way through some red wines, she got a bottle of their sweet white wines out for me: Princess Moscato. It’s low on alcohol and guess what…I liked it. Flo bought a bottle of it for my upcoming birthday and also a shiraz for himself.

After that, we felt as if we were good with the Barossa Valley now; after all there is only that much wine you can try in a day without spitting it all out. So we left in the northern direction.

Coming out of the valley, we had the feeling as if the landscape started changing immediately. It got warmer. Lunch was at a small parking area next to the road where a couple of other travellers (in a car) had parked. We had a delicious avocado toast lunch before continuing further north, past Burra and into Petersborough.

The clouds start to break

The clouds start to break

On the way to Petersborough, the whole landscape had changed for sure. I’ve never been to Arizona but this was how I imagine Arizona to be: So much open space everywhere. The land is flat until far on the horizon a hill might block your view. And above all is a vast expanse of sky.

Between Petersborough and Hawker, where we are staying tonight, Flinders Range came into full view. I tried to capture it in the pictures but I’m not convinced that I managed to. The mountains in the otherwise rather flat landscape are quite epic.

Now we’re camping in Hawker, a 300 people village, where the gas station is also the general store and the visitor’s center.  🙂