Category Archives: EV

Day 19 – Drifting around

The Forest Park was a nice spot and both kids were keen to go back to the playbus. So we took our time this morning to blog a little, let the kids play and go on a walk through the forest. The small loop track that Flo had picked didn’t lead through the forest unfortunately but meandered through the Arboretum of a now-abandoned manor house. Not quite what we had in mind for this morning.

Both kids absolutely loved the short walk through the forest. Number 3 made up fairy stories about their houses and furniture

From here, we went back to the coastal route. It was nearly lunch time already. After stocking up on groceries in a tiny supermarket (and gummybears. Always gummybears. Grandma had given a tiny bucket full of them to the kids before we left and it needs to be refilled regularly), Flo followed a roadside viewpoint sign to Carrigafoyle Castle. Another lovely picnic spot for us plus a “castle” for Number 3 to explore. It was actually quite cool to see how much of the ruin you could still explore.

Further down the coast we went, now in the county of Kerry. Kerry is full of things to do and see…just not right here. So we continued until we hit Tralee. The Lonely Planet recommended the Tralee Bay Wetlands Centre as an activity plus a location for coffee. We got to the parking lot, plugged in the charger and nearly collapsed. With the sleeping kids in the back, we seriously considered just taking a nap. Instead, Flo and I planned the next campground. The response we got was encouraging, basically saying “no need to book there will be spaces on the day”. This is our preferred way of travelling so I’m quite happy we can just see how far we get and then check for campsites there.

Finally, we went in. It was actually quite lovely to just walk around in the wetland. We saw a heron and a moorhen with chicks and lots of things that are common in Ireland. Number 3 had a sheet with all the flora you could see and the Agent had a sheet with all the birds you could spot…both of them took their jobs seriously.

Getting coffee was a harder task. The cafe in the Wetlands Centre was closed, the first recommended cafe in Tralee as well. In the end, we wandered around and had coffee in one of the many coffee places the pedestrian zone had to offer.

Our next scheduled campground was at Inch Beach at the start of the Dingle Peninsular loop. It had been a weird day without any real highlight but a lot of things to see anyway, so I was happy to just hit the campground a little earlier than we usually do.

It is right opposite the beach. The weather was still fine and I opted that we’re going to see the beach in sunshine. Flo protested meekly because going to the beach now meant we couldn’t cook dinner and had to improvise. However, the kids ran around ecstatically so this time, Flo also put his feet in the ocean.

On the way back, we chose convenient dinner from a fish & chips food truck at our campground. Expecting the usual grub, this one pleasantly surprised us with its quality. They only need to work on their trucks presentation a bit …

Most of the trees along the fairy trail were enchanted in some way

Day 18 – To Loop or Not to Loop

One thing was clear, I wanted off this campground asap. All sympathy to non-neurotypical folks, but maybe running a hospitality business is not the right calling for yous. I don’t care if I can eat of the toilet seat if all your quirks and utter inflexibility make the stay annoying at every step. “Can we charge the car?” “No, we don’t do this, electricity is too expensive”. “Can I pay for it?” “No, we generally don’t allow it …” -.-

The big question was to head straight for Limerick City or take the 2hrs to go west first to do the loop head to the tip of the loop head peninsula (creative naming, I know). The weather forecast looked like the former, but when we hit the road at 9am, the look at the sky made us fancy our chances. It was the right choice, for sure. Lone single track roads with wild and exciting vistas all the way. A quick stop at the lighthouse at the westernmost point was all we needed. For once, we opted against the tour to go up and moved on. In we came on the southern route to come out again along the northern cliff-side road. Such spectacular views greeted us all along that last stretch that we really had to wonder why we were almost alone here, while fighting for bad vistas with busloads of day-trippers yesterday. This was preferable to us any day of the week!

After this great morning, it was about a 1.5 hr dive to Limerick. As we could not charge the car yesterday and won’t be able to tonight (or so we though) I headed for a 15 minute top up on a fast charger before going to town to park conveniently at a 22kw AC charger in downtown. The kids slept through the drive and woke back up with enough drowsiness to excuse this slight delay of lunch. Including another short hunt for a free AC charger it took us until 1.15pm to get to the designated lunch place. There was a short queue to get seated when we arrived at the Hook & Ladder as it was still very busy.

up there we must go – for views and fun points

It turned out it was well worth the wait with excellent food all around. Even the kids were great and did not make a scene due to the delayed lunch. Service was nothing short of exemplary, even though the house was packed. A very welcomed change to our last lunch experience. We ended up staying to transition seamlessly into tea time as well.

After that success, Number 3 got his wish as well. Of the few options to go for, we decided the King John’s Castle was our best pick. It was a bit on the pricy side, but that was made up for by an excellent exhibition part. More interactive than Galway City museum, both kids were occupied long enough for me to dive into the meat of the history part. Win-win, I’d say.

After that, all there was left was a slightly late trip to the camp for the night, delayed even further by the fact that I had not realised that it was actually “in” the gated forest park it was named after. So with a final 15 minute detour, we got there, set up and were pretty much ready to collapse after a quick muesli dinner for the kids. No internet or cell phone reception anyway … 😀

Day 17 – Cliffs of Disappointment

We couldn’t wait to leave the campground in Galway. It didn’t feel welcoming at all. Instead, you had to pay for a hot shower and in the morning, we realized you even had to pay to use the campers’ kitchen. That was just a little too much for us. Even so, we met a friendly fellow traveller at breakfast to swap stories with. He’s lived in New Zealand for the last 23 years and he just joined our conversation when Flo was going on about the (Path of) Exile Con in Auckland next year.

We weren’t too sure what we’d get to do today. Planning wasn’t really in the cards as we didn’t even know where we’d end up sleeping yesterday. But there were plenty of options.

Number 3 had bugged us about wanting to see a castle for a while. We agreed in principle though somehow the time wasn’t right. Dunguaire Castle was on our way today…we didn’t stop. Again, it just didn’t seem right for today. We had just left Galway.

In the end, our first proper stop was my pick: Hazel Mountain Chocolate factory. Flo and I had already agreed on skipping the factory tour. Buying chocolate in a factory outlet is a totally different thing though. When we got there, a tour bus had just pulled in so we swerved a little and sat down in the café before hitting the store. The café was lovely, serving hot drinks and baked goods, full of chocolatey goodness. All of it came in lovely pottery, making the experience extra cute. As you can imagine, I was happy. The kids seemed happy, too.

In the store, the tour was about to start. What had they done all this time? Shopping? Anyhow, the tour guide invited us to come along which was amazingly friendly of her. Flo and I listened for a bit but it is hardly our first chocolate factory tour. So we browsed the wares, turning around whenever something cool turned up in the talk. Number 3 got to smell cocoa beans, Flo got a handful of single origin chocolate to try. When the kids waved at the lady busy with actually making chocolates, she came out and rewarded both of them with chocolate covered marshmallows. A visit can’t be more of a win than this.

Flo picked the next point of interest for today: The Burren National park. The Burren are a stony landscape that you can walk through or in our case, drive through. Flo is a fan of limestone so he was particularly looking forward to this part. At a road side car park, we got out to check out if we could walk around for a bit. Per chance, we’d stopped right next to the beginning of seven hiking trails, two of which were marked as easy and loop walks of only about 1.5km. Number 3 picked the white one which we walked in its entirety. We hadn’t actually planned a walk here. Thus, lunch had to be improvised. We had spaghetti leftovers at the roadside with recently bought chocolate for dessert. 😊

County Clare’s big draw are the cliffs of Moher though. The Lonely Planet (which I’ve been reading way more than Flo) already instilled caution in me, given its description of the place. In fact, they turned out to be the cliffs of disappointment. It’s a gigantic tourist attraction, no question. You queue to pay your ticket fee, are ushered to your parking spot, walk with the crowd to the wall separating you from the cliff edge, take a couple of pictures and leave again. Yes, the cliffs are high and yes, they are steep. The experience is almost lost in the crowds. Sliabh Liag was way more atmospheric than this. The best way to see the cliffs of Moher is probably by boat. We just didn’t want to spend that kind of cash on it. It’s not cheap.

From here, our campsite slowly came to mind. We’d booked a site in Doonbeg without electricity (nothing else was available) so the car needed to be charged if we wanted to start early tomorrow morning. The charger in Lahinch was luckily available (after a 10 minute wait), which even gave the kids an excuse to put their feet in the ocean one more time.

The Strand Camping Doonbeg wasn’t used to one night travellers. At least everything was set up to feel much more long term. Still happy that we had a place to sleep, we set up before the rain, had a lovely shower and brought the kids to bed.

I kept threatening to throw them over – they still trust me 😀

Day 9 – Chillax

“One night or two nights?” – “One” – “ok, thanks”. 15 minutes later, kids mingling on the playground … “could we maybe still make it two?” That was last night. We did not regret it. 7 days of travel with 7 different camp spots is taxing in a way. Taking a rest day takes the stress out of everything.

I will try to keep this short and sweet. The day was near perfect. Both kids got plenty of opportunity to engage and play with others. Number 3 made me really proud with the amount of English he practices with other kids and adults. His English has improved so much already.

jump into action every time a horse walked by (this is 2m from the tent)

We had two solid meals and a sweet breakfast treat to boot (I had the presence of mind to grab croissants at our last minute Lidl shopping). Scrambled eggs for lunch and mashed potatoes and veggie nuggets for dinner. Minor aside: There is this great line of plant based “protein” foods at our local organic supermarket. We had the “non-meat-balls” before and the nuggets for tonight. They come as a powder, to be soaked in water and fried up and they both taste excellent. More vegetarian food should be this good. As a bonus, they last forever and pack very neatly and only need water to prepare, so a great camping food all around.

Only one event broke the stride a bit: Puru Hiko’s 12v batterie ran flat one again at some point in the afternoon. What a stupid engineering oversight (DC-DC converter only triggers when the “ignition” is on). But this time, I come prepared. Bought a tiny power bank / jump start battery kit and coaxed him back to life without an embarressing round of the camp looking for a jump start from a stinker.

That was really it. Great conversations with some of our lovely neighbours, great play time for the kids and we got to catch up on sleep and chores. All ready to tackle the road again!

both XYs pretty tired – time for cuddles!

Day 5 – Scottish Green

The day started unplanned and too early. Wind and rain had picked up over night and had me worried at time for our awning, still up. At 5am it turned out, the worries were not entirely unfounded. I woke to a new noise, unfamiliar even over the drumming of rain and wind so far. The constant rumble of wind had finally rattled open the zipper connecting the awning to our tent. Luckily, the pegs still held, so it was flapping wet and helplessly in the wind like a sea bird in an oil spill.

first thing checking if the animals are all still there

Nina and I got up in our PJs and jumped to the rescue. At least it was warm enough to not get cold and miserable while doing so. With the awning saved, storm cover installed we went back to bed.

At getting up time proper, the rain had let up enough for us to feel safe enough to bring the awning back up. After a bit of a rough night, the kids indulged on chocolate spread on the last bit of sourdough.

From here on, days will be decidedly less rushed with much less distance planned for each day. Today, only 250km to the last camp in Britain before leaving to Ireland. We took our good time, but the weather kind of helped to speed us on regardless. So even with another good animal watching session we managed to be back on the road by 9am. The weather had not improved much further and was not expected to before noon. We decided to turn this into an opportunity and go for a second breakfast in the first Scottish town on our way, Dumfries. The lonely planet app was helpful as always and provided a recommendation for great coffee and a good snack.

At the café, we weighted our options and decided to go for castle over forest park this time. Not too much of a tough choice when the option is called “Drumlanrig Castle Adventure Playground & Gardens”. The 17^th century Drumlanrig Castle proper was closed today, but the gardens and playground area was open and right the level of exercise needed for our kids. After a good session in the playground area, we got to explore the neatly maintained gardens as well. As it was past lunch (and nap) time now but both were still on pretty great behaviour and everyone got a round of treats before we moved on for the last bit.

As we had travelled north a bit from Dumfries, we were now heading across westwards off the main A75 on mostly single track roads and straight through the Galloway Forest Park towards our camp. Both kids fell asleep and Nina got carsick. I take that as a compliment of my driving. We did not stop again in the national park, which was a bit of a shame. But it was getting into the afternoon and Balloch O’dee campground promised to be a place to explore in its own right.

The campground definitively held up to the expectations. Great grass pitches with plenty of space to set up. The grounds, clearly inspired by the owner, gave of a splendidly relaxed vibe. To top it all off, there were plenty of fire pits all over the area, an indicator of how the day will end for us.

Number 3 once again made a new friend within the first 10 minutes and was on his absolute best behaviour for the rest of the afternoon. I could hardly have refused him when he asked to be allowed to have a bonfire as well after our quick and simple dinner (still getting great value out of that Iranian breakfast dish we picked up all those years ago), could I?

He bought the firewood and we agreed to have the bedtime stories at the campfire instead of in the tent. After putting the little ones to bed, Nina and I let the day fade out going through the remaining logs in our bag of fire wood. The sun had gone down and we got to chat, make a few plans and call it a night.

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 3 – Range of Emotions

It‘s my birthday! But we forgot! Well, until we were in the car already, that is. First time in over a decade that I am not “home” to celebrate my birthday with friends. But holidays are short and we wanted to make the most of it. Plus, as a bit of a reprise of my childhood trauma, we are back in sync with the school holidays, which means my birthday is ALWAYS at some inconvenient time in the middle of them.

But back to the car – we left the campground in record time this morning, as we had a train to catch. Le shuttle eurotunnel to be precise. Departure 9.10am, arrive one hour early. Getting up at 6.30am as usual this meant breakfast in the car. But without an awning, we were even faster than that and on the road by 7.30am.

Much to our delight, the Eurotunnel is happy to deal with that to everyone’s satisfaction. Would you like to take the 8.35am instead, at no charge? Don’t mind if we do. There was just enough time left to grab an overpriced (but pretty decent) Starbucks coffee and munch down yesterday’s pain au chocolat (still excellent, obviously). Apart from the 20 min in the cue for the border checks (whee, Brexit!) that got Nina a bit worried for a moment, it was an absolutely smooth operation. Almost a bit too much, making this marvel of engineering feel a bit underwhelming as an experience. In – 25 minutes of gentle swaying in a dark tunnel, out and off.

With the time difference it was now 8.15am in England and not much in sight other than getting past London. We made it a proper push, stretching our range to one of the few fast chargers on the western route north (towards the A1). Just after Cambridge, with 40km range left, we pulled up to four Ionity hyperchargers … only to find them all offline! A call to the service line was no good. Two more fast-chargers from another company were at this service station, but full. In the end, about 20 minutes after we had arrived, the Ionity sprang back to life and we could proceed to a more relaxed lunch.

All should have been well, it was still early, only 160km to go and enough charge on the battery now. Campground was pre-booked, a pub to watch the game close by. But when we arrived, the warden took one look into the back of our car and flatly exclaimed: “adults only – you can’t stay here!” That’s it – good luck with your refund, not my problem (booked for 2 adults and 2 kids, obviously). Are you serious?! Its 2.30pm now. Breathe – double check. Not much nearby. Adults only … +45 camping … members only … what the !”§$% …

Then, Nina got the one we needed, kids almost mental in the car by now. We promised to get out, now its another 30 minutes plus the time spent searching. What a lot of horse manure. Although, in the end …

… 25 minutes later, at the new camp we had the warmest welcome and a big headshake from this warden for the behaviour of his colleagues. The space at Lupine Woods Camping is perfect for us – rustic but we have it almost to ourselves. There were only maybe 5 other places occupied and he had no issue with us charging the car. A bit of forest to roam free and explore and (as it turned out) other kids to find and play with for the little ones. And to top it all off, the wifi was good enough to stream the game!

So, with catastrophe nearly avoided, we settled in, made some new friends, had a real nice dinner that I cooked instead of oily pub-grub and got to sit down to watch the game. A loss, alas, but that would have been too perfect now, would it not?

P.S.: Dear England, I am not mad, just disappointed!

Day 1 – Word Processor

Hey – here we go again. Nina and myself are still not sure if we have the engergy to go for daily blogging again. No other way then trying. So I will give it a shot!

What trip kind of trip are we on this time? Well, its still with Puru Hiko, still with the roof tent and the whole family. We have 5 weeks, so we were looking for something a bit further off to make use of the time and enjoy some of that late-covid freedom. Our choice fell on Irland this time, with some light Brittany as a pallet clenser on our way back.

Everything until Belfast is pre-aranged, sailing on the 3th of August. A bit of a rush, but some slight post-Brexit resentment made the choice of dashing through England much easier. Then we have 24 days on the Island of Irland, until we get on another boat from Cork to Roscoff.

Day one was, dare I say, much of the usual. Packing drags on a bit, but we managed to leave before noon. Some crappy food and broken fast chargers later, we managed to make it to Aachen for a late coffee break. Nina wisely proposed to keep the first day on the shorter side, so from here on its only a short 30 minutes to the first campground.

Aachen, the short hour we spent there, was lovely. Number one had seen a bit about the cathedral on the “Sendung mit der Maus”, so we got him to buy into a tiny bit of sight-seeing after the massive piece of strawberry-cream cake. On our way back to the car (parked at charger try number 3) he even insisted that we must come back again as it was “soo nice”.

The last 30 minutes had both kids fully amped up, talking seemingly without even taking a breath in between. The camp ground is perfect for us, single field grass pitch attached to a small farm. No hedgerows, no permanet placements. Out on a lovely hill overlooking a few towns in the Limburg region of the Netherlands. A simple dinner with fresh bread, tent up, car charging. Let’s get this things started …

leave the house clean and return with a smile

Day 21 – Organic Vegan Fair-Trade Hipster Dad Log

Same card for warm showers, hot water in the kitchen and…electricity to cook?

I think this “three-week-holiday” thing is just not our style. Can you believe that I have to work again tomorrow morning? There was no midnight party terror, so we were able to have a pretty relaxed morning. To make it even more so, we did not hesitate long to use the “tent camper kitchen” in the service building to its fullest. Very unusual for German camp grounds, but more than welcome today. Keeps the packing to a minimum and no extra run for doing the dishes.

Very on-brand for Germany was the fact that both hot water and the stove were charged by the minute (at least using our smart-cards as a token). The power on our site was metered as well – so the full charge over night was not that cheap, but still on par with an expensive charge card and way more convenient.

Check out was at 9 am. With all that compfort and without much of a hurry, we managed to be ready early. That meant another round on the playground for the little ones and first-in-line spot for me at the checkout. We even had some extra time after to buy a pack of feed and spend a while with the goats and chicken at the petting zoo.

So proud that he finally dared to feed the little goats!

[Nina: Flo seems to have forgotten that the playground was a “sand-and-water” playground which was amazing for the kids…just not for their clothes. The Agent of Entropy had to have a super quick bath afterwards as she had sand EVERYWHERE.]

By the time we arrived at the place in Düsseldorf where we wanted to meet one of Nina’s oldest friends, it was raining cats and dogs. With no parking in sight anyways, I still decided to drop off the rest and push for the nearest free charger. Once again, after arriving at the cafe properly drenched, I cursed the fact that Nina and I had not upgraded our gear since 2015.

Have not seen these two in way too long. Ms L and I finally live in the same country again after 14 years…if only for a year XD

It was lovely seeing Lina and Michael again after almost two years (long time readers might remember them, check out Oman from Home to Home). They have just moved to Düsseldorf. We decided over vegan coffee and organic müsli that the next time can not wait another two years and spend a lovely extended lunch huddled up in the tiny cafe called Greentrees. After a stellar performance up to that point, both the Agent and Number 3 gave up at around half past one and it was time to head home. We walked to the car, just to get everyone equally wet (the rain had not let up).

We took the last two hours in one go, making the most of our two sleeping hobbits in the back. We even managed to get the car fully unloaded and restore a vague semblance of order in our flat before collapsing into our own beds for the first time in three weeks. We were a bit apprehensive how well the kids would take to sleeping in their own room again – but it seemed they were exhausted enough to not mind.

And that was that …

Setting the table for breakfast. Slightly hindered by an Agent hanging on to my legs

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.