We took this Sunday for a city tour of Monemvasia. It’s a rebuild walled city which is also a popular spot for Greeks. Thus, it was rather crowded in the lower city (for our taste). The upper city is still in ruins and it was great fun to explore them. On our way out, we went up north through a great mountain pass and back to sealevel on the other side. Poor Number 3 was severly carsick on this stretch.
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
The day that would start in uncertainty that we had come to terms with. Even though there were some spots we had picked out to wild camp tonight, we still wanted to give the two camps in Galway City a last shot. Much to our surprise, the first of the two adjacent camps would actually sell us an utterly overpriced city camp tent spot without power – cash, obviously. Ah, how we had missed city camps and their greedy owners. Turned out later, comfortably racist comes with the package as well …
At any rate, we set up the camp and were ready to take the bus to town. Much to Number 3’s delight, it turned out to be a double decker bus! With us arriving a bit close to lunch time, we re-arranged our plans a bit and went for a closer more casual recommendation. It ended up being a burrito bar – not a bad pick. The food was solid, quick enough for the kids and reasonably priced. Now all we had to do was to convince the Agent of Entropy that it was naptime in the carrier.
Oh, right – not so fast. We had to go on one more de-tour before starting the actual touristing: Buying wetsuit repair goop (I’ll get to why in a second). On our way there, we passed the local gaming nerd den and just had to go in for a brief browse. It was called Dungeons & Donuts, and it actually delivered on both. Gaming was going on upstairs and there were real donuts to be had for the inclined gamer to absorb. Unfortunately, anything bought would have to be carried, so we left again to get to the actual errand. The goop was needed to keep both Nina’s and my own pair of main walking shoes from falling apart before the end of the holiday. The silicone goop is perfect to fix the soles of our super thin barefoot shoes, where they were wearing precariously thin. It would be likely quite hard to find good replacements without a major quest. Given that we opted for the newly acquired (and extremely appreciated) barefoot gumboots as our 2nd pair of shoes instead of a backup, it was kind of important to keep us going (I ended up repairing all shoes as my final deed of the day – the rest of Ireland can come).
With all that out of the way, we were ready to get on with the sightseeing. A wander down Quay Street led us to the weekend market around St. Nicholas church. The Agent was asleep by now, but was almost woken up after we had arrived back on Quay Street, a bit unsure about where to go next: We were ushered out of the way and moments later ended up right in Galway’s Pride Parade! Good on you everyone – it was all smiles and rainbows, really cool to see. Only Number 3 took Umbridge with the volume of the whistles used to make some noise. A shame, otherwise the rainbow theme and Pandemonium should have been totally his thing.
With that literally out of the way, we pocketed some minor sights on our way to the city museum. Number 3 was totally hyped up about it. I am so proud! The museum was free, a nice change of pace, and air conditioned (believe it or not, an actual benefit on this day). Near the end, the Agent of Entropy was done with her nap and soon after we were out in the sun and afternoon heat (yes, almost 30°C) once more.
Coffee time with treats was followed by a good long walk along the river and canals. We were debating staying in town for dinner, but slowly settled on a beer as a scene setter and quick dinner at camp. Before though, we had to bag Nina’s point of interest: The Hazel Mountain Chocolate Shop. On goes our quest to visit a chocolate-related venue in every country we travel to. Some great treats and a shelf-stable takeaway goodie later, I had one more idea to fill the afternoon: There was a recommended book shop basically right next door. I wanted to add to our English bedtime stories collection anyway while we were in Ireland, and this was an option to maybe even find a local author.
We did find just that in “Imagine!” by Galwegian Partricia Forde plus a special request from Number 3: “Don’t Ask the Dragon”. What a cool and cosy place, stacked floor to ceiling with all kinds of books, from Antique to local Crime Fiction.
We abandoned our idea of a final pub visit – it was a bit awkward with the kids and no live music to be found yet at this time. Instead, I got to try out a local Bodhrán (my German-made one sounds better for half the price) and everyone got ice cream for dinner. The trip back home took a bit longer than needed due to some odd bus routing, but we got back just in time for the tent to have cooled down enough to get both kids to bed with enough time left for blogging and chores.
What a packed day …
With the longest of the pre-planned days and definitely the most stressful one (for me) behind us, we can now slow down a bit. It manifested by us lying in our sleeping bags a bit longer even with the kids awake; and Taking our time to make breakfast without starting to pack at the same time; with being happy that one of the other kids showed up with a card game (Dobble) that he wanted to play with Number 3 and actually taking the time to play two rounds; and also, having a bit of a forest exploration detour before leaving the campground.
We found rabbit holes and empty snail houses and unripe hazelnuts, much to delight Number 3. The Agent of Entropy seemed to need cuddles more than anything as she simply refused to walk.
Luckily for (me) us, the sun was shining this morning and it got warm quickly. Flo had been grumbling about summer being over now that we started this holiday into a cold and wet country. And England had been true to the stereotype, greeting us with grey skies and drizzle. Today, even Flo enjoyed the weather (at least in the morning).
We hit the road for a short drive to a fast charger. With only 250km to go today, we could allow for more stops and a leisurely pace. Since we’d taken our time on the campground, it was close to lunch time by now and we had to feed the tigers. That was no problem with the standard highway rest stop, greeting us with our pick of fast food to choose from.
Back at the car, we realized that charging hadn’t worked the way we wanted but it had stopped prematurely. Slightly fed up with the whole charging situation in England, we opted for Fastned with we knew would be good. The nearest one was another 40 minutes away but we just had had lunch and Number 3 had asked for ice cream as dessert. So we even had another excuse to stop.
Fastned worked as well as it is known for. There was a Lidl next to it so we got some shopping down in the meantime. Number 3 got ice cream, the Agent got to push one of the fun sized trolleys and there was even a toilet to boot. All the things you could ask for with small kids. >.< It wasn’t quite as nice as the coop yesterday though. #battleofthesupermarkets
Loaded up with (now slowly melting) ice cream in the car, we drove towards the campsite. Unfortunately, it was another 1.40hours away due to a small traffic jam in the middle. There was no good opportunity to stop and enjoy some ice cream, instead we were really glad when we arrived at the campsite.
Nobody greeted us. Even after the phone call we weren’t much better off as the person on the phone had said that the internet was down and she would check later if we’d booked and paid as we said. Slightly confused, we had half-molten ice cream on our blanky when Flo read his conformation email again. It cleared up everything. It said: Please call to let us know you’ve arrived, then proceed to choose a tent site to your liking, set up and we will get back to you as soon as our work allows us to do.
Easy enough to follow. It is a great campsite on a working farm. There are many, many sheep, lots of horses and our good old neighbours, the cows. It was an instant hit with the kids. The words “farm”, “horses” and “cows” were uttered a lot, mostly by our youngest one.
By now, the sky was grey again and a chill wind blew in from the west. We are just a stone’s throw from the Scottish border after all. We got our lovely dinner done before the rain set in. Friends of ours had given us the cook book “two pans on the road” a while ago and for this trip, we’d actually remember to take it with us – thanks Number 3 for going and picking out a few recipes. Thus, the first recipe was followed and tasted great! 🙂
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.
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.
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.
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. 😀
We took our time in the morning so that the kids got a chance to experience the lake before we headed off again. Number 3 was quite interested in the other kids there: A couple were catching tiny fish and putting them in a bucket while a couple of girls were flying kites.
Flo and I managed to blog before we packed and when I looked up again, one of the older girls was letting Number 3 use her kite. She was really good at explaining what Number 3 needed to do. He was a little distracted by all the things that were going on though.
We left a little after 11am, but it was only a very short while to get to Karlskrona. Sunday limited our options for lunch a bit, but we were quite happy with the 3G cafe we ended up in. The big ticket item though was the world famous in Sweden ice cream parlour “Glassiären“. Famous unfortunately not for the quality of their product but for the insane portion sizes they serve. They have to bake custom waffle cones in-house that are actually large enough to hold the equivalent to 10 scoops for the three flavour option. The surprisingly low price of 5.50€ should have been the last warning sign, but as might have been suspected already: The quantity comes at the complete and utter sacrifice of quality. We had genuine trouble making out the difference between pistachio and pear, other than a taste of “sickly sweet bubblegum”.
With the sun melting the lot down faster than we could eat it, we begged Number 3 to put an end to our misery and throw it out, but he insisted that no bit of ice cream shall ever be wasted before him and we forced our way through the entire thing. Now we at least have a benchmark for worst gelato as well …
Off we went north, for a really enjoyable bit of road-trippy cruising. We decided to take another short break, if only to keep Number 3 from sleeping the whole two hours. That random stop following a sign for a picnic area and campsite turned out to be an absolute amazing hit for us: A perfectly manicured, municipal campsite sitting adjacent to a spotless bathing spot. We were immediately sold. The kids invaded the (otherwise empty) playground.
The icing on the cake (almost literally) came in form of an ultra-cute kiosk selling coffee and waffles to be enjoyed in a little windproof pavilion with lake views. With no one around, we were worried that we might not be served, but the ladies at the place were quite charming. It had the vibe of a charity bake – we did not need to be asked twice and tucked in, waffles with whipped cream and strawberry jam. Hmm … what an insanely cool thing for a random road side stop.
On we went then – after a moment of consideration to decide whether we wanted to camp right here and now – to press on a bit further towards Uppsala and to our designated camp for the night. And what a great pick that was as well. It only had very basic facilities, but that also meant we were among the cool kids now of small vans, pick-up cabins and the like. Much better than the white wall.
We immediately got into a friendly conversation with our neighbours, taking on the challenge of making an uneven spot work that did not yield for their larger van. I did, and almost as soon as we were settled, Number 3 clicked with the youngest of the three girls off with their mom. So off they went into the forest right in front of us – he the eager pupil to her 9 year old joy of teaching and guiding. What a peaceful setup we had 😀
Dinner was further improved by their find of an abundant supply of blueberries. The new guide was even cool enough to check in with us first before just munching on the things, but when I checked and gave the OK, more girls were summoned and the hunt was on. Cereals with fresh fruit – only slightly marred by the Agent of Entropy`s return to form: She flipped my full bowl, spilling the contents over herself and the ground.
Number 3 had many inquisitive questions about the pit toilets, but went to bed without too much of a fight after that. That meant we both had enough time to be invited over to a spot on our neighbours’ campfire before calling it a night. They were mildly disconcerted by learning our usual getting-up time of 6.30am … 😀
Our lovely campground provided us with superb German bread rolls for a small fee. It was a great last breakfast in Italy, as we were really close to the Brenner pass or Brennero as the Italians would say.
Packing didn’t take long; we hadn’t even unpacked the awning. Once we decided to get going, we were on the road in good time. Flo had planned the route for today which would bring us from Brixen to Illertissen through Austria and to our next Covid test. Organising all this takes a bit of getting used to.
The Brenner was a letdown, especially for Number 3, as it’s neither an especially high pass nor a tunnel. Suddenly, we were at the gate to pay the 10€ toll for the pass we had just taken without realizing it. Ooooh. Number 3 who we primed for an extra long tunnel, was disappointed. Our next “exciting” stop for today was lunch next to a fast charger. On the way there, in search of a bakery for fresh bread, we made the mistake of stopping in front of a Spar supermarket. Number 3 saw the car-shaped trolleys for kids and would not leave this place before he’d driven around in one for a while. With Flo refusing to buy bread in a supermarket when we were “surrounded by bakeries”, we bought fresh milk and left again. Number 3 was beyond happy about this experience.
Having bought bread rolls at a bakery, we found the charger. It was next to a fuel station and a restaurant which you could only enter when recently tested or fully vaccinated. In search of a place to have our picnic, we used the tunnel underneath the motorway and sat down in the shade of a parking lot on the other side. It was rather hot already.
After the break, it was a straight ride to Illertissen. We’d booked a Covid test there at 4pm, but arrived at 3pm already. It was no problem to just get tested earlier. The results would be send to us via email in about 20 minutes as we had a bit of time to kill before we could get to the campground. If you wanna stay somewhere in Germany overnight, you have to be tested.
We opted for the usual “gelato and go” ice cream option and sat down in the shade. Before Number 3 had even finished his ice cream, we had our results on our phones and drove the last five minutes to the campground.
The campground was lovely. The owner put us in a nice grassy area with shade, there was a table and a bench next to it and the new facilities were close by. Both kids enjoyed having some free time to play and explore. In no time, both of them looked like piglets.
Flo treated us to a pancake dinner and we brought the kids to bed. We thought we were in for a quiet night, maybe even chat to friends online. Wrong. I was still in the tent with the kids when Flo started to look for his phone. He last used it to show our test results to the owner of the campground…after that he’s not sure what happened to it. So we turned everything upside down. For one and a half hours, we looked into every box, every little place in the car, asked the owner twice if someone had found a phone, looked in the bathrooms…and Flo got grumpier and grumpier. We had to face it, his phone was probably stolen. Bummer.
This is when Flo started to try the “other” solutions. He realised “google find my phone” was an option and got a location on the campground though on the other side of it from where we were. Then, he’d force it to ring even though it was set to silent mode and, on the third try, he could hear it ringing before someone stopped it. In the end, an old lady had it in her hand and he got it back. We’re not sure if she and her husband wanted to steal it or if they just have dementia. Her reaction was “who are you? What is your phone doing in my trailer?” Anyway, he has it again. Phew.
We did not find out the particular reason why this beautiful campsite was quite so abandoned. The flow of people confuses us. The price was ok – 22 € with power, so in line with other rustiek sites. Maybe it is our lack of preparation, so that we don’t quite now “where to be” and what to skip. I think we like it better that way – good things are better when they are a surprise.
There are a few more city destinations in this very northwest corner of Portugal that we can tick off, with the first one probably the highest on our list. The plan is to go to up to three of them in order and turn off east to a national park bordering Spain when it gets time to find a place to sleep.
With that, we set our sights on Guimarães – the first capital of Portugal. The way this works is pretty straight forward – Reconquista went north to south, so every 50 years or so the Don de Jour would move his seat of power a bit further down. But this is it – this is where the independent Kingdom of Portugal was sort of born. We liked it right away. In perfect weather, the medieval old town and 15th century ducal palace were a delight. From afar as in close quarters.
We started with an overview, quite literally this time: There is another one of these steep granite hills just south of the city, with a cable lift and a road to the very top. From here, armed with ice cream, we had a great view of the city and the hills around. We took aim, both for the ducal palace and for a lunch place once we got a handle on Guimarães.
The lunch place was a revelation, maybe the coolest and most child friendly location in Portugal so far. That says something. And it was a vegetarian place to boot! Cor de Tangerine was set in a big beautiful merchant house dominated by granite features and creaky wooden floors right next to the ducal palace. The terrace had a view out over the palace and a park. The food was great, but the whole atmosphere of the location and friendly staff nudged it over the top. Number 3 got a blanket and some books draped under one of the trees on the terrace, in good view. After lunch, he even got a private tour of the kitchen!
The after lunch stroll through the old town was just the thing to round it off. The subtle difference in architecture made for an interesting change, especially with the dominance of the ageless grey granite on many buildings. After a round back to the car park (again, why would I not use them: 1.20€ for a safe and shady spot right in town) we were good to head to our next destination.
Braga, Portugal’s third largest city, had a very different vibe going, modern and lively. We timed it right for once and fell into an inner city set up for the Braga Romana festival: all the girls and some of the ladies were wearing flower circlets on their heads. Many wandering around in more or mostly less authentic roman drab. We, given that it was our tea time stop, were headed for another ice cream shop. A Lonely Planet recommendation, the ice cream was good and Nina did not complain about her chocolate cupcake either. We enjoyed the hustle and bustle around us for a bit, with more (Portuguese) kids than we had seen anywhere else so far around us.
We were good after that, decided to skip city number 3 and head for the hills. A good day was had with the drive towards a campsite at the Cavado river (which is actually a lake, due to the dam built further downstream) not disappointing either.
Things only started to turn weird when I decided to improvise at the last second. Instead of following the GPS to the campground I had picked from google, we turned into the first one at our destination. It had lake views, so why not? Well, it should have ticked us off that no one was at the reception, but rather the team doing some modernisation indicating us to “set right up, register later”. Well, we did, double checking the indicated spot with them: The site was 100 % full with permanent campers, but had a bit of space in front of a rather abandoned looking one. Yes, here … OK. I mean, the spot was nice and all, just weirdly right in front of this old caravan. Then the team started up again, dragging old caravans off their lots to a half-done area. Call for registration never came. Oh well, we’ll pay and leave in the morning then.
About 10 minutes after we went to bed, we heard what I thought to be the trash collectors. Odd, after 8 pm. Well …
And as we were about to drift to sleep, we heard cheerful voices of young men. Closing in. They started to laugh, somewhat disbelieving. Not us. Why would they? Now, they were very close, I had the feeling they were right next to us. But sound is deceiving in a tent. They might be one up, I think I saw people there earlier. Right about then, their cackling and chatting woke up Number 3, who let go a primal scream of fright. Things quieted down after that, but Nina and I were left a bit disconcerted after that. The night had just started, though …
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