Tag Archives: breakfast

Day 12 – The flavour of Sweden is Pear

I was happy with the campsite for one night even if it got cold in the evening and thus also in the morning. During breakfast, Number 3 was adamant that he wanted to go swimming in the lake. Flo and I both didn’t take him seriously as it was really quite too cold to consider swimming. We decided to take advantage of the facilities and all shower before we leave. As an out, Flo offered that Number 3 could undress at the tent and then see if it would be too cold to go swimming. Our child undressed and declared that it was not too cold. He wanted his togs and floaties now, please. Flabbergasted, we gave them to him and he seriously went swimming in the lake. My jaw dropped. I mean, he swam as well as a 3 year old does: Lots of running around and splashing and stuff but he was IN the water.

“Ouch, the stones are so mean!”

Afterwards, he was rather blue-faced and we were off to a hot shower. The sun came out and packing went smoothly. We even managed to booking a time for laundry at 9am, complete with drying our clothes in the dryer and dryer cupboard (very Swedish). Keeping in mind our adventures this morning, we left at an okay time at 12.30pm. At the reception, we decided that we’d skip lunch. The Agent was asleep in the car already, Number 3 also looked very sleepy and we had an hour to drive to Nora. Thus, Flo came back with a bag of crisps which substituted our meal. Off we went.

Nora turned out to be a charming little town. We stopped right at the ice cream parlour, woke the kids and had ice cream. Nora Glass has three flavours per day. Today it was pear, hazelnut and vanilla. Number 3 opted for hazelnut with sprinkles; he looked very happy with his choice and didn’t want to waste ANY of his sprinkles. Flo and I shared a large cone which automatically comes with a scoop of all three flavours. We each chose a topping: Flo went for crushed hazelnuts and I chose chocolate sprinkles. 😀 The Agent helped us finish our ice cream with some gusto. This was the decidedly better of our two Swedish ice cream experiences, for sure.

Family out and about

Afterwards, we wandered through the streets, got to the lake where we strolled along docks to stumble upon…trains! Number 3 was so excited that he did a little happy dance. 😀

It was time to get back into the car to continue driving to Örebro. This was the only town with a castle that we’d visit this trip. As we realized in Malmö, we were more for the outdoors in these holidays so we skipped all of the old castles and ruins along the way. Örebro Slottet would only be looked at from afar, as you can only go inside with a guided tour.

We arrived and plugged into the charger, then walked half way around the castle. It started pouring. Meh. Luckily, the cafe that I had picked was right there. We stepped into Hälls Konditori, sat down on the couch and plushy chairs and had cake. Originally, the plan had been to share some Princess Cake with Number 3…alas, Princess Cake was already out when we arrived. So we all had cake in the same style but with different flavour combinations from the original. Number 3 went for blueberry and chocolate, I had raspberry and white chocolate and Flo pear and dark chocolate. It was…way too much! After all our fika treats made out of yeast dough, like kanelbullar and the like, real cake with lots of cream just seemed way too sweet and rich. Number 3 couldn’t finish his. I ate mine but couldn’t finfish his and Flo struggled as well. It was long enough of a break that the sun was back out when we left, though.

Road into the future

Back into the car and onto the last stretch for today: We wanted to reach Tiveden National park. Flo had picked a campsite almost in the National park which read like a lovely place. The drive (in sunshine) was very nice and the forests around here looked lovely.

We sat up, unfortunately we had to stay with the campervans as there was just no level area for us to park on at the tent spot. Still, it was quiet and Flo and I managed to sneak off to the bar in the evening to blog and have a drink. I was also looking forward to the morning. We decided to cook this night instead of eating out in the restaurant to feel justified in having the breakfast buffet in the morning instead. I love breakfasts. 😀

  • Good morning, sunshine!
  • Stroll to the lake
  • Brrr, cold! Notice the woollen jumpsuit and the winter jacket?
  • Breakfast with a view
  • “Ouch, the stones are so mean!”
  • O.O Seriously?!?
  • Pier run
  • Just keep swimming
  • Aaaaand…into the opposite direction now
  • A bit blue-lipped now with wet hair. Such a brave boy!
  • Poor cold little one
  • He actually pushed the Agent in the swing. Such a good big brother!
  • On the way to the Tiveden National Park
  • We need to escape the rain! Go faster!
  • Picking up his ice cream with sprinkles!
  • Happy chap
  • Family cone to share with the Agent. And me 🙂
  • “There! I need to get to the square!”
  • Through Nora
  • Family out and about
  • Boats. Look at the boats! The coolest!
  • Trains! No, this is the coolest! *happy dance*
  • Crossing the tracks
  • Wooohoooo!
  • Church in the background
  • First glimpse of Örebro castle
  • So. much. cake.
  • Now in sunshine: Örebro Slottet
  • Road into the future
  • Almost there
  • Looking forward to camping in this landscape!
  • You have arrived at your destination
  • Camp for tonight
  • Hej there yourselves
  • Evening mood from the bar
  • Local cats out and about
  • Blogging to write these beautiful entires 😛

Day 294 – Last things

We got a 3 bed room to spread out - wohoo

We got a 3 bed room to spread out – wohoo

Our room in Tabriz was amazingly cozy. Combined with a breakfast that was brought to your room (i.e. breakfast in bed…such luxury!), we didn’t really want to leave. Instead, after finishing the fresh bread, honey and cheese, we continued to nibble on the sweets as we had a whole pot of tea which went great with them. We also still had to post the last blog post.

Around 11am, we finally packed up. While carrying everything to the bike, we ran into the couple from twentyonesteps.net again. Not having taken a single picture of them yesterday, I asked for a bit of a photoshoot before they drove off.

this one took 165 km out of the journey from Tabriz

this one took 165 km out of the journey from Tabriz

Today’s plan was to ride on the bridge over Lake Orumiyeh which looked like a salt lake when we approached. The lake has been almost separated by two long piers which have been connected by a rather small bridge. Riding onto the pier on our side, there was a toll booth but the guy inside waved us through: Motorcycles are free. 🙂

We stopped for a bit as we hit the pier on the other side but really there was not much to do other than look out on the water with a pink tint. Continuing on to the town of Orumiyeh, we headed to Shemaran Restaurant, a small tea house serving dizi. Dizi is a stew that you can mash to your own heart’s desire as the vegetables, at least, come in big chunks. Unfortunately, there was no vegetarian dizi…so the owner fished out the meat pieces from mine and I ate half of the stew. It was a bit strange though…

Flo enjoyed the hearty stew and we still had chay afterwards. Well fed, we started on the last 300km in Iran towards the border town of Maku. With no intention to arrive there today, the mountains about 100km from it looked like a good place for a last camp spot. With another round of lightning and thunder overhead, we tried a couple of places before settling on a not ideal spot. It was visible from the road but far away so we weren’t bothered.

Day 240 – Exploring Sohar

look at all this food - wohoo!

look at all this food – wohoo!

It was late yesterday…for Lina and Michael who waited for us to arrive and for us who needed to ride to Sohar and clear a border in between. Thus, we were all rightly tired and took it slow. The best start into the day is a rich and long breakfast so Lina did her best to impersonate her parents who have perfected that art. What I am trying to say: Breakfast was amazing. From a breakfast egg to fresh bread to the veggie platter. As always, I ate too much and as Michael put it, breakfast took three hours. 🙂

By the time we were ready to explore Sohar, it was 1pm. Sohar is not really a tourist destination as we found out when we looked for things to do on the Lonely Planet website. To be honest, it asked us if we’d “gone off the beaten track?”. However, there are still things to look at so we started with a trip to the ocean. When we had looked at the temperature in Oman last week, it was around 25 degrees but today, the car showed a lovely 34 degrees outside. Lina and Michael assured us that it changed only a day ago but such is our luck…it is hot here as well.

These things looks the same all around the world ...

These things looks the same all around the world …

After a stroll along the beach, we drove to a Portuguese fort. There are renovations going on at the moment so it was closed to the public but we still managed to take some lovely shots of it.

The next attraction on the list was Sohar’s only mall. Recently, a “Chocolate Room” has opened there (Lina told me this a couple of weeks ago) so it was definitely a destination. Also, I really needed to keep my eyes open for a headscarf as the improvised black cotton would not do in this weather. So we entered a lovely little shop full of pretty scarfs and traditional male headwear…which were too pricey for us…but Lina said I can have one as a combined birthday gift. 😀 I now got an amazingly pretty, coloured, Kashmir-silk headscarf. So happy!

After this surprising gift, we went to the Chocolate Room and had hot chocolates. Can the day get any better?

Tired, we got home again. Too tired to cook, food (too much of it) was ordered. Well, since a picnic was planned for tomorrow, we were now all set of this as well. 🙂

Day 202 – Coffee encounters

Were on the road real early today

Were on the road real early today

Sekong had seemed incredibly sleepy last night…it didn’t get any better in the morning. Despite the fact that Lao people seem to get up at 6am to go about their day during daylight hours, the town looked positively abandoned. Also, there was no breakfast to be had here, at least not of the baguette and jam kind. To increase our chance of yet another French inspired start into the day, we packed everything on Rocinante and left the town at 7am.

Up on the plateau, it was chilly this early in the morning; for the first time in a while, I wished for something to stop the wind from getting through. We had a look for breakfast places along the road but didn’t see anything except for rice porridge. Thus, we needed to drive 80km to Paksong, the next town on the loop. The route was pretty, though. Full of views over small valleys and the opportunity to see waterfalls. So early in the day, we also had the road almost to ourselves. Continue reading →

Day 182 – Into Cambodia

We started later today than we would have liked to. Our hostel offered breakfast with the room but my request for vegetarian food broke the system. After taking away Flo’s food as well, we were left waiting for over 30min with nothing happening because the staff person spoke very little English and seems to have thought that we simply didn’t want breakfast. Without dinner last night and a delayed breakfast, I was getting hangry real fast. Luckily, I only had to complain once for things to move in our favour…

On their way to Cambodia

On their way to Cambodia

Getting to the border was only a matter of about 50km now. So we prepared as best as we could with a full gas tank, a passport photo of each of us and US$20 for the visa on arrival. Trucks started to queue but the border for “normal” people was moving very quickly on a Monday morning. And then it turned out that Cambodia should be my least liked border crossing so far. For some reason, there is a rule that only one person can accompany one vehicle. Thus, Flo was going through the “vehicle” lane and had to deal with his visa and the bike stuff while I was left to my own devices going through the “passenger” lane. Of course, there are not a lot of cross-over opportunities between the two which made me nervous.

Last shot - we tend to not take pictures to avoid hassle at the border

Last shot – we tend to not take pictures to avoid hassle at the border

Getting out of Thailand was no big deal at all (well, I can only speak for myself). They looked at the passport, took out the departure card, stamped it and off you go. Then you leave through a special exit, get herded through a pedestrian lane with a wall at one side and a fence at the other and arrive at a tent on the Cambodian side. While walking around confused, I was called over to a desk inside the tent that said “Quarantine”, was sat down to fill out the “Visa on Arrival” form and had my passport photo stapled to it. Armed with this form, I moved into the building on the other side of the road to pay my fees. Costs for the visa have gone up to US$30 now which was all well and official but then a “stamp fee” of 100 Thai baht was collected, too. While the US$30 have even been stamped onto my visa as the cost, I am pretty sure that the 100 baht are a form of systemic bribe. Or a way to get a better wage. However, there was no way around it so I paid it; it’s the equivalent of NZ$4.

When I met up with Flo again, he was still fuming about the “stamp fee”, even if it isn’t a lot of money. I guess that’s what you get for crossing at Poipet which is the main throughfare from Bangkok to Angkor Wat. Many tourist buses cross the border here as well so it might be more tempting.

Anyhow, we made it to Cambodia! Wohoooo! With a visa for “30 days”, from February 1st to March 1st. *lol*

Most of Cambodia is made up of pancake flat silt from the Mekong and Tonlé Sap

Most of Cambodia is made up of pancake flat silt from the Mekong and Tonlé Sap

From the border, it is a mere 150km to Siem Reap, the city which is sustained by the tourism at Angkor Wat. Many differences to Thailand became apparent straight behind the border. For example, traffic is slower, overloaded trucks and bikes are common and the landscape is very dry and savannah-like. All in all, it reminded me a lot of the Indonesian islands in the East that we have been through. Also, very noticeably, Cambodians are interested in our travels which wasn’t the case in Thailand. So people ask us where we come from, if we have ridden the bike all the way and are just generally excited that we are visiting. This makes them genuinely NICE. 🙂

With roads being worse again and traffic generally slower, we stopped at a tourist diner along the road for lunch. Two tourist buses were having their lunch break here, too, so we overheard some of their itineraries. Seems like the loop Bangkok-Angkor Wat-Laos-Bangkok is very popular. It is also weird to suddenly be travelling in the high season of a country.

Such a nice spot - stupid high season ...

Such a nice spot – stupid high season …

Arriving in Siem Reap, every accommodation (in our price range) that the Lonely Planet suggests, was fully booked for the next couple of days. Booking through agoda, we still found a range of free rooms and decided to go with the cheapest one for US$13 including breakfast. Of course, it was not as cozy or stylish as the recommended ones but it was solid with everything we need: bed without bugs, big fan to keep us cool, enough space to store our luggage and even our own private bathroom. Being cheap on the sleeping front, we went out for dinner at the Ivy guesthouse. This guesthouse is where we would have liked to stay, not least because it offers a range of vegetarian foods on the menu. On the way home, we sorted out the Cambodian SIM card so that we will have mobile internet in this country as well.