Tag Archives: history

Day 17 – Goth Burger

We got greeted by a delightfully sunny morning on our little ställplats out in the middle of nowhere. It was not as cold as the last two nights close to the lake and a bit further north, so breakfast was a pleasant and rather quick affair. Today was marked fully as a city day, but we had a little bit to go before we could get to that.

About 100km and an extremely confusing ride through a cratered landscape of urban re-development later, we found ourselves at the desired parking garage as close to the old town as we needed. We had to be a bit cheeky to grab one of the last four available chargers (out of 50+, mind you!) but around 10:30am we were ready to explore.

After a quick glance at the Lonely Planet map, we decided to start at the northernmost point for the day and get ourselves a bit of an overview from there. Quite literally, actually – since the first stop was the harbor high-rise called “the lipstick”. It had a dedicated viewing platform accessible to the public. 13 € and an elevator ride later, we were treated to a spectacular 360° view of Gothenburg. We could see the moored sailing vessel Number 3 took a liking to on our way here, the massive redevelopment happening in the east that almost tripped our google maps navigation and much more.

Of particular interest to Number 3 were all the construction sites with interesting machinery in operation all around. That was, until a ship approached to pass the new bridge and it lifted the whole central bit up, tram tracks and all. The old bridge, in the process of being torn down, was locked in open position anyways. Perfect timing – even Nina dared to approach the windows for a view. Otherwise, she preferred the seats closer to the core 😀

Next up was lunch. I had picked a vegetarian place a bit further south and we made the track across town. What I should have done is some COVID due diligence and check if the place actually made it through 2020 (which it had not) – nothing outdates a guidebook (2019 edition!) faster than a global pandemic, eh? With that disappointment fresh and already well into lunch time, we had to revert to emergency mode and settle for “anything, hopefully fast”. The vegetarian buffet lunch we ended up with was alright, but nothing to write home about.

After lunch, some more exploration on foot, via the oldest stone building in the old town (Kronhuset, 1654). The slightly younger service buildings around it have been converted into artisan workshops and cafés. And so, our quest to visit a chocolate manufactory on every continent continued with some gifts and snacks for the way on our way out.

We decided on a change of pace and for two more stops for the day. Four, if you choose to see it from Number 3’s perspective: City museum for some brain food, tram ride, Haga for city vibes and coffee time, tram ride and then home.

Haga, an “area of interest” according to the guide book

The museum was pretty cool and held the kids’ attention for a good hour and a half, topped off with an amazing playroom they had basically to themselves for a while. The tram ride would most likely be the real highlight of the day, in Number 3’s opinion.

Haga was a very good way to round out the day. A different, more neighborhood-y vibe than the old town it reminded us of Sachsenhausen in Frankfurt. We shared a humongous kanelbullar and enjoyed the atmosphere. In terms of excitement factor for our eldest, all this paled in comparison though to being allowed to pull the string (very old school) to signal the tram driver for our stop.

So off we went, after a good, enjoyable day to our beachside campground just out of town. I think it was a good way to say goodbye to Sweden. Tomorrow, the road …

Day 17 – Flashbacks

Where others might spend their whole holiday, today must suffice for us on this campground. Venice is calling. Slowly but surely, we have built up genuine excitement for the Floating City. But before the leaving comes the packing. We took our good time. There are still some stragglers holding on to the last bit of moisture from our washing misadventure. Plus, the remaining distance to our Venetian base will be covered in no time on the autostrade. I did not share the reasons for my laid back-ness with Nina entirely, so she was a bit stressed out when I gave in to Number 3’s request for a final playground visit.

Good morning Alba! – Good morning Agent!

But, as these things go – after we had had a brief chat to set the expectations straight it turned out it was quite fortunate. A few newer arrivals were also playing – and as the Agent of Entropy had another chance to socialize with the little ones, Number 3 got the chance to tag along for some livestock exploration adventure (he took off with the others all on his own, with our permission). He talked a lot about this little adventure. Even with those “delays”, we left at 10am and arrived at the targeted Padua parking garage by 10.45am.

I did not technically need a lot of charging, but when I saw that they had EV marked parking with unmetered power outlets, I thought – must try. Unfortunately, they were not only unmetered but also unpowered :/

The string of disappointment hit its crescendo though when we, after some looking around, found the entrance to our top ticket item in the itinerary for today: The Scrovegni Chapel, full of masterpiece frescoes by Giotto. Nina’s home turf – as a master of art history (literally, btw) would not let us in today – tickets had to be booked one day in advance. Nina was, justifiably, gutted. The deal was that we do a quick highlights’ stint, with art history for Nina and natural science history for me. I felt really bad now – even more so when this hitch prompted us to double check for the next item, the Palazzo Bo of the University of Padua, and snatch the last few tickets for the only guided tour in English available to us today. Spain should have taught us a lesson, we mused, but so far Italy has just been too effortless in this regard and we had let our guard down. Well, that and the lack of a physical Lonely Planet guidebook to plan.

The starting time for the tour allowed only for a quick lunch, but gladly the Lonely Planet app came to the rescue here. We dived into a real cool and friendly student bar / noodle house and got good quality lunch of carbonara, cacio e pepe and a poke bowl for under 30 €. Thus, fully reenergized we crossed our fingers for the hobbits’ stamina to hold and headed for the tour.

What a great tour it was. Of course, the big ticket items of “the podium from which a young Galileo Galilei had lectured” and the “world’s very first anatomical theater” were really cool. But the big thing for me was the history of the redesign in the 40s at the hands of Gio Ponti. Seeing what an architect and designer can accomplish when given the reins to do so is impressive. More so remembering that he did not work with a blank canvas, but an in parts 600-year-old structure at the time. The respect he payed for the past while also creating really cool designs will stick with me for a while.

Now a 45-minute guided tour that stretched in to 90 minutes in the end is quite the stretch for two younglings. They were a bit to manage at times, but we were able to do the full tour and all but the especially rude French lady on the tour put up with us with friendly encouragement. Thank you kids – that was amazing.

It was also our curtain call for Padua, even skipping the usual “gelato and go” routine. We did stop one more time, with both little ones fast asleep in the car, about 5 minutes from the campground to restock on ice for the cooler and a few essentials.

The campground – for a city camp chosen mostly out of convenience rather than the place itself – turned out to be amazing. Really fair price for Italy, our second cheapest yet, it has maybe the cleanest and sleekest facilities yet. We had Number 3 in a heartbeat when he saw that they have a whole bathroom, shower included, with every item in kid size. From there on, he demanded for every trip that he would only go in “his bathroom”. Seems like a good omen. Tomorrow – the Queen of the Adriatic.

Day 5 – Like clockwork

My plan was, to say it mildly, not well liked. It better work like a charm, or I would have gone to the dog house for a very long time. I suggested to add about 50km to the trip to our campground to go back to Germany for our mandatory rapid covid test (needed for entry to Italy). The main reason: 140€ less for the two of us. Germans get their tests for free in Germany. Secondly, it was way less hassle to get an appointment in Konstanz compared to Wil – it is a major border town and has about 10 full-time testing sites to choose from.

The kids were a bit over eager and were up an hour ahead of schedule, but overall the morning went according to plan. Nothing was left, that we could tell, and the heartfelt goodbyes were made easier by knowing that we will see each other again fairly soon. I did forget my car key fob in my other pants, but we only lost 15 minutes.

And so, in time for our 10.27am test appointment we rolled into the car park in Konstanz. It was all pretty orderly, so within 15 minutes we were out again with an electronic results form to be delivered within 20 minutes. I was even able to add a bonus stop to remedy a previous fail on my part: MediaMarkt had both a generic charger for Nina’s laptop to replace the one I forgot in Germany for just 27€ and a cheap usb hard drive replacement since ours died the previous night after 10 years of hard travel.

Next up DM (a kind of drug store, minus the real pharmaceuticals) – I also forgot to take any charger for our three identical electric toothbrushes. Good thing Phoebe still needed one, since they come with a charger. Better still, DM also offers printing on demand, so we could commit our fresh (negative) rapid tests down to paper – just in case. I must admit, time has crept up on us a bit, so at 11.20 am already, we also stocked up on some sandwiches for lunch in the car.

[Nina: It was here that I made the colossal mistake of letting Number 3 ride on a coin-operated train for ONE SINGLE COIN while waiting on Flo to finish all his tasks. Such a huge mistake. Though, at the time I thought Number 3 was really good as he got off the toy train without any complaints.]

The eating part was fine, but 10 minutes into the actual 229km drive to our campsite we realised we forgot to check on the Agent of Entropy. The diaper was, of course, full. Alright, another brief pit stop in some sort of quiet office park. Diaper changed, consolatory feed given … just in time for Number 3 to announce he would definitively and 100% certainly need another potty break. In the car, to the supermarket and the kid rushed inside … and it turned out it was a lie, since he was expecting another coin-operated toy train thingy ride after the business was done. Nina was not amused … 30 minutes for 3 km.

But that was our last hiccup … almost. Next stop was a rest stop with a few fast chargers for Puru Hiko. She was doing excellent, anyways. But then, 9 km before the exit, Number 3 decided it was time to play around and pull the emergency eject (i.e. the door lever going 110km/h on the motorway). Car started a panic inducing beep, wind rushed, Nina half jumped and pulled the door mostly shut again. I know, I could have set the child lock on the door – but this way, he has learned his lesson for life, I am quite sure of it …

Fast charging was uneventful – I mean, this is Switzerland after all. The toilets were clean enough I almost wouldn’t hesitate dining off them. Complete with coin-operated Heidi animatronics … that kind of thing. I restrained myself from buying a 10€ plant based whopper (try it though, really good … just not in Switzerland).

This left us well prepared for the last leg of the trip – 2 hours for 113 km. We did have to come up to 2114m to go over the Splügen Pass, after all. This was SO MUCH FUN! At least for me – the other three got rather motionsick, with the Agent of Entropy actually giving in on our way down from the saddle. Nina and I realised that we had done this exact same pass on the motorcycle before, roughly 10 years ago and coming from the other direction. That was then our second long-distance trip on the bike – or in other words, 70.000 km ago. Something to chew on 😀

Driving an EV on this road is second only to our bike, I would say. Blue George was fun because it was so nimble, and I think the electric version with only 2 passengers would be even cooler than our fully loaded 3 ton family car, just for that go-cart feel. But the sheer amount of torque without any interruptions for gear changes makes going uphill in an EV just a smile-fest. And going down, recuperation takes a huge amount of load off the breaks, so that you can be quite aggressive without risking break damage.

The others disagreed a bit – so with three white-faced passengers, we turned into a great and friendly campsite in a stunning location deep down in the Mera valley. The place is called after the adjacent waterfall: Acquafraggio. And even though we had our fill of waterfalls, this one is a real stunner, visible from the campground. We had absolutely no hesitation locking in a 3 night stay – quite unusual for us in most places.

Time to let it sink in – we are here. We are travelling. On the road again, at last!

Goodbye – Christine first, as she had an appointment. Her wee one got confused 😀

Day 16 – Last day in Spain

We managed to get moving quite early for us, by 9.45am we were on the road. Tomorrow is a holiday though so we ended to stock up before going into Sevilla.

Another gigantic Carrefour, even bigger than the last one, didn’t make for a quick stop. Instead, it took us a while to get the few things that we needed. Then, we were good to go! Well, almost, we needed fuel. After that, we were good to go! Well, yeah, but somehow the wrong sight was selected in the satnav which Flo realized halfway there. So it took us until lunchtime to get into Sevilla.

Sevilla is not really a car-friendly city. That’s good. Trying to find parking when you’re already running “late” is bad. We ended up queuing for a spot on a parking deck for about 30 min. By now, it was most definitely lunchtime for us. Spanish people still think 1pm is early for lunch. It took us a bit to find a place to eat. The first one was more of a super traditional tapas bar than a sit in restaurant which would have been cool…without a baby. Number 3 would have been trampled as no one was paying the floor any attention.

On the way to the next possible place, I stopped at a pharmacy. No one is ill, but Number 3 is fighting hard with his molars. And of course we left the dental gel for pain relief at home. 😉

We arrived at the tapas bar I had picked in the Lonely Planet, only to find out that it would open in 15-20min. I was hungry, the baby was hungry. We couldn’t wait that long anymore. So we went to the place a few doors down and had a good meal including strawberry gazpacho. It looked more like a drink than food to be honest. And it tasted like a dessert.

Finally, we were ready to tackle Sevilla. The main thing to do is visit Real Alcazar, the royal palazzo. We had a brief look at the queue winding three times around the whole thing and decided we couldn’t be bothered. Yes, same day tickets would have been available after an hour or a bit more in the queue but no. Just no. Instead, we queued shortly for the cathedral and had a look around in there. All of the churches here were mosques at one point, some even for several centuries. You can still tell from the floorplan in most cases.

In Sevilla, Christopher Columbus is buried. The 19^th century monument is overblown but it was still cool to see. At the end of our visit we climbed up the Giraldo, or bell tower. Great views over the city…and onto all those rooftop pools people seem to have.

We left and were tired of sightseeing. It’s time for us to get into Portugal and a slower pace of traveling.

Speaking of the slow kind: By absolute chance we stumbled into what is the coolest campground yet. Super quiet in the forested National park of Donana. We just needed a place to stay for one night that was closer to Portugal than Sevilla so we took a random camp ground on the way, not expecting anything. The setting in the forest with lots of shade was lovely. It was not too busy and filled with other campers with small kids. It even had a whole array of “toys” in the kiddie pool which we tried again with Number 3. He still isn’t too sure about it.

Once Baby was in bed, we even had time to exchange travel stories with Lu and Eike, who travel around with twins in their Volkswagen Bully (T4).

On shady spots like this, we save the time and leave the awning off
Dirt – interesting as gravel but twice the cleanup!
Old school bodega – cool, but not kid friendly
I HAZ the food!
Another Minarett-gone-bell tower
a lady to keep you company
The wait was reasonable, but super sunny
For a church, there was an awful lot of fencing going on … something to keep the peasants in line i guess
oh, we had som silver lying aroud …
The main room only barely higher than the sides. Never seen that in a gothic church
The icons wear better crowns than some kings of the time …
Rosetta opposite the main altar
“I have an idea, let’s put it all up there!”
another window
34 ramps up and down makes wee one drowsy
great views all around
View one
Bishops cant rest in anguish, can they?
Fancy retcon of Cristobal Colon’s last rest. He died impoverished …
view two
One can still make out the prior mosques footprint
Is this a trick?
Ok, now I am certain it’s a trick
Ok, really? It feels warm …
oh, might be actually warm!
Swapping travel and baby tales

Day 13 – Only the weather is jinxed

The anger and frustration is slowly ebbing away. For the most part, this is due to all the nice people we know and the new ones we encounter along the way. Like Luca and Eugenia, an Italian couple we met twice yesterday for great little encounters.

Or like Ruth and Damien, two more Kiwi bikers, we met on the road and who took no time to offer help and a bed to us as basically strangers. Or Linda and Denis who took our gear with them to Auckland for us. Or all the other people who have offered and are lending help and support. Yes the money hurts, but people like you are what this trip is about for a large part for us.

hmmm, the sea

Other than a lot of talking and processing, planing on scheming via intercom, we mostly cruised along Northland roads, edging slowly south.

First stop today was Baylys Beach, were Rocinante finally dipped her front wheel into salt water. High tide and Flo’s unwillingness to risk damaging the bike so close before shipping kept this stop to a few rounds around Nina for action shots.

We changed coasts again for a little bit more exploration of Whangarei. By coincidence, we ran into the model train ride-out day at the Kiwi North historic village. Wohoo, scaled down steam engines! We kept it brief as well to head into town in time for the mid-day lunch rush at Mokaba, with a view of the marina.

The cabin between the trees is ours

After another loop to the west coast, we ended the day in the east again. Half asleep in wintery hibernation, the hosts at the Sandspit Holiday park gave us an amazing little cabin right at the water’s edge. The day ended on the porch watching the water and the coming tide with some nice cheese, veges and a small Puhoi desert 🙂

The Holiday Park is made up like a little pioneer village with many old objects on display in the windows of the old shops. This is something to roam around and rummage through so many pictures were taken. This is probably the loveliest little Holiday Park we stayed in so far. They even have a cat but it’s running away from Nina, much to her dismay.