Today was a bit of an odd day as we didn’t have a plan. Well, we’d actually had a great plan but it fell apart last night. Our plan was to go to Diakopto and ride the train through a gorge as a surprise for Number 3. Last night, we learned that the train hasn’t operated since February. Anyhow, we decided to go there anyway and walk along the tracks. According to the Lonely Planet this is a thing people do even when the train is operating.
So we walked the tracks for a while, had lunch and turned back. From Diakopto, we drove towards Athens which we will visit tomorrow. On the way, Flo wanted to look at the Canal of Corinth, just as a human-made feature. It turned out to be quite cool plus, it had a great bakery right next to it.
We had a lovely morning in camp. Unfortunately, the kids’ play companion from last night slept in until we left.
Oh, behind a palm tree! Let’s sneak up…
Number 3 sitting at the water’s edge, content with his thoughts
The kids digging a hole for play
Excitement about train cars!
The old cars were just left on the tracks and were vandalized a little. Not as much as I would’ve guessed though
The old steam engine (rack and pinion, says Flo)
The Agent in the driver’s seat
The train cars in the back are the “new” ones, usually operating on the tracks
The start of the tracks. We were sure there was no train going
On the way in, the Agent was’t too convinced about walking the tracks. She did her own thing.
Number 3 playing locomotive on the tracks
Pretty steep
The surrounding stone walls were fukll of caves and holes
We just made this track-side nook our lunch place
There’s a lot of great Greek snack food, like pies filled with spinach or cheese. You just buy it in a bakery and you’re set for lunch
On the way back, the Agent was allowed to be the locomotive
Someone was really tired from all the walking and pretending to be a train
You can cross in a car or on foot
This bridge is right before the canal goes out to the gulf. It is submergable, if ships want to use the canal
It’s a bit nuts, isn’t it? They just took out so much rock here.
The pink platform in the middle is to bungy jump off it 😉
Right in the distance, you should be able to see the submergable bridge!
Yep. it`s pretty high!
Fascinating stuff for Number 3
A building advertising “Bakery box” and “Coffee box” must be right up our alley. Snack time!
Number 3 found this sign to be hilarious. Especially since there was a dog around….but not in the parking spot.
AoE drinking cocoa over the canal of Corinth
There is a city camp in Athens but we didn’t get a spot. When I called they told me to try again in 1 1/2 months. So we camped 38km northeast of Athens.
The campsite had a bit of a roof so we sat under it and Flo cooked dinner
The light had already turned a bit hazy during dinner and afterwards, it just looked like apocalypse struck. My first thought was a fire somewhere.
In the end, it turned out to be another incident of Sahara sand. For here on, there was sand everywhere and we kept seeing people trying to clean it off.
At last, a normal day! At least a normal travel day that is. Just over 220km to our first camp in Sweden. The weather forecast held true and we were greeted by the early morning sun. Time to dry for a change.
Happy child running
Number 3 had an enormous breakfast of two full helpings of porridge – maybe because he had plans for the morning. He got his wishes anyway and we spend another good while down at the beach throwing rocks, exploring the pier and scaring away crabs. He was so happy!
The opposite could be said of our daughter. Still very much opposed to the wellingtons, her preferred state of being was suckerfish to mama-shark. Not the best conditions for a speedy packing up. Regardless, we managed to leave at a respectable 10.15am.
With the motorway quite empty and no traffic jam in sight, we managed to make it to Copenhagen just a hair after our preferred lunch time. Both kids were asleep most of the way (even missed the first big bridge crossing), though – so we even opted against a brief charge stop – and why would we: We were heading for a charge point in Copenhagen anyway, right?
Smorrebrod with shrimps
Well – it turns out: Copenhagen really has a lot of charge points all over town, but unfortunately they are not reserved for charging EV. So there was little chance of finding a free one, competing with the stinkers for the precious few parking spots. This felt somehow worse than no chargers at all – we could see them, all free (also teasing us as free in the apps), but inaccessible due to parking stinkers. It might make sense to the Danes, but I hated it. With lunchtime already gone past, we opted to skip the charge this time and just find something to eat. After a mad dash to the loo, of course…
The spot we aimed for repaid us a little for the failed charger hunt: Refurbished market halls now a fancy hybrid between fresh food marked and foody hangout with heaps of great things to pick up on the go and devour at one of the provided tables. Number 3 was quite adamant about wanting “a whole fish”. So the three of us carnivores got in line at the Smørrebrød stall while Nina got herself a freshly made pizza. I might have gone overboard with three different sandwiches, but it turned out Number 3 really meant it and continued his hungry streak by almost finishing the fried fish Smørrebrød while the Agent of Entropy took a liking to the shrimp salad one.
Number 3 checking out the dead fishies
It was quite late by now and we were good to move on. After all, Sweden is the destination for this trip – Copenhagen can wait for another day. Now it was time to tackle the øresundbron. On the way, I tried to find out if my campground reservation went through all right last night (spoiler, it didn’t). And just like that, by 3.30pm, we were in Sweden. We even had some treats for coffee time on board (which Nina insisted on buying at the patissierie stall in the market halls).
That is when things got a bit annoying, unfortunately. The reservation did not go through, but we were lucking in getting the very last spot with electricity available – even though it was as far away from anything as possible. Two trips to the reception later, everything was set up and Puru Hiko was charging. And then I got a phone call: If I could get back to reception, I got the wrong information, I could in fact not charge the EV, no matter how slowly. This is the first time that happened in 20+ nights with Puru Hiko, and just when we would really have needed it, too. Now we have to start the tour on Friday with an immediate stop at the charger.
I tried my best not to get hung up too much and cook some nice dinner from our spoils at the fresh food market in Copenhagen: Fresh Tagiatelle with creamy Gorgonzola sauce.
Right after breakfast Number 3 started asking when we’ll go down to the beach again. Unfortunately, we also had to pack so he had to wait a little
Cuddle mode: enganged
Finally, back to throwing stones 🙂
Good posture for throwing. Could be shot put
The Agent looking unhappy even at the beach. Or at least, sceptical.
Comforting the Agent
Flo and Number 3 got some time to explore the pier while the Agent got more cuddles in the tent
Almost there
Epic shot from Number 3 on the pier
Happy child running
Long Agent is looooooooong
Copenhagen market halls. Are you shocked yet?
Smorrebrod stall in the market halls
Window shopping for smorrebrod
Smorrebrod with shrimps
The Agent took a liking to Flo’s shrimp smorrebrod…even if it doesn’t look like it
“A whole fish! For me”
Unhappy child: He spilled his lemonade on his shirt and pants
We actually bought fresh tagliatelle for dinner
Close up of the seafood
Number 3 checking out the dead fishies
Colourful tomatoes
My favourite market hall….sweet treats and desserts
It was
Number 3’s worst night yet. I don’t know, he just woke up and up and up again.
In the end, the app said, he had 4.45 hours of sleep that night. If he had that
little sleep than I had as little as well.
Groggy, we
climbed out of the tent and down the ladder in the morning. But we had
breakfast booked at the campsite so we just had to survive packing first. We
weren’t as fast as we wanted to be but still took some time to talk to the NZ
couple on a motorbike a bit more. Then, we headed out for breakfast.
Leaving Coimbra over a bridge
I knew my expectations shouldn’t have been high and I somehow still
managed to be disappointed. Probably by the utter lack of jam for breakfast.
Given the choice between cold meats and cheese, I choose something sweet. Thus,
Flo was nice enough to get our own jam out of the car so I can have breakfast.
Today’s mission was to get to Porto. Portugal’s second biggest city is
our last big ticket item on the list. Probably since Mat and Liz introduced us
to port wine and Port Night, going to Porto and tasting port wine became a
thing in our minds. And now was the time to do it.
Being so tired we couldn’t be bothered to find a way around the toll road
and add extra time to the journey. We just paid the toll and were in Porto in
under 2 hours. Before lunch, with a good couple of hours before we needed to
find a camp ground for the night. Thus, we started to explore the city.
Parking somewhere on the south bank of the river Douro, we were in
walking distance to the inner city. The first thing that we came across was a
cable car up a nearby hill. A short check in the guide book told us that it’s a
thing to do to get views over the city and river so we hopped into it straight
away. A good start already.
From the cable car, we took the amazing bridge over the Douro. On foot.
The bridge actually has two levels: The upper one is for the metro and
pedestrians taking in the views nowadays, the lower level is for cars, buses
and more pedestrians.
On the other side of the river, we realized just how much it reminded us
of Wellington. The inner city is walkable without problems, everything is close
by actually. It is rather hilly and you go up and down and back up again. And
it was just…charming. And compact. Of all the cities we visited lately, Porto
is probably the one we liked most. More than Lisbon and Barcelona. It’s just…nice
to spend time here.
Going uphill
From the Ponte de Luís I it is about 50 meters to the Sé, Porto’s
cathedral. It was lunchtime though and we were hungry. So we went to a hipster
restaurant to enjoy some proper food. The waitress shook her head when I told
her I’m vegetarian and I had to go with starters and side dishes. We thoroughly
enjoyed it anyway. 🙂
After lunch, we stuck to our guns and decided to walk around for the
first day as it had worked well for us in Lisbon. The Lonely Planet suggested a
walking tour and we stuck to it. A detour to the train station was necessary to
change baby’s diaper. So we got to see the artfully hand painted tiles’ in there
as well. On Rua da Flores we ended up in a café with more pastel to eat.
But Porto is all about port wine, really. Vila Nova de Gaia on the south
bank is full of wine lodges, each sprouting a big name in port wine. Tours and
tastings are advertised everywhere, in every shop, every café, every bar. In
the chocolate place, I ended up buying a dark chocolate filled with port wine
ganache. Made with Graham’s Six Grape port wine.
At 4pm, we headed out to find a camp for the night. Preferably one with
a bus connection back into the city so that tomorrow, we could visit a lodge.
Still further uphill
The first one was already completely full. Flo dreaded the next one as
it had bad ratings on the usual websites. They had space though. It’s a municipal
camp ground and they were suckers for bureaucracy. It was the first place that
Number 3 needed papers to be allowed to stay. Everywhere else, Flo and my
national ID card was enough; here Baby needed his passport.
We rolled our eyes but it did it, went to a patch that looked okay and
started to pitch the tent. We had booked electricity for the two compulsory nights
so a staff member came by to connect us. When he saw that we wanted to have
electricity in a tent, he outright refused to connect us. We never had a
problem with this in more than a month of travelling…here, no way. So we were
stuck here for two nights and a full day without electricity to charge cell
phones, laptops and the camera. Our mood hit rock bottom.
Just when we were debating on leaving again, we got company. One of the
fellow campers wanted to have a look into our roof tent. When he learned why we
were so upset, he lent us his powerbank to charge our phones at least. Later,
he also charged our camera battery in his camper. So kind!
Leaving Coimbra over a bridge
First bridge in Porto
That’s what we plan to do!
And up we go
Me in the cable car
I guess you can feel like a pirate while tasting port wine?
View along the River Doura through Porto
The riverfront promenade
Ponte de Dom Luis I with iots two levels
Pictures on the bridge seem to be the thing to do…
…I rather kept my distance from the not high enough railing
Porto portrait
Graham’s lodge from afar
The side with all the port wine lodges
Lots of graffiti around
So close to the ocean, there are seagulls around
A giant mural
Small alleys
Going uphill
Our bread and olive starter looked like a still life painting
Flo could look into the kitchen and sneakily took some pictures of it
Great little detour to the train station
Statue on one of the fancy buildings around Avenida dos Aliados
