Tag Archives: good food

Day 14 – Parma where the ham comes from

We were in a good spot to start early for Parma. Camping Arizona was still muddy from last night’s rain and the mud bogged us down a little, physically as well as mentally. It was 10am before we left, having had to pack the awning still wet.

the streets are narrowing, we are getting closer to our goal

In good time, we arrived in Parma, only to be mind-boggled again…this time by the old inner city, which as a surprise for us had limited access for cars. Google maps led us around in circles, through houses and into places we were not supposed to go. We didn’t quite understand it at the time but the inner city has zones that you’re not supposed to enter with a car. Electric cars would have been allowed in, though only with a permit that we would have needed to organize days ahead.

We just desperately tried to get to a charging point all of which were in the inner city with no good way to get there. It took us quite a while and little bit of driving through zones we weren’t supposed to be in to find a free charger and start exploring the city on foot. We will find out in a few months if that will cost us a bit extra.

Our first point of interest was a prosciutteria where Flo bought ham to take home and some salami and cheese to consume on the road. I would have loved to buy fresh pasta but we have no way of cooling it (and carry way too much food already) so it would probably spoil. Having secured these before lunch we went to “Officina Alimentare Dedicata Parma” where I’d booked a table to break our dry spell around lunch time. Parma, we had decided, was going to be all about food for us.

I feel that with both Flo’s love for savory treat and Nina’s sweet tooth, we have to focus hard on portion control for Number 3 …

We dug in. Starters included both a local cheese and a cold meats platter. Both kids dug into Flo’s salami, Number 3 also liked my parmigiano reggiano. The Agent just sat there, slowly letting her piece of sausage dissolve in her mouth. We were quite impressed.

For mains, I had gnocchi with pesto, Number 3 went for tortellini, the Agent of Entropy got a torta fritta and Flo had buffalo tartar. Finally, the dessert I ordered was a lemon pie dipped in white chocolate with pistachios and cream on top. It turned out not to be entirely “my” dessert as I had to share it with Number 3.

Full to the brim, we got up and walked around a little more. We checked out the Baptistery and the Duomo, but soon after headed to the car to get to the next campground. Before settling in for the night, we had a short stop at a gigantic coop to stock up on things the Agent can eat as well as fresh milk. It took Flo and Number 3 45 minutes to come out of the grocery store again, getting lost twice in the huge complex.

Our campground for the night turned out to be quite…basic. It had the feeling of a rest stop near the Autobahn. It was the only option close to Bologna and we’d only stay one night – so okay. The mosquitoes were a different thing though. I got bitten so often that I retreated to the tent. After a mosquito sat on the Agent of Entropy’s temple, she came into the tent with me. Still full from our indulgence at lunch time, we had a light muesli dinner and went to bed soon after.

ok, bare with me: This is the Agent grabbing my phone, activating the camera and taking a non-garbage picture. We were impressed when we saw this

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 4 – Old friends in new places

Our original plan was to leave for Italy today but when yesterday turned out to be…substandard, we decided to stay the whole day at Christine’s place to relax and catch up with one of our oldest friends. Luckily, Christine, Torsten and their little one were able to host us longer than they had expected. J

The day started off with Flo making pancakes for everyone (such a treat!) and they were devoured in record time. To be fair, we haven’t had enough sleep as the catching up part started yesterday evening which stretched into the night and then our two rascals were awake from 5.50am onwards when the Agent of Entropy crashed into the wooden train set with gusto and woke us up with a start. The best thing to do to remedy some of the effects of a night with not enough hours of shut-eye was to immediately plan our second breakfast. At 8pm, Flo, Christine and the Agent of Entropy left for the bakery to buy more baked goods for our indulging shenanigans.

Second breakfast started around 9.20am and after so much yummy food we all agreed to go on a walk before taking advantage of the more relaxed Swiss Corona rules and eat out for lunch. As it is with kids though, it took forever to get three of them ready to leave so by the time we were outside we had about 40 minutes left before the aforementioned kids would demand lunch. -.-

Our walk was postponed until after even more food and we headed straight to the restaurant in the next village up. Neither Christine nor Torsten had been there before so it was nice to explore something new with our hosts. This part (or maybe many parts) of Switzerland are very rural so we passed sheep and chickens and a picturesque fountain on the way. All three kids absolutely loved it.

The restauarant…what can I say?…it’s been almost a year since we went out for food. It was a celebration in itself to be able to do this again. Also, the food was delicious, the place kid-friendly (Number 3 had a Pizza Batman and a scoopf of mango ice cream) and our outside seating had just the right combination of sunshine and shade.

On the way back, we then had to hurry to be home in time to get the kids to bed for their midday nap. Well, two out of three kids had to nap. We still took the scenic route home with time for cows, a tractor and all things Swiss. It was a bit of a task to get the kids to calm down enough to sleep but once the Agent of Entropy slept there even was time to play a boardgame with Number 3.

In the late afternoon we went to the playground where much fun was had.

Back home we opted for more food followed vy a much earlier bedtime. J Tomorrow, we’ll head off to Italy…with a detour (back to Germany o.ô) to refresh our rapid Covid tests first.

Day 323 – Lucky peeps

Moment of truth…radiator all fixed up to be welded

Overnight, it got cool and our tent was wet in the morning. Either it had rained in the night or much condensation happened. Packing a wet tent isn’t ideal but we didn’t have time to wait around: We had an appointment at 8 am deciding our fate.

We didn’t buy food last night so we didn’t have anything for breakfast. Hoping to find an open bakery, we drove to the mechanic’s place and were half an hour early. Enough time to look around the small town and find something to eat.

Success! This hole has been fixed

The mechanic opened up at 7.50 am and saw us right away. With a long prelude about the risks of welding aluminium, he began to work. The motorbike radiator has small and thin fins so the chance of melting metal accidentally and creating a new hole while closing up the old one is substantial. However, the mechanic managed to close up the visible hole without creating a new one. So much relief. It is hard to tell you just how much relief we felt. To be completely certain that it is closed up now, the radiator was dunked into water and air was blasted through. We all watched out for tiny air bubbles but it was closed. Instead, air bubbles were released from a different location…we had a second hole.

This one was smaller and at the place where it’s fastened to the bike. It might have been created when taking out the radiator but it was still a problem now. Again, he fixed it and the next water bath test didn’t show any bubbles anymore. We could continue! *happy dance*

Happy dance! All packed up and ready to go!

The workshop where the rest of Rocinante had spent the night opened at 9am so it was already open when we arrived. Needing help attaching the radiator back to the bike, staff promised us to make it happen between 11am and noon. Thus, we had a couple of hours to spend in Passau and started with a coffee and baked goods in another bakery. We passed some time at the river Danube but returned at 11 am to see how things were going. Rocinante was good to be clad in her plastic parts already! It took us another hour to fix up the bike, pack all our luggage back onto it and return the rental car. But at noon we were off!

Arrived at the restaurant from Flo’s dad and Silvia. Achievement unlocked

From here, we had another 300km to go to Würzburg and we did it in one go. No more stopping, no more messing around, just riding. Well, we kept an eye on the engine temperature just to be safe. The bike behaved all the way to Würzburg, or rather Sommerach, and both Flo’s dad and Silvia were over the moon to see us. We had a quick shower, a snack at the restaurant (so good! With fresh chanterelles!) and then watched the football game at their place.

Returning to the restaurant “Beim Zöpfleswirt” after the game, we had dinner together. Flo proved how much he had missed Silvia’s cooking by not only finishing his giant plate but his father’s as well. So lovely to see family again and be spoilt. 🙂

: Moment of truth…radiator all fixed up to be welded

: Success! This hole has been fixed

: This one is closed now too

: Second breakfast in a bakery

: Waiting around for it to get 11am

: Happy dance! All packed up and ready to go!

: We got stuck behind a special transport for aaaaaaaages

: Entering Sommerach through one of the gates

: Riding through the narrow alleys in the center

: Arrived at the restaurant from Flo’s dad and Silvia. Achievement unlocked

: We were put up in on of the guest rooms which really is more of a whole apartment. Here, the bedroom

: A shower, a snack. Ready for football now

: Germany in a nutshell 😛

: Everything was blooming in Sommerach

: Vegetarian gratin for me

: Three pork legs for Flo. Still amazed that it all fit into his stomach

Day 225 – Reunions

One of the great inspiring websites for motorcycle travelers

The days get pretty same-y after a while. We have either done the homework we had or can not do it until I am healed up a bit more. That, still, is like watching rice grow. Agonizingly slow (yes, I am aware that one week is not a long time for an injury and it could be much worse – I am just not that good with waiting). I spent a little bit of time following up another potential option for shipping the bike, thanks to Peter.

Luckily, there are two things to keep us in good spirit: Good food and good company. The first one came in the form of delicious Indian food. The naan was the best we had in a long while. Once again the Lonely Planet held true, and judging by the long list for Chiang Mai, we won’t have to settle for bad food until we leave. Ok, well, we did actually, trying to grab a cheap bite before meeting up that night … but that was our own fault. 😉

Leonie and Peter – Amsterdam to Anywhere

That evening, we were set to see Leonie and Peter again – plus Chantal (Chick on a chook chaser), who was on her way to Chiang Mai that day. We have last seen her in Dili and followed her trip updates on Facebook and her blog since. Once more, it was a lovely evening. We talked to Leonie and Peter for an hour or so about this, that and everything before Chantal joined us. It is amazing every time how often we meet fellow travelers and it just ‘clicks’ and after only a handful of hours you end up talking about real heartfelt stuff that one normally only shares with good friends.

Chantal arrived and filled us in on her latest exploits. So we hung around, nursing the one

Chantal – Chick on the chook chaser

drink we all had budget for until we got finally booted out near midnight again. Best of all, we did not even have to say goodbye, since we are all staying another day in town!

Day 141 – Flight mode

In a sudden turn of events, we found ourselves in the same Dunkin’ Donuts outlet having the same breakfast as two days ago. Although this time, I was on the phone sorting out a new credit card (forgot mine at the ATM and the bank did not find it). Glad I am still with an NZ bank, everything is so dead easy.

The remaining distance to the harbour in Tanjungbalai is about 190 km. After a bit of a painful slog through the suburbs of Medan, we hit the overland route down the coast. It seems to be a general issue in Indonesia that traffic is worst in a ring around the city proper. Inside, there are dual lane thoroughfares and arterial roads. But further out, urban growth meets underfunded communities and single lane overland highways get swallowed by urban sprawls, leading to an utter collapse at times.

It once again took almost all day to get there. With just riding and a short lunch break, we arrived in Tanjungbalai at 2 pm. The ride was uneventful but also a bit typical for the last two month. We were either going 100 km/h with little traffic through palm plantations and fields, or breaking as hard as we could to avoid interchangeably overloaded Chinese trucks going 30 km/h or oncoming traffic overtaking on our side (preferably buses). We both started fantasizing about Malaysian motorways.

Nina’s comment: The sheer amount of attempts to kill us on this road were staggering. Cars get stuck behind slow vehicles and if they see only a motorbike coming towards them, they will pull out to overtake while flashing their lights at you, communicating “I am committed to overtaking. If you don’t want to die, better get off the road”. It doesn’t matter to them that Rocinante is as wide as a car…

Flo joined into the frenzy

In town, I went with the GPS coordinates provided by Dean in a thread on Horizons Unlimited. The harbour is in the filthiest area I have seen in my life up to this point. The stench of rotting fish and feces hung over it and it evoked images from Gangs of New York. Overall, Tanjungbalai is probably the rattiest place we have been to, yet. It pretty much never seems to see any bule. Wherever we stopped, people started begging. We could not wait to get out.

The ferry terminal was closed, but we contacted Mr Ade, a local agent / fixer familiar with getting motorbikes through and sorted out the carnet de passage while we were waiting. When Ade did arrive, he was a bit miffed that we had done so on our own and explained there is nothing more to do today. Meet-up at the port would be tomorrow 9 am. He then insisted on getting us to a hotel – tired and exhausted we followed him on a wild ride through town.

Our bike being returned to a sparkly self. It cost us $4 to get it done

The suggested place looked derelict, but we were too knackered. In hindsight, we should have trusted our instincts there. So we checked in to the overpriced dungeon of filth and started our daily routine. After my shower I went to find a place to wash the bike to prepare it for a potential day on deck of a boat. There was one place just across the street – when Rocinate came back, we almost did not recognize her. All sparkly and shiny 🙂

When I was back, Nina casually asked me what all the sand in the bed was about. I got a bad feeling and sure enough moments later I found the first bedbug running from my probing. It was not sand but thousands of bedbug eggs littering the bed. Needless to say, we ran. The landlady tried to move us to another room, which looked even worse, but we were out of there.

Rocinante sleeping in the hallway of our hotel

The next hotel was moldy and overpriced as well, but at least free of creepy crawlies living in the mattress, so exhausted as we were we stayed. We even could park our bike inside the hall in front of our room.

With another hour wasted, we only wanted some food and then get to bed to be ready for tomorrow. Just two doors down we found a yard with a bunch of obviously Chinese-run businesses and were warmly invited to have a seat. One of the patrons spoke English very well and we got talking. A cook was called and we got offered some fruit while we were waiting. It was an interesting conversation with a glimpse on the perspective of the many Chinese immigrants in Indonesia. The food was great, but a little decadent. I had fresh giant prawns and a chicken dish, Nina had a deep fried tofu hot plate. So good.

The day ended with a frustrating phone call by the agent and his niece translating for him. The price negotiations were frustratingly one sided. This is currently the only known route for overland bikers and the parties involved know they are sitting on a monopoly. The final price was 40% higher than what the last traveler paid, but it was a take it or leave it offer …

: I accidentally attracted a whole bunch of kids while Flo was trying to find the harbour on the GPS. At least this bunch was nice…

: We asked for directions…he asked for money for his help…

: Flo joined into the frenzy

: Our bike being returned to a sparkly self. It cost us $4 to get it done

: Rocinante sleeping in the hallway of our hotel

Chaos roaming the world

random pieces of life of Nina and Florian