Category Archives: posted by Florian

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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!

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.

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.

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 5 – Like clockwork

My plan was, to say it mildly, not well liked. It better work like a charm, or I would have gone to the dog house for a very long time. I suggested to add about 50km to the trip to our campground to go back to Germany for our mandatory rapid covid test (needed for entry to Italy). The main reason: 140€ less for the two of us. Germans get their tests for free in Germany. Secondly, it was way less hassle to get an appointment in Konstanz compared to Wil – it is a major border town and has about 10 full-time testing sites to choose from.

The kids were a bit over eager and were up an hour ahead of schedule, but overall the morning went according to plan. Nothing was left, that we could tell, and the heartfelt goodbyes were made easier by knowing that we will see each other again fairly soon. I did forget my car key fob in my other pants, but we only lost 15 minutes.

And so, in time for our 10.27am test appointment we rolled into the car park in Konstanz. It was all pretty orderly, so within 15 minutes we were out again with an electronic results form to be delivered within 20 minutes. I was even able to add a bonus stop to remedy a previous fail on my part: MediaMarkt had both a generic charger for Nina’s laptop to replace the one I forgot in Germany for just 27€ and a cheap usb hard drive replacement since ours died the previous night after 10 years of hard travel.

Next up DM (a kind of drug store, minus the real pharmaceuticals) – I also forgot to take any charger for our three identical electric toothbrushes. Good thing Phoebe still needed one, since they come with a charger. Better still, DM also offers printing on demand, so we could commit our fresh (negative) rapid tests down to paper – just in case. I must admit, time has crept up on us a bit, so at 11.20 am already, we also stocked up on some sandwiches for lunch in the car.

[Nina: It was here that I made the colossal mistake of letting Number 3 ride on a coin-operated train for ONE SINGLE COIN while waiting on Flo to finish all his tasks. Such a huge mistake. Though, at the time I thought Number 3 was really good as he got off the toy train without any complaints.]

The eating part was fine, but 10 minutes into the actual 229km drive to our campsite we realised we forgot to check on the Agent of Entropy. The diaper was, of course, full. Alright, another brief pit stop in some sort of quiet office park. Diaper changed, consolatory feed given … just in time for Number 3 to announce he would definitively and 100% certainly need another potty break. In the car, to the supermarket and the kid rushed inside … and it turned out it was a lie, since he was expecting another coin-operated toy train thingy ride after the business was done. Nina was not amused … 30 minutes for 3 km.

But that was our last hiccup … almost. Next stop was a rest stop with a few fast chargers for Puru Hiko. She was doing excellent, anyways. But then, 9 km before the exit, Number 3 decided it was time to play around and pull the emergency eject (i.e. the door lever going 110km/h on the motorway). Car started a panic inducing beep, wind rushed, Nina half jumped and pulled the door mostly shut again. I know, I could have set the child lock on the door – but this way, he has learned his lesson for life, I am quite sure of it …

Fast charging was uneventful – I mean, this is Switzerland after all. The toilets were clean enough I almost wouldn’t hesitate dining off them. Complete with coin-operated Heidi animatronics … that kind of thing. I restrained myself from buying a 10€ plant based whopper (try it though, really good … just not in Switzerland).

This left us well prepared for the last leg of the trip – 2 hours for 113 km. We did have to come up to 2114m to go over the Splügen Pass, after all. This was SO MUCH FUN! At least for me – the other three got rather motionsick, with the Agent of Entropy actually giving in on our way down from the saddle. Nina and I realised that we had done this exact same pass on the motorcycle before, roughly 10 years ago and coming from the other direction. That was then our second long-distance trip on the bike – or in other words, 70.000 km ago. Something to chew on 😀

Driving an EV on this road is second only to our bike, I would say. Blue George was fun because it was so nimble, and I think the electric version with only 2 passengers would be even cooler than our fully loaded 3 ton family car, just for that go-cart feel. But the sheer amount of torque without any interruptions for gear changes makes going uphill in an EV just a smile-fest. And going down, recuperation takes a huge amount of load off the breaks, so that you can be quite aggressive without risking break damage.

The others disagreed a bit – so with three white-faced passengers, we turned into a great and friendly campsite in a stunning location deep down in the Mera valley. The place is called after the adjacent waterfall: Acquafraggio. And even though we had our fill of waterfalls, this one is a real stunner, visible from the campground. We had absolutely no hesitation locking in a 3 night stay – quite unusual for us in most places.

Time to let it sink in – we are here. We are travelling. On the road again, at last!

Goodbye – Christine first, as she had an appointment. Her wee one got confused 😀

Day 3 – Below minimum required

Ok, first on-the-road packing day. We can do this. Today’s trip is only 190km planned. Smooth sailings. Maybe we even would have time to stop for a roadside attraction. After all, our friends would be at work anyways – no point in rushing, right?

still pretty good at packing – even with spectators

Everything worked out pretty well. First time we had to pay by use for electricity. 21€ for a 60% charge. Not great, compared to my usual charging card, but a major convenience. We could start with a battery 100% charged and not worry about topping up for the day. So, with packing up at a leisurely pace, we were ready to hit the road around 10:45 am. Would have been, I should say. For I, in my infinite capacity for foolish things, reprised a well-honed tradition: Draining the battery of my vehicle.

Yes, you heard right. As some have recently learned from a clip of a well-known former Top-Gear host: Electrical Vehicles have traditional 12v batteries in them, too. See, all the car tech is old world, well optimized towards the 12v ecosystem. My 48 Volt 64Wh battery pack has as much to do with that as the fuel tank in a stinker. There are some practical considerations, too. You can’t just run something of such a huge power source – some level of electronics is required. And as in a desktop computer, it has to start somewhere, usually small. That is the 12v battery. I drained it completely by forgetting to unplug a charger and keeping puku hiko in her half-on state. When we were ready to leave, there was no juice to register the key-fob, let alone kick start the other electronics. As soon as the main drive computer comes on, it would register the low voltage on the 12v and start feeding it from the main. But we did not get that far …

Hat in hand, I had to ask the campground warden for a jump start. Of my EV … much amusement all around. Jumper cables didn’t quite work, but an emergency starter / booster battery did the trick. Main ECU came onboard and the car ran. Just like jumpstarting a stinker … only that mine didn’t sputter blue clouds from the rear but instead hummed its artificial VESS hum as if nothing had happened. There was the first half an hour lost …

Charging made easy – right they are. Every supermarket should have these.

We had a shopping / charging stop halfway, having made good time. But then, both little ones had to go to the loo just as we were heading out … ah well, here goes another 30 minutes.

Our lack of (daring to start) planning bit us again, a bit later. We had to have another stop. I did not get the cooking facilities in order in time. The butane gas for the cooker was ordered a bit too late and did not arrive before we left. The first two options to stock up were deemed to expensive at 4 € a bottle (the ones now sitting at home were 90ct a piece). So I had to try my luck at two rest stops and a hardware store, only to pay extortion prices of 5.39 € rather than lose more than this additional hour.

By now it was getting late but we were finally on the last stretch. Crossed the border to Switzerland without hassle and about 15 minutes out from our destination, I almost bunged it up for good this time. Temporary traffic light at a construction site – I missed the “stop here while red” sign and thought I’d go that wee bit back down the hill. Only, I did not switch into reverse but rather let it roll. And only used the wing mirror, without realizing that no rear radar or rear facing camera was active without puku hiko being put into reverse. When a “bang” stopped us, I almost lost it.

It must have been the luck of fools, as it turned out there was absolutely no visible damage and the other driver was super cool about it when he saw us in our whole kit. No time lost, but we gained a few more grey hairs on our scalps.

In the end, we arrived quite late at 4.40 pm. We were heading over to Number 3’s Godmother and her family, so the day turned bright from there. Dinner, quickly putting our kids to bed and then staying up way too long, as you tend to do with old friends, rounded off this rollercoaster of a day.

Day 1 – Electrifying

This – this was my bloody dream ever since one of those enchanting nights in Portugal. This was the thing we had mulled over, planned and made many a decision based upon. We chose to push the last two months of parental leave as far out as possible – for the chance of good weather and for the glimmer of hope of outlasting the lockdowns and limitations.

We chose our car with this in mind – had to have certified roof rack carrying capacity and be big enough for four and our stuff. We lined up friends, options, mulled over potential routes.

So the 26^th of April came – and went, with us firmly in lockdown grounded at home. No way to move the dates, no point in fussing over anything. Just hunker down and suffer through this – one more month to add to all the ones added up already.

May a half-dead rat’s feces hit all of those sharing the blame for spreading and failing to contain this bloody thing. Cursed be every super spreader! We HATE the novel corona virus! [/old man yelling at cloud]

But then, as always, things get better eventually (at least for us cis white European whities, that is). One by one, we managed to snatch up our first doses of the vaccines (after the boomers were finished and immediately demanded everything go back to normal for them, of course). European countries started to loosen travel restrictions and we finally allowed ourselves to think about actually doing it.

So, what is “this”? Well, it is our meager attempt at doing what is unfortunately very unsustainable (long distance travel) in the least harmful way we can think of. And to embrace our continent of origin and what the most dense and top tier level of infrastructure can support: Camping with an EV and our well proven iCamper SkyCamp roof tent.

The thought that struck me on our last trip: We stick to campgrounds anyway, because in such densely populated parts of the world there is not much room for wild camping (plus the fact that it is illegal most anywhere). So why not use that time to fuel the vehicle that we are using? With the kids, we would not travel more than maybe 300km in a day and, if we needed to, the charging infrastructure is good enough to just top up during a normal rest stop.

So here we are, 250 km from home on a campground in the black forest. The car is charging, number 3 and the Agent of Entropy are sleeping peacefully in the roof tent and I get to be really electrified about traveling again.

We are doing it … be a naysayer if you want – yes this is not edge of the unknown adventure travel. But it is the road.

My kids will experience that. They will meet cool people, friends we have across Europe and they will breathe fresh air and see the open sky.

And no virus could stop us from doing that …

Smart move to start at lunchtime – both were 90 out

Day 57 – Hot for Home

It felt like just the right way to end our trip. The sun was out and the kids were playing. There was only one last push to be made to get home – all motorway and for now with no major incidents along the road forecast. So we did as you do – slowly.

We soaked up as much sun as we could and broke camp at a very, very measured pace. It was fine, though. Today was a public holiday in both the Netherlands and Germany – a day off for all of us. So we let the little ones roam free and explore. Number 3 tried for some jumping on the trampoline – but that will still take a bit longer to work for him.

Sneaking away, we would often find Number 3 behind some wheels…

We said our goodbyes and wished our friends well in all of their upcoming adventures. Thanks again for camping with us – from the Horizons Unlimited meetings we know how hard it feels to pack up the tent when home is so close.

We did manage to get on the road before lunchtime. The plan was to have Number 3 get in some sleep, eat and finish the rest of the trip with a bit more sleep. As it turned out, sleep would not be a problem. The wee one developed a bit of a fever during the morning and was flat out for 90% of the drive. Lunch was had at the customary crappy fast food franchise, something we managed to stay clear off for the last eight weeks.

At home, Flo’s sister was waiting for us to give us a hand. She had been keeping an eye on our flat for us. As it turned out, she did more than that – our whole flat was spick and span! That only added to the surrealness of the situation. It just feels weird to … have a house, things … a milk foamer.

That’s when catastrophy struck (at least a little bit). We managed to go thorugh the entire trip without any disaster, which started to make me itchy. In the very last moment, a second before falling onto the sofa with a cup of tea, Murphy reared his ugly head one final time. In the hustle and bustle of getting everything unloaded from the car and the little one entertained, my sister steam boiled her right hand over the kettle while trying to get a cuppa ready for us. So instead of the sofa, it was a trip to the ER that rounded out our day …

Sneaking away, we would often find Number 3 behind some wheels…
His companion loved driving as well
Both of them enjoyed their go on the trampoline…without actually managing to jump
Here, you can see the different approaches to the trampoline
I, again, missed the official sign for Germany so here is one for the federal state that we entered
Frankfurt appeared on the signs! We were close(ish)!
Carrying everything back into our flat. We have a flat. And like a roof above our heads while we sleep. So odd!

Day 55 – Unjustified attacks

First order of business, breakfast, went pretty smoothly. We slept in late a bit – given that Number 3 had not had the best of nights. That came out just right, as packing for camping after a bit of a break can always be a little struggle, especially with new gear added into the mix. Nontheless, we took it slow and ate until a bit of a break in the rain seemed like the perfect opportunity to complete our little camp.

Our friends joined us for breakfast with fresh bread and a great attitude. Since Peter is running a shop aimed at (adventure) motorcyclists, he will be opening up today. Still, we had at least a good chunk of the morning for a couple of things.

Our full set up with car, tent, tarp and friends’ tent

Leonie, Peter and Mini van Bartang have a new, enormous tent. What nobody told me was that it was also a bit aggressive. Just when we thought it might actually be a good idea to peg it down before getting the rods in, it decided to viciously attack me with one of the metal loops (i.e. a gust of wind threw a corner at my head). I managed to turn a bit, but the impact left quite the bump, just sort of a cut. No baby was hurt though and this was the last bit of trouble while setting up.

Peter left for the shop around lunch time, leaving us to catch up with Leonie and sit out a good bit more of the bad weather. It was a wee bit too chilly until the sun came out to make it real cosy, but good company made up for it.

After the midday sleep for the kids, the winds picked up just before the weather got better. After 4 or 5 times of putting back single pegs for the awning tiedowns after a gust of wind we switched to soft soil pegs to cope with the wet and sandy pitch. All of this did not save me from a particular strong gust taking out the entire awning and sending one of the poles full speed into my head. This was the second tent attacking me in one day. This time, I was a bit dazed for a minute or so before we decided that it might just be too windy for the awning that afternoon. It was time for shopping anyway.

Later on, picking up Peter after he closed down the shop, we went out for dinner. Even though the Dutch are maybe a bit less enthusiastic to come up with veggie options for Nina, the result was great for all nontheless.

To round off the evening, we all sat down with a bunch of (non-alcoholic) beers. Other travelling friends we know came by to show their newly converted T4 camper and have a good old chat. All in all, this seems like just the right place to let out trip fade out …

Our full set up with car, tent, tarp and friends’ tent
Breakfast was great so it just got longer and longer…
Two babies in a box
…turn out to be a bit heavy
If that isn’t a picture perfect ad for camping in the Netherlands…
So cute!
Mini van Bartang being cute in his high chair
Number 3 trying the spreads
Dinner table
Busy dads
What a spot to return to!
More travellers visiting in the evening

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 51 – Avoiding revolutions

Once again, we started the day with a bit of indecision about the immediate next steps: Stay and spend our rest day here? Move on? No rest day but super short days instead? It actually took us all of 10 minutes of pulling off our chateau camp (so no rest day today) to make up our minds.

I briefly brought up the option of visiting Versailles. Paris we wanted to avoid for several reasons, but maybe a one-day sightseeing stop the day after tomorrow? In the end, we decided against it – the weather was the biggest factor – I had seen it once in the rain, only a sunny day would do for making a detour worth it. Plus, avoiding Paris’ traffic and potential Gilets Jaunes disruptions was definitely a factor.

Lacking a good target in the area we wanted to end up in tonight, we took sort of the best path avoiding Paris on a northern route and aimed for a “regular” campground with good google ratings.

We were really quite pleasantly surprised by the route we ended up on. It really had this road trip feel to it, where making distance is sort of first priority, but the landscape zooming past is part of the experience. Rural France can be quite enchanting. The N-routes took us past most villages, but through enough that it had far less of the sterile feel of toll motorways.

A great but slightly too sunny lunch spot was easily found just by the road – a little artificial lake. Same goes for our coffee break at 2, just stopping in a picturesque village square and dropping into the local café for a bit of a booster and some local colour.

barefoot saves shoes, but he sat down in the puddle to find other ways to make us work for it

The campground was nothing to write home about – but it had a picnic table ready for us, saving some time. The real event of the evening was the thunderstorm hitting us right after arrival, with just enough time to set up the tent and get the storm cover, literally seconds before a good old summer storm hit us. Number 3 was a little scared in the beginning but it got better fairly quickly while we all cuddled in the tent.

It even got a bit sunny after that and Number 3 managed to wear through two sets of clothing jumping into puddles and exploring before the sun came out again. He finished his day off with a round on the playground, impressing us once more with his motor skills and fearlessness. Early bed time it was for us. With little happening today, it still felt like a good day. Just the three of us, in tune with the road and ourselves.

“I can sit everywhere now!” – “yeah, but breakfast is back here …”
bye bye, almost cliché France
tree lined driveway leading up to the place — trés posh!
“I’m hungr .. zzzZZZzzz”
Bigger Chateau diplomacy
Picnic tables are superb climbing terrain …
who the boss here?
Stuff happening in the skies
cool tower in cool town, names are all a blur
first time we tested out the storm cover – did it’s job!
exploring in puddles
barefoot saves shoes, but he sat down in the puddle to find other ways to make us work for it
he used the bobble thingies for the first time on this trip – now he has them figured out
“you call this an obstacle?”
“ok, this is a bit scary now”
“no, never mind … wheeee”
he sat down in the end … RIP pants #2

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]

Number 3 exploring the roadside lunch spot
He would come a bit when called …
… but is easily distracted
Side road off a side road off a side road somewhere in rural France
Also, very rural France: Chateau!
Mate’s dead set on helping with dinner …
it was … a bit too slow for Flo’s pace
Seems easy right? A stirr …
… a taste …
… you have a lot to learn, young padawan!

Day 49 – Adios

That was it then – with our lovely riverside camp in the mountains, we felt like we had our fill with Spain for now. A brief debate whether to go for one more round of sightseeing in San Sebastian or take more time on our way back was quickly settled in favour of the latter. Anything but a rush now.

So off we went. Right away, we have to re-learn the doing distance part again. Fuel is a lot cheaper in Spain and the car was in dire need of a bit of a rinse after a bunch of dirt roads had left their dusty mark. So we stopped, before the border, not even 45 minutes in. So far so good, but Number 3 had already fallen asleep and his uncanny butt-sensor detected the stop right away. The rest of the pre-lunch drive portion was therefore a bit less quiet than we had hoped for. Oh, and I fumbled and got the wrong fuel (98 octane), so the whole saving money idea did not work out either. Thus, we left Spain.

So happy when he is allowed behind the wheel

Lunch was a nice change. We stopped in Bayonne and found a good spot near their fortifications not 5 minutes off the main road. We were at that point still on the “avoid toll roads” setting, which lead us through a lot of densely settled areas. But the spot was good, a lot of green for Number 3 to run around and get some pent-up energy out of his system.

After that, we gave up and opted for the 10 € toll to get us to Bordeaux – there is just no good alternative route. We went past and finally turned off to more rural highways to find our camp for the night. Another Rustiek Kamperen site, this was right up there again. It felt more like camping in a park, with trees dotted around a nice lawn and a distinct lack of fencing.

To top the night off, a Canadian overlander turned up on his 1200 GS. He gave me a good reason to open that bottle of Rioja that we picked up in the last Spanish supermarket and have a pleasant bit of shop talk.

The border here as right in the middle of a town so I missed the sign with the European flag
Lunch spot in Bayonne right next to the moat of the castle
Number 3 wandering off on his own to explore
So happy when he is allowed behind the wheel
Our spot for the night
Chance meeting with another long distance traveller

Chaos roaming the world

random pieces of life of Nina and Florian