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.

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.

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.

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.

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