Our first day in Athens. Or: Anything but the Acropolis. We drove 45 min from the Campsite out in the sticks to a big mall (where we fit into the underground parking with our hight just shy of 2 meters) and after a breakfast used the great subway connection right into the heart of the City. Or more precisely: The ancient heart …
Today was mostly a riding day. We took the road south from Olympia through the mountains. On the way, we stopped at the Temple of Epicurean Apollo and then continued south to Mystras.
We chose to take our time for Ancient Olympia and stayed another night at the same campground. Both kids walked like champions and we rewarded them with ice cream, a dip in the pool and a feast at dinner time.
Mostly a driving day – down the coast and acoss the Peleponese
Finally in Greece!
April 12th to April 15th
Everything seemed to happen right up until our departure. There was no time to plan (apart from the ferry passage), work was crazy, the kids’ Easter camp was happening, and about a thousand other things. In the end, I packed most of our things alone with Flo using his 10min breaks to carry them downstairs and store them in the car. He worked till 3.20pm which was exactly the time we had to leave to pick up the kids from Easter camp. Which means, we were in time and ready to go…it was just waaaaaay more stress than I had hoped for.
We picked up the kids who’ve had a blast and even managed to talk us into having ice cream with two other kids who’d also attended Easter camp. Afterwards…off we went. South, mostly south for a long while. Flo wanted to see if we managed to cover a lot of mileage that we needed to go while driving at night. Last years holiday and especially the traffic jams right before the Alps made us dread going into the same direction again. Thus, night-time driving might solve this problem for us. After a classic on-the-road burger dinner, the kids even brushed their teeth before we said “good night”. It went okay.
Flo drove till nearly 1 o’clock in the morning when we stopped just south of the Gotthardt tunnel for some sleep in the car. It was a rather uncomfortable night, especially the kids started to complain after a bit of sleep in their seats. Anyhow, we got though it and everybody slept at least a bit. At 5.45am, four little zombies entered the rest stop for coffee and breakfast before heading off bright (*cough*) and early through Switzerland and into Italy.
It was a long day on the road. The ferry would leave tomorrow from Ancona which was still quite a bit further south. But now we were in Italy and the holiday feeling was starting to set in. For a good charge and an even better lunch we stopped in Reggio Emilia. As soon as we walked around, we realized we’d already been in town two years ago on our trip through Northern Italy. Anyhow, lunch was great! Starters of ham, asparagus and eggs, and fried pecorino with honey were followed by good pasta…at which time none of us could eat anymore. Such good food was also a good way of getting over our fright this morning. We hadn’t entered Italy for long when another car cut us off. While nothing grave happened, it threw up stones from the dirty embankment. One of them hit our windscreen and left a little ditch.
After lunch, we tried to get as close to the ferry as we could so that, no matter what life decided to throw at us, we would make it to the ferry. So we ended the day in Riccione, shortly after we passed Rimini.
It was late. We’d been driving for a loooong while, and now the footwell on the passenger’s side, my side, was soaking wet. *sigh* Instead of a quiet evening, Flo started his repair-works, while the kids and I went to the beach for a brief stint. Flo joined us shortly to get his head off things. During dinner, I even managed to ask the right person the right question so with help by a fellow traveller and his compressor, Flo cleared out the blockage in the air conditioning drain hose, the conjestion of which turned out to be the reason for all condensate to have been dumped into the interior instead.
Tomorrow, all we had to do was catch a ferry at 4pm.
This gave us a lot of time for the last 100km of distance to cover. Looking at a map, Flo and I decided to turn back a little and give the city state of San Marino a visit. We got to see the three towers on the cliffside and headed into a great little ice cream place for some pre-lunch ice cream.
Just another manic Monday. It was so nice to just hang around the campground some more. The sun rose through morning fog, the owner of the campground bought us fresh baguette at the bakery and the kids loved all the opportunities for play they had here.
We didn’t leave before 10am with a long drive to Mont Saint Michel ahead of us. Flo let all of us sleep a bit until we arrived at 11.45am. This is actually our lunch time but we hadn’t stocked up on bread and now we were in the giant parking lot with all these other people streaming towards Mont Saint Michel or the free shuttle buses. I just got caught up in all the commotion and the impressive mountain castle in the middle distance (3km does not look like a lot anymore) so we headed on in without having eaten.
The free shuttle ride was cramped full of people but it’s still a great service that you don’t have to walk the three kilometers with the kids. Plus, Number 3 was excited about another bus ride.
Leaving the bus on the bridge, you have ample opportunity to take in the view (and take pictures) before you actually enter. We arrived at low tide or rather what we thought was low tide but the water retreated even further in the time we spent there.
Going through the gates, you are hit in the face with tourism. Toilets cost 1€ even for the kids, there is overprized food on every corner and quite a lot of people everywhere. Still, the whole thing is impressive. The gate alone is very thick, the wooden doors plated with metal. Followed by layers and layers of fortifications around the hill with an abbey right at the top of it. It gave me quite the Minas Tirith vibe. Climbing up the ramparts, we had great views of the bay and fewer people to deal with. Up and up we went till we were at the steps of the abbey. Thinking it might be good “doing” the abbey before lunch since we were already here now, we bought tickets, audio guides and got in.
The abbey itself is a great structure as well. Many people have added to what was originally there so even here, you have layers upon layers. It is especially visible when you’re on the big west terrace which is also overlooking a lot of the surrounding coast.
Both kids were getting very hungry by now. The Agent had already been nibbling on her pain au chocolat for the past 30 minutes before trying to hand it back to me. A seagull that had previously perched on the low wall as a perfect picture-taking opportunity was suddenly airborn, grabbed the rest of the pain au chocolat, hit Flo in the face with a wing in the process and was off.
The Agent was startled, upset and hungry now. Flo was startled, hungry and hit in the face. At that point, the battery of our camera died. *le sigh* So we decided to get through the many, many rooms of the abbey quicker now to avoid disaster with the kids and only take a few pictures with the iPhone. Pro tip: Only go into the abbey if you have eaten already in order to properly enjoy all of the sights and information. 😉
By the time we left the abbey, we were hustling towards the next eatery. Both kids held themselves with surprising grace and reason so we had no reason to tempt fate any further. The next crêperie was ours for sandwiches and galette, the savory version of crêpe.
Now it was time to leave the small lanes of Mont Saint Michel. Taking the bus back to the gigantic parking lot, Flo and I thought about what to do next. The next rustic campground was half an hour away but in the wrong direction, back towards the Bretagne. In the direction convenient for our travels, it was another 1 ½ hours. Still, we opted for the second campground.
Given that there hadn’t been any charge points for our car at Mont Saint Michel, we planned a top up at a Lidl while shopping for dinner. Through a missed exit from the motorway which added another 20 km to our mileage, we were running REALLY low on charge. Then, the charger at Lidl wasn’t as fast as advertised, meaning we had to spend more time at Lidl while getting less mileage out of it than we had thought.
When we finally arrived at the campground, it was late and the car already complained about needing a top up. Pfff, that was a close-ish call but we made it. It added unnecessary tension to an already slightly stressful day. The campground turned out to be lovely though. We got in, plugged in the car, everybody had ice cream for dinner and we got the kids into bed. The fact that you could only pay cash here and we didn’t even have the 25€ for that anymore barely registered with me anymore. In the end, while Flo asked around if we could send anyone money via PayPal and they’d give us some cash, lovely people took pity on him and gave him a 5€ donation.
I might give a few years off the tail end of my life if I could ensure that all days work out like this one. To begin with: We did not miss our wake up or run into any sort of issue disembarking the ferry. We woke up at 5am Irish time (6am local) to both my alarm as well as the gentle Irish folk music provided curtesy of Brittany Ferries. We had breakfast, bought just in time to avoid the mad rush and vacated our genius cabin in due time to leave the ship among the first waves. I even had time for a quick shower in our ensuite.
Next up, first destination back on French soil: Boulangerie patisserie – one of the few things open on Sundays in this land of liberty. By the time we had our first baguette in hand we were greeted by a wonderful sunrise over Roscoff’s old harbour. The light of the new day revealed what a quaint and pretty little town Roscoff was. We stuck around for a while, admiring the strange bell-tower, walking out on this seemingly endless pier. We liked it.
Still early in the day on a beach just out of the old town, we sat for a while thinking about what to do and where to go next. We were sorely missing a Lonely Planet guide for Brittany – it has become such a part of our traveling by now. Just something to sharpen the focus and find inspiration. Without such aide, we decided on an ambling “long way” route to a campsite only 140km to the east. We were glad to be able to draw upon the Rustiek Kamperen site again.
Before hitting the campground early for once, there was some road to be travelled. The ride was pretty high up there, following along through more cute villages along the shore as well as the cities of Morlaix and Lannion. The former of which was such a sudden revelation of cool and picturesque that we had to stop for a coffee and a wander. The main feature (for us) was this absolutely enormous railway viaduct crossing the narrow valley right at the point where the estuary was capped off by a small harbour and covered over to make space for the village square. Best of all, there was a path on the first level of arches accessible to cross and take in the views. A perfect surprise.
Just a short while after the baguette from this morning was ritually sacrificed on another of our now almost customary beach-side lunch stops. After lunch, given our early start, I was the only one left to really admire the scenery as snoozing ensued all around me for most of the rest of the way.
That also meant no additional stops or delays before the campground, though. What a jackpot it was. Le Cheval Rouge was a rural farm renovated and run as a B&B / Glamping site by Dutch couple Chantal & Oliver. It was like it was made for us – very small and intimate, exceptionally kid friendly and without big campervans. Or many other campers at all – most other guests took the chance to stay in big family tents kitted out as glamping sites for families. Just as we were about to set up and enjoy the afternoon, the cherry on top was delivered: Sunday was the day for a communal dinner. Today it was Indonesian Rice Platter. We were just in time to decided to join in. Indonesian food? Mostly vegetarian, as Chantal is vegetarian, too! So many times, yes.
And so, we had, completely by accident, one of the coolest evenings of our European travels. A perfect warm late summer evening, everyone around a long table set out in their garden. Although we were the only non-Dutch guests, everyone was very kind in switching to German or English to accommodate us. Most of the guests were families with young children as well, the kids were playing, and the wine was good. I even got to spend a few minutes at the campfire even though the rest of my family has called it an early night.
Good times!
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